Rhys Turns 11!

 Rhys is 11 today! Happy birthday to one of the most thoughtful kids I know! Loves playing games, building Lego, Harry Potter, learning interesting facts, hiking and camping, and gives great hugs! So glad he's our son!

Today, his friends surprised him by coming by on their bikes for a visit and a car parade by the house COVID19 style! It really made his day!  We missed seeing Oma and Opa, as Oma was still trying to recover from being in the hospital from complications following a clean removal of tissue in her lung.

Bees

 

Yep, she's a keeper!

 

Childlike

 Somewhere between age 13 and 44 splashing in rain puddles becomes less of a draw. I hope it takes them a long time before they change their minds. I love seeing my kids find joy in the simple things.

Mother's Day

 So this year's Mother's Day was great! In huge contrast to last year's "Oh...happy mothers day" halfway through the day. Sophie and I took on the spa selfie challenge from the Young Women's organization from church to get all fresh looking for Sunday.

On Sunday, Sophie gave me a miniature tacos she made with a "You are tacos and rice and all things nice" and Rhys said she would write me story just for me.  After church we were off to the Farmersville IOOF Cemetery to document headstones because I love doing that and we do it on Sundays since we started having sacrament meeting at home due to COVID19. It was warm and they are troopers. We will have to stop soon because of Texas and summer not playing fair. Neal also made my favorite lemon poppy seed pancakes. We showed some love to Oma too! She is always so kind and generous to us.

Eisenhower State Park Hike

 Perfect weather for a late afternoon hike. Took in 8 miles and spotted an armadillo and some cute frogs. I have a very sweet and funny daughter who wanted to hold hands for sections of this trail that were more conducive to single file hiking. She kept me laughing.

Meet Donna

 Donna is our beekeeping mentor and she is so nice to us and the bees. So glad to have someone to show us the ropes and bounce things off of. Not literally. Bouncing things off people is rude. Generally, a "hey, catch!" is customary before lobbing something at someone. Just etiquette. Like Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

 

Blue Angels Fly Over

 Met up with Opa to view the Blue Angels fly over honoring health care workers on the front line. They went right over us! Only took video and I'm not posting it. It looks like planes going fast in the sky. If it helps you visualize a better picture, the sky was blue. This was especially neat because of Opa's love of and connection to military aircraft. But here is Opa and the kids!

Oh I'm Bring Home a Baby Bumble Bee...

 Today we were able to meet and pick up our bees from our instructors, the Talberts. It was exciting to get up close to them and the ride home went off well--a hive in the back of our minivan, a entrance blocker with screen and a sheet over it all kept us from veering off  the road.  We got them settled in during the evening so they could have a fresh start in the morning.  This was a fun day for my girl.