A Few April Odds and Ends

Just some odds and ends of our April.  At the beginning of the month, we had Archie's Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts.  Archie's car is in the center, a doppelganger of Phillip's Camaro.  He even got the matte-black striping!  He did a great job!  The only problem was that Phillip took off the wheels just before the race to put in some graphite.  He replaced the wheels, but one of them started sticking a bit when it ran down the track.  So the car didn't do very well in the race.  Prolly should've left it alone, as it did a GREAT test run the night before!  As Phillip can attest, some races go like that.  Archie was disappointed, but didn't dwell on it.  I thought his was the coolest car since it was a replica of Phillip's car.  We should have insisted that everyone go out in the parking lot and see for themselves in a side-by-side comparison!  

I love that my kids like dressing up!  It is so delightful to watch them romp around in various costumes.  You can't see very well here, but even Baby has a cape!  Which she insisted upon after seeing the boys wearing theirs!

Archie is Owl Boy (an obscure boy-super-hero from a book he read) and Lawrence, of course, is Batman!  What is really amusing is when they run around in only underpants and capes!  Oops!  Did I say that out loud?  I probably wasn't supposed to say that out loud...AHEM!  All except for Archie.  He NEVER does that...  *cough, cough!*

You aren't a real Dutton unless you have holes in the knees of your pants.  All of my kids, yes, even Lydia, are definitely real Duttons.  Archie has recently 'found' Duct tape.  He has spent many of his dollars purchasing duct tape for various projects.  He is his Mother's son, as he usually sticks with the grey color (unless the project demands two different colours) because you can buy waaaaay more duct tape for waaaaay less money!  He makes wallets, chess/checker boards, luggage tags, a whole BACKPACK! and is currently as I type this working on Duct tape gloves that slip on and off your hand.  Below, you can see at the beginning of the Duct tape craze, he was patching up the holes in his pants.  

Owl Boy has captured Batman!  Gasp!

It hasn't been very Springy here.  It was cold, then cold and rainy.  It has rained for going on three weeks straight.  The rivers are all overflowing here, mudslides are prevalent (and I don't mean the yummy alcoholic kind)  and the ground is a soggy mess.  I took these just before the copious rains started and just as the early Spring stuff was beginning to bloom.  

I love this picture.  This picture looks very Lydia to me.  

This is a close-up of the purple tree out back when it was in peak bloom.  I can hardly believe my crummy little camera took this great picture. 

Here is the whole thing.

I forget what these are called, but they bloom along with the tulips.  

The blue bird up in the tree is Archie.  He loves climbing any and all trees at any time!  His friend James is watching from below.

So pretty much since I took these photos, we have been 'hunkering down' as they say, in our house and are about to drive each other crazy.  Thank goodness for math club, Westwood Townhall, a couple of museum visits, and indoor playgrounds where we have been donning our fins and snorkels to get out of the house once in a while.  Why I must still wear long pants and long sleeves IN MAY, I don't know.  My snow boots are currently doubling as rain boots.  I think I'm ready to move to the desert.