Easter Egg Dying

Aunt Courtney loves us.

We owe her big time.

She helped us dye Easter eggs. That is no small feat in this family.

 Kiara helped her remember she was lucky to have worn an old shirt.  I think Kiara spilled the dye a few times on Courtney.

Our Bulls

We recently invested in some Hereford bulls.  We have had Toivo for awhile now.

Toivo 

 Eino

Rudy

Odin

Different names - right?

The story goes like this.  We bought Toivo when we still lived in the U.P. of Michigan.  Toivo, Eino, and Rudy are common men's names in that region.  Sooo, we decided to name our first three bulls those names.  It has taken 6-7 years before we bought more bulls.  Poor Toivo will be at the end of his usefulness sooner than later, but at least we have our U.P. Trio finally.

Odin is after the Norse god, of course.  We are big into our Norse, Roman, Egyptian, and any other gods.  The first rotten, pain in the behinder bull we buy gets named or renamed Loki.

Country School Easter Party

The families at the school near Milesville put on parties for the kids every Halloween, Valentine's Day, and Easter.  They invited us to the Easter party this year.  The kids had a wonderful time and meet some new friends.  I'm sure they will be excited to go again.  Blase was kind enough to stay home with the twins so I didn't have to chase them.

 Gianna found the silver egg which won a prize.  She picked a big wand of bubbles.

 Gotta love a good bunny hop race.

 Hard boiled egg and spoon race

 Obstacle course with jelly beans in their hands.

 Raw egg toss.  Brech and his partner, Christian, won this game.

Chorin' in the Rain

We went chorin' in the rain on the 9th.

See that? ^^^^

That would be the oldest son of mine in the buggy while I was standing out in the rain watching the gate.  Hummmm, I'm thinking it should have been the other way around.

 First time driving the 4440.

The windshield wipers don't work very well on one side.

Found that out quickly.

 ^^^ See - not working!

This was right before the feed wagon tried to pass me going down a hill.

Can't see ahead, but I could see behind enough to see it was gonna be a fun ride down that hill.  Thank goodness it was a small hill.

This doesn't look like much, but that feed wagon is sliding all over the road.  Darren graciously  agreed knew he better take the feed wagon down the hill for me on this particular feeding run. Bigger hill.  More mud.  My knees were still shaking from the little hill. 

Lenten Retreat

I was asked to speak at a Lenten retreat for mothers a week before Easter.  I think it went well.  I made myself cry during the talk - though in hind sight that might not be an indication of greatness. I'm pretty sure it wasn't all bad.  I am available to give a talk on the imitating the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary if anyone is interested.  ha ha 

The day was lovely and just right for renewing our spirits this Lent.  I was especially moved by Fr. Castor's talk on the Blessed Virgin Mary and her role in the Passion.  So much I had missed before and now feel even more compassion for the sufferings she experienced.  

The food was amazing and the ladies all wonderful.  I hope they were as blessed as I was by the retreat.