John's 40th Birthday

We celebrated John's 40th birthday tonight.  (We had to celebrate a little early since we'll be in the middle of the Growing Kids Sale on his actual birthday in a couple of days.) 

And along with being his 40th birthday, we also celebrated our 400th client with MySaleManager.net.  Yeah! 

I love my man!!!!!!!  Happy Birthday, Honey!

That's a lot of candles to get on his cookie cake!  Everybody enjoyed helping with this job.

There were lots of comments about the candles looking like a forest fire! :)

Enjoying the parade of gifts...

John, you bless our lives in so many ways!!  I'm so grateful for you!  Happy 40th!

Tennis balls, exhaust pipes... Oh no!

Will and I were getting ready to leave to run errands today.  John and the other two boys were already out running some errands.  I went back in the house to get a bag and when I came back to the garage Will told me that he had put a tennis ball in the exhaust pipe.  Well, he didn't use those exact words and I can't remember exactly what he said, but he showed me the pipe...  and sure enough, there was a tennis ball lodged down deep in the pipe.  I couldn't get John on the phone, so I called my Dad.  Yep, he assured me that it could be bad news to drive my car with that tennis ball in there.  Dad gave me some good advice and I did eventually get the tennis ball out with a long screwdriver.  Ahhhh.  After the "danger" had passed, Dad was all chuckles.  I'm sure it is funny when it is happening to me, but I know that secretly Dad is worried about Will getting near his vehicles! :)  haha  Now, what do you do with a child who is constantly finding inventive ways to create havoc?!  It means he's really intelligent, right? :)  I have no doubt that he is a smart kid and extremely ornery, too.  I just hope I can survive his toddlerhood!!

GKS Candy Shopping Trip

Tonight was our twice annual GKS candy shopping trip.  We provide snacks for our volunteer workers during the sale - all 600 of them this time!  They love those little candy bars.  Over the years the amount of candy that we have to buy to provide for all the workers has really grown.  When we were just buying a couple hundred candy bars, it was no big deal.  But now that we're buying thousands, you should see the stares we get at the store!  And of course, John almost always tells the cashier that his wife (that would be me) really loves chocolate.  He sounds serious and they never know quite what to say.  Oh my.  Here are two pictures of our shopping cart.  I took the first one and John took the second one...  I think mine is better! :)

Easter

Let the hunt begin!

Time to mow...

Dividing the spoils...

Gotta love this face!

Coloring Easter Eggs

John was able to color eggs with us this year and it was definitely fun having him involved in the project!

We have wabbits!

Last weekend the weather brought a change in plans, so on the spur of the moment we decided to take the kids to Little Rock to attend a US Senate Forum.  We talked to several candidates afterwards and we are working hard at being discerning about which candidate to support.  The primary is in about a month and we understand that these elections are a big deal.  They all are.  Americans still enjoy the freedom of voting for the candidate of our choice - as a people we haven't been choosing very well, though - so, we'd love to make a difference by helping to elect better representatives.  If anybody wants more details on our research and who we are thinking about supporting, let me know!  Maybe I'll post more about that later...

So, we spent the night at a hotel in Little Rock - the same hotel where the Tea Party Express was staying - we enjoyed seeing their buses.  The boys LOVED being able to swim in the indoor pool!  And they get so excited about staying in a hotel.  Then the next morning we headed over to the Beebe Flea Market to try to buy some rabbits.  When we showed up the ground was a soupy, muddy mess.  I cringed knowing what was happening to my car as we drove around looking for a parking spot.  I knew I dreaded walking in the mud - I've just always had a strong aversion to it - ask my parents about the picture of all the kids in the mud!  (The other kids were all covered from head to toe and they MADE me get in the picture and I'm practically standing there on my tip toes!  Okay, that's enough memory lane. :))  But, the funny thing is that my boys - at least the oldest two who were walking (Will was in the stroller) - had the same reaction as me about walking in the mud.  They were starting to complain and John was perplexed - a boy who doesn't like to walk in the mud?!  It took a little walking, but they eventually got over it.  John said all the locals were laughing at me as I gingerly tiptoed down the paths.  We better get out to our farm, soon, and get accustomed to the dirt!

Well, anyway, we got three new rabbits at the Beebe Flea Market.  Shepard has been wanting a pet so bad, so he picked out a gray rabbit and named him Thumper.  We also got a mating pair because John wants to learn how to raise them for meat.  Will named the girl Mama Wabbit and the boy earned the name Sneezer. 

Shepard is learning how to hold his rabbit.