Tuesday

Tuesday I dropped off Abby, Ellie, and Adeline at Auntie Liz's house, then met Sarah and Isla at Target.  Sarah had an eye doctor appointment.  

Isla and I had fun shopping.  We also squeezed in a quick trip to Hobby Lobby.  Sarah had seen somethings she would like for her new kitchen (when they move) and since she has a birthday coming up, I needed her to show me what she wanted.  

Then we all met at Mod Pizza, the new pizza place that recently opened. 

Adeline was excited to get her own pizza! 

There are so many choices. Check it out here.

You can pick from some of their standards or start from scratch.  You can also add or delete toppings from their standard pizzas.  Maggie came with us too.  

I had the Dominic (white sauce, asiago, fresh chopped basil, red onion, sliced tomatoes, mild sausage) and I added bacon.  It was yummy.  

Everyone enjoyed their pizzas.  It was a fun time and the food was delicious.  

Monday of Spring Break!

We had plans for shopping and lunch out for our first day of Spring Break. Sarah texted that she though Ellie had an ear infection.  She tried to get her into the pediatrician, but they didn't have any openings.  So she took her to urgent care.  We were just waiting to see what would happen before we rearranged plans.  Sarah texted to let us know that it was an ear infection but that Ellie was feeling ok and still wanted to go to lunch.  

So we all met at Cafe Rio for lunch.  It was yummy!

Next we headed to Hobby Lobby to check it out.  We had lots of fun exploring. 

Since Izzy and I had hair appointments, she took the lunch leftovers to Sarah and Liz to take home.  

Everyone had a fun time. 

Smiles for the camera!

Love these two!

That night we had been invited to the Ely's for dinner and Family Home Evening.  

Listening to a message from the missionaries. 

It was a fun night.  

Isla

Isla is trying to stand. 

She plops down often and then tries to get back up. 

Gary put her on the piano bench and showed her how to make music.  

She would play for a few seconds and then turn around and make sure that Papa was still there.  

She loves her Papa!

Snow Day

The superintendent made the snow day call the night before because of the anticipated snow storm.  

Although, when I first woke up, it was still raining, it slowly changed to snow.  

The federal government in Washington, DC was closed, so Gary got to stay home too. 

Ellie said you can only see the driveway under the cars.  

After the previous day's tragedy, it was nice just to stay home, relax, be together as a family, and appreciate how fortunate we are. 

The snow fall was beautiful.  

Outside the area was blanketed in soft falling snow. 

It was quiet and peaceful. 

We were able to just put real life on pause for 24 hours. 

It was a much needed day for personal reflection. 

We watched the snow accumulating outside. 

The Aina girls went outside to play.  

Ellie said the lights looked like they had hair. 

Isla didn't want to stay outside as long as her sisters did. 

Gary and Tony shoveled and plowed the driveway and walkway. 

We knew there would be work the next day so we needed to be able to get out.  

Everything was snow covered. 

The ground wasn't frozen because we've had some warmer weather and several days of rain. As Tony was driving the tractor back around to the shed, it started slipping and sliding down the hill towards the woods.  

He was able to keep it out of the woods, but it was stuck. So the tractor just stayed where it was for a few days.  

Sad Day

One week ago was truly a sad day for our community.  A student at the high school adjacent to my school brought a gun to school and shot two other students and himself.  It was a sad and scary day.  

Our little county community has rallied together to support one another and to reach out with kindness and compassion to those directly impacted by this violent act.  

Our art teacher drew this of the mascots from our school (the eagle) and the high school (the hornet). 

Fortunately we had a snow day the day after the shooting and it gave us all a chance to process everything and just stay home and be with our families.  The high school cancelled classes for the rest of the week, but the rest of us headed back for two days until our spring break started.  

Everyone in the school signed this giant poster to show support for the high school staff and students. 

The school system was posting pictures of what all the schools were doing on their Facebook and twitter accounts.  

Our Art teacher, April, got permission to do a fundraiser with her design on t-shirts. 

Many staff members ordered shirts.  

It was a terrible tragedy that has affected so many people in different ways.  It was sad and scary.  This is the kind of thing you hear about on the news, but don't expect to happen in your own neighborhood.  It will take a long time to recover, but we will do our best to help our students feel safe at school and continue to help them to learn and grow.  

Diaper Drive

Our service project for our annual Relief society Women's Conference was a diaper drive for the Greater DC Diaper Bank.  

We collected diapers and even used social media to reach others in our community to participate in our service project.  We used Sarah and Tony's trailer to take our ward's diaper collection to the stake center.  

After the first stop. 

After the second stop.  Our little ward in southern Maryland collected 10,300 diapers.

The Greater DC Diaper Bank shared statistics with us at our luncheon and a video too 

(Check out the video here).  

Our stake Relief Society collected 52,665 diapers.  This is about a ten day supply for the diaper bank.  It will help many moms and children.  

I love the wrap around services and the opportunity for parent education and health care that the diaper bank provides.  

Most of the sisters from our ward that attended the Relief Society conference and participated in the diaper drive.