EASTER TRADITION

After missing last year due to our trip to Dallas, we were excited to celebrate Easter with the Kennedy crew again this year, in our usual tradition (lots of play time and some games, an Easter craft, an egg hunt, and of course plenty of yummy foods and tasty beers)!

Siblings together, then in order of age.

And then they were off like a flash, with the "big kids" grabbing everything in sight on their way to the backyard, leaving a plethora of eggs for Lauren to take her time collecting in the front yard.

(Why does he look like he's 12 in that photo?...)

(Working together to try and find some of the especially well hidden eggs that we told them were still out there, under their noses...)

Once her bucket overflowed, she improvised with her dress. And then it was time to enjoy some of their hard earned treats!

With the sun setting and Christina's new lights clicking on, we decided to hang out on the patio a bit and take some more photos...

...but we totally forgot to take a picture together Christina! Now we need an excuse to dress up and get together again soon :-)

WILLIAM AND LAUREN'S BOWLING PARTY

STRIKE!

SPARE! (They decided to "dab" for spares)

Cora took a picture of the adult's scoreboard - I didn't win, but at least I beat Stirlin!

So I took a picture of the kids' scoreboards (boys on the left, girls on the right). Cora was very pleased to have beaten everybody on both teams (and yes, they used bumpers, but she still beat me too!)

SOCCER HELPER

Gold unicorn pants and a gold accented soccer ball shirt - she was loving her outfit today. (And she's started wearing hair ties on her wrist like mama, "just in case" she needs one, which is funny because she hates having her hair put up and it's almost always down - and wildly tangled! We'll be cutting off about 8" after the dance recital though - she wants to donate her hair and mama wants it short for summer swimming, so it will be a win-win-win!)

Jay had to repaint the field lines before James' game today and Cora didn't have a game, so she happily tagged along with daddy and helped him paint by lifting the corner flags out of the way when needed and cheering him on.

She was very proud of herself (and it helped run off some energy before James' game, so she was willing to sit with me and watch, rather than run around with other siblings.

MORE BACKYARD BLOOMS

FULL MOON RUN

I had such a great 12-mile long run this morning! It was one of those runs where everything felt good, I was in good company, the moon was shining bright, and the temperature was amazing (I'm putting off the reality of summer for as long as Mississippi will let me). It was one of those runs where you just feel grateful to be out there moving and can let your thoughts come and go in between conversation. This was my first more-than-10-miles run since The Blues at the end of January (ramping up a bit for an upcoming 25K), so I was especially pleased that it went well. 

2ND GRADE EASTER PARTY

 Cora's class had an Easter egg hunt and party at school today and one of the mamas sent me some photos to share :-)

FRIEND GIRL

Hopefully James won't be too upset that I'm recording this for posterity (it will not go public on Facebook, so only the few of you who still read here will see it)... He came home from school with a few folded notes the other day that I opened because basically ALL his teacher notes/seatwork from school come home folded or crumpled, so I have to check everything (that's tucked into his binder, at least) in case it's pertinent info. Turns out they were not seatwork papers, but notes that he had been passing back and forth with his "friend girl", Darcy. (She's in his homeroom class and also his ballet class - she's very shy and sweet, and she very clearly has a crush on him, as even her father told me at the Christmas in-house review that she's "sweet on him". Apparently he has a crush on her too...) He wasn't upset that I saw the notes, but he definitely blushed when I asked him about them. I just thought his little questionnaire was so sweet and innocent (and an easy let down for him in case she said no, since he included "maybe another time") that I had to save them for him to read again someday when he's lots older.

I also found a "friend list" that he'd been sharing with Darcy, to show her as his "new" friend. After finding this I had to remind him that his teacher wouldn't appreciate him passing notes in class (whether with Darcy, or Coltin, or any other kid), and that it wasn't a good idea to write his friends names down and pass them around, in case he hurt someone's feelings for not making the list. At that, he told me that not everyone is listed, but everyone is his friend, except for a couple of boys who are not very nice and always in trouble (there always has to be a couple in every class, unfortunately). I told him that even if the "bad" boys found the list and weren't upset not to be listed as his friends, they might share it with other kids who WOULD be upset. And that he might hurt Buster's feelings, since he's the only animal not listed (to which he replied that of COURSE Buster is his friend, he just didn't get to finish his list). Then I questioned him why his new video game system, his tablet, summer, winter, weekends, and Spring Break were listed as friends, and he explained that it's really more of a list of things he likes. So then I asked him why I was listed below both the Switch AND Darcy (in mock sadness) and he quickly assured me that not only was the list not comprehensive, but it also wasn't in any particular order. So we'll go with that. And hopefully this was a quick lesson learned about not passing notes (or at least not passing notes about things that could incriminate you in some form or fashion)...

POISON IVYIED

We moved the rest of the babies out to the coop today...

...which meant that James and Cora spent a lot of time AROUND the coop playing and picking plants to feed to the chickens. Which means they got into poison ivy. Which means Cora escaped (once again) without issue and James is now covered in poison ivy, especially on his face (because he can't ever keep his hands out of his mouth and nose...) Whenever it hits his face, we take him to the doc, just in case it's systemic and/or requires a steroid shot. He was happy to avoid the shot this time, we were not pleased to pay a copay for yet another tube of steroid cream (we have many, since James and Jay are both highly allergic, and both get into it pretty often in the spring and summer...)

Oh well, at least it gave them time to read some new books that I'd picked up for them from the library (I'd been at a conference downtown for a couple days and got off a little earlier than school let out today, so I had some time to spare, but not enough to go back to the office).

GATES ACTIVITIES AND THE BOND

James has been working on a presentation for GATES on the state of his choice (he chose New York, Uncle Jamie!) and recently they had the 6th graders help them learn to use Google Slides:

Then they had a representative from MDOT come out to talk about littering, and they all took the oath not to litter!

And this is just a cool aerial view of the school (built in 1939!) and the MS River Bridge in the background (top right):

Those 3 trailers in the middle will be gone by 2020, replaced with 4 new classrooms as part of the renovations and upgrades slated for Bowmar under the 2018 Bond that passed yesterday! We'll also be getting all new flooring - since our tiles have asbestos, 4 new bathrooms - since there are currently only 2 for the entire school, redesigned parking areas - which are currently a wreck of potholes and too small to hold even half the cars needed, updated electrical, and so much more. We're very excited for the upcoming changes throughout our school district!

THE BEST MADE PLANS

James lists his chores and otherwise as part of a Cub Scout project, so Cora decides to write out her weekend plans as well:

KEYCITY BREWING COMPANY

Cottonwood Public House, our new brew pub in town, was able to tap Key City Brewing Company's first keg today (The Mississippi Queen - a blonde with a biscuit finish). Jay sped down there after work to toast Zack on his first Mississippi brew (he was a brewer in San Diego before moving to Vicksburg full time about a year ago). We are clearly pleased to have a microbrewery in town now!

WATER BALLOON FUN

One of Jay's coworkers gave him a bag of water balloons that he no longer wanted and the kids saw them in his car, so he got talked into helping them fill and tie a few dozen this afternoon...