St. Patrick's Performance, Vacuuming, & Dress-up

For St. Patrick's Day, our talented music teacher for our homeschool co-op (non other than my dear sister, Marianne) arranged for us to go and sing at the senior citizens' center. We needed to get our van worked on, so Edgar dropped the kids and me off at the post office and then he took the van. We walked from the post office to the senior citizens' center in about two minutes. We were early and none of the other performers had arrived yet. I decided to keep my energetic children outside until show time--a wise choice. Marcos was holding a wooden hatchet to be used as a prop in one of the songs and was hitting the trunk of a mature and sturdy tree. I didn't think anything of it, but a gal eating inside was not pleased. She came outside and yelled at Marcos:

"Stop beatin' on that tree! It's a livin' thang!" (I didn't spell thing wrong--she really said it with an "a".) I naturally felt like the horrible, negligent mother I am. I apologized and took the hatchet away from Marcos. Later, after we'd performed, the same lady made sure Marcos got a snack--even though he was too young to be one of the performers. So maybe she forgave us. Above, the kids were singing "Big Moon."
Here Ruben got to be the executioner and Lili was Anne Boleyn. The ax is a bigger version of what Marcos was using to abuse the livin' thang.

Ammon adores his dad and likes to do whatever Edgar does. Fortunately, that includes vacuuming.

Marcos took to calling himself Mary the other day. He wore one of Lili's dresses and her hair flower. Ammon was happy to join in. It's almost like having sisters. Ruben adamantly abstained from anything girly, but he was Buzz Lightyear--in his John Deere sweatshirt. Oh, didn't you know Buzz Lightyear is the space ranger that drives a tractor? One look at Lili's hair, and you can see why the good Lord is sending us another boy. I am very bad at hair.

My parents now have a blog, so if any in my vast readership are interested in the life of a missionary in Nauvoo, this is their address: markandcoralee.blogspot.com