and kevin got up at FOUR THIRTY this morning.  which just makes me sad.  but he seems quite happy that he got up hours ago already.

so…i’ve been rushing to put up all the photos from april, and i’m pretty sure this will be pretty historic, if i manage to complete this post, that i’m actually posting everything from april IN APRIL.  i’m pretty sure i’ve been up to three months behind sometimes.

but now, look at me go!

but cause i’m cramming everything in here, this is going to be long, so pour yourself another cup of coffe and be prepared for lots of stuff, plus not just photos of darling lester!

for example, this right here – a lizard.  no, an iguana.

i went to this event that jill was having, and there were all these “exotic animals,” although i don’t feel that i’d really call an iguana “exotic.”  i can’t think of anything that i’d actually call exotic – ok, this right here, another kevin – the kevin in the movie “Up,” now that’s an exotic animal!  plus cute and funny, like my kevin.

i found that photo, btw, on the disney wikipedia site.  who knew disney had their own version of wikipedia!  but it makes sense.

here’s a chinchilla, although i didn’t get to pet it.  he kept scurrrying around in his crate, and i hope he wasn’t nervous.  but there were lots and lots of kids there, which probably  made him a little anxious.

such a teeny little turtle – the lady there said it would take 70 years to grow ENORMOUS.

moving on – here’s me, after i completely picked out my entire outfit including jewelry all by myself!  usually amy likes to help me out because of my lack of fashion sense.  but luckily i had the peacock theme going on, so it wasn’t so difficult.

kevin went to a civil war shooting thing last weekend, and some guy had an a-frame camper.  the picture looks cool, and kevin said it was spacious and nice inside.

here he is, exhausted after a long weekend of being very very busy.  it was so cute, two of my boys snoozing on the couch.

here’s Toun and me at the Gateway to India, one of my favorite eating places, enjoying their tasty lunch buffet.  Toun just got the braids in her hair, and i wish i could see them when they’re down.  very lovely.

monday night, erica and kim came over to learn how to build a fire.  the three of us are going camping at the indiana dunes this weekend, and they wanted to know how to build a fire.  since kevin and i have been camping many times, i thought that maybe i already knew, but then i realized that kevin is always the fire-builder.

as we had to pile up little twigs into a little twig frame, and then add more and more twigs, i remembered that kevin had shown this to me, but i know, also, that i must have gotten bored pretty quickly and gone off to do other things.  also, kevin always get ups before me, even when camping, so he already has the fire going by the time i’m up.

kim wanted to know how to start a fire just using a flint, which is a metal thing that you strike together to make sparks, and this seemed somewhat completely impossible to me.  here’s kevin showing her how.

erica chose to start her little fire with matches, and i had a lighter.

kevin told us how in boy scouts, they’d give them two matches to start a fire, and they tied a string over the top of it – they had to make the flames burn through the string.  kevin said that since little boys love the fire, the string wasn’t a challenge at all; they wanted to make the hugest and tallest flames they could!

and he still does.

the little frame of sticks there in the foreground with the big leaf on top is mine.  because i decided i’d rather document the event instead of lighting the fire.

kim trying and trying to light the flint. she had brought her own flint, btw.

it worked, YAAAAY!  i was both impressed and amazed.

it was both a fun and educational monday night, and after the fire was roaring, kevin kept adding more wood, because he loves the fires!

here it is the tuesday morning, still smoldering.  kevin got it going again, from the embers, and burned away much of the stump.

….AND NOW IT’S THURSDAY NIGHT!

How did that happen?  in the blink of an eye, that’s how.

back to my photos…lester has started bringing in little branches full of spinners, and then he plays with/chews them.  hopefully they’re twigs that fell from the sky that he could GRAB and pretend they were birds!

two nights ago, our walk led to the boat.

and then winnnie walked aboard, and i noticed that he was sniffing at this place where les had been doing lots of sniffing.  maybe some animals explore the boat at night?  maybe the raccoons hotwire it and cruise around the lake!  les decided he needed to do sniffing in other areas.  they were both very busy briefly…

until they had to have a little altercation.  the problem is that WINNIE REALLY HATES CATS.

while lester hung out on the dock, i pulled a bunch of dead branches off one of the huge chrysanthemums.  i threw them in the water, and les watched, entranced, as they floated out to sea.

everything is so beautiful now.  boy i really love spring.

the bleeding heart in back is gigantic now.  i wish it’d bloom all summer.  our re-blooming lilacs down at the lake are starting to get eaten by deer, so i had to spray yesterday, but they’d already stripped off some bark.  c’mon you dang deer, there’s plenty of vegetation all around, why do you need to eat my lilacs?

and WOW, TA DA!  the end of april!  luckily, i took no pictures at all today, so this is a very historic and special occasion, being RIGHT ON TIME!

and next week, many exciting photos of our camping trip.  stay tuned…maybe i’ll even manage to post a photo or two while we’re gone!

but it’s highly unlikely.

ok then, happy almost friday,

Mrs. Very Busy Hughes.