After a Shopping Trip

7 Generations

7 Generations of Strong Beautiful Women! Hurrah for Israel.
Magaret, Maggie, Margaret, Bessie, Marcia, Rishi, Goldie
Happy Mothers day!

Hiking at Glenwood

When Grandma and Grandpa come we drop everything to go hiking. (I should do it even when they are not here.)

When I am hiking I tend to take more pictures too.

But I'd wish I'd had a picture of the moments surrounding this wagon ride. It was wild. Three boys flying down a hill as fast as they could possibly go without anyone to stop them and not a sound from any of them. Then plop. Over turned the wagon. The scratch on Bridger's nose was the only tell-tale sign anything had happened. It was an awesome experience.

We stopped at a gazebo near this lake.

We walked about 3.3 miles that day and it took us 2 and half hours to pull a wagon with two boys and one little one on my back.

Thanks for the good times!

Smiles, Dandelions, and Tye Dye

The boys love to pick dandelions for me. I threaten them if they pick the neighbors flowers, so they must think dandelions are my favorite. Josiah found this especially tall one the other day and it made me smile.

Its time to do another tye dye project as well. I feel it in my bones. These two shirts were made three years ago for their older brothers. But Ammon and Bridger look good anyway!

A little trip to Fredricksburg, VA

Ball games...

Rock games...

Tree games...

Family games...

Hiking games...

Climbing games...
Throw in a few nights, a musical, friends, picnics, sunshine, and

one very special Sunday morning and you have a little getaway for seven Richardsons!
Thanks for the invite Murphys, and thanks for taking care of us Marsha!

Wicked!

One of Goldie's presents was to go and see Wicked! We drove to Richmond, VA. I went with her. We took the binoculars that the Allen's had years ago. They were made in occupied Japan and were very heavy. But I'm glad because Goldie used them almost the entire time.

We got there just in time and had to ask for directions once we parked. The theatre was beautiful. I sat on the edge of my seat and loved every minute. I want to go and see it again. I kept telling people I didn't know who was more excited, Goldie or I but I can see the excitement in her eyes in this picture. It was a great experience for the two of us.

One thing I loved about the production was the steam punk feel they gave to it. It was well staged, a great experience.

Goldie is 9!

Goldie has turned 9! She wanted a new cape, and I went all out. She got two. One short, one long, in her new favorite color.

My beautiful girl has been exploring musicals lately and together we watched the 25th anniversary of the Phantom of the Opera.

And so a Phantom cake was on the menu. I declined making a rose. I've never done that and it seems a whole new learning curve.

We decided on a real one and when she heard about these rainbow roses we agreed to get her one. It was spectacularly colorful.

A week before the date we used Ammon's Captain America mask as a base and made a Phantom mask out of fondant. I probably did it too thick because it never did dry out enough. I didn't know what to do and Mike came to my rescue with marshmallows! They are there, you just can't see them. Also, my black fondant was off so he also came up with the broken glass look. I like it.

It was beautiful and delicious on both the inside and the outside.

But it wasn't just about the cake. That is just one of the birthday's adventures. I got to eat lunch with this beautiful young woman. I got to spend time with her and she is a cherished part of our family. Her smile, her love of her brothers, her joy in discovering life is all a part of who she is, who she is becoming. We love you Goldie. We are blessed by you. We are glad we got to spend time with you on your special day.

Spring has many colors

Easter 2014

Waiting to start the Easter Egg hunt, I think this might become an annual tradition.

Especially when you see all the loot they have from finding eggs.

This is another tradition that Mike had when he was a child. We haven't done it for a couple of years, but opted for it this year because Ammon had no memory of Easter bunny cake.

Hope your Easter was a good one!

A very small wound

Once upon a time there were two little boys. They were friends who liked to play in the back yard together, until one finally drew blood from the other's head. The wounded one wanted pity from his mother, but she refused to give it it. The one who inflicted the wound insisted band-aids solved EVERYTHING!

So, band-aids were applied. And lo and behold! He was better. The friends left each other happy once again...

Until the band-aid had to come out of the hair and then the boy went crazy and became an alien with white eyeballs and he had to live on another planet happily ever after. The End

Spring is Red

My 5 March Beauties

Dressing up!

The day we froze at the park

I love taking the kids to the park.

I get exercise, the kids play, we have a good time. We went to this park on January 16th. We spent hours there. I practiced flat footing. It was a gorgeous day and we didn't need a jacket. The next day it stormed. This park is barred to cars about three months out of the year. In March it opens back up and cars always have to be careful so they don't run over the pedestrians they share the road with. To help remind the drivers there used to be speed bumps on the road until the snow plows plowed them down.

The kids had fun playing with and on the broken pieces of speed bump.

When we planned to go on this day, we had read that the weather was warm. I'd been outside for few minutes and I'd even checked the temperature. But when we got there the snow was thicker than we'd hoped for and we had to dig the extra jackets out the of car in order to keep some of the kids warm.

Bridger stayed nice and cozy in his stroller the entire time.

And of course everyone else was attracted to the ice. Soaking wet, cold feet had to be warmed up after this "not so warm" visit to the city park.

Waiting...

Sometimes, like Dr. Suess said, we come to a place where everyone is just waiting. Here are a few times this month that we have found ourselves waiting...

waiting for Goldie to finish piano lessons.

waiting for Josiah to finish piano lessons.

discovering the newly painted alleys in our town while waiting...

waiting for Goldie to finish her "Battle of the Books" practice.

waiting for Spring to come.
Some things, like Spring 2014, require patience and time. Slowly but surely the signs start popping up or shining down on us and soon our waiting will be over.

100 years!

We are thrilled as can be. Today is Pa-Paw Stuart's one-hundredth birthday. Since it was Monday we decided to celebrate for Family Home Evening.

Josiah held his picture as everyone listened to Dad tell us stories about his father's life.

Then we sang Happy Birthday and ate some cake in memory of the man who turned 100 today!

Just in time

Today, just in time for Valentine's Day, God has colored the world white instead of red.

The cold outside has been as welcome as the warmth of the inside!

Book Discoveries!

We recently tried out a new library. It was our nearby college library: Concord University.

I'd been reading the Magyk series by Angie Sage and wanted to finish the last two books, but our local library did not have them, nor did our backup Bluefield library. Concord did. So we went up and all of us checked out a book.

Goldie's choice as you can see was a Lemonity Snicket book. We didn't get excited about it, but it reminded me of the Spiderwick Chronicles and over the past few weeks we've been enjoying those.

Josiah's choice was Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. In between practicing songs on the piano and on his sick day Mike and I read the book to him. It's part of the Magic Shop Series by Bruce Coleville. It was a fun clever book.

So if your in need of something fun to read try one of those. We sure liked them.

Ammon is Three!

This is a classic pose for Ammon. Telling him to smile brings on this expression.

Everything about this little boy is all about the "A." Captain America, Ammon, Awesome!

He cut out the A's that decorated his cake.

We spray painted his shield cake and even where the color ran it looked "A"mazing.

Our party was A-bsolutely Ammon! It was a great day Ammon. We love you.

This and That

We've discovered that Ammon has curls! I love to get them all stuck up in the air first thing in the morning. Then he says, "Put my curls down mom, put them down." I usually comply, but sometimes I have to let his Wolverine out or just let some hang out in the back of his head where he can't see them.

Goldie was recently invited to Young Women's to decorate cake. This is her creation.

Of course Bridger got his hands a bit of cake too!

In the snow...

Swimming

Its been months since we've been swimming. Santa Clause brought swimming gear and a pass for Christmas. And we are ready to go!

Mike is 46!

Happy Birthday to a hardworking, loving, fun, man. Not to mention sexy.

Somehow, his birthday became all about pictures and art, and he loved it. We got him some printed photos of all the people he loves best.

Then, at his request we painted our feet,

or hands as were appropriate, and made art.

As you may recall we did this at our midwife's home, but we liked it so much we decided we had to do it again for our own wall. Mike and his birthday changed our living room and we love it.

Happy Birthday Mike!