Mothers Day

Mandy's Mothers Day began with sleeping in(a little) and then all her kids getting in bed with her. We went to church and then went out to eat with my folks and my sister-in-law Jackie. Then we went to Mandy's parents for dinner. Biking, walking, and bean bag Tic-Tac_toe were some of the activities. Thank you to all the Mom's out there that have loved their kids and made an influence on me and my family and everyone around them.

ATV fun

Well, Emma thinks it's fun when I throw mud in the air with the quad so she took a picture of me. I think she did pretty good. Of course, I made her earn her keep afterwards by washing it. The kids are getting old enough to be useful! Next up, mowing the lawn on the tractor and grocery shopping!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Thank you to everyone who helped make Livy's 4th birthday special. I can't believe she is 4! We had everyone that could come over for hot dogs and hamburgers (birthday girls menu) and had fun. Happy Birthday Liv, and we love ya!

Before the rains!

Before the rains came on Saturday we were outside all day. I moved about 300 pounds of rocks, mowed part of my dad's yard, grilled both lunch and dinner, and gave 4-wheeler rides to the kids. They also did a little Jeep driving and swinging. Swings can be a fun photo opportunity. Then the excitement began when I finally was able to use my generator to power the house. First time since we've moved in. Nice to know it can power everything we need. Still running on it, as a matter of fact. As long as we have gas, we have power! I'm sure Consumers Power will have us back up in no time....

Easter Weekend Part II

On Sunday we went to church and seeing kids who are not used to attending going bonkers made me realize ours actually behave pretty well. We had Mandy's family over for dinner and were able to enjoy the afternoon with them. We got to hide Easter baskets, Emma and Julie rode the ATV, and ride bikes in the garage. One Hoffman female trait we discovered was the ability in sleet or shine to back out off our driveway and into the ditch. The John Deere came to the rescue once again after this past Monday Julie going in the ditch, Mandy's mom decided to follow almost exactly the tire prints in with the van. See bottom photo of this post. We still love them. It was a great Easter, one that will be remembered.

Easter Weekend Part I

Saturday we went to an Egg Drop sponsored by the Mason Assembly of God where they dropped the eggs from a helicopter hovering 100 feet off the deck. It was pretty cool. The blade wash was blowing all the little kids over. Coolest Easter event I've ever attended. I'm hoping next year they get the Michigan National Guard to drop egg clusters from F-16's or something. Out of the 6000 eggs they dropped they included 6 "gold eggs", which Emma managed to get one of without pushing, biting or clawing(so she says). So she won a cool Bible and prizes. We also decorated eggs with my dad and had some fun. It was warm enough for Emma to get her atv out for the first time of the year and tool around for a while.

Spring Break

Well, since we are broke we stayed home for Emma's spring break. We did find time to make our last snowman of the 2008-2009 winter. Better be anyway! We also just hung out as a family and Alex and I made a big train layout out of his Geotrax. It wasn't the Bahamas, but we had fun.