Finally, Friday!

 I left the house for Country Cuts before anyone else was up. ::snort::  I came home, encouraged Melia in her coursework, blogged for a bit and then we ran out of the house...back to Country Cuts for Melia to get a haircut. Mandy took off Melia's split ends and gave her a few layers. I cannot believe I didn't take a single picture. Melia laughed and said she was surprised I didn't take any pictures. 

We spend a couple of hours every Friday afternoon with CoRielle's kids. We began today with a "tea party" though the kids have begun calling them "chocolate parties."  I pulled out the cute little plastic mugs Aunt CoCo sent from Japan and reminded them of the fact that she sent these cute mugs for our tea parties. We had a healthy snack along with their hot chocolate. 

We have been playing Outfoxed but it is warming up! We decided to go outside and enjoy the nice weather. Goodness. It took a full 30 minutes to get ourselves and the kids dressed and ready to head out. Benny and Danny take care of themselves - Charles and Ellie took a bit of stuffing into various snowsuits etc. 

I had just gotten Charles set up with the snow shovel when I realized what his brothers were doing. I DID see them jump off the deck out of the corner of my eye. 

The snow IS pretty high up and the drop isn't THAT big, but I did warn them about the potential of getting hurt. They BOTH informed me in unison, "We are MEN!" I told them to make sure there was no ice in the space they were jumping, or they would be men in pain. LOL 

Benny jumping

Danny is actually jumping....

I was so worried about these two that it was a bit of a shock to look up and see Charles was licking various surfaces...a quick look confirmed we have nothing metal in the vicinity. I was NOT up to pulling a frozen tongue off the chain link fencing today. My word - he is licking the railing in the photo. ::snort:: 

Benny tried some shoveling

Danny

Charles wanted to go inside about 5 minutes after I finally made it outside. I told him we were staying out at least 30 minutes and set an alarm. 😂 It take a village to make sure Ellie is safe AND having fun. 

Ellie's Village

Danny and Benny found ye old weed patch to be a fun winter hill. 

Melia and I discussed how we could pack down the snow for a cross-country trail around the yard. This didn't work well at all.  Any ideas? 

Melia, Ellie and Benny

Melia and Ellie 

My winter garden

I have decided to give these four kids one of my garden beds this summer. They are coming over weekly and so it will be "easy" for them to maintain it. I'm pretty excited at yet another ploy to engage the grands in the garden. LOL

Melia chatted with her sisters while I got dinner ready. Michael is prepping a sermon. Stacia has 7 or 8 friends over for a game night. Melia is finishing up a project for her room; I am blogging and then plan to read. 

A very relaxing start to the weekend.