What Happened To Spring?

Three days ago I was walking down almost dry earth on the driveway chatting to E that soon they should be able to ride their bikes on the driveway! Later that same day Papa and I noticed that where the grass was clear of snow it was greening up!!  Not anymore! This morning we woke up to snow! 

The snow really is beautiful as it covered everything with it's whiteness. It makes everything look clean and nice and I can really appreciate that. 

We got 6 inches of that fluffy white stuff this morning. Warm, wet, dripping mush! It was snowing when we got up and snowed until almost 6pm!! Papa figures we got about 6 inches. It was +5C and the snow was falling off the roof and trees in chunks while it was still snowing! The snow flakes started out HUGE and slowly, through out the day, got smaller and smaller.  I took these pictures later in the evening. With the naked eye it looked like there was a fine mist over the new snow several feet high. I didn't capture it on the pictures which is making me wonder if I imagined it :)  Papa did plow it off the drive so it might not take too long to get back to dirt.

It did put a few of our projects on hold... and got a few others bumped up the list and finished! Star was going to get out of her little pen and into a halter and on a line out in the yard and we decided not to do it just yet! Instead Papa got the cream separator out of storage, washed and set up. We took the plastic off the living room window and he threw me bags of kids clothes that needed to be sorted and repacked in totes and I got them all sorted and repacked and Papa took them back outside!! SO nice to have that big job done!! I sorted out an entire barrel sized black garbage bag for the thrift store! Now I just have my own clothes to find, sort and try on. Yes.. I'm avoiding it :) But it needs doing as I've only got two pairs of pants to wear and one of them are sweats :)

J decided to do more school then I'd planned and started and finished his last PACE on science, sans self test and test. He spent a good chunk of the day at the table doing school. L and E finished their PACE's with  cheerful smiles all around! All and all it was a productive and fun day, Papa headed out to Bible Study this evening which means MOVIE NIGHT with leftovers :)

SPLASH!!!

We went outside the other day to

 purposely to get as wet as possible 

and get some SPRING in our systems.

It was a little colder then I thought

 and we ended up 

only staying out for an hour.

But it was good because it gave us time to 

SHOWER 

before the baby woke up :) 

SPLASH!!! 

J jumping in the deepest puddle. 

Cool picture of the muddy water splashing up to his knees!!

J3 loved to jump in the puddles!!

 SPLASH!!!

At one point his boot got sucked off in the mud and he got very wet in the puddle 

and I picked him out of it, put his boot back on and off he went again!! 

R, she's a little bit wet and dirty :) LOL. 

YAY!!!! 

5 little Griggers huddled around the well casing :) We went inside right after this.

Well.. NO.

We went on the front porch.

Striped the kids to their underwear.

Put clothes, jackets, hats and gloves right into the washing machine! 

Hopped them in and out of the shower in quick order.

Got dressed in nice clean warm clothes.

And remembered fondly our hour outside in the very wet! 

I also got a short movie of them all jumping in the deep puddle which I may up load one of these days.

SUPER DUPER FUN STUFF!!!! 

*Star* ~Naming Of~

Why we had to call her Star!! 

Do you see it?

*HINT* it's the second part of the calf you see born. First being it's front legs. 

 Someone said recently that it looked more like a maple leaf and I can see that

 but her names already Star 

and Maple starts with a M. ;) 

~9 Kids For A Day~

B's needed someone to watch their kids for a few days so a few of us from the church group 

took their 3 kids for a day. 

They had a blast!! They played outside, inside.

In this picture they have made a town and have a mayor and all kinds of rules and regs. 

My crew learned quite a bit about how a town works from the B bunch.

All lined up and ready to head out!! Us to AWANA and the B kids to their house. 

We didn't realize until right before we lined up for pictures that we had in the house for the day 

a 10 year old girl

a 9 year old boy

a 8 year old boy

a 7 year old boy

a 6 year old boy

a 5 year old girl

a 4 year old girl

and a

1 year old boy

and last but not least

a 4 month old girl!!

Craziness!! In a GOOD way :) 

Doing jumping jacks to get rid of some energy!! 

I misremember why they are all sitting in a circle but I'm sure it was fun!

 Haha I remember they were trying to make words using only the 1st letter in the names of the people in the house. We only had one vowel so it was quite hard! 

Too Many Diapers.. A J3 Adventure!

Mommy told me to go get a diaper... 

I have a stinky bum

I got LOTS of diapers..

I put them on the couch! 

 Because my bum gets changed on the couch.

Mommy sees my pile of diapers!

TOO many diapers.

Go put some back! 

I try.

They are not being helpful diapers! 

They all fall on the floor! 

I pick some up,

I pick some more up,

some fall down,

I pick more up,

more fall down,

I get annoyed and throw them ALL

ON THE FLOOR!!!

Mommy laughs and takes more pictures! 

Too many diapers!! 

Mommy says go bring me the bag! 

I can do that!!

I go get the bag.

Do you know how hard it is

 to put diapers in a bag

 while your holding the bag?

VERY HARD!!

Mommy helps.

She holds the bag 

I put diapers in the bag!

YAY!

I take the bag and put it away! 

I still have a stinky bum.

I still need a diaper.

I take ONE diaper 

and go to the couch. 

Ahhh.... nice clean bum :) 

Ladybugs~Clay

R's 'little man' had to watch her make her ladybug and had to be in the picture! 

We recently watched Thumbelina with the kids on Netflix and she LOVED IT!! 

Super cute and fun to make!! 

Big Boxes Of BIG FUN!!

Papa's Granny Vivian has been sending us up gift money for the kids for years. 

We started saving it.

We finally found what we wanted to spend it on!! 

Now we have to wait so we can enjoy it! 

Papa ran to the 'city' a couple of weeks ago to pick it up.

It's EXCITING!!!

But not TOO exciting.

As we have to wait! 

And wait 

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Then Papa got home YAY!!!! With a bunch of GREAT BIG BOXES!!! 

In the boxes are lots and LOTS of pieces... 

Did I mention LOTS?? 

YUP there are LOTS!!!

But that's OK because when the boxes are opened and the pieces put together we will have this!

And THIS!!!! 

But first we have to wait just a little bit longer.. til Spring has truly sprung 

and we can see the ground

so we can set them up 

and then we are going to

PLAY!!!

So right now we are still waiting

and waiting 

and waiting 

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SMILES!!! :)

Smiling so big her face is trying to split :) SUCH A CUTIE!!! 

A more regal reserved look.

 R put this chew toy on Baby G's head for her 'crown.'

Note the amazingly soaked front of her sleeper...yup she is a drooler!!

*Star* ~Bottle Feeding~

J holds the calf bottle for Star while L, E, R and J3 and I look on. 

Star was born at about 90lbs which completely and totally put L, E, R and J3 out of the running to bottle feed her. She's strong. J could barely keep that bottle in place while she drank!! He dropped it several times to his chagrin. She's a rough little thing (she bumped Papa on the nose and made it bleed!!) and both Papa and I have been trying to teach her some manners!!

 It involves quite a lot of kicking on my part and a bit of learning to stay off the human on hers!! 

No joke! 

We fed her with the bottle for less then a week before bucket training her. She drinks quite nicely from a bucket now at 2 weeks old. She's getting about 2.5 gallons of milk a day and an arm load of hay! I love watching her eat the hay.. she has pieces sticking out every which way and she chews every bite very exaggerated. 

J3 loves her and comes to me several times a day and asks 'Calf?' and we go out on the front porch to visit her. Star trying to suck on any feet that get too close (sometimes succeeding!) and J3 staring at her and petting the kitten. Chip is normally on the stairs pacing excitedly so I go pet him for a bit. He's not normally allowed on the porch as large dog + small child = large dog, sprawling and crying child, but we've let him up a couple of times when the kids aren't out and let him gaze on Star too.. he's as much of a sucker for baby animals as the rest of us :) 

Seed Planting!

This was awhile ago already, these seeds have come up already. 

Some have died, some have thrived. 

The ones that are still alive we put into clear plastic cups to watch them grow better. 

We will soon re-pot them in those same cups with more soil. 

Then we will plant more :) And hope they will live :) 

Did I mention I have a bit of a black thumb?? 

Tips?? ANYONE??? !!!!!