The Varner Crew

Well, now that tax season is officially over, we got to spend all day with Stephen! What a treat and breath of fresh air to be together. I also need to post a rather long recap of the last three months... Life during tax season can get pretty tough. But in the midst of it, by God's grace, we were able to celebrate some good times. These are the memories I'll record here.

Henry's Geo-project: Rusty the robot.

Stephen's birthday... Since most of us were sick we celebrated with oyster crackers, Gatorade, bananas, and apple sauce! Woo hoo...

I love doing 'curly' hair for the girls. They are so patient getting their wet hair braided before bed time.

The 'curly girls'

I just love these little ladies!

We were able to take advantage of our zoo membership for one of the special winter zoo days. Peter is especially enthralled with animals. We all enjoyed our trip just a little bit more seeing him 'ooh' and 'ah' over all of them.

The goats - always up close and personal excitement.

Peter was beside himself!

Nice teeth.

We may be seeing one of these in the wild soon!

The snow leopard was alert on this cool winter day.

Emmy discovered the kangaroo and, much to her delight, it hopped.

Our library puts on a weekly reading program for families in February. And, as in prior years, they offered some great activities again this year. We absolutely loved seeing 'Professor Steve' do a fascinating show about electricity.

I kept busy in the evenings working on fun new projects and discovered our library's digital collection of audio books. Since I had hours of alone time every evening (with Stephen working late), I devoured volumes on parenting, philosophy, and theology. What a rich time of personal growth, spiritual equipping, and agonizing through deep questions. God used this time to strengthen me and reveal himself to me in a new dimension. I'm thankful for this unexpected blessing in the midst of tax season.

A warm snap allowed us to play at the park one Saturday afternoon.

Does it get any more exciting than this?

My darlings...

A boy with stick and a ball...

The kids had their very first sleepover. The boys went over to the neighbors who sent their girls over to our place. This was a splendid arrangement and everyone had a blast.

The kids competed in the regional chess tournament. This was Lena's first tournament experience.

Coach's final words of instruction

Go Lions!

Waiting and practicing between rounds.

Lena did a lot of coloring...

Lena's team is ready for round two!

Henry's team represented Bremen at the state meet a few weeks later!

Here are the kids on their way home on one snowy day. These pictures are taken from our living room window.

We got creative with activities to do on Saturdays while Stephen was at work.

We planted an herb 'garden' and watched our seeds sprout. Unfortunately there were no survivors (plants, that is, not kids)...

The kids all made super cute sock puppets.

We had a few nice days to run outside and play. The kids tried out their new bubbles and sidewalk chalk.

Peter was perfectly content to play with a big truck and a football.

He ended up face-planting in the mud and was very upset that he had to go inside to get cleaned up. He didn't seem to mind the dirt in his mouth...

Here's another evening project of mine. I crocheted juggling balls for all of us. Then during our 'family night' we had a mini juggling clinic (YouTube). It was a very funny evening. We still have not quite mastered the skill.

Here's the lunch line - part of our morning routine to get ready for the school day and work.

Brothers

Spring Musical time for Lena and Henry!

This year's musical was called 'Squirm!'. As always the kids' music teacher did an excellent job.

Henry got to speak a line...

A few videos of Henry and Lena during the program.

Lena and her wonderful teacher Miss McElhaney.

Henry with his fabulous teacher Mrs. Hartsough.

Emmy, Peter and I got to visit Lena for lunch and recess at school.

Peter had a blast and made lots of new friends.

Fancy hair for Emmy

Here we are waiting to have lunch at school again - this time with Henry.

Peter amassed quite a following on the playground. I think he knew he was pretty cool stuff. By the end of recess he had those kids eating out of his sweet little hands.

Family 2 Family boxes! We packed food boxes to be distributed by World Compassion Network.

Everyone had specific items assigned to them. And like a well oiled machine we packed those boxes in record time.

And the grand finale was having Grandma and Grandpa come to visit over our cold, slushy, soggy spring break. Here we are getting ready to take a tour at the South Bend Chocolate Factory.