End of School Activities

Our friends came over to BBQ and have root beer floats.  After dinner we played  a game of “Hobbesball” as the kids have dubbed the new game Mark made over spring break.  It was a ton of fun and a perfect night to be out.  (And look at that green grass – so beautiful!)  Jessie’s trying to see if she can make her face all red.  And Neil plays this game by walking up to the rack and placing his ball up as high as he can reach (at least he’s guaranteed a point that way!). :-)

Rachel got a bunch of strawberries and came to our house to make jam.  Of course we ended up with a lot of helpers because then they had an excuse for staying up late jamming out to Pandora’s disney station on the laptop.While the girls chopped and I nursed Isaac Mark read to me – some of his favorite chapters from Swamp Fox, a book he got from Grandpa Payne.And Ken made pancake mix for his credit union’s annual meeting the next day.Isaac was just being so sweet and happy and even fell asleep while we worked.Ken took Mark and Abbie with him early to set up for the annual meeting.  They were super helpers.  Mark helped with the scrabbled eggs and Abbie set out the syrup and stuff on the tables.  I think this was the best annual meeting so far.  Way to go Ken!After the meeting I had to feed Isaac and so the kids and I went to the park nearby while Ken finished taking supplies back to the credit union.Do you love how Neil puts on his own hat!Mark and Jessie got into a little tiff while we were at the park and Jessie’s shoes ended up tied to the top of the jungle gym.That night we all went to Spencer’s choir concert.  They sang one of my favorite songs: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

Sunday was an exciting day!  We got to see an annular solar eclipse.   A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region thousands of kilometers wide. This is also known as Ring of Fire.

Jessie made us this awesome box to view the eclipse since you can’t look at the sun directly.  And it worked perfectly.  We also watched live coverage of the eclipse on the laptop so we could see the exact time of the “ring of fire.”  Later our friends came over and let us use their special glasses to look directly at the sun.  That was amazing too, but you had to be in the right spot to look when you put the glasses on, because if you weren’t looking at the sun you could just see the reflection of your own eyes in the glasses and not what was in front of you.

Do you love Jessie’s eclipsing Oreo?

Neil loves to get into Isaac’s car seat, but he doesn’t fit very well.The day of Abbie’s school program the power went out at the school and surrounding neighborhoods.  We later found out that a lady had hit a power poll with her car.

Abbie was more that excited to feed Isaac with a bottle one afternoon.  Neil thought it was cool to and jumped up on the couch to help.Jessie art folder she decorated with her name.