Happy Easter

This year while buying egg dye, I succumbed to the lure of a kit that promised to give us amazing metallic eggs. We got a little shimmer, but nothing like the photo on the box. Thankfully, the girls' only expectation for egg decorating is to have lots of fun, and that expectation was fully met.

One problem with the golden egg project was that the condensation on the eggs messed up the paint. The blow dryer helped some, until the girls decided that the most entertaining use of the dryer was blowing everything off the table

Our overgrown back yard made for a challenging egg hunt this year.



After searching for real eggs, we went over to DeeDee's house, where the girls were introduced to Cadbury Cream Eggs. Juniper loved hers.

Hazel sampled a few bites and then asked us to scrape out the middle so she could have "just chocolate."

Juniper on the Sex Pistols

The scene: two girls building blanket forts, while "Anarchy in the UK" plays in the background.

Sally: I'm about to go take a shower. Do you want me to leave this music on, or should I turn it off?

Juniper: No, leave it on. It sounds like beautiful light music in our tents.



Aaron and I introduced the girls to punk last weekend. Juniper completely validated our discussion about how things that are initially shocking become commonplace.

Texas City trip part 3: Wildflowers

This set of photos could just as easily be from Georgia, though the flowers would be different. While in Texas City, we came across an abandoned city block full of wildflowers.



Juniper is really into picking flowers these days. It was a treat to see her face light up as she recognized the implications of this large field of wildflowers available for picking.



In typical Luke fashion, it was all good...



...until it was all bad.



These are the highlights, but if you'd like to see a bonus picture of each kid in action in the field, click through the "read more" link below.

Texas City trip part 2: Galveston-Bolivar Ferry

No trip to Texas City is complete without a ride on the Galveston-Bolivar Ferry to feed the gulls.



This was Hazel's first time feeding the gulls. She had a blast, but she was still a little startled each time one of the gulls took a chip out of her hand. You'll notice her eyes are closed in every single picture.



Juniper's an old pro by now, but she's still thrilled to feed the birds...



...as are the adults.



It's a fun time for everyone. More good gull-feeding pictures after the jump, if you haven't gotten enough of them already.

Texas City trip part 1: Family

A few weeks ago, all of the Atlanta-area Honeycutts and Honeycutt-Dills went to visit the Applegath family in Texas City.

The kids were all impressed with Uncle James on the unicycle. Once Mark tried it out and we saw just how hard it was, the adults were even more impressed.

Little Caroline snuggling with her beloved PawPaw. It would be hard to overstate how much she adores her great-grandfather, or to overstate how heartwarming that adoration is.

MeeMaw and Juniper looking at plants in the backyard. When I was a kid, there were no bushes around this tree, and my cousins and I used to climb it.

My grandparents eat at their neighborhood Mexican restaurant every Sunday night. Hazel enjoyed Uncle James' company and the chips...

...but she really loved the mariachi band!

 

Does it get better than this?

Juniper's surgery

Juniper had eye muscle repair surgery on Friday. She was first diagnosed with strabismus (or crossed eyes) when she was two, and she's been wearing corrective bifocals ever since. Over the past few months, her bifocals have become less and less effective at forcing her two eyes to work together. Surgery was the next option for correcting her crossed eyes and (hopefully) making sure that Juniper continues to have vision in both eyes.

Juniper was understandably a little nervous about the procedure, but she was very excited about getting to have popsicles, juice, and Gatoraid for breakfast the morning of her surgery. (Notice how her right eye is crossed in toward her nose in this pre-surgery photo.)

She was a champ the morning of her surgery--no complaints about being hungry or thirsty, and only the most appropriate and understandable expressions of fear or concern about the procedure. She was her typically extroverted self and made friends with all the pre-op nurses.

Once the novelty of the children's surgery center (and its many toys) wore off, Juniper buried her nose in a book and entertained herself till the surgery. She was scared when we went back for the actual surgery, but thankfully she fell asleep quickly. By the time we had agreed on a song for me to sing to comfort her, I sang one line, and she was already out.

Everything went well in the surgery, and Juniper continued to be in remarkably good spirits. She was a little confused and deflated right after the surgery, but she perked back up pretty quickly. She continued to be a superstar and has done an especially good job of following all the doctor's instructions. We were in and out of the hospital in just over 4 hours, and she had a great weekend at home. Aside from the zombie bloodshot eyes, you wouldn't even have known that she was recovering from surgery. Sadly, although she is well recovered from the surgery, she was not back at school today. In a bit of rotten timing, she came down with a stomach bug and spent the day home on the couch.

She looks pitiful in this photo, but what she doesn't look is cross-eyed.

Arabia Mountain

A few weeks ago we went to Arabia Mountain with Thomas and his family. In the parking lot, Thomas grumbled that he hates hiking. He then proceeded to run and gambol like a mountain goat for most of the time we were there.

Frog eggs! We've since gone back and seen ponds literally swarming with tadpoles.

Our standard rule on hikes is that the kids are on their own until we can see the car on the way back. Once the car is in sight, we'll carry them the rest of the way. Hazel was delighted to learn that James and Paula are much more generous with their uppies.



To quote Paula's reaction to this one: "Any shot of Juniper and Thomas holding hands walking away from the camera instantly makes me tear up." I'll see you your misty eyes and raise you a rhetorical question about when our little toddlers got to be so big.

Great Grands

There are more photos from our recent trip to Texas City to come soon, but here's the best of the bunch: my grandparents with four of their great grandchildren, Luke, Hazel, Caroline, and Juniper.

Writing = Communication

Juniper has made amazing progress in her writing this school year. When she started kindergarten, she was resistant to any sort of handwriting. I'm just talking about penmanship. Other than her first name, any sort of independent spelling or writing as actual communication was not even in her realm of possibility. Her wonderful kindergarten teacher pushes the kids to be brave and take risks by doing things that are hard, and for Juniper that has been writing. We've also been impressed that without neglecting penmanship, her teacher has really focused on writing as communication.

And so now Juniper writes. On her own. With no encouragement from any grown-up. Because she wants to communicate information.

Of course, she also often needs encouragement to work on the things we  want her to write (thank you notes, homework, and the like), but I'm in awe of the fact that she has crossed some magical boundary where she recognizes that writing is communicating.

You may need a translation to understand her six-year-old spelling, but if you sound it out, you'll see that she's spot on:
evrething is puzls (eksept the cowch) = everything is puzzles (except the couch)

You may also need a translation to understand her six-year-old logic. This sign designated the entire living room, except for the couch, as a puzzle activity zone. The couch was a reading zone, for two or four at a time. (Look closely at the labels, and you can see that the preferred couch configuration is her and Violet.)