Good hike, good day

 Today we hiked fagan spring with the boys.  The hike was a gentle 1.8 miles round trip with lots of stops to catch crayfish and even a salamander sighting.  B brought a carbohydrate feast that kept us entertained and was a nice picnic when we reached the spring.  Pizza, rolls, meat, cheese and bugles.  I thought he was bringing a lot but it was lunch for 4 people as we were hiking from 11 to 2.

M had a competition. lP had a birthday party to attend. M's indoor winds group won first place.  Their show theme is "Decomposers" featuring a "Thriller" type mash up of awesome classical composers and their music.  It's so amazing that the kids get to be part of this great program.

The 3 peas watched "Win or Lose" from Disney.  It had a neat simultaneous story telling of a softball team going to the championship.  It did not have happy endings but it did cover a lot of ideas and I'm glad we binge watched the 8 episodes together.  I like their habbit of watching shows together.

The boys room has been a disaster for a few weeks and we're getting close to sanity.

Laundry was washed.

Dub-dubs were made.

Dinner of Pepper-onion-green bean-sausage-egg stirfry on rice was enjoyed by L, B, P and me.  lP hates peppers and onions so she went and made a sandwich.  It is rare for L to ask for more of a dish so this is probably going to become a regular dish for us.

My college requires a $200 payment for a meal plan each semester.  It's annoying but also we've never had so much chick-fila in our lives.  I plan to bring home salads and chicken patties on a regular basis to use up the balance before the end of the semester.  There are worse things.  Really.

Spring Break

 We had a really nice visit to Florida.  P had to work but the kids and I had the week off together.  We drove down on a mission to get gator clothes, get G to a Dr., and visit Lois.  We also enjoyed visiting Grandma C and Grandpa S, visiting Rock Springs, aunts L and E, friends at the beach, many playgrounds and visiting uncle S on the way home.  

The part that didn't go so well was driving home the last hour into a tornado zone!  I'm used to Hurricanes and didn't see anything obvious like a funnel cloud so we just kept going north.  Scary times included pulling over to the side of the road near a cliff/bluff as tornado sirens blared around us.  Pulling over to a gas station when our phones all went off after we crossed into the North AL tornado warning zone.  We were supposed to immediately seek shelter, preferably underground.  But I didn't have a way to do that.  So we prayed and got back on the road.  We did get home safe and it was exhausting.

While we were gone P found a royal star magnolia for me and planted it in the front yard.  We recently agreed that was the tree to fill the hole in the front yard.  It's so cute.  It is an early bloomer and has many petals.  It doesn't grow huge and I'm so excited that he found one and planted it for me.  I have so many flowering trees and I just feel so lucky.