Cousin Lea's wedding

After a very late night/early morning flight into Detroit airport, we had about 10 hours to get home, sleep, shower and get ready for the Kraft family's wedding of the year!  

With Cousin Lea as the bride, Eden made a beautiful addition as one of the flower girls in a dress her Aunt Janet made for her.  Here are a couple photos from where I sat:

Flower girl - Eden

Elia sleeping on Kalli's lap from beginning to end

Lars wishing he were sleeping

sprinkle flowers as you go...

Benny on the left, Eden on the right

Lars gets up to leave part way thru saying, "I gotta get out of here".  Papa is happy for the walk, I'm sure

Cousins!  Mataya, McKenzie with Elia, Eden, Josh, Ariya.  Zac in the back, Ziana and Lars in the front

Sarah & Eden, all dressed up.  Eden LOVED her curls for the day.

Thanks, Lea and Gabe, for a fun filled day with lots of family and friends!  Eden had a wonderful time being your flower girl and we thank you both for that special moment in time.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I was folding clothes in Lars' room this morning before school when a very excited Eden came in and wished me a Happy Birthday, followed by Lars with the same message. (prompted by dad?) Elia is still trying to pronounce the word "Birthday", but was pretty close!  Lars drew me a rainbow picture and thought about a present from Bommgars for me (that's a cattle & ranch type store that he likes).  I said I'd pass, but thanks anyway. 

After school, with Allen out of town until Wednesday, Eden wanted to do SOMETHING special since it was mommy's special day and we always do SOMETHING special for the birthday girl or boy.  I said Mommy's are exempt from that rule but since she didn't know what exempt meant, she didn't think that was true.

Eden wanted to take me to dinner and insisted on cake and ice cream afterwards because, "Mom, you ALWAYS make cake for people on their birthday.  You ALWAYS remember everybody's birthday and we ALWAYS have a big party with lots of friends!"

This year, May 6th was in the middle of a very busy couple of weeks for us and all of our friends!  

So, with three kids in tow, we had a bite to eat up town, then went to the grocery store for Chocolate Cake with Chocolate frosting and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice cream.  We devoured it when we got home and made a big chocolate mess before hitting the sudsy bathtub. 

It was a wonderful day and I expect wonderful days in the year to come.  

Thanks to all the Birthday Wishes and Love sent my way.  

April Showers...Bring Coal?

The big news in town was going to be the blizzard that kept kids home from school for three days the week after Easter break, but now that was 2 weeks ago, so we're on to bigger and better things!~  

The big news in town this week is the clean up underway from a 15 car coal train derailment on Sunday morning, in which Hwy88 is closed to thru traffic.  Or anything else for that matter.  I can't swear that it woke my kids up, but I woke up to what I thought was thunder, and went back to sleep.  A few minutes later, two thirds of my children were in my bed...it was 0540 and the train reportedly derailed at 0530.  I couldn't believe it, as we'd had an ambulance call over those very tracks just a few hours prior to the wreck. I don't think I'd have known how to get back to town if it had happened while we were in the country!  Thankfully, no one was injured in the train wreck and it didn't hit the depot or destroy any vehicles or property.  

Since we were up in plenty of time to eat breakfast and get dressed for church, we drove up and checked out the wreckage.  As you can see, it was something to look at.  After church, Elia and I came back to snap a few photos.  By mid day, there was a swarm of RR workers in bright orange vests, taking care of organizing the clean up.  Big machines came from Grand Island and Cheyenne that evening and set up huge lights and worked overnight in getting things piled up and twisted metal stacked into organized piles.  I stood nearby for several minutes late that night to watch the process.  It was very streamlined and seemed like everybody knew that they were doing.  I've never seen so much RR activity in all my life.  Lars is especially thrilled with the excavator on top of the pile of coal that sits taller than the depot next to the tracks at this point.  It is slowly offloading the coal into cars that are now coming back.  The highway is still closed over the tracks, but a big vacuum truck came yesterday and sucked up the coal that was spilled and not moved by the dozers.  The tracks had to be rebuilt there, as they were totally pulled up by the wreck, and the road will have to be re-paved, but for now, the detour signs remain. 

As for the lot of us; Allen has a cold.  I think Elia is close behind him.  She keeps bursting into tears for no reason and holding on to mama.  She is still a pistol and can't be left alone for longer than about 35 seconds, give or take.  In the past couple weeks, I've found a bag of Doritos mysteriously missing with orange fingers and face nearby, my printer paper scattered all over, plant dirt embedded in carpet, an empty checkbook, dog water splashed on the laundry room floor with toys being cleaned, torn up newspaper in the toilet, empty thread spools, previously pinned sewing projects unpinned, malted milk easter egg snacks hidden all over the house, unidentified sticky goo under the kitchen counter and other weird situations that I thought I'd never forget but seem to evade me now...

Eden is reading the "Meet Samantha" American girl series.  We finished the first book last night and I picked up the second book at the library this morning.  She has joined the jump rope team and practices 2x/week at the community center.  She loves it, but it makes our life just a little bit busier, which I didn't think we had time to accommodate for in the first place but have somehow managed to.  She's getting so independent and is a real life saver for me.

Lars is obsessed with drawing maps these days.  Dozens of detailed maps each day.  I have a stack that, when laid end to end, cover both living room floors.  Many have been made at school and I feel that I probably need to give his center a stack of paper, as we have used most if it in map drawing.  He has parking lots, too, with assigned spots for the city workers, police officers, and the LLV (long life vehicle, also known as a post office mail delivery truck). He is educating himself on GPS coordinates and wishes that Bridgeport had a big lake to plot freighters on.  Freighters are his second favorite right now.  

As for me, I'm just trying to keep up with everybody else.  Every day.  And sometimes at night. 

Until next time...

Pictures

Lars helping Daddy fix the door to his pickup

Eden and Kyra are selling GS cookies!

Elia

Elia playing with barn at HS

Eden is learning how to sew...and doing quite well on her own! She helped me make 23 T-shirt bags for the Head Start kids for their end of the year celebration, the last dozen all on her own. 

This looks like a good place to take a nap...finger still in mouth

Helping wash dishes

Lars' new glasses

Elia celebrates Dr. Suess day at the library during story hour