Shopping with gnomes, fun stuff with brothers, and zombie islands

Gus, as you may know, plans to be a "Caw Man" when he grows up (that's a man that owns Caws, and carries them around on his shoulder, and perhaps lets people take pictures of them). So, here he is being a Caw Man, with his little Caw!

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Some Clementine happenings. Here she is coming inside and saying forlornly, "Sebby all gone?" She is very sad that Seb went somewhere and forgot to wave goodbye to her!

Here she is looking sad and pensive about something else. Isn't she turning into a big girl? I love her hair.

Snuggled and sleepy

Hat

In the basket where the cloth eggs go ("I AM a egg!" she said, when I protested)

Playing the piano with Sebby

Tippy-tip toes to reach the fridge. "She's en pointe!" said Daisy. Yep, just like Posy in Ballet Shoes! She's destined to be a prodigy, I'm sure.

Helping Daisy make brownies

Clementine loves Big Gnomie so much. I don't know quite how she managed to stuff him into this high chair.

Gnomie having a nice ride in the shopping cart (with Chicken down in the driver's seat)

Little dandelion-head

Yellow bunny helps push the cart

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The girls' friend Elle made up and choreographed her own ballet for their friend group. They've been practicing since January and finally did their performance. It was super cute. Elle did a ton of work getting it ready, even made a program and took cast pictures and so forth! Daisy and Junie played twin sisters who get lost on an island after a plane crash. Exciting! Clementine had a short appearance as "Young Daisy."

The girl who played "Young Junie" got a little stage fright and had to be led onstage by Elle. "Young Daisy" was game for it.

There were zombies on the island who got Daisy! Doesn't Goldie have an intense scary stare?

The twins reunited!

Curtain call

Clementine was quite pleased to be part of it all!

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Goldie and her twin. She just turned 11, which means Nutmeg is 10 ½!

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We went to one of those city "Safety Fairs" hoping to get the free bike helmets. Ziggy has ruined 100% of the ones we own by leaving them out in the sun and rain. But no luck; they were gone by the time we got there. Blast!

At least we saw the helicopter, I guess

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Taylorsville Temple Open House. Beautiful temple! Great flower beds! Loud open house, though. Didn't feel very holy, I'm sorry to say. We'll have to go back when the temple is open! 

…and, bonus tulips from the Jordan River Temple

After the open house we stopped at Macey's for ice cream. And to terrorize the store with tiny shopping carts, apparently.

Nice face, Gus

Ice cream cone! His second ever! (He had to share this one with Clementine, though)

So much giggling

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Goldie and I got to do Mother-Daughter cake decorating for Activity Days. It was so fun! Do you like our flower garden cake?

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Malachi looking fast at some track meets. I didn't shiver through a single snowy meet this year! Amazing. Was that because this year had nicer weather or because I skipped all the snowy ones? Not sure.

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We've had some cool weather lately. Pretty clouds, rain, snow.

The children love snuggling outside when it's raining!

Cute little swing-nest. Who is hiding underneath the swing?

It's Gussie!

Rainy walk to church

Tiny people waving goodbye

Goldie squinting in confusion at rain coming down from a blue sky

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Ziggy's tornado picture, "I luv trnabo." (In fact, he does not. He's terrified of them. Every time there's a raincloud in the sky, he comes running in a panic: "I think I see a tornado cloud!")

Gus and Zig playing paramedic (poor Gus is on the stretcher)

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Some fun stuff with big brothers going on lately. Abe took the girls to Nielsen's, much to their delight.

Seb and Teddy went to an Aviation Open House up at the Delta Hangar at the airport. It was really fun for Teddy to see a real plane and talk to some pilots. He spends a lot of time with Seb talking planes and has gotten really knowledgeable about them! You should hear the two of them exchanging "A380"s and "E175"s and "737-200"s, and analyzing strobe flash patterns from every plane that goes overhead at night. I think it was fun for Seb too, to show a little of what he does at his airport job.

Engine (Seb and Teddy could tell you what kind it is, no doubt)

Airplane tires

Huge airport snowplow

Teddy touching one of the plane's lights, which will someday be way up in the sky!

A different day—Seb took the three little boys to the airport to watch planes

And still another day, Abe took the little boys to a carwash and Clementine went running downstairs saying excitedly "I'll get my shoes!" When she came upstairs and Abe and the boys were gone (there was no room for her in Abe's car!), she was SO SAD. Seb saw her crying, scooped her up, put her in his car, and took her get an ice cream cone and to ride on Trax with him. That fixed everything. Best big brother!

Just for good measure, here is Seb and Gus and Clementine wearing matching hats

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Abe moved out! He started back at BYU for Spring term. His time at home with us went too fast! We were all sad to have him go. He went to live at my mom's house for a couple months before he gets into an apartment with an old mission companion, and I'm sorry to say that my mom gloated about it! She said "I always did say I'd collect your firstborn son eventually, and now I've got him." Hmmph.

Before he left, he distributed a bunch of random stuff to his siblings. It was like Christmas! Clementine now loves Harold and the Purple Crayon so much.

Bye to Abe

Off he goes!

My mom took a super-sneaky picture of Abe heading off for his first day of classes. "Off on my day," as he used to say when he was just a little tiny guy heading out with his backpack. He had a whole year+ of BYU before his mission, but because of COVID it was all online, so it's great he now gets to actually go to class on campus! We miss him, though.

The only good thing about Abe leaving is that now he can come home and visit! He came home on the weekend for a Psych-watching marathon. Daisy and I made beautiful and delicious charcuterie platters for us to eat during it. We were very pleased with ourselves (and there's nothing like watching Psych with Abe and Ky. So fun. We missed Seb!).

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Love the flowering trees around town

Feathery clouds

And snow! Eek! I don't mind May snow, though—it's usually gone so fast. It's kind of a fun surprise. And at least it didn't ruin all the blossoms!

 

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Gus rode home with me from church in the front seat, and he was so happy that he could open the window all by himself and then reach out of it! He was just delighted about it!

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Daisy and I made a piñata at a Relief Society activity. (It was for a service project, not just for us, which is good, because I wouldn't have wanted to break it after all that.)

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For Junie's birthday (the day before it, actually), we went to a playground and had a picnic.

She turned 13, if you can believe it. Little Junie-Lark!

We all wore orange, or as close to it as we could, since that's her favorite color

She chose fancy homemade ramen for her birthday dinner

Ziggy gave her this sheaf of excellent pig drawings

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Braid bun

Huddling up for a Family Home Evening frisbee game

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We made our last visit to the puppies! They've all been sold and are gone now. But we were happy to see them one last time, and to talk Malachi into coming with us for some of the time. He professes not to like dogs (nor indeed do I) but, as I told him, puppies are different!

He tried to maintain his aloof air, but you can see the smile underneath. How long can you remain mad while holding a puppy, after all?

Lap full of puppies

And that is all!