There Went Our Shade

I'm sure by now most of you heard about the loss of our giant tree in the backyard a few weeks ago. Mondo woke me up and told me to look outside. Of course I was irritated that he woke me up early...until I saw why.

Yep. This is what I saw. It felt so surreal. Strangely enough, there was no crazy wind during the night...and none of us heard it fall and crush our fence. We later found out that the tree was dying and diseased and it just broke off. Luckily it didn't hit our neighbor's house. There was about a millimeter of tree branch on their gutter. Whew! But unfortunately, it took out our phone and internet line. You can't see in these pictures but the lines were all wrapped in the branches.

Here's the view from the street.

Another view of what was left standing.

We had a tree company come out and within a few hours they were hacking up our beautiful tree. He said it was diseased and the whole tree needed to be taken down because the rest of the tree was headed for our house! It suddenly became a stat situation!

Luckily the tree people also do fences because this is the hole we were left with...for 2 days because they didn't have time to patch it. I felt like I lived in an apartment. The kids couldn't go outside without me and I had to take the dogs out on a leash. I don't miss those days!

So there you have it. A tree stump and a patched fence. We are getting quotes to have our entire fence redone. Part of the fence on the other side of the yard is falling down so it needs to be done anyway.

Another view. We actually had the stump ground up last week. Now we need to buy some grass to cover the spot. On the bright side, our yard looks bigger. But it is very bright now! We get a little shade in the morning from one neighbor's tree and a little shade on the other side in the afternoon from another neighbor's tree.

Bye old tree. We miss you!

Ethan's First Fieldtrip

Ethan had his first field trip a few weeks ago. I was happy to be able to attend and help out (thank you weekend job). We went to a farm in Arlington and a playground. I was put in charge of a group of kids which was like trying to keep up with ants! We spent half of the time on the playground and half of the time on the farm. The weather was gorgeous!

Waiting patiently for the bus.

This is the gangster pose he always gives when I take his picture.

Loading up. That's his teacher waving.

I think he was equally excited and nervous to ride the bus for the first time. I was very nervous for my little baby. There are no seat belts in that thing!

He LOVES the monkey bars!

He can get pretty high with the swinging.

See-sawing with Marcus.

Notice the sad face? He fell on the concrete right before lunch and skinned the palm of his hand. He looked like this all through lunch. Pretty sad. :-(

Um, do you think the petting zoo was stinky? Silly Brody and Braden.

There's my baby's smile back. I was actually holding this bunny and taking the picture. I carried it around for all of the kids to pet. Reminded me of my days working as a junior zookeeper at the Dallas Zoo.

Poor donkey.

Cute Shetland pony. I always wanted one of those. I was the kid who actually did wish for a pony on every birthday.

Most of the kids didn't want to pet the pig.

Feeding goats.

Oh look! I'm actually in a picture...with one of my adopted kids on my shoulder.

Here he is talking to Mondo about his hand injury and about being mauled by children when he wanted to be left alone. Poor Ethan. It sucks to be popular. ;-)

Checking out a baby goat.

Wringing out towels like they did in the old days.

Going on a hay ride (and STILL looking sad about his hand).

Pumping water.

Snacking on watermelon before going back to school.

Comparing watermelons with Ana.

The motley crew. Can you see Ethan's little head over by his teacher?

Ethan's Easter Party

Ethan was supposed to have an Easter party at school...outside. It rained that day. A lot. So we quickly moved the party inside to an unused classroom. It was a little cramped but it worked. The kids had to find 12 eggs with their names on them. Those smart kindergarten teachers. I wondered how they wouldn't fight over the eggs. :-) You'd be suprised how long it took them to find all 12 eggs in that tiny room! Again, I'm thankful for my weekend job so I could go and see my little Ethan....and all the other kids I've adopted. A bunch of them hug me every time I come. Poor little critters.

The set up...pre-kids.

I loved their little bunny ears.

We had to get creative with the hiding.

My little Easter bunny.

I think it's funny that his friends wanted their picture taken...but they are both looking at him.

Easter!

We had another great Easter this year. The kids woke up to prizes from the Easter bunny, we had an egg hunt at church, then we went to Aunt Ree's (my sister) for another egg hunt and a yummy feast. I'll get to the pictures because there are a million of them!

Ethan's basket. It looks kinda empty because it is deep. He got some chocolate, a mini light saber, and Biscuit the dog.

Caleb's basket. He got chocolate, a mini light saber, and Curious George.

The light sabers were a big hit. But, they really weren't made for fighting. The are already both broken. That's what you get for $2.99 at Walgreens. :-)

They typical Hernandez family photo. At least Caleb isn't screaming. We're making progress.

What is my nephew and his dad shooting at? Oh nothing...

...just this water moccasin!! He crept up on the porch and my aunt almost stepped on him! I guess that's what you get when you live on a lake! No worries, he is now slithering in snake heaven.

This is one of my favorite traditions on Easter. Decorating the bunny cake. The kids weren't too into it this year. I think they had their eyes on the pool and were ready to go swimming. My mom got a little crazy with the candy purchases.

Last year they got crazy and threw everything on it. This year they carefully placed the candy.

Caleb had to sample it all and make sure it was good.

The finished product. Yum!

Aunt Ree has a great yard for egg hunting!

Aww...what a great daddy to let the boys crush confetti eggs on his head.

Ethan's loot. He had to empty his basket and then go for round 2.

He found one of the prize eggs!

Oh to be young again. The heater wasn't on and the water was freezing! They didn't care. It was nice to see that Ethan didn't forget how to swim since last year.

Mr. Safety Caleb. No chance he was going under with his life jacket, floaty, and shallow pool. Actually, Mommy just didn't want to get in with him so I had to make sure he wouldn't drown.

After the pool it was off to the nasty lake. Uh, did they not know where the snake came from?? I had to be a brave mommy and let Ethan get in. Luckily I talked Caleb out of it. I hate lake water. I don't get in water I can't see through!

Thanks for hosting Easter Aunt Ree!