Mulching!!!

Summer has not begun yet but the watermelon at Costco is too tempting to not buy!  This is Ashlyn's favorite of all favorites food!!!  And by the looks of it, the kids enjoyed every bite!!!

 

 

 

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 It's April and it's yard sale time!!!  I was able to go the past few weekends and really enjoyed it!!!  Back in the day, I used to have to wake up the kids and take them with me if I wanted to go find some deals!  They loved it but by the time we were back home, the van looked like a hurricane of crumbs and rice and egg roll sauce on the car seats!  I'm happy to be now be able to sneak out a bit by myself and come home to show them my finds!!!  Last weekend, I stood in a very long line and waited for 45 minutes to buy three dozen egg rolls and rice from the best around!!!!  I have the "Egg Roll" in mind when I'm out at yard sales!  The kids enjoyed these and they are all gone!  Maybe next weekend I'll restock!  :)

 

We enjoyed our first campfire and snack board on the back porch last weekend too!!!!

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And these boys … Austin would live at Hunter and Adrian's house if he could.  It would only last a few days and then he would miss us like crazy but he begs to go out their house every day and REALLY loves to be there!!! :))) 

And can you see why?  What boy would not like this for entertainment?  Thanks Lena for letting Austin come so often!!!!

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 The mulch arrived!  We normally order 20 yards but this year we only got 15 because our shrubs are growing bigger!!!!  It smells so good!  Last week, we got the wheelbarrow out and Matthew started scooping one load at a time!  We worked on it in different evenings and without Mike scooping up one mulch pile!  I can't hardly believe this because mulching is hard work and because we need to much, we normally bring the tractor home and use that to mulch!  But Matthew is getting bigger and scooped up most of the mulch for me!  Hadassah and Jess helped some too and every persons help makes this job go easy!  It took us three nights in a row to get it all done and now it looks lovely!!!!!

The kids love to play on the big pile!

Teens ~ they want all the pictures they take but when Mom comes with the camera, they try to hide!

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One of our favorites last week was a lettuce wedge with homemade blue cheese dressing!!!!  So refreshing!

 

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I SIGNED UP WITH YOUNG LIVING!!!!

I've been eyeing one of their defusers for awhile and when I totaled up the cost, it was a better deal to sign up as a distributor!  So, if you like Young Living Oils and need someone to order from, please let me know!  I need to place a monthly order and even though I don't use lots of oils (at least not yet), I'm looking for a few people that would like to order oils!  Let me know!

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Auctions are a favorite of mine!  I've helped at H.K. Auctioneer Auctions for years but even before that I liked them!!!  I love to see the items sell.  Listen to the auctioneer!  Find some deals!  This past weekend was the Gospel Express Sale/Auction and I loved being there!  The kids had a real blast too!!!

And look here!  My Mommy D. and her sister Annie were sitting in front of me!  So fun to watch these sisters!

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It's the start of a new week and I can hardly believe that we are counting down the days of April!  I love, love, LOVE MAY!!!  It's one of my favorite months because the flowers are planted, the garden is growing, the grass is green, it's warming up outside and schools busy with the end of the school year events!!!!  Stay tuned with many fun events and pictures of these things
coming up!!!!

Easter Day ~ Jesus is ALIVE!!!!

 

 

 

We had a gorgeous, gorgeous weekend!!!  Even with some rain on Friday night, the sun came out bright later Saturday and perfectly on Sunday!!!!  Easter Season is one of my favorites!!!!  It's right next to my love for Christmas!!!!  I love that the flowers are being planted and those lilies and tulips are so pretty!!!  The grass is green and lush and the gardens are showing the first signs of carrots, lettuce and peas!!!

 

I got to go yard saleing on Saturday morning and really had a good time all by myself!  :)  I found some deals and got lots of yummy egg rolls and fried rice!!!

 

Mike was working at Quakertown and didn't get home till 5 PM.  Mom Lapp was having the whole family over for an Easter Dinner and finding baskets!  The kids look so forward to gatherings like these!!!!

 

 

 These four a real trip!!!

Mom filled their small baskets with candy and some treats and then hid them!  The children were off to find their basket!  So cute!

These little girls are not so little anymore!  They go off to their own little corner and discuss their findings!

 

And this man that I love, can't help but take Ritchies new bike for a spin.  Ritchie in at Gator Boys Camp being a counselor to boys.  We are gonna miss him while he's not around! 

 We tried the photo thing but it's really difficult with this many children!!!!  We miss Dad Lapp so much on days like this but we move on.  The guys went to Ervins barn again for three rounds of basketball games!  We ended in Mom's living room all chatting and laughing!

Sunday morning came early for us!  We wanted to join the Sunrise Service that church held at the Honey brook Golf Course.  It was so pretty hearing the birds chirp and the dew was still on the grass.  This was a very good way to celebrate EASTER MORNING!!!

Jesus is ALIVE!!!!
 

Mike and I love our worship team and the songs we all sing each week at church!  But this morning was extra good!!!  Singing songs of Jesus dying on the cross and then rising again on that third day is a great celebration for us Christians!!!!  Thank you so much Jesus!!!

We had a sermon preached on death.  On how Jesus died on that cruel cross for all sinners!  Scripture also says that because death could not hold Jesus in the ground, it says that the holy saints graves opened up and they walked around the town talking to people.  Imagine this!!!  Then on the third morning, Jesus himself arose!!!!!

Ashlyn drew out the Easter Story on paper and when I found these drawings this morning, I was so proud of her knowledge of this very wonderful story!!!!

After the sunrise service, we ate fruit and pastry's at church and here we are ready for the service to begin!  Hadassah sits with the youth and didn't make the photo.

We came home for lunch and took a nice nap and then we all headed outside!!!  The weather was PERFECT!!!  Warm, but not too warm.  Full sunshine! 

The kids love to play outside and Austin is all into the back catcher things these days!

 And Matthew spends hours outside shooting baskets!  This time I grabbed my camera and usually he's real camera shy (hence his age right now!!) but last night he was into it!  The photo's all turned out so cool!!!!

 The kids are calling this the "bouncy castle".

I love photo's of children with real, live animals!  I kept telling Ashlyn that we need to do a photo shoot of her and our chickens!  And since Mike was home to catch one for us, we went for it!  Ashlyn was not impressed and kinda scared of holding a chicken, so we took photos really fast!

I ended up with some really cute ones, especially with Austin and the chickens!!!!

Weekends I often do a snack board!  I went to the fridge and just looked to see what we could add and mix together!  This turned out to be really good and the really, overexposed food (sigh) is fennel!  We are all into these right now and I love, love it with salt sprinkled on top!  It has a black lickerish taste and I love that!

Spending our first warmer evening on the back porch!!!

This was real life here on this photo!  Ashlyn was "being a chicken" with holding the chicken!  One time they both went running different directions!  :)))

Food in your mouth smile?!?

 See what I mean???

Trying to convince Ashlyn to hold the chicken!

And just as I was heading back to the porch, Austin comes walking up to Mike with a dead black bird!  Gross!!!!!  "Hey, Daddy!  Remember when we shot this bird?"

We spent the rest of the evening on the back porch having our first campfire for the season with Matt Lapps drinking hot coffee with us!!!!  This day was just perfect!!!!!  To end it with a warm smore was the best!!! 

Happy Easter!!!!!