Budding Out & Sweeties

My daughter took my two granddaughters Jenna (8) and Paige (4) for an Easter photo with a bunny.  Oh my goodness, they are so cute and I miss them so much!  I sent them a crocheted Easter egg and a little handmade purse with a bunny charm on it and some money to buy their own Easter goodies.  :-)  For new readers - my daughter moved to Ohio 1.5 years ago and so I no longer get to see my grandgirls much, it's heart-breaking.  But they are coming this summer and we went there in the Fall.  

Here is Hayden, our youngest son's oldest son - he'll be turning 5 soon!  I was thrilled with this school photo!  We are going to have our sons and their families here for Easter and an egg hunt in the farm yard, if the weather allows.  I don't have a school photo of Caleb at this point.  

Here is our eldest grandson - Michael, who's 12.

And Gabriel, 8.  

We've had a busy week.. yesterday we hosted my Daughters of the American Revolution State Chorus for a rehearsal here at the farmhouse.  Goodness sakes, we were vacuuming and dusting and polishing for hours!  I oiled the baby grand piano as an accompanist would be playing it for us.  We had a tray with ice water, coffee and tea and Dayle even made a plate of sugar cookies for us!  The song that we will be singing is one I'd never heard and quite frankly is difficult to learn.  I hope I "get it" soon!  We have 3 more rehearsals and then we'll sing at the Oregon State Society DAR State Conference in May - in front of 150ish people - and the President General who will be attending the conference from Washington DC!!

I got all prepared for my annual "woman's" doctor visit today - we go and find that I'm 10 days early!  Sheesh!  So, we went to lunch, filled the gas tank, went to the bank and did our grocery shopping.  When we arrived home I got a few shots of how the Spring flowers are coming along here on the farm.  Sorry for the fuzzy shot, my camera focused somewhere besides what I wanted it to.. but you get the idea, the dark purple lilacs are budding out.. yay!

Here is a fuzzy shot of my white lilacs. :-) 

OK friends.. HELP!  What is the name of this shrub?  The leaves look like Rhododendrons but the flowers look like this and they have a heady perfume.   

My Star Magnolia will open very soon - I saw one of these cute trees in town and all the flowers were open!  I love the fuzzy pod of the flowers. 

Creeping Myrtle.. right?  It's all over this place!  A fun story, the brick walkway to the right is lined with cobblestones that were used as ballast in ships coming from Europe - these were used in Portland streets downtown until they were pulled up and replaced with asphalt.  Now I have them.. oh the history of these stones! 

A few red Azaleas are open! 

And here are our Oregon Grape.. state Flower.. and you lovely ladies across the pond informed me last year that you call them Mahonia!  And then I realized our Governor's mansion is called "Mahonia Hall" and now I know why!  How funny that our state decided to change the name of this plant to suit itself.  :-)  Soon it will have bright yellow blooms! 

Our patch of Irises - oops, we need to pull that grass out of the middle! 

My 4th of July rose is all leafed out... now bring on the buds! 

How pretty is this Daphne Odora? Pink buds open to a creamy white flower and the aroma will knock your socks off!  I have a pinch of it in a vase next to me.. mmmm. 

Here is the whole bush.. it's a great shrub, you should get one! 

The pond fish are happy that it's sunny weather. :-) 

I forgot to bring out my little glass egg cups that I found in an antique shop last year, so they are out with 2 of my cotton crocheted eggs in them.. and just today I got a new Easter dec in the mail from eBay - a porcelain Easter bunny mommy holding a pair of bunny babies.. she's rocking them to sleep in a blue rocking chair. 

Here is her pretty chair. 

And then yesterday I won the auction for 3 more of these bunny sculptures.. can't wait to get them!   What a good mommy she is! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned.. even if it's just to relax and take it easy! I have a big event to lead tomorrow - the Friends of Multnomah Falls Interpretive Volunteer Training Workshop.  I will take photos and tell you about it soon.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)