End of Year Field trips and Graduations

Another year down.  May in all its madness has come and gone.  Field trips, banquets, graduations, mission and trip prep made the time fly.  

 

I accompanied Lily’s class to Babby Farms for a fun morning of animals.  She loved it and I appreciated a chance to mingle with other moms.  I’ve sure missed helping at the school this year.  She and her friend Beth had a blast in our little group, especially petting the kangaroos.

 

 The boys had a belated soccer banquet and Mack received the JV MVP award – an award picked by his teammates.  It made me excited for soccer to start up in the fall.  If there were any other high school awards passed out, I wouldn’t know; Andrew throws away any awards he receives.  

Emily finished 5^th grade with flying colors.  She was the only student in her class that finished the extensive reading list provided by her teacher.  He challenged them to read or reread every book on the list – only a handful of kids have done it in years past.  Emmy was done by March.  She might like to read.

 

Here she is at 5^th grad graduation with some of her buddies this year.  It was bittersweet for me.  I’m excited to see how she enjoys more focused attention in each subject next year but I’m going to miss my two little buddies riding the bus together.  They are such great friends and are always looking out for each other.  I hope that doesn’t change when Emmy moves onto Middle School next year.

Kate had the privilege of being the first Middleton 8^th grade class to have a graduation. She wasn’t so excited about that.  When they called her name, she didn’t even stop in front of the parents for me to take a pic.  So, this is all I have – can you find her?  The highlight was her receiving a kindness award.  A teacher saw her true nature and kind heart and choose her to receive that award.  So sweet.  Hard to believe that next year I'll have three high schoolers and only one lone elementary student.  I’m getting old.

 

Springtime

This spring flew by with three kids in soccer, all the birthday and Natali coming home.  Greg and Andrew went out looking for big cats a few times and finally scored themselves a bobcat sighting.  Andrew was one happy boy.  They had to wander through snowy valleys like this but it was all worth it.

Easter wouldn't be complete without a few missing candy eggs and lamb cooked by Jonny (I don't think any Eastons eat the lamb but it is there every year none the less).

Lily enjoyed her spring season and scored her first goal.

Mack bought Lily this Lewendowski shirt so she could watch Bayern with him in style.  She knows most of the teams roster by now.  It is pretty adorable.

Mack's team.

We were invited to Sabrina's Wedding reception complete with waffle bar - so yummy.  I'm so grateful to have such wonderful neighbors.

Kate and I got our delayed weekend in Provo.  We helped Natali with Mission shopping, ate at Seven Brothers, got Dohl Whip, went to breakfast with Holly, and illegally slept in Natali's dorm room.  We had such a blast.

Wonderful day - Natali went through the temple.  So excited for this girl to face life's next adventure. 

Ditten has embraced the spring weather by bringing in birds (mostly still alive) and mice (thankfully, mostly dead) like crazy.  Vacuuming up feathers nearly everyday even led me to accidentally suck up a pink soccer sock and plug the vacuum (only a cool hundred to fix😩).  

Lily has started carring Ditten around like this and calling her baby.  We don't know how the cat endures it but somehow she doesn't seem to mind that much.  Either that or Lily holds her so tight she has no choice - I'm really not sure, but I know Lily loves doing it.

For Mother's Day I really wanted to try a homemade donut recipe.  So we made donuts which were good but the apple fritters we made from the left over dough pieces were absolutely incredible.  Yummy.  

 

It’s Birthday Time

Spring birthday time - Kate led us out with a request for a cake from Cheesecake Factory but at $50 I wasn’t going for it.  So I found a copycat recipe and made it myself.  That’s right- I made that cake and let me tell you it was a labor of love but so worth it.  Layers of chocolate cake, cheesecake, caramel and Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, chocolate frosting, chocolate ganache, and peanut butter frosting.  I wasn’t sure I could pull it off and I worried it wouldn’t taste good enough to justify the effort, but it turned out amazing.  A fun project for me and a happy Kate.  I can’t believe this 14 year old will be in high school next year!

The two of us were planning to go to Utah the day of her birthday but Holli Pool's funeral was that day and my friend Becca came into town for it.  I couldn't miss the chance to see Becca.  Kate was understanding and made the most of the day even though I was gone for most of it and her bday dinner had to be put off till a later date.  I appreciated how unselfish she was on her big day.  Luckily, we were able to go to Utah the next weekend - so I think she was okay.

Emily requested bear claws for breakfast and since her bday was on an online school Friday I had time to make them.  Her teacher gifted her with a no homework bday present which made her so happy.  

This amazing cake was her brainchild and she had a hand in nearly every part of the decorating.  Can you see all the gummy animals?  She invited Rachel and Sammie over to spend the night as part of the bday celebration.  It was a nearly perfect day for her. Complete with the big jungle Lego she wanted.  My 11 year old is saying goodbye to elementary school😭 - why do they grow up so fast.

Natali was in Utah for her bday and we gave her all her presents when she got home but somehow took no pictures – Love you Natali!

 

I came through for Andrew and made cinnamon rolls late into the night in order for him to have hot rolls for breakfast.  Natali took him out to lunch and he had bacon wrapped chicken for dinner.  A pretty great day.  His Dairy Queen ice cream cake was delicious as usual and luckily the more mellow colors I requested didn’t stain everything it touched.  He put the candles in a wall of fire which burned much hotter than single candles and melted the candles together a little.  It was funny.  He got a lot of stuff to prepare him for Peru and Bolivia.  Lucky boy.  I can't beleive he is 16  and ready to date!

We planned a surprise birthday party for the weekend after he turned 16.  Mack invited all his friends and Natali and I planned the food.  We had a fridge full of soda and juice (the surest way to please Andrew).  He saw it and I told him it was for Greg’s birthday and he believed it (Greg likes water).  By the end of the week of secrets I was convinced that if you aren’t looking for a surprise you won’t see the obvious signs of a birthday party.

 

He was totally surprised to arrive home for dinner to find a dozen of his friends hiding in family room.  They enjoyed yard games, climbed on the slackers line, and played basketball and night games.  He had a good time and hopefully felt loved.

 

After a weekend of treats Greg just wanted pumpkin scones for his birthday cake.  No one complained about that.

 

Another round of bdays complete – I don’t have to think about presents again till October…

Braces Time

Another Easton gets braces.  Emily's mouth has been ready for braces for over a year, but I told her we would wait till she had really good brushing habits and she was ready (I've learned).  A few months ago she told me she was ready and I concurred.  She had to get 4 permanent teeth pulled and unfortunately the dentist decided he’d rather not do it and sent us to an oral surgeon.  The worst part – it was the day before she got her braces on.  She was a trouper.  She hardly complained at all even though I know she was pretty uncomfortable.  She missed 2 days of school: one for the teeth and one for the braces.  Then she was back at it.  That girl is amazing.

The morning the teeth were pulled - she was comfy and had numbing cream on her veins to be ready for the IV. 

 

Southern Belles: Free Museum Day, Wormsloe, And Findin’ Us a Gaters

Originally, I had planned to drive to South Carolina and tour Rose Hill plantation but Saturday evening I realized that there were two Rose Hill Plantations in South Carolina.  One- the original Plantation with a super cool house, sprawling yard and gardens located 3 hours and 40 mins away.  Two- Rose Hill Plantation the gated community only 30 mins away.  Unfortunately, my maps app had made me believe the gated community was the real deal.  Rather than spend our day trying to break into the gated committee pool, we scrapped our plans and decided to tour a house near our hotel instead.  

We loved our Saturday breakfast so much that we repeated it before heading to the Davenport House for the first tour of the day at 10—that is ten o’clock everyday but 12 Sundays - sad.  We had to check out by 11 so we wandered around one last time. While wandering we learned that it was free museum day—a bit of luck. We had just enough time to go tour the Telfair House and museum before we checked out of our hotel and headed out of town.  The house turn museum was filled with art.

It wasn’t much of a drive to Wormsloe Historic Site, the former planation.  Wormsloe has an amazing mile and half driveway lined with southern oaks.  It was so incredible (not worth the 20$ fee to drive down it but still pretty amazing).  I naively hoped to find gaters there as well, but our little trail walk didn’t lead to any animals.  So we hit the road headed to an animal refuge nearby where I read you could see gaters—I didn’t read that it was closed on Sunday.  

 

The day was definitely not off to a great start, so we moved on to plan C and drove to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina, while listening to stake conference.  Hopefully we would find gaters and if not, Natali would at least get a new state.  Conference ended just as we arrived.  It was hot, humid, very sunny, and Natali was at the peak of her illness discomfort.  Her determination won the day and she walked a mile to Ibis Pond and on our way we saw a little baby alligator and around the bend in the pond we found her mother and a ton of amazing birds.  They were making so much noise; it was truly amazing.  It energized Natali to walk on another half mile to Star Pond but that was all she could handle.  We were both sweaty and hot, but happy to have met our goal; a gater and a new state.  

We drove back to Savannah to the airport, returned our rental car and emptied what was left in our water bottles on our feet before going through security.  It felt good to have clean feet on the long flight home.  

Natali was worried about being sick on the way home but luckily her mask and sitting by the window hide her illness and we made it home without incident.  She slept nearly all day the next day and still took a few more days to fight that cold off but it was worth the amazing trip together.