Lent has begun! Now I’m sure that this isn’t probably the correct way to celebrate Lent in the Catholic Church, but at least we observe it right? Daryl & I along with my one brother and sister-in-law become once again the ‘Roaming Catholics’ and we try every Friday to find a fish fry that we haven’t been to before. So where did we go this week? We went to a local fireman’s fry in Clermont, Iowa. We got there a little later than the rush crowd which was good and as you walked up to the fire station you could smell the fresh fish cooking outside. We were all hungry and it smelled great. And the good thing about it was that it tasted even better! Fish, french fries, coleslaw, and beans were on the menu tonight. After we got done eating, we went to a couple of local hangouts to see what was going on. We sure have the best time on Friday’s during Lent!
William came home on Friday night to not only hang out with Kyle before he leaves for Korea, but also to help celebrate Daryl’s birthday and Good Friday. You know you just have to do what you have to do to get everything checked off and on this weekend we wanted to cover just about everything. But this morning started out as a working morning trying to get the ice that was jammed up in front of the Roadhouse busted up. It’s been actually nice and the snow has been melting not only off the roofs but also in the yard but that can cause other issues. Like this water in the Roadhouse!
Ice melting off the roofs which is a really good sign that Spring is coming!
Kyle mentioned the other day that there was water coming in under the door, and when we had it cemented we purposely made it so the water would always flow the other way. Well it didn’t take long for them to see that under all the snow was a river forming right in front of the door! Literally!! So the boys started to dig out the snow and made a pretty good head way.
Starting to dig out
But then they got as far as the ice and needed some help breaking it up. Daryl got the tractor out with the bucket and helped move more of the snow away and was able to pick up some of the ice.
The guys then took the shovels and finally got a path for the water to travel on. 
And what was I doing while they were chopping ice? Well with three guys out there, I was going to be really busy in the house. You know… doing house stuff 🙂 But I was actually working. I made Daryl’s birthday cake and made dinner. I could keep tabs on them from the kitchen window and it was nice to look out and see the boys and Daryl working. And from the looks of how happy Reno was today, I’m thinking she thought that it was also a good day!
I snapped a quick picture of the boys on the front steps with Reno after they got done. I think they were watching Little Kitty or something. I’m not sure what they were doing and maybe they were just hanging out I don’t know,but it was a nice Mom moment if you know what I mean. So this is my Picture of the Day! 
The next thing on our list was to celebrate Daryl’s birthday. Daryl loves the Colts, so the boys got him a Colt jersey. He’s been a fan of this team forever and doesn’t have any of the team clothes to wear. I think you’re supposed to wear it watching the games or something, who knows.. I think it’s a guy thing – but Daryl loved the jersey and it fit really well. Good job boys!
Happy early Birthday to you!
What was next? We wanted to snap a couple of pictures with Kyle in his graduation gown. When we went to his graduation in New York last May he didn’t have all his honor medals and ropes yet, so it was nice to have a complete gown for some pictures. He worked really hard for them and we wanted to get some with those on the pictures. Â I had some trouble though – it was called the Iowa State Basketball game that was being televised. And to top it off, Iowa State threw in a three pointer just at the buzzer so it went into overtime. But finally the game was over and Iowa State won!
You think I could get their attention?
Now everyone was really in a good mood and the pictures turned out really nice. We even snapped a couple more of our family so we had a couple to pick from for this coming Christmas cards. Check out the picture of Kyle below in his gown. Yup, another Mom moment.
Now if you’re thinking that’s about enough for the day… off to church we went and then a quick game of cards after it. 
The boys think they are so cool because they won the last time we played and Daryl and I were ready to be the ones to gloat this time. Well it was close and then William got a lone hand and that was the end of the game. They won again. Now we have to keep their score sheet up on the refrigerator until we play again. Which is NOT a good thing. Can you see how modest they are though about winning?
ok.. they boys won again.
Finally we headed to town to go out for supper. We have this tradition on Good Friday we go to this seafood chain and celebrate with a really good meal. I mean we have lobster and the whole thing. We decided to go this weekend because the boys won’t be around for Good Friday. Off we went to see what kind of seafood platters we can find and we found some good ones!
A good supper with the kids ended up the night
We had a great time and then it was time to call it a day. William had to be in Ames in the morning so he went one way and we headed North to our farm.
Even though this Saturday was pretty busy and we crammed in a lot, it was just fantastic to be able to hang out with both boys on the farm again.