Can we ever recover??

Our blog has apparently died. As the kids get older, life seems to be getting busy! Maybe someday I’ll sit down and try to catch up and get back into it. We shall see. Until then, keep an eye on Facebook to stay up to date with the Marshalls!

Bike Ride and Lollypop Farm

The kids had Spring Break in April and we started off the week with a picnic, bike ride, and visit to Lollypop farm. There's just something special about eating food outside! 

Callie did a great job riding her bike through the gravelly path. She was struggling a bit, so she sat down to rest. The little boys got plenty of rest in the bike trailer!

We put the bikes away and went to visit Lollypop Farm. Unfortunately, it is not a farm that is covered in lollipops. The kids would love that, but they still had a lot of fun seeing the animals. 

Jack told Ryan to take a selfie with him. 

This is the giant bull that marks the front of the farm. 

The kids were able to get ride up next to the goats and pet them (if they wanted to.) We just had to watch out for the many goat droppings everywhere!

Jack took the camera and snapped some pictures of the animals. 

Luke was checking out the chickens and grabbed the fence to sturdy himself. A chicken took the opportunity to peck at his finger and it scared him! Poor guy. 

After a long day of playing, we drove home and the kids took a few more selfies!

Spring in the Grove

We took a family walk in the Sacred Grove back in April. Jack wanted to take "selfies" with everyone and had a great time taking pictures of everything we walked past. Here's our walk from his point of view! (It's about 20 pictures!)

March Pictures

We've got some pictures from March that haven't been shared yet. They might be a bit out of order, but we did have a bit of a busy month!

The local library built a pretty cool igloo out of milk cartons. Luke went exploring!

March was also when Jack got to participate in the Pinewood Derby again. Last year he was with the local cub scout group and the Pinewood Derby was a lot bigger and more "official." This year was a small group at the church and it was casual, which was fine with us!

Jack got to participate a lot more with loading and unloading the cars, and all the boys had a great time. 

Jack did happen to win first place again, like last year. That would probably be due more to Dad's help than Jack's cool design choice, but at least he had fun!

We went to the school carnival in March, also, and Callie chose a Pikachu at the face painting booth. 

It was observation week at Callie's dance class later in the month and we all got to watch Callie dance. 

She doesn't always love going to dance class, but she's excited for her recital and she is learning her dance very well. 

In the middle of March, a giant snow storm came through. The kids had a great time!

After playing in the snow, the kids came inside and ate some with flavoring! 

We went to Texas Roadhouse at some point and Callie wanted to take home the kids' activity sheet. She cut out two peanuts and made this little "paper doll" type activity. She designed it so she can take the peanut out of the pocket and place it in the different squares and it will be wearing the different outfits. She loves to create!

These two boys are becoming great friends. Luke is getting old enough to play well with Ryan and they love playing games together. People ask if they're twins sometimes if they are both sitting down. Nope- just cute brothers!

The boys and Mom at the mall riding the carousel. 

Callie's Bouncin' Birthday

Callie turned 7 years old on March 8th. She requested a visit to Bounce-it-Out and P.F. Changs for dinner. 

The day of her birthday happened to be a half-day at school, so it worked out quite well for us. She brought some goodie bags to share with her friends at school, and then came home after lunch and we were off!

There was a high wind warning issued throughout the area, so we saw a lot of tree branches in the road on the way out. The wind was so strong, in fact, that it broke the door off the hinges at Bounce-it-out. Hopefully their insurance will cover that!

The kids had a blast! It was the perfect situation with Callie's school being a half-day, but not all the schools in the area. There were no crowds and no lines!

Unfortunately, the giant wind storm had not only knocked down trees, but knocked out a lot power for the area, including the traffic lights. It took a really long time for us to get back to the house after Bounce-it-Out because of the traffic. When we did get home, we found that our power was out!

We were meeting Dad back at home for presents, then heading out to PF Changs together. We were worried that the restaurant wouldn't have power either, but luckily they were not affected.  Also luckily, our power came back on shortly after Dad got home and everything went smoothly from there. The storm ended up being one of the biggest ever in our area and thousands of people lost power for several days. We were extremely lucky that we did not!

Callie was unaffected by the power outage and still very happy about her birthday. She got some very cool presents, ate a super good dinner, and then enjoyed her chocolate cake!

Callie chose Pikachu and Squirtle to be on her cake, along with some flower and bumble bee candles she picked out at the store. 

Callie is an amazing little girl. She keeps her silliness a secret most of the time, so anyone who meets her might not know, but she has a very creative imagination and loves to act crazy with her brothers. Her teachers would not believe that we do have to ask her to quiet down sometimes at home! She is very shy, but so loving and sweet. We absolutely love having her in our family!