Wild blue yonder with Madison & Brooke

Last Saturday Madison & Brooke were able to finally fly with Uncle Pat. Madison has been wanting to go flying with Pat forever and even offered to let him just come and fly over her school (that would be interesting for the Homeland Security folks!). Neal & Theresa decided it would be best for Brooke to go up first with Theresa for the 'gentle version' and then Neal & Madison could go up for the 'livelier version'. The noise in the background is not the plane but the breeze - the microphone really picked it up. I love the way Brooke's little ponytail acts as a windsock. This video is Brooke showing her absolute certainty that she knew what was about to happen (not)!

The headsets we have are for adults and the girls are small even for their ages (5 & 3) so Uncle Pat improvised with a small rag rug folded many, many times. I flew when Brooke did and at one point I thought she was falling asleep. I soon realized that she was nodding because her head was too heavy with the rug & headset!! Ah well, at least she could hear us. Both girls concentrated on looking at how small the houses and cows were. Brooke waved to all the cows she saw and both girls were excited to 'see' our house but I'm not sure Brooke realized which one it was.




During Madison's flight she was able to take the yoke and fly the plane. Theresa told me that she was very proud of being able to tell her teacher and friends that she had actually controlled the plane. Neal was in charge of the pictures in the air with Madison and as soon as he e-mails it/them to me I'll get it posted. Meanwhile enjoy the shots. Pat is so great with kids and loves to see them enjoy his favorite thing in the world.
Isn't this picture of the girls adorable??

I will apologize before hand for the jerky quality of this video. I tried to keep close focus on take-off but it is a long way from smooth. You can't see it but Madison was waving at us.

This is part of the 'livelier version' I was writing about earlier. Madison told us later that her tummy felt funny on this particular move . . . but she had a ball!

Flying is done and time for the Stinson to head back to the hangar. A good time was had by all and no air sick bags needed!

Pre-Easter weekend with kids, a puppy and eggs!

Hope you had a Happy, Blessed Easter! Below you can see samples of the kids fine work dying Easter eggs.

John and Lindsey arrived late Thursday evening with their new baby "Amadeus" an adorable black lab (lots of pictures on their blog). His last time with other puppies was his litter mates and he hadn't been around little kids at all. Wellllll, he has been broken in now!! Below are some shots of Amadeus playing with Packer & Dexter. Dexter was thrilled to have someone his own size - we haven't had the heart to tell him the next time he sees Amadeus there will be a big difference in size! We were impressed with how well Amadeus rolled with the punches.

I love Dexter's ears in this picture.You can get a quick glimpse of a 'grown-up' Amadeus in the background on this picture - what a handsome guy!

Smokey just finds the whole 'dog thing' a bit much . . . .

Here you can see an official O'Donnell weekend getting under way (the Mazda felt very important in this line up).

Neal's birthday was the following Monday so we had an impromptu birthday party Saturday night. Theresa found a wonderful cake 'Handy Manny' - I think Handy Manny has taken over Bob the Builder's position.

Neal reviews all his birthday cards

Sunday morning all the Moms gathered materials and the egg decorating began! Some of the Dads headed out to hide eggs for the hunt. We explained that since we were a week early we would be hiding the eggs instead of the Easter bunny!

Katie is checking her colors.

Steph helping Audrey & Seth with their creations - Seth and Noah did some awesome camouflage while the girls all did some pretty glitter eggs.

Good thing the dining room is the size it is!

Showing off the finished products!

Audrey

Brooke

Madison

Here the troops are assembled for their Easter egg hunt. Some were concerned enough to don their helmets.

Little people (Madison, Brooke, Katie & Caleb) hunted their eggs in the front yard while Audrey, Seth & Noah had to work a little harder in the side and back yards.

Wild child Seth with part of his haul . . .

Audrey working over the parking lot

Noah after scouring under the pine trees in back

Ready? Here's an 'artistic' shot - aren't you impressed?

I love this shot of Brooke, Madison and Katie - they look sweeter than any Easter candy.

After the hunt everyone opened their eggs and ziplocked their candy.

I have a set of Resurrection Easter Eggs with each one holding a token of various parts of the Easter story (i.e. nail, palm leaf, stone). Lindsey held an little discussion of the real reason we celebrate Easter. All the kids did great but Seth showed he has really been listening in church.

Miss Katie - dressed in pink, check / have pink Barbie case, check - yep she's a girl!

So this is Nana's laundry room??

The quad-runner is gone so we resorted to tractor rides.

Ryan was showing he can still do backbends and the kids decided he made a pretty good arch to scramble under.

The arch, however, managed to trap Seth - everyone got a laugh.

Lindsey & John headed home Wednesday morning with a very tired, but happy, puppy. Thursday morning I headed to St. Joe so Katie could attend her Easter party. Here Caleb hung out with me in the hallway waiting for the festivities to begin.

This is why chiropractors are a mother's best friend - not necessarily in your twenties or thirties but eventually . . . .

I love the pigtails bouncing in this video. As you can see the eggs were cleverly hidden by the sixth graders. Interestingly enough some of the eggs had been relieved of the candy - hmmmmm!

Katie getting ready for the balance beam

Unfortunately the day ended with both Katie & Caleb losing everything they had eaten in a year at a local restaurant. We were assisted by a waitress who, no doubt, immediately went out and had her 'tubes tied'. Both kids were hit with a terrible flu bug and pulled Joy down with them. Fortunately by Saturday everyone was functioning again and actually eating by Sunday - so it's all good!

Happy 16th Birthday Jake!!

A week ago we journeyed to Lee's Summit to help celebrate Jake's 16th birthday. Ginny, Neal, Theresa & girls were headed down to Roaring River the following weekend so we held his party a bit early. I don't think he minded. Dana was guinea pig sitting so I snapped this picture of Neal's girls, Madison & Brooke checking out the other two 'girls'.


Dana, as usual, put on a great meal. Theresa made some wonderful baked sweet potato fries to go with the hamburgers & hotdogs. Kinda made ya feel like summer could happen in a few years! Jake pulled out one of his fishing poles to show Neal while we observed Mom's dexterity with her camera!


Ginny, Neal & Theresa got Jake a great alarm clock - if you are a hunter (which he is). The alarm was a turkey gobbler and the snooze was a shotgun blast. It was really neat. . . . . .

and I think it may be on Madison's birthday list!

Jake gave us a reading of a poem Mom had written to celebrate his 16th - along with some green stuff everyone can use.



Jake has his Dad's older red pickup so Pat & I thought it might be a good idea to get him an emergency kit. Cell phones are great but battery cables and reflectors can come in handy sometimes.


Dana had designed a great cake showing all of Jake's hobbies and interests. You can see the fisherman, the red pickup and the deer head. Dana added the sign posts - Jake loved it!

Here's the birthday boy with his cake. It tasted as good as it looks.

Of course, we had the traditional Happy Birthday serenade. You can see Mom struggling to get up on my right out of her chair. I say struggling because I have a death grip on her left arm pulling her back down since she was getting up right in front of the video camera. We laughed about it later. She thought she was getting weak rather quickly.

We tested Jake's suction cup compass on Brooke and Madison. That way Neal can always be sure they are going in the right direction!!



Congratulations Jake - we are very proud of you!!

Happy Birthday Steph!!

Last Sunday we celebrated Steph's birthday and Steph herself! For once it didn't snow on the weekend and we were able to get together. Here she is opening her gift from Ty & Jerilyn - a weighted exercise ball. Can you tell we are all trying to get ready for spring?

A new spring purse - every girl needs one!

Here the boys try to blend into my chair with their camo. Love this picture - isn't it great?
This is a shot I took of Miss Audrey - she looks so pretty especially in her new glasses

Mom did a portrait of Katie - she was very proud of it!

Here is the traditional video of our melodious Happy Birthday rendition. Sorry Steph - you probably deserved better but Happy Birthday anyway!!