March Blog

 

Eliza and I had our mini paintings displayed at the library this month. There are some amazing artists in West Bloomfield!

Mike took the afternoon off and joined me for Alex's district festival and heard Alex's band play. We also got to hear them sight read a song which was interesting. They ended up getting a I, which is the highest rank.

We got a photo of the group after, and Alex is standing with two of his friends Keaton and Malcom. They were all very proud.

The alarm clock in the boys room is on the fritz and turns off every so often, so we took one out of another bedroom to see if Evan liked that clock's alarm sound, he did not, and we took the analog clock out of a room and didn't know where to put it and Alex said he liked the ticking, so the boys room does not lack for timepieces. 

Rosie taking a nap on the boys D&D books. I'm sure she's having pleasant dreams of Orcs and Elves.

Eliza attended a birthday party at a roller skating rink. She did really well and eventually didn't even use the helper bars. I decided to try to roller skate as well... Eliza was so kind and stayed right by me and gave me motivating words. However, right when I got into a bunch of girls I fell and one of the other girls ran into me. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself (or the other girl) too bad just a bruised hip, twisted wrist and a bruised ego. 

For two Mondays I went to Evan's school and helped in gluing the paper on these huge piñatas that were for our Multicultural night. They were huge and looked so great after they were done, sorry I didn't get a picture of them at the party.

Evan got older this month. He enjoyed his key lime cupcakes and is now 11.

Eliza also got older as well. She had lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting. 

Evan had two of his buddies over to hang out for his birthday on a Sat. He really enjoyed having friends over to hang out.

Alex had to wake up early and head downtown Detroit to his Honor Band experience one Monday. I am so grateful for the Douglass family taking him so I could get the other two on the bus for school. He got to spend the whole day at the DSO and learn from other DSO musicians. 

Alex got to perform on stage at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra hall and play 4 pieces for us. He got to play with 5th - 7th graders and is hoping to go again next year and play with the 8th grade band.

Alex was supported by so many of us in his adventure. Oma, Clayton, Enoria and Shawn all joined in on the fun of seeing him play and we were so happy to have them.

Good job Alex!

Eliza won tickets to whale watch in California from her art work you can see, which is based on the picture above it. We decided to check off some of Eliza's bucket list by going on a plane, and perhaps going up in a skyscraper while we are there. Evan studied the Golden Gate Bridge this year and Alex studied the Sequoias and Redwood trees a few years ago, so everyone has something they want to see in CA in June.

I volunteer in Eliza's class every week and help the teachers with anything they need help with. One week I got the potato circuit stuff ready for them to do two days later. So when Eliza came home that day I asked how it went and she said they couldn't get it to work. So the next week I asked about it and  I asked if I could re-setup the experiment to see if I could get it to work, and I found a box to put around the LED and got it to work. Then I called each group one at a time to come see the light and let them turn it on and off by touching the LED wires.

I headed to the Middle School and listened to Alex and a few of his friends do a presentation on different things they had to study, compile information and then present. Alex did his on... gosh I don't remember. It had to do with different stones and their frequencies maybe?

We headed to our favorite library and did an instant noodle taste test. They had 7 different types of noodles with different flavor profiles like chicken, seafood, vegetable and spicy taco.

This is the reaction the boys had to the spicy taco flavor, not their favorite.

After the library we headed to McDonald's to get a Shamrock Shake because the kids have never had one. While we were waiting for our order Mike snapped this picture of Eliza and I dancing to the music.

We headed home and split our 2 large shakes between us and everyone thought it was pretty good. I think it needed some Andes Mints in it for texture or girl scout cookies.

"Rosie the destroyer" has been eating my snapdragon plants, so I moved them to the second shelf and put a box all the way around in hopes of her not being able to reach them. So far so good.

Eliza got a Lego Bonzai tree for her birthday. She was very happy to get it and put it together. Now it sits on the shelf in the playroom never to be touched again. 

Evan and Eliza had their annual checkups. Evan had to get three immunizations so I bribed him with donuts, and he took the bait. Who doesn't love donuts?! Alex missed out because he just wanted to stay home and read. *scoff* 

We had a beautiful day here a week or so ago. All the neighbor kids were over and having a good time. Evan and his friend saw a gardener snake in the woods. Eliza and our younger neighbors went into the woods and on the way back the youngest who is 3 got into the mud and started crying because his hands were covered in mud, and then the older brother went in and lost his shoe in the mud (he found it and pulled it out) and I asked Eliza why she didn't just go around on the dry spot and she said they didn't want to. 

Alex woke up one Sat. morning and found the US Atlas and started his California planning. He was looking at the maps figuring out where things were, how long the drives between destinations were. The planning has begun!

My flowers needed to be put in bigger pots, and I finally got Nasturtium to sprout (first time in 3 years) and I got some tomato plants started that Eliza has already helped me put into larger pots. Garden 2026 is coming along nicely. 

Birthday sundaes at Red Robin for the youngers. Lucky dogs!

Anyone need dill seed? I got plenty!

Mike had to get his finger fixed because I broke it in an argument we were having... just kidding he had to have it worked on because he had a cyst on one of his knuckles and it was time to get it cut off. He did well and it went well and he's doing his PT and healing up. Mike and I had to leave the morning of surgery before any of the kids were off to school. The boys got on the bus no problem, but Eliza's bus was super late and I'm so thankful for our neighbor being home to watch Eliza and text with me about the bus location or Eliza would have missed the bus with how late it was. That was a stressful morning.

Eliza made a stage and puppets out of paper one day. The larger animal can double as a cat and a dog. :) She's so creative!

Alex made the Honor Roll this year and he's being inducted into the National Junior Honor Society on Monday.

We were trying to make sure Evan's telescope is still working and he got some pretty good pictures of the moon during the day of it. 

After a visit with Uncle Alvin and Aunt Joan we headed to McDonald's for the second time this month, which is totally totally strange for us. But the kids enjoyed their burgers, nuggets and random mixed selections from the soda dispenser.

The kids helped on Palm Sunday with the Stations of the Cross and reading to the congregation. Evan read about the 30 silver coins, Alex read about Witnessing Palm Sunday and Eliza read about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. 

After church we headed to the Wade household for birthday fun. Evan got to bring his new giant RC car and play with it with James. James was quick to get a ramp out and a few of his own RC cars to play with.

James's face tells you everything you need to know.

Who has the fastest? Who will win????

Alex has a solo in a few weeks at a Solo and Ensemble Festival and Clayton was kind enough to play the accompaniment for him so he could practice. It was really fun to hear them play together.  

All the people that have a birthday in March. Evan, Eliza, Enoria, Clayton, and Clara. Alex snuck in because he's just a few weeks after March. 

Maggie made a lovely and delicious vanilla cake with strawberry filling for everyone.

More practicing but this time it's hymns. 

We brought Evan's telescope along to the Wades on the hopes of the night sky clearing up, and for the most part it did. James took his camera out and got a picture of Jupiter and its moons and also of the moon. We are looking forward to seeing the images after he's done processing them. 

Busy morning at the Baker house during Spring Break. Mike took the week off but needed to check in one morning. Evan was in the home stretch of finishing this gem art, and Eliza loves to color and draw.

Alex was in the kitchen painting figures Mike has printed using the 3d printer. 

We headed to see the Mario Movie and it was actually pretty good. I did not like the one from last year, but this one was quite enjoyable. 

A cool balloon display at the movie theater of the movie we saw. 

So the microwave that came with the house finally died over break (it was 22 years old!). Lucky for us Alex is big enough to be helpful, so he helped hold the microwave as we took it out and put in the new one. For some reason the old microwave was attached at the top with a hook, so we had to literally pull it off the wall to get it down. But the new one is working out pretty well. It's so quiet we don't even know it's running. 

February Blog

The kids decided that they needed to build tunnels in the snow dunes from the plow trucks on the cul-de-sac island. 

Here they are hard at work.

They were able to tunnel through, Evan can be seen at the end of one of the tunnels. 

Then Alex joined in the fun and they were able to tunnel it into a "L" with a periscope look out between Evan and Alex's exit.

Mike and I had a nice lunch date at our favorite Chinese place in Farmington. We got giant bowls of hot and sour soup, just what we wanted.

I took Evan and Eliza to an allergist to discuss Eliza and see if Evan had any allergies. Turns out Eliza doesn't need to change anything in her eating habits (hooray!!), and we just need to manage her allergies when they get bad from cat, trees, dust, and grass. 

Evan got tested for allergies, turns out he's only allergic to two things and they bloom in the spring and fall, so he should be good to go.

We passed the time by playing Railroad Ink while Evans back was reacting to the allergens. The doctor even mentioned how pleased she was to see people playing games rather than just watching a device. 

My lettuce has taken off. I was able to harvest once and I'll do it again this week I think. 

Evan has been working to earn this RC car for a while. He hasn't earned it yet, but it was on sale and we were in the store so we purchased it to keep his interest up in earning points for good behavior.

Evan checking it out the RC car before packing it away again to put it in my bedroom. He is a happy kid.

I traveled down to spend time with my Dad and Jodi and look through my grandmothers photo albums with my dad. It was really nice to be with him and having him remember and tell me about his childhood places and friends. I look forward to going through more books with him in the near future. After looking through a few books we headed to dinner and then I saw my friend in a show she was singing in.

Eliza being silly with all the sunglasses she has in the car.

We headed to the library to pick out some free books from the winter reading program. All the kids earned free books and when I got back from looking at CDs I saw my family reading away at one of the tables. It was a beautiful sight.

One of the keys on the piano wasn't working anymore, so we had a gentleman come over and try and fix it. He had to take the entire player part out of the piano to fix the key (something came unglued), so that was interesting. I got to look at all the parts and he taught me a few things about the piano. Very nice guy. He tuned the piano up and she's back up and running and the player is still working (it was his first time taking apart a player). He left us with a number for a guy that fixes player pianos in the area that can help me repair it if needed.

We headed to a STEAM night at Evan's school. The boys helped set up the Robotics area and kids K-5 were able to drive and shoot the robots. The night was really nice and Eliza loved seeing all her buddies again.

The boys decided to start climbing our neighbors pine tree.

They are all the say up the tree where the green arrow is. They are above the rooves of the large houses in the cul-de-sec. They used my gardening gloves to climb so they don't get sticky hands. 

We headed downtown from church to see The Blue Man Group and the kids wanted to climb from the 2nd floor of the parking structure to the 8th so they could look out over the skyline. 

Then we headed into the show at the Fox theater. 

It was a fun show and the kids enjoyed going to the Fox for the first time. We read some history about it while we waited for the show. There is a glass ball that hangs in the middle of the sitting area that is 13' across and weighs 2000lbs and is lit by 100 bulbs, but from our seats it does not look that big. We all enjoyed looking around and seeing the ornate decorations. 

Eliza did a painting with whales when she was in 2nd grade, her teacher liked it so much that she held on to it so she could put it in the art show this year. Her teacher is also entering it into a contest in California to win a free whale watching trip. I really love that Eliza put the whale tail under the water. I can't wait to frame it and put it in her room. 

We headed to a volleyball game at the Middle School to see the elementary staff of all four schools compete. It was so much fun. At one point the ball was hit so high it hit a fan on the ceiling then bounced off onto the wall and then bounced from there and hit a ref.

Whip cream fun at breakfast. :)

Eliza and I headed to English Gardens to buy seeds while the boys were volunteering at DRAW ( Disaster Relief at Work - a place that helps areas that have been hit with a natural disaster). The seeds were half off so I got onion seeds that I'll need for next winter, and Eliza picked out some flowers that she liked that I haven't grown before. I made a spread sheet when I got home to try and have an easy access sheet in my seed starting area of when to plant what and how deep. 

Here is my little grow area. I think I need to up pot my snapdragons and then move them to a window because they are just taking up wayyyyy toooo much space. I'll be starting some more flowers and tomatoes and peppers this month.