It's Mow'n Time

Zach got a lawn mower from his family for his birthday, which came at just the right time! With the warmer weather the last couple weeks the grass has been grow'n, so it's time for some mow'n.
Checking to make sure everything is working properly...

The inaugural pull start.

Oh yeah...it's mow'n time...

I asked Zach to smile for a picture. His response, "Kase, guys don't smile while mowing the lawn." (must be a guy thing) :-)

Snail Friday

I've been a teacher for 7 years now so I've encountered a multitude of silly situations in a classroom, including a variety of pets. I've dealt with ants, snakes, tarantulas, geckos, birds, beetles, the occasional bee which always causes quite a stir, and even a scorpion. But this week marked a new classroom pet....snails! My kids have been finding these little guys at recess and bringing them into the classroom every day and begging to keep them. So I finally gave in and declared Friday to be Snail Friday! The kids were thrilled to have permission to make little homes for their pets for the day. And I have to say, snails are actually pretty cool to have around.

Erica was snail-sitting after her Bible test.

My students named this one Zach, after Mr. Olson :-)

Operation Bald Eagle Birthday Surprise...Over.

For Zach's big 30th birthday I told him I was taking him to Buffalo for the weekend for a special surprise. But the truth was that I was in kahoots with Dad and Tracy because they were making a surprise visit. Thursday evening they arrived while Zach was at church teaching catechism. We quickly unloaded everything and they hid in the garage when he returned home. He and I were sitting on the couch and he was telling me how his night went when the doorbell rang. He stood up, answered the door, and was beyond shocked to see Calvin and Hannah- SURPRISE!! Operation Bald Eagle Birthday Surprise was a success!
The guys grilled for Zach's birthday dinner.

What a treat to celebrate Zach's birthday, again, with family.


Zach, Cal, and Hannah had their scheduled tickle, torture, wrestle time.

They even paused to give a smile for the camera.

Tracy brought these beautiful decorations to add some beauty to our wall.

After the "operation surprise" success, Zach and Dad took on the big job of taking out some of our cupboards in the kitchen to open the space up. This is what the kitchen looked like at the start of the project.

Getting the cabinets out...


Evening out the ceiling...



Hannah joined in the fun.

I loved being able to sit on the counter without bonking my head!

Voila- the almost finished project! (Imagine two beautiful pendant lights hanging down.) Father and son after a job well done!

On Saturday we drove to Buffalo and went shopping at the mall and more importantly, Home Depot. Zach's big gift from his family was a lawnmower! He still had some birthday money burning in his pocket, and he was tickled pink to walk out of the store with some light fixtures, a shovel, and a rake for Spring yard work.
Here's Dad and Tracy pausing to smile at Home Depot while we were looking at the light fixtures.

We ended the evening with a delicious meal at Olive Garden followed by blizzards at Dairy Queen- it doesn't get any better than that!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Spri-ing...

...in our own backyard....
We had a weekend of warm weather, which means it's time to put the casserole pans away and pull out Webster! We had opened all the windows to get some fresh spring air flowing through the house. Well, the open windows were right above the grill. After about 15 minutes of Zach grilling I noticed and smelled quite a lot of grill smoke in the house...whoops! We enjoyed our first burgers of 2011, and a smokey bedroom or two. Zach even made fries! Let the grilling continue...

These are 30 of Z's Favorite Things!

For Zach's big 30th birthday I had the idea to get him 30 of his favorite things. I got most of his gifts about a month before his birthday, wrapped them, and put them on our mantel. So he had to use incredible self control over the last month not to open them. I would catch him from time to time peeking and poking at his gifts, but he made it!

April 12 marked his big triple decade day. I decorated the table with a little taste of home so Zach could enjoy one of his favorite meals: a Jack's Naturally Rising Cheese Pizza!

Present time! I have to say I was amazed at Zach's guessing ability. He got 29 out of 30 guesses right!!

A sweet card from Mom.

About four months ago Zach accidentally lost our mail key so the ladies at the post office always have to get our mail for us. The post office workers called and said they had a special gift for Zach to pick up. They got him a box of cookies and a new mail key! It gave us both a good chuckle.


Happy 30th Birthday Zach!