Beesapalooza

Bees have been very much on the minds at the Barker homestead.

Holland has been working on a science project on our bees for the past month.

The first one didn't work, so we completely changed and started another bee project last week.

I've been stressed enough about it, I've been dreaming of bees-- scary, eh?

This afternoon, when she went to check the temperature of the hive, lookey at what she spotted:

 For those of you who are not bee-savvy, that big brown nest looking thing is a swarm of bees.  And there's actually another smaller, swarm above and to the left.

We used to have three hives but lost two over the winter.

So McGyver... I mean, Byron suited up and took down the swarms.

 He placed the bees on the branches into a bucket and moved them over to one of our empty hives.

 We figure he gathered about 5 thousand bees.

They weren't too happy at the beginning...

But I'm happy to report, they settled right down for a good night's sleep.

And we have no stings to report.

Mission successful.

Now let's hope for a good haul of honey.



Diva

Oh for heaven's sake!  Now that I've finally figured out

how to put video from my phone on this blog-- you are really in for it!

Greer will KILL me for this at some point in my life.

But really, don't you think it will be worth it?

Enjoy.

Drummer In Training

Oh my... Kean caught us totally off guard with this little act.

Hope you find it as funny as we did!

Hoping The Third Time Will Be A Charm

Early, early in the morning, Kean and I will be heading in for his 3rd ear surgery.

Tubes again.

We can only hope this time they last longer than a few months.

Super Boy is making progress by leaps and bounds-- literally.

 He has been working hard on getting those little legs moving

and boy, oh boy is he starting to take off.

 By the way, we don't typically "dress" him up for his work-outs.

These pics were taken Easter morn before church.

And if that wasn't enough dazzling from the boy...

check out what he pulled off during today's therapy session.

He gets so proud of himself when he accomplishes something new.

He's not alone.

Easter Morn

The kids woke us up at dark-thirty to see if the Easter Bunny came.

Our family tradition has the Easter Bunny hiding the childrens' baskets.

The girls helped Kean find his-- it was pretty easy-- in his high chair.

 Reese's basket had a princess painting kit-- I don't know who enjoyed it more... Reese or Byron.

After church, we headed over to my folks for a yummy feast.

No surprise here, Grammy had some spoils for the girls (my nephew Derek was at a horse competition).

She embroidered the girls names on cute bags and gave them some hair bands and piggy banks (and candy).

 And then they were off....

for the great family easter egg hunt.

LOVED the weather that day-- perfect.

 We lined 'em up by age and let 'em loose.

The twins spilled all their gathered eggs when they tackled each other for something or other.

We enjoyed watching them as much as they enjoyed finding the candy.

 Each year Grandpa donates five bucks for each kiddo to find in their own golden egg.

Trust me, this is a big deal and the highlight for each of them.

 Alas, here they are with their spoils of war.

Kean napped through the excitement, so we staged a mini-hunt for him.

 Here's the gratuitous cute picture of the boy.  Hope everyone had as great an Easter as we did.

Dye-namite Eggfest

Of course, you can't have Easter without the yearly tradition of coloring eggs.

 No, we didn't hatch another daughter.  That's our neighbor, Jaimie.

Please notice the festive snowflake tablecloth.  My vinyl Easter one

did not survive last year.

I took the three youngest (including Greer's friend) down to the park

for the Down Syndrome Easter Egg hunt. 

The fire department had one of their big trucks for the kids to climb all over...



 They also had rabbits, baby chicks and ducklings for the children to pet.

Kean, of course, didn't quite get the petting concept.  He went more for the pull the fur off the bunny concept.

And when I put a stop to that and had him just watch the other children pet the animals, he went for some poor, unsuspecting little girl's head of hair (and pulled out a few strands).

Sigh....

 He did much better during the egg hunt portion of the afternoon.

Look way into the distance-- the girls are somewhere in that group.

They had it divided into crawlers, walkers and runners.

Kean was one of a very crowded three for his section.

 It didn't take too terribly long for him to get an egg

 and actually put it into his basket.

 But after doing that three or four times, he found it was much more fun to toss them all out or

throw his basket to the wayside.

 The girls soon came to the rescue and "helped" Kean fill his basket.

Sibling Loverly

Here it is, Easter eve and we felt we needed to take a few minutes with our children to remind them about what Easter is really about.  We talked about Christ's Resurrection and that because of Him, we will each have the opportunity to be resurrected after we die.  We asked the girls what that means and what happens to our bodies.  Bryon then asked what about Kean, what will happen to him?
Greer immediately answered "oh he is already perfect".  As Byron went on to explain that he will likely look different in Heaven, speak differently and his body won't slow him down-- both Holland and Greer said they don't want him to change.  They hope he stays the way he is because he is already perfect to them.
Love those girls.  Love that boy.  And I won't soon forget this night.

The Princess Pageant

I swear, my husband deserves a best sport award.

He sat so patiently while the girls did him up.

 I think they were going for the "Princess Fairy" look.

Personally, I think they achieved more of a 50's shower cap look.

 Either way, my boy rocks the look.