We have had a busy week and a busy “stay at home” weekend and a busy week coming up! It’s the last week of school though, so maybe things will settle down a bit after that. Maybe.

Here are a few pictures of what we’ve been up to lately.

We are loving the Rick Riordan books. We are on book five, “The House of Hades.” Sometimes the kids like to fiddle with things or draw while I read. This is a picture Eve drew of Percy (middle) and Annabeth (left), following Bob the Titan (with Small Bob the cat on his shoulder) through the depths of Tartarus.

Last Thursday the kids had another belt test. They both did awesome and moved up from a yellow belt with a white stripe, to a full yellow belt. I was there for the beginning of the testing, but then I had to leave and go to the spring concert at my school. I was sad to leave their belt test, but I had responsibilities at the concert, and it was adorable. :) Alan was very impressed with the kids’ karate skills.

Can you find Eve and Lex from the back?

On Friday it was Crazy Hair Day in Eve’s classroom. Awhile back Eve and I were talking about her crazy hair and joking about how funny it would be to straighten her hair for the next Crazy Hair Day at school. She woke up Friday morning and said, “Oh, Mom, today is Crazy Hair Day!” Not a lot of prior notice, but we managed to get it straightened and still get everyone to school and work on time. Actually, it was much quicker than I was expecting. Her hair is fine and thin, so the straightener did it’s job quickly.

Half curly, half straight. A work in progress. Maybe we should have left it like that. Would that be extra crazy or just half crazy?

Straight hair. Mostly. I noticed later when looking at the picture that there are still some waves in there. :) I love her face in the mirror.

Who’s that girl?! That hair. That face. That big girl look. Where is my little girl?! Crazy!

By the time she got home it was looking pretty wavy, and after her shower Friday night it bounced right back to curly!

I already wrote about our fun Saturday. Sunday started with a long walk (for me), more garage work (for Alan and Amanda), and plenty of no-plans relaxing for the kids. In the afternoon we had some friends come over to hang out. My friend has volunteered to do face painting for Field Day at school this year and wanted to practice. She invited us over, but I told her I already had five kids at my house and maybe she’d like to come here instead. She and her boys hopped on their bikes and headed over.

It was like a carnival at my house with the kids lining up for face painting. Eve chose to be a lion.

We have a lion, a pumpkin, a pirate, Iron Man, and Lex digging a hole. They are planning to build an underground mansion just for kids. The first step is a very big hole. Two other boys were hanging around too, just not in this picture.

Next week is Spirit Week at school, and the last week of school! Mix-it Up Monday (wear crazy mismatched clothes), Tie-Dye Tuesday, Superhero Wednesday, Field Day Thursday, and Fancy Pants Friday (wear nice clothes for 5th grade graduation and step-up day). Can you guess who in my house is excited and who is not? :) At my school the kiddos are done on Tuesday and I have in-service for the rest of the week. I’m hoping it won’t really take all week. :) Thursday afternoon they are letting me leave a bit earl so I can volunteer at Field Day and maybe, just maybe, Friday won’t be a full day of work. A gal can dream, right? I’d like to say I would relax and enjoy, but likely I’d just spend the time trying to get packed up for Eve’s first track meet, happening next Saturday, 2.5hrs away. Sigh.

Life is busy, but life is good.