You Don't See That Every Day

April is a big month of birthdays around here. We've had an enormous amount of cake and ice cream this month, I've also stepped up my exercise routine. The two may or may not be related. Earlier in April I had a hankering for some chocolate cake. "It's April It's cake month" my brain was yelling at me; so I listened. I grabbed a new recipe from my friend Betty Crocker and whipped up a delicious chocolate cake. And that is how we started the week of my husband's birthday! (( Here's a link to the recipe  https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/best-chocolate-cake-with-fudge-frosting/ee6153e7-dd8c-47ae-bd88-8fc70ce57a24   Note - I used my lactose free milk instead of buttermilk and powdered baking chocolate instead of the bars. And I made basic frosting not the kind listed here )) On his actual birthday he got sherbet - because he's not really a cake kind of guy. But he loves sherbet and ice cream. And then we had company over, which means we have to...

A week has passed since our spring break ended and I am finally getting to this. It went by too fast! We kept busy enough to feel it, but no so busy that we didn't sleep in. Oh, that felt good. And yes, Monday morning of back-to-school was very painful for all of us. We started the break with a wedding - friends' children who we've known since our kids were little. We all enjoyed the wedding .. it was simple and beautiful. Our Boy got a chance to serve - scooping ice cream at the reception.  We all enjoyed the dancing - The Boy and I joined in on the Mom and Son dance; The girls showed us their moves to songs we had no clue on; and The Mr had some great tango moves. It made me miss our ballroom dancing days. That evening we picked up The Cousins. What a giggle-filled three days those were! We took them to a local children's museum one day. There was an exhibit there for streams - and just like an engineer's grandchildren would do, they each start...

It has begun. Track season is well under way, and the girls had their first meet this past Thursday. Way back in February, the Girl Who Swims did not want to go out for track. We managed to convince her, with our parental ways, that she should however. And seeing her smile as she ran at the meet confirmed my parenting skill this time at least. She's trying something different this year - not long distance! She is running the hurdles for the first time ever and loving it. I think she likes challenges. She also was in the 4x100 relay and the 4x400 relay! Another new-ish thing for her. The younger daughter is running long distance this season - this time around she did the 1500 and 3000. I think she wants to do the 800 also, but she needs to work on her speed if she is going to try that. I ran that back in the day (and it was my favorite) so it would be fun to see her try it.  

The weather people were predicting gale force winds and pouring/ dumping rains. The bicycle tire and brakes weren't working right. No one was in bed at 10:30 pm. That was Friday night. On Saturday morning, three of us got up at 6 am to head out for a triathlon. The Mr and The Girl who Swims would compete - I would spectate. The other children would sleep in and later clean house or something (more like the something of watch movies). We had a downpour as we left home but then a few miles down the road it was clear and sunny skies. There was a breeze ... ok, a wind ... but it wasn't blowing us off the road. The competitors had nearly perfect weather for this triathlon. My sister and I got to see both of my people swim - it was a bit of exercise for us too as we hurried from one pool to the other pool in a separate building, to see them in time; we managed to see our friends bike and run also. The weather held; all of our people finished the race without collapsing (alway...