We love having company come over for many reasons. It forces you to clean when you wouldn't have otherwise, and turns a rather lazy weekend to one of fun and memories. My Aunt Diane and Uncle Timmy were visiting from Connecticut and spent the day at our house. My sister and her family came over to visit also.

Katie, Chloe, Brittany, and Casey cruising around
Uncle Timmy, Auntie Diana, and my sister Joy chatting

Chloe showing her archery skills

Casey taking her turn to prove that she can hit the target too!

Michael sharing his pictures with Grandpa of his recent trip to Puerto Rico to visit his girlfriend Adriana.

But the most shocking thing of all was to see Michael, a vegan, actually eat a hamburger!! Yep, a dead ground-up cow. It was something I haven't seen him do in years. I'm sorry I didn't get a before and after of his dinner plate. That sucker was clean when he got done with his meal!!

Yes, Easter is over, but we had a great time. Being so busy with all our craft projects, we didn't get to our egg dying till Easter morning! We bought the traditional dying kit and Joel drilled and blew out all our eggs for us. We love to display our dyed eggs every year, so this way we can keep them. Our favorite craft project this year had to be our decoupaged eggs. They were so easy to make and came out really pretty. All it took was plastic eggs, Mod Podge, glitter and some scrap material.

I also tried needle felting and made this baby chick.

Made some homely-looking pom-pom chicks,

and painted some clay pots and added glitter to them

We also recovered our golf cart seat. The vinyl is very hot and sticky in the summer, so I found some outdoor material on clearance at JoAnn's and voila, it's like a new ride!

Spring Awakenings

Spring awakenings conjures up in my mind the singing of birds, the sweet smell of blooming jasmine, warm breezes, and of course spring break from all the kids' activities. But that was not to be here! Oh no, our Spring awakening happened on Monday morning at 4:00 a.m. by someone banging on our door, not knocking mind you, banging HARD. Of course we were sound asleep, and snug in our beds.

Now we don't have too many visitors at our house anytime day or night. We live in the middle of 26 acres, so it's not likely that someone is just going to stop by. Well, we were startled awake by the banging, and of course, the dog barking like mad! My husband fumbled in the dark looking for his shorts to put on, and I looked out our French doors and saw lights shining in the pasture. He and I were trying to figure out who could be banging so hard on our door at this time of morning and shining a flashlight through the side-lights of the front door. He finally managed to make his way hurridly to the front door to be greeted by not one, but two Hernando County Sheriff Deputies! Well, they were called by our newspaper delivery person. The delivery driver heard screaming coming from our house. Yes, screaming!!! Now mind you, all our windows are closed, and the delivery driver has his motor running. What could he possibly hear? The sheriff deputy questioned my husband and wanted to know who else was in the house. Then they questioned me to make sure I was o.k. They also proceeded to ask how old the children were. Of course I told them 8 and 10. Not thinking that they are 10 and 12!! Who answers these kinds of questions clearly at 4:00 a.m. We couldn't possibly think of what that delivery person heard that made him call the police?! The officer told my husband that maybe the children were having nightmares and screaming in their sleep. Oh yes, I'm sure that was it, even though my husband and I heard no sound coming from their rooms and the newspaper deliverer hear all this through the walls of our house. Once the deputies were satisified that we were all o.k., they left. WE were still puzzled and mad of course of what possessed that driver to call them. At last it came to us.................THE PEACOCK!! Yes, that has to be it!! Mr. Purty, our resident peacock, had to have sent out his cries in the early morning for the benefit of the newspaper delivery person. The peacock was sleeping in the tree near the driveway, which is not his usual sleeping spot. The dog happened to chase him earlier in the evening, and he escaped by flying up to the first branch he could reach. I guess the peacock decided it was too late to roost in his usual spot and slept peacefully till the lights and sound of the delivery drivers car awoke him! Never a dull moment on the farm!