Grand Knights for Singing

We each took a turn battling a virus over Spring Break. Jason and Gigi eked out a canoe outing on Simpson Lake just before the return of the school schedule and she got to hang out for a fun day with a friend so vacation wasn't a complete bust. The lake adventure concluded with G and her 4 day old learner's permit driving my van home in the dark with boat trailer attached and parked it in the garage unscathed. 

Health improved during Holy Week and the whole family was well by Easter Sunday. The adult egg hunt with prize table is here to stay. 

This latest illness seems to have set me back a bit on what had been pretty well controlled POTS symptoms. I'm combatting it with soprano breathing, potato chips, and Spanx but have also been approved for the PT/cardio lab for monitored recumbant therapy to try to sneak up on my nervous system to retrain it not to freak out about gravity. 

Jason attended Gigi's choir concert where she had a solo while I witnessed Ben inducted as a Knight of Columbus. Ursuline's choir went on to win first place at their Six Flags competition. She and her friends attended the quilt show downtown.  

We had a bloody fish slapping good time at Vianney's Spamalot being scandalously entertained. Gigi was the taunter's assistant, Frenchie and Minstrel. Before her curtain call flowers had faded she'd already been cast in her next musical, her first alongside her dad. 

Our yard is booming with blooms by the by. This has been a terrible year for Iris, but the ones on the lee side of our house are thriving. I'm not up to my usual long walks, so I'm consoled by daily flower peeps and working from my porch rocking chair. 

Passiontide

Good Friday

Dyeing Eggs

He is Risen Indeed!

Hardboiled Egg Battle

Feast

Prize Table-last to cover a word with the letter found in a color specific egg wins

All my chicks in the nest

Museum of Illusions

Did she just sing what I think she sang?

Un Petit Lapin 

A Knight's Sword and Shield

Brother Knights

Planting a Japanese Maple

First Peony Bloom

Keukenhoff Tulips

A unique cross Gigi cultivated-not yet named

Highly Classified

Frank's Dream

Brussels

Pansies and Dianthus for Mary

Clematis

sibling crosses

Clematis

Feeling Whimsical

ACTS trivia 3rd place winners! 

Hey y'all, this is Gigi just telling you to embrace the whimsy, there are many ways to do this. Me and my friends went on a picnic and danced in the rain, or you can just go outside. #WhimsyRevolution #GrassIsFun #Nature4Eva

Also if anyone knows of any film festivals coming up let me know.

All Grown Up

My befuddled tulips, souvenirs of my trip to the Nederlands regretted their sunward stretch this Ides and have shivered back into the mulch. Alex just finished his spring break, driving back to school into a snownado as Gigi begins hers, heralded by earning her drivers permit on the same day as her Chicago cousin. Speaking of cousins, we welcome baby Holly to our baker's dozen. Gigi marked her 15th birthday with Puttshack mini golf and a slumber party. Her cake read, "Sugar Haze," the title of the zombie musical she has written. She has spent a good amount of time on stage lately wrapping her school's musical, All Shook Up, competing in a one act competiton at East Central College and storytelling at a speech meet, and preparing for the role of Minstrel/Frenchie in Spamalot at Alex's alma mater. We attended the operatic concert version of The Magic Flute at Powell which tickled treasured thoughts of putting it on in Rome too many summers gone. 

After being without it for 5 months, Ben received a new hearing device just in time to serve on a men's retreat team. We are so grateful to have him fully back "on line." He is now volunteering at the hospital twice a week and brings communion to patients. He is deep into authoring his book and we look forward to a new chapter each month. 

We are more than half past Lent and there's much more growing and learning to do. I tackled the 781 page tome The Brothers Karamazov and have just 700 to go! There's also only two more opportunities for delicious fish fry tacos!