The Quabbin

This was a beautiful spring day - took all the bikes for a ride and a picnic at The Quabbin. What a fun, gorgeous day!!!
The Quabbin is a man-made lake, a reservoir actually, made in the 1930's when they relocated & then flooded four towns, dammed some areas in between & created this - 39 square miles of water to provide the residents of Boston with a clean water supply! Pretty amazing! Oh, and Boston is 80 miles away from here. Quite a project!

This day was perfect. But such a tease. The weather has only gone downhill since then. We are holding our breath for Spring to come and STAY!

School Days!

Merrik's Preschool photo - Spring.

Who else has school photos twice a year? I think it's ridiculous but yes, they take school pics in the fall & the spring. Never heard of that before.

Jonah's 1st grade pic - Spring. And he stuck that pose all on his own!

Two of Jonah's recent spelling tests. He's doing SOOO great!!!! 100% and those are some hard words!!! Yikes, 1st grade is not what it used to be. :)

MASKED

Grandma Dolores gave the boys these masks & craft supplies to decorate w/ for Merrik's birthday. They have really outdone themselves! The set below was the first go around. Then they realized that they could peal off the glue from before, take all the stuff off & do it again w/ something else! That's how we got the above set. Cool stuff!

Look out - it's EYE BALL MAN!! :)

...and FeatherPuff Boy!! :)

General Conference Weekend activities

In between conference sessions, Merrik has been unstoppable on his Big Boy Bike! He recently learned how to ride without training wheels so that's ALL he wants to do now! It's great.

AND there's always time for a snuggle on the couch.

Here's Jonah's Prophet/Apostles mobile he made during conference.

And he still thinks he a soldier because he's related to one. Loves to pose like that!

This was our set up during Conference. Watched it online & lots of room for projects, snacks, etc. It was the first year I thought to move the laptop onto the kitchen table & it worked out GREAT.

There is Beauty All Around...

Sunset out our front door...
It's the end of winter & all the trees are still naked BUT at least we have pretty sunsets we can look at!

Look closely & you can see that these leaves have "melted" into the snow. They melted their shapes down about an inch into the snow.

Looking back...

Humor me for a moment while I think of my sweet little Baby Merrik. Such a sweetie pie!!! This pic was right around his 1st birthday. What a CUTIE!!

And now he's 5!!!!

My Baby is FIVE!!!

The birthday boy with is birthday treasures! Grandma & Grandpa Burton sent $$ so he picked out a Spiderman web shooter (glove already on hand) & a bubble gun. Great outside toys! Now - come on, Spring! (And THANKS Mom & Dad!)

Here's the bday crowd. Let them eat cake!
Jonah, Jared, Merrik, Jake, G'pa & G'ma Cowden, Michelle & Paul.

These pics are out of order but here's Merrik's COOL cake. He wanted Ghost Rider on his cake & cool, cool Grandma Dolores made it happen!!!! Thanks so much!
(Ghost Rider is - apparently - a super hero of sorts who is rarely even talked about in our house & only recently discovered, but for some reason, M got it in his head that that was what he wanted on his cake... OK, M, whatever you wish!)

And for his bday activity, M chose bowling so the 4 of us went earlier in the day & tore up the lanes! I love my family! ... and Happy Birthday, Merrik! I can't believe you're already 5!!