May is Great.

These are the blossoms on our decorative crabapple tree. It blooms for such a short time, but the smell is wonderful. May has a lot going for it, this tree being one of them!

Cheyenne got her prize box from Secret Agent Josephine today! (We're guessing that Bug decorated the box so nicely!)

It was a great prize for a coloring contest-- art supplies! They were packed in a paint can.

Cheyenne LOVES painting, so this was one of her favorite items. There were colored pencils, crayons, jiggly eyes, pipe cleaners, buttons, glitter gel, glue, sparkly butterflies, and lots more... We had to start creating right away!

I set the kids up on a table in my room so I could fold wash while they crafted... but who was I kidding. I was hovering over Cheyenne's shoulder, longing to touch all the cool things.

Elliott watched very intently.

(The quilt you see in the mirror's reflection was one my grandmother, Goldie Brown, sewed. Evan just hung the quilt rack up for me, so I'm loving having a chance to see it all the time. Since I never got to meet her, it's a way to get to "know" her better.)

This paper-bag puppet was the fruit of Cheyenne's labor!

We only used things that were in the prize package-- down to recycling the Starbust (yum!) wrappers for the lips and fangs! This was Cheyenne's first time using pipe cleaners, and she was blown away by their coolness! This puppet had great fun flexing the muscles in his pipe-cleaner arms!

It rained most of the day, but by late afternoon, we had some beautiful sun back. It takes a rainy day for me to realize how much time my kids spend outside (as proven by the farmer's tan Cheyenne is sporting!)

Elliott is seriously this excited about driving his car each and every time he climbs in there. Best birthday present we ever bought, two years ago now! The latest wrinkle is that he'll take the key out (like Mommy and Daddy do) and then not be able to drive the car again until he finds the key. No key, no movement!

Grandpa was visiting for a few days while he worked over this direction, so I posed the girls in their matching outfits from Grandma. She had bought these outfits for the girls last year, but my little peanuts are just fitting in them now!

Elliott had to join in, too!

This is the new front door. Now we only have to side it, and build a porch (oh, yeah, did Evan forget to mention that was part of the plan?) and re-insulate, and... It is a beautiful door, though, and we're loving all the extra light in the entryway!

I'm mired in the special education system this week. The Committee on Preschool Education in our district declared Elliott ineligible for special education preschool. I disagree, not because I don't think Elliott is amazing, but he's not up to speed yet. I know what Cheyenne has done in the "normal" preschool this year, and my little 25-pound boy isn't ready for that yet! I'm trying to educate myself on the various options, and we'll see where it all leads. Anytime I have to do extra work for Elliott, I try to remember what a privilege it is to even have him around to merit the extra work-- he's our miracle boy, and I won't forget that for a long time!

Now, off to bed... or tea and a book!