Spring Fever
To look out the windows and see everything starting to grow and come alive is infectious and we all had to spend some time outside just soaking in the warm sunlight... Last week Mom bought flowers for her gardens but we had not had time to plant them so this week we all spent a day planting snapdragons, petunias, zinnias, and a host of other plants... It was so refreshing to be able to work with God's beautiful and delicate creations... FLOWERS!!!!
This is one of our favorite plants... It's called the pincushion... wonder why?
Isaac and Marilee were part of the hole digging crew...
Isaac has turned into quite the photographer... Here are some of the pictures that he took when he was experimenting with our camera...
Isn't that a beautiful poppy?
Graham was planting zinnia seeds behind this poppy...
Here's one of our friends...
the perfect symbol of NEBRASKA!!!!
blue sky
green trees
CORN!!!
1st water fight of 2011Graham and Marilee pulled out the water guns and had a blast...
Reload
Why use little water guns when you can use the hose?
Surprise is the key to success during a battle right?
CIRCUS!!!Thanks to the generosity of a man we met at the Bluegrass Festival... We were able to go the circus which was coming to Kearney... Most of us had never been to a circus before and so that made it extra fun...
Marilee even got to ride the elephant...
Every spring we gather our jars, lids, pectin, fresh strawberries, etc. and jump into our annual "jamming" session...
What better way to crush strawberries than to use real manpower?
Our very careful sugar measurer...
Mix those strawberries and sugar and then let it sit for 10 mins...
Boil the pectin for exactly 1 min...
Is there going to be any left for later?
Fill the jars with jam and find the inside part of the lids, right Katie?
We all enjoyed making fresh strawberry jam... It not only tastes delicious in the end but is a fun time we spend together "jammed" in our tiny kitchen laughing and making happy memories that will last forever...
Saturday rolled around and we were refreshed and ready to perform...
We performed our hillbilly program for Alton "Smitty" Schmitt's 80th Birthday party... We played at the fireman museum in Kearney...
"Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen."
Revelations 7:12
May 10th, we did a musical presentation for the Hildreth Middle school... We had so much fun teaching them about the different instruments, rhythm, genres etc... They did a fantastic job playing a song on handbells... We had a blast and look forward to going back... 
Two days later, on May 12th we drove under ominous looking clouds to play background music at St. John's Nursing Home in Kearney... I don't know why but whenever we get back home after a program the minute we start unpacking the car it starts to downpour... ok maybe its not every time but when it does it sure makes unloading the car exciting... 
Holdrege Memorial Homes was having a oldies car show May 13th and they invited us to join them and entertain the folks with some golden oldies... We all dressed up accordingly and had fun watching our friends sing the songs that they grew up listening to... Some of our favorites were: 
We had a little bit of a break then on the 19th we went to Cozad for the first time... We eventually found the library and had a good time doing our hillbilly skit for people that had gathered... It warmed our hearts to be able to meet such friendly and welcoming people...
Saturday the 21st we put on our best scarves, and headed down to the Golden Living Nursing Home in Franklin... We did a premier performance of our gospel program that we have been working on..
Hey Graham, are you sure you can't take a couple more instruments 
Yesterday evening, was the climax of our week... We had been invited to do a musical service at the Methodist Church in Elwood... All week we had been practicing about 6 hrs a day to prepare and polish a gospel program that would focus on our feelings of devotion and love towards God and His goodness... We had never had to perform a whole church service before so we were nervous... We decided that each of us would pick our favorite gospel song and then give a small spiritual thought about it... It went extremely well and we are full of gratitude for God's mercy and grace... Here are a few snapshots of our performance as well as the songs that we chose...
Joseph: Nearer My God to Thee
Graham: Beautiful Savior
