Easter and the day after.

Easter morning.

After working a long week, Alexe got a morning to sleep in, until the kids and their Easter baskets arrived a little before 9.

Alexe braided the fake grass into Annaliese's braids.

Beautiful. Dressed for church.

Walking home after church. The kids were good, Caspian marched up to the front for the children's story time with the preacher without his sister, who was playing shy. The preacher asked him if he had found any bugs last week. Caspian's got a reputation. I like the new preacher at the Methodist church we attend when we are up to it. Not super linear in his sermons, but there's a lot of intelligence and thought in them that comes through the various asides and detours.

Alexe declared that Easter will be her holiday to cook. I tend to monopolize the others. We had red cabbage prepared in two ways, a lemon meringue pie, a pork roast, risotto with asparagus and mushrooms, and wine. And a spare pumpkin pie I couldn't help but make. We ate on the porch, and enjoyed almost all of it. :)

Caspian provided some background bugle.

Alexe is so cute when she cooks, and so passionate about her creations.

The kids' classroom in my office. I made a pair of chalkboards, they turned out very well. Heavy gauge galvanized sheet metal painted with chalkboard paint, mounted on heart pine flooring cut to size, planed, and on the second one, profiled with a router and urethaned. We're starting some me-led classes for the kids tomorrow.

Caspian and I decided to walk to school today.
Several fun sights on the way, the highlight was the dead worm covered in ants. We ran into a cute little puppy, and Caspian dragged me away to go look for another worm. He's got his own priorities.

Afterwards I decided to go for a ride on my bike. I did a 9 mile loop on Saturday afternoon, I thought I'd do a longer stint, part on-road, part off-road, and see the Mississippi sights. It was a beautiful day. The amount of terain I covered in a 14 mile loop from our house to the BTC was incredible. So much so, I took my friend James on the same loop this afternoon, and picked Caspian up from school on my bike.

Wagner Street, which we live on, headed north towards the local airport.

A view to the left from Wagner Street, all this land is owned by the army corp, the far edge of Enid Lake.

Road cutting behind the airport, back towards the river.

Hit the river, take a right on these trails.

The first river runs into a larger river 2 miles downstream, take another right to ride upstream on the edge of the larger river.

A few miles later, cut left into the growth that spreads 100 feet to either side of the river. Nice 4 wheeler trails run through this neat low forest.

Beautiful lush undergrowth, and the canopy keeps this easily 10 to 15 degrees cooler than in the open.

Cut under Route 315 bridge, cross a creek, (this is where I took the kids fishing on Friday,) and keep going.

A little farther through the fun green forest, forced right turn at a creek, and you come out in a cotton field. Follow this around, it comes out at a boat landing, ride up to route 315, and it's a 4 miles ride on the tarmac back into town.

Nice way to spend a day, getting to know the area that we've been living in for 5+ years. It's going to get hot and unbearable soon, but right now the temperature, bug levels, and weather can't be beat. The bike I'm riding is something I bought over ten years ago while in school in Annapolis. It has the same hybrid (slick) street tires I put on it for my commute to the hospital, and so while the frame is a big mountainbike, those tires tend to go sideways the moment I hit sand or mud. Made for some interesting skating around tight muddy corners int he woods, but all around a good time.

I don't mind swallowing a bug now and then, getting them in my eyes isn't my favorite.

28 miles may have been pushing it today, but I'm feeling good about myself, even if my butt is mostly numb. I may need a different bike seat. And apparently my bike gear looks funny on me; the BTC girls couldn't stop giggling when I walked in after the first go-round.