Where did April go?

April breezed on by because we've had a bunch of things happening. We started the month getting ready for our first Eternal Blessings home school science fair. K's project was to make a battery from lemons. It worked in the sense that we got some voltage from the lemons, but not enough to actually power anything, not even an LED. But it was fun nevertheless. The other kids projects were great too.



I've always wanted to go to Longwood Gardens in the Springtime, and so, Oma treated the kids and me to a very lovely day there in mid April.
The new Children's Garden was the highlight, and it was hard to tear them away, but we took lots of pictures, and will certainly visit again now that we're on Oma and Grandpa's membership :)









Then we had a trip to tour Baltimore's Fireboats. Not only were the two boats we boarded extremely cool, one being very old and antiquated and yet still fully functional, the other brand-spanking new (by about 2 yrs) and under repair because electrical problems, we also got to see a water show where the boats exhibited their awesome ability to put out fires with Inner Harbor water (ew). And since my crew needed to use the lav, we also got to see the firehouse and use real firemen bathrooms (it was cleaner than mine at home, but that's not saying much.)

When we got to the car to go home, with a quick stop at Ft. McHenry, we discovered the spray from the boats had landed all over the Green Machine. Disgusting. I don't even want to know what makes the harbor water leave such a nasty residue, but it's taken 3 days of heavy rains to wash it off.



I must also mention that I was stopped (while L was on the verge of a tantrum) by a PBS reporter and cameraman to talk about what I think about when I look at that big flag. I had nothing brilliant to say, because I was thinking only of my four year old daughter who was refusing to use her own legs to walk. But later, on the way home, in the solitude of the car (the kids were either asleep or otherwise occupied) I did think of some things I would have said to that PBS man. I would have told him that the flag reminds me how blessed I am to live in such a country where I have so many freedoms. I am also reminded of a friend who's in Iraq right now, my AF chaplain brother, and the rest of our military doing their jobs to promote peace, stability and freedom. I am thankful that there are such people who do those jobs so willingly and I'm proud to know a couple of them.