Busy Days Catchup

We've been keeping busy, as usual.  Here's a quick rundown of what's been going on. (to those who may read this, may I remind you that I use this as a form of journal so I mostly write this for my memories)
To start with, our friends we work for are out of town for about 6 weeks for festivals.  So I have been trying to keep things running there.  I have started sewing corsets, so adding that to all of my other responsibilities keeps me running. One day she called and said that black skirts were really popular and she needed more.  I made 30 skirts in 2 different styles and got them sent off for her.  aaahhhh.  I guess it's good to be busy and busy is money.
I had a great Mother's Day.  The best gift was that Benjamin had the boys help him clean the house leaving little for me to do.  I loved it.  I've been working on perfecting my homemade pizza (since it's a favorite of the boys).  (a side note: when we first got married Benjamin told me that he hated homemade pizza.  He just didn't think it ever tasted good.  Now he not only eats my homemade pizza but also the leftovers.  Hopefully that means it's good.  Nathaniel says it's better than store bought)  I have really been wanting a pizza paddle to help in the process.  After church the boys told me to get in bed so they could serve me dinner in bed (since they didn't get to do breakfast).  They brought in a paper pizza they had made and put on a pizza paddle.  It was adorable!  They had each written sweet messages on a slice.  I absolutely loved it.

At church that day we had decided to have all of the women in the ward attend relief society.  It was a huge undertaking but we got people to cover all of the primary classes, and even men to do singing time and sharing time.  We all got to relax and enjoy relief society for a week.  It was a nice little break but I really do enjoy being in primary.
The rest of the week moved quickly from one thing to the next.
Tuesday night was pack night and then relief society.
Wednesday was Benjamin's scout night
Thursday was fishing class. (I don't think I have mentioned that the 3 boys were taking a community fishing class and that Benjamin was teaching)  This was their last night of class and they got to have a bbq.
Friday Benjamin was off and we spent all day laying our drip system in our garden.  We used 700 feet in drip line, 700 emitters (inserted in the hose one by one), and various other tubes and sprayers.  It was a long, tiring, rewarding day.  Later that night we headed to the ballfield.  Benjamin was invited to play on a softball team so the boys and I got to go cheer him on.  His team won - YEA!
Saturday was the craziest of all.  We planned to finish our dripline, but found out that our ward needed help planting flowers for the city.  So we packed up and headed to main street to help beautify our city.  Back at home, I started working on the garden and Benjamin remembered he had to meet with the scouts.  At noon we went to my parents for the May birthday party.  Delicious sweet and sour, wontons, and lots of other tasty things along with it.  We hung out there for a while, chatting and letting the kids play.  We waited around for the rain to stop long enough for a baseball game.  My kids love to play baseball with their cousins and uncles.  That night we got a sitter so we could go meet my siblings and their spouses for dinner.  My dad just had his 75th birthday and we were surprising him with dinner at Toucanos.  I think he was pretty happy about it and we had a great time stuffing our guts with meat.
Sunday was a relaxing day of recovery.  We stayed home from family visits and took it easy.  We even ate cold cereal for dinner.  The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever (especially since we don't do cold cereal very often).  The rest of the evening was filled with visiting with neighbors.
Monday was the school fundraiser carnival.  They had several blow-up jumpy things and a bunch of carnival games, plus food.  The best part was that 3 of the kids are big enough that they took off with friends and we just checked on them occasionally.   Jaxon chose 1 blow-up he liked and then went on it over and over and over.  Benjamin sat on the grass nearby and kept an eye on him.  I mostly wandered and chatted with people.Unfortunately it was a chilly evening and before long I sought refuge in the gym.  They also had a silent auction and I went in not planning on bidding.  However, one of the teachers was auctioning a drum, which my kids have wanted very badly.  (side note, occasionally the school has artist weeks and the kids get to study different types of art.  2 of my kids have done African drumming and loved it.  We have gone looking at music stores and the drums are pricey.)  So I ended up bidding on the drum in the last few seconds and winning it.  So we are now the proud owners of a Brazilian drum (similar to an African drum).  The problem was that we hadn't brought any money with us (remember the not planning on bidding) so we begged money off some friends and scrounged up the winning amount.  Pretty funny.  One lady even said "you can borrow it but you have to pay it back, I stole it from my little girl's piggy bank".  Funny.
Anyway, that brings us to today.  Only 7 1/2 days left of school, YIKES!  Summer, here we come.