Where Did April Go?

April has flown by all too quickly!  First we were gone, and then when we came back home, we were busy catching up.  We spent the early part of the month in the Midwest visiting our older daughter and family. Our days there were filled with the kids' activities, including a swim awards program, and a couple of school visits as well as lots of chatting and hugs. After all these years, and on a lovely spring day, we went into the city of Chicago and finally saw "The Bean."

Millennium Park is huge, and we only saw a little bit of it.  The kids had a great time at the play area, and we enjoyed watching them have fun as well as a great lunch afterwards.

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We got back home here just in time to celebrate Easter with our other daughter's extended family.  The Littles found lots of eggs with the help of their older cousins.

They also like to explore their own yard!

Speaking of yards, ours is full of blooming plants at the moment:

These three are about done now, but the ones below are just starting to shine.

And not to be out done, the indoor hibiscus surprised me with a flower this week and even a couple more buds! 

You may have noticed lots of  unraked leaves in some of the photos.  Our recent rains have made getting out to rake a less than desirable option. (We have had the most rain ever here since they probably started keeping track in 1895!)  Mocha and Ginger don't care about the weather though.  As long as they can find a register to sleep/lie on, they are happy.

Oh, and I have finished a couple of projects, but they are drying now and will have to wait till another post.  Happy Thursday!

Florida Photos as Promised

During the first part of March we spent ten days in Florida for another "sun fix".  We had a great time, too, visiting friends and relatives all over the place, including Dee and her husband who kindly met us in Daytona Beach, not too far from one of DH's cousins in New Symerna.  Sadly we didn't take any people photos, but we did get a few nature ones.

Some kind of turtle

Moor Hen

Different shots of what I think is  an anhinga

Sandhill Crane (about 4 feet tall) 

Our hotel was down the road from the race track, and amazingly we got a nice room in a hotel nearby because it happened to be the week between two big races.  Who knew?

There's lots to see and do in this interesting state which is good because it's about as far away from here as you can possible get and still be in the continental US.  Nice people, too!

Where Have I Been?

Right after we got back from Florida, our choir began the final weeks of preparation for our concert last night.  We sang Mozart's Ave Verum and his final work, the Requiem.  The wonderful soprano soloist sang his Exultate and the orchestra opened the program playing his Sonata in C.  It was a wonderfully uplifting evening, but boy are we tired today. (There's a photo on our Facebook page.)  In the meanwhile, I did finish a couple of projects recently.

The Crazy socks are DONE!  It was probably the most complicated sock I have ever made with lots of unusual stitches and direction changes.  The cuffs were knit sideways and then seamed with a modified 3-needle bind-off.  All those direction changes made for a very interesting sole, and the "thing" in the gusset is on both socks and supposed to resemble a butterfly.  I started this project with a plain color yarn which was splitting badly so reverted to this choice which I thought was a tonal but became quite stripy. A plain color would have shown the different stitch patterns better, but this yarn made for a very fun sole.

My hair stylist is soon having her first baby, a girl.  Her color scheme includes lavender, so I made a pair of booties to welcome baby.  (They look blue in this photo though.💜)

As soon as our youngest GD saw her brother's zebra slippers, she asked for a pair.  How could I resist such a sweet request?  The first thing she said when I handed them to her was, "Do they have my name on them?"  That they do, and they even fit!

Just the other day I remembered a promise made last fall to make a pillow for my oldest GD using her latest completed embroidery.  Since we are headed that way soon, I thought I'd better get busy and here it is, ready to hand deliver.  If you click on the photo, you may be better able to see the chicken button.

Those are supposedly Bohemian chickens!?

 So know you know where I have been!  Hope you've had a good several weeks.