April 1st fell on a Sunday this year. We went to church then came home and the kids and I went out to the barn. Avery is just starting to get interested in sitting on a horse. All the kids are enjoying Star. She's cute and small and extremely good natured. Ponies have a reputation for being ornery and this one breaks those rules.
Elizabeth enjoys sitting on any horse I'll put her on.
Romeo is a crowd favorite too. The kids played Musical Horses that day and all of them landed on him at some point.
Shannon rides Star around like a go-cart, with a saddle, without one, whatever.
Star's laughing at Shannon.
James came out to the barn and picked up the younger two when he got home from his bike ride, and Shannon, Amelia, and I went on a trail ride. It was a way to spend an April Fools' Day afternoon.
The morning of April 4th, Daisy came to the front door, scratching on it and meowing. We had known for some time that the unnatural bulge in her belly wasn't a case of too much breakfast. It was more of a case of irresponsible pet owner- I didn't get her spayed in time. I gave her "the talk," but you know how youngsters are these days.
The kids went out to pet and feed her, then came back in for breakfast. She was at the door again, and wouldn't leave us alone. Amelia said, "Uh, mom, I think you should come look at this." This is when we learned the first of our science vocabulary words for the day, "placenta." She was obviously about to have kittens.
The kids went and got their camp chairs and set up a semi circle around her box. They ate breakfast outside and waited for the blessed event, which ended up taking some time. Finally she darted around the porch, growling and hissing at all kinds of inanimate objects that got in her way, clearly confused about what was biting her tail. Finally, out popped a black kitten!
"Uno," the kids named him, because he was first. We had no idea how many more were in there. My guess was four.
She snuggled and cuddled with him for awhile.
He kept getting his tiny feet stuck between the porch floor boards so we moved them to the box.
It was a very colorful litter, two orange tabbies (Pumpkin, the girl, and Milo the boy), the black boy one, Uno, one brown/grey tabby boy, Brownie, a white girl with a grey spot on her head, Princess, and a tortoise shell girl, Bonnie.
The kittens had their first visitor, Ben, who has worked camp several summers and was at camp for the weekend to help with a retreat.
Little Brownie. Amelia gave them all names, though I promised her they were still going to have to leave us whether they had names or not. At this point we had the seven on the porch, plus a feral cat from out of the woods who took up with us (well, with our cat food), who had a kitten of her own. This made nine cats. I had no interest in hoarding cats or being referred to as The Crazy Cat Lady. It was a really neat experience for the kids, and the kittens have been a lot of fun.
At camp we try to add something new each year, to keep things fun and different for the campers. This year it was a zip line over the lake. A company that builds high ropes course elements came in for a day in April to help set two giant phone poles and a couple of hundred feet of cable. One of their guys was the first tester. Hopefully that guy gets paid more since he has the greatest chance of smacking the pole at the bottom!
Another tester was James.
Touchdown! You are harnessed in so there's no chance of falling out, then you skip like a rock across the water.
Before James tried it out, Thomas did. His nickname at camp is T-Bone, and he has faithfully served at Strong Rock for six summers. You can tell he's faithful by the fact that he was willing to be a zip line guinea pig! He also helped build the blob tower (the deck to the right), and has been a part of many building projects during the off-season, has helped run retreats, and is single-handedly responsible for many, many evening games we now play at Strong Rock. He has threatened to go back to school and start a real career this year, to which we say, "Now why would you want to go and do a thing like that?"
Easter snuck up on me this year. It's a very significant celebration for us because it's a time to remember exactly what our Savior did for us all, and that the sacrifice He made to save us was huge. Best of all, it's the ultimate example of what grace truly is. That He loves me that much is beyond comprehension.
On a more tangible, and considerably less important front, it's also a time to dye eggs. The kids look forward to it all year long. We always talk about how eggs represent new life, which we have in Him. Coloring them is just for fun.
We did a batch on Saturday the 7th before Easter the next day
.
Voila!
The gratuitous crazy shot. Promise of a crazy shot is how you get a group of kids to give you the opportunity to take at least one decent picture.
Here are a few more pictures taken the same day. The kittens are three days old.
Daisy, looking considerably trimmer.
On Easter Sunday there was no Sunday School, so we went to the early service and then headed to McDonough for our yearly egg hunt and family hang out time at Uncle Danny and Aunt Lynn's. Here is the picture I took of our family all dressed up for Easter:
Uh oh. Seems I forgot to take one. Actually, I've never made dressing up special for Easter a big deal in our family. I struggle to find the motivation it takes to coordinate the family's outfits, and because I tend to lean toward the parsimonious side (I just found that word on thesaurus.com...it means "frugal," but sounds so much nicer!), we end up at church on Easter Sunday in clothes we already have in our closets. It hardly seems worthy of a photo to commemorate the day, so there isn't one.
We got to McDonough in time for lunch, then went on Uncle Danny's annual hayride through the woods.
He has several trails cut out through the woods around their house. The only part I close my eyes for is the teeny barely tractor-width bridge over the creek. No casualties there so far. (I just noticed the giant bird feeder in this picture descending on the unsuspecting hay riders. Maybe I should have been more worried about that than the bridge...)
My mom took this one of Jessie. Very nice.
Paw Paw's brother, Uncle Clarence. You can never spend too much time at the table at these types of events.
The professional photographer.
The egg hunt started in the front yard for the smaller kids. (Eggs in the front yard have more candy, less money than those in the backyard!)
Caroline
Camilla and my first cousin, Ashley.
Being a few weeks away from delivering your third child makes provides an extra challenge to egg hunting with little people. Ashley and Michael have since welcomed Anna into their family to join big sisters Caroline and Camilla.
McKinley enjoyed egg hunting this year. Once she realized there was candy in the eggs she pretty much quit on looking for more and focused on eating the ones she already had.
Abi and Kendel fell into the big kid backyard hunt category this time.
Caroline was hard core, sporting a Smarties smoke.
There's just something really cute about toddlers squatting.
My first cousin Brooke with Colton, big brother to McKinley.
Deannea and Gary. Someone had to supervise.
Colton gave it up.
More supervisors.
Backyard egg hunting.
Aunt Lynn and Camilla.
The Himstedt kids cleaned up during the egg hunt. This year Aunt Lynn had the idea to put paper in the eggs telling the kids to redeem them for prizes if they could do certain things, such as recite all the books of the Old and New Testaments, tell key things about some Biblical events, recite John 3:16, etc. Amelia left with THIRTY DOLLARS!
She also scored this attractive moustache.
Avery laid back in a wagon and ate his candy like a king.
Feed me. Roll me around. I'll just lay here.
After lunch there was some fishing.
Got one!
There was also some good cousin time riding bikes in the driveway.
Uncle Danny is a collector of many things, a lot of which most folks would consider no longer useful. He also has a good many bicycles of all shapes and sizes. Shannon took a liking to the banana seat rainbow bike.
You can pop a great wheelie if you hit the drain just right.
The best thing about a banana seat is how many people you can get on board. Ben took Shannon for a ride. It reminded me of Brazil, where you'd sometimes see an entire family riding one bicycle.
Granny joined us for the day. Life is so hard for her now, and Dad, Uncle Danny, Uncle Doug, and Aunt Angela take turns staying with her each night. During the day she has a caregiver that stays with her and on weekends and holidays different family members step in. She has always had such a heart of service, and has always been extremely independent, so life after a stroke has been miserable for her. She loves her family dearly, yet keeps begging Jesus to bring her home. There will be a party in Heaven when He does, because she has definitely been a good and faithful servant. We were glad to have her there on Easter.
The porch just needed a hosing to be super clean after all the bubble fun. It definitely had enough soap on it.
Gracyn.
Deannea and Bailey.
Uncle Clarence and Aunt Polly.
Ben, Brooke, McKinley, and Colton.
Uncle Danny and his only grandson out of nine grandchildren.
My first cousins Sarah and Jessie. Sarah will be off to Shorter College this fall, and Jessie will be a junior at Strong Rock School. They are still supposed to be little kids.
We headed home after a fun afternoon, and got back to the daily routine for the week. On Friday night we went to Rebecca's for dinner, and she did a rerun of the egg hunt she had hosted on Easter Sunday.
I got some pictures of the mad dash out the front door.
Gotta get more candy! We only have 40 pounds at home! Gotta get more!
Somebody took the egg I was going to pick up! I NEED more candy!!
On Saturday we had Leah R. over to spend the night. Her mom met us at the park, along with Alison and the Hicks boys, and we played until lunch time.
Once we got home the kids wanted to go to the barn, so naturally we got Star out. She was in full on shedding mode, so they got covered in hair. Allergy's worst nightmare!
I think these next several pictures are cute. Elizabeth likes having an Elizabeth-sized horse, and Star likes having a Star-sized human.
When we were done playing in the dirt at the barn, we headed over to Unicoi Springs campground because Uncle Danny and Aunt Lynn, and Gary and Deanna were there for the weekend with a bunch of our little cousins. We like to join them when they come up from the big city to camp.
Leah and Amelia worked on getting sick on the tire swing.
Caroline and Camilla came up to go on their first camping trip with their grandparents. Ashley used the week-before-new-baby time to get organized at home, and I hope, to rest.
This is the Himstedt kids' first introduction to tether ball. We had tether ball outside the dining hall at Camp WinShape, and some serious tether ball championships went down there. I'd love to put one up at Strong Rock, but it's a sure-fire way for campers to end up with black eyes, goose eggs, and rope burns. Aside from that, lots of fun. Safety-wise it kind of ranks up there with Lawn Darts. Remember those? Throw them in the air and run, lest you be skewered!
Here's what defeat looks like when you're an Avery.
For some reason the whole gang got camera shy when I tried to get shots of them eating.
I'm not sure how many are under the table.
We enjoyed our time camping through others, once again. One day we're going to try it for ourselves!
All through the month of April the kids carried kittens with them all over the house. There have probably never been more tolerant, kid-proof kittens. Amelia was reading everybody a book including Princess and Brownie. Uno, the black one, was Avery's favorite. Uno and Pumpkin went to the Hicks' home. As a testimony to their tolerance, Carlton found Tozer (age 3) giving Uno a bath in the sink at their house. Tozer said, "I just want him to be shiny and new!" Uno took it like a pathetic, limp rag.
The litter was a lot more active by week three. It was only a matter of time before we had kittens out of their box and all over the porch.
One day in late April, Carver got to come stay with us. He's the son of Daniel (our partner/fellow director at camp), and his wife Kristi. He's two and half, and a lot of fun. Shannon especially enjoyed playing with him and is looking forward to when he can come again. Daniel and Kristi's second son, Carson, was born in May.
I didn't realize how many times I took pictures of kittens!
Here's a kid who loves animals.
Toward the end of the month we were able to catch the kitten of the feral cat, who the kids had named "Shy," since she runs away whenever you try to pet her. The kitten was skittish but we spent some time taming her and put her on the back porch to live so she couldn't run and hide all the time. Amelia named her Twilight.
She fell asleep in James' hand.
He told me I should post it on Facebook and say that he finally made good on his promise to put a decline to the booming cat population around here.
We were able to get rid of all of Daisy's kittens by the time they were nine weeks old. Friends took some, strangers took others. The kids weren't happy to have them go, and we told them we could either keep one of Daisy's or we could keep Twilight. They chose Twilight, so we still have her. And Daisy. And Shy...sort of. Now Shy has blessed us with four more kittens. They are worse than rabbits, I think. At least we got Daisy spayed, so no more on that front. Once Shy's kittens are weaned and sent to new homes we'll see what fate befalls Shy.
On Sunday, April 29 Amelia and Shannon participated in the kids' choir musical, The Amazing Grace Race. We went to church two hours early every Wednesday through the month so Amelia could get in extra practice since she had a solo and was part of a dance. (Dancing in a Baptist church? Gasp!) They did the production in both morning services.
Amelia had the opening solo, which I didn't realize was THE very first thing period, hence no pictures because I wasn't ready with the camera. In the first service her mic wasn't on, and in the second she wasn't sure when to come in and was off a bit with the music. Before the first service she had said that was her greatest fear, that she wouldn't know when to start singing. I guess it's not a bad thing to have our worst fears realized sometimes, and see that we can make it through. I always used to freak out about forgetting my piano recital pieces as a kid, and a few times I did forget parts of them, and I'm still here!
Dancing with dance partners Jubilee, Jaelyn, Abigail, and Maggie.
As always it was too dark for good photos on the stage, but if you look behind the blue flag you can see Shannon.
Other friends had speaking parts.
L-O-V-E, love!
Ruth, Abby, and Emma, cheerleaders.
No church production is complete without a throwback to a Bible scene.
Bennett, Alex Anne, and Meg were a few of the main characters.
Bring the dancers back out!
Here's Zoe, who is in my Sunday School class, with her dad Jesus, er Jay.
The kids did a great job, and the message of Christ was heard. I like the kids participating in the musicals each year because they learn a lot of spiritual truths through singing the songs and hearing the words in the script. There are also devotionals to do at home that go along with it.
We closed the month out with Star Wars.
The White County High School drama teacher is our friend Pete, and his students put on a Star Wars parody. Our kids have yet to see the entire real Star Wars movie, but in spite of that fact, still thought the play was hilarious. Elizabeth is absent from this picture because she wouldn't come within a 10 foot radius of Darth Vadar!
April is also the month when I'm hardcore planning the camp things I'm responsible for. I had an upcoming horseback riding instructor certification clinic scheduled for May, and had to coordinate getting my co-instructor here from Texas, getting all 12 participants the correct information, making sure I had enough horses that would work for it, getting the barn, tack, and horses in some kind of shape after a long winter in hibernation, and a host of other horse related things. We had a good many meetings about non-horse related things in camp as well, with staff orientation starting in May and camp beginning the first week of June. April is always busy with camp coming and school ending. I like to finish the school year well.
Well, judging from the number of pictures this post includes, I decided to use April to make up for my pathetic lack of picture taking in February and March. I have officially finished another month! Let's see if I can keep up this catch-up trend.
Before I close down this post though, a few more things heard around the Himstedt home these past few weeks.
We had a light switch in our bathroom that was going bad and wouldn't stay on unless it was in exactly the right position. I was having a hard time getting it to stay on one day and Elizabeth said, "Looks like it's running out of light."
Earlier this week Avery and I were playing foosball in the rec room at camp, and I was blaming my goalie-on-a-stick instead of myself when Avery scored on me. I said, "My guy's not very good." Without missing a beat Avery said, "Your EYE'S not very good!" Gotta love getting burned by a five year-old! (*I once heard foosball described as a cross between soccer and shish kabobs.)
Our pony Star has gotten quite hefty since green grass has grown back in the pasture. Her belly is significantly wider than her rump right now. Elizabeth was helping me brush her this week and said, "Looks like she's really full."
Last night I braided Amelia's wet hair into several small braids so it would be wavy today. Taking the elastics out was more difficult than I anticipated, and her fine hair kept trying to knot. She was trying unsuccessfully to pull them out and I said, "Just let me do it, the last thing I want you doing is yanking through the knots and breaking your hair off at the ends." Shannon immediately said with an impish grin, "Go ahead and do it then, Amelia." I gave him a stern "stop it" look, and he said, "Well, you said it's the last thing you wanted her to do!" This is what I get for being a smart aleck all my life. (On the inside I'll admit I was kind of high-fiving him for his quick wit.)
Avery cracked me up this week while playing Uno. He's started calling the Draw Two's, Reverses, Skips and Wilds "weapon cards."
Elizabeth was watching me write a message in a card, and after looking intently at the letters said, "How do you do that without scribbling?"
And the final one comes from Avery, and it takes the cake. I only just found out about this last week. Rebecca told me about it, because I think Mom H. might have thought he'd be in big trouble with me if I had know about it. Mom H. was here for three weeks at the beginning of camp, and handled it just fine. I wonder who will think I'm terrible for thinking this is hilarious instead of being concerned about it....
Apparently Amelia was taunting Avery with a name he didn't like to be called. They got to arguing about whether or not she was doing it, and then he looked right at her and yelled, "You're a liar and you're going to Hell!"
Let this serve as a warning to us all.
I truly would be concerned if I didn't know how literally he thinks and if we didn't discuss God things all the time. I don't believe I've ever connected the two actions for him quite that way before, but his brain often makes it's own conclusions. Sometimes those conclusions make me laugh.
Now...can she do it people? Can she actually get to the post for the month of May before it gets cold again?
She's going to try.
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