Mmmm...

This is what I am doing today.

I cannot wait until it is all done.

Sweet Melody

Yesterday, while I was walking through the kitchen, I heard this little guy singing. I went to get my camera, and he was still there, so I got a picture.

I didn't really like the shot through the screen and through the blinds, but I knew that if I pulled them, the bird would move.

I waited patiently and he flew away. I quickly pulled all of the blinds and waited for him to come back. He obliged, and perched on a branch in the tree in the front yard, and then he posed quite nicely so I could get a picture.

Spring is on its way, and I am ready and waiting. I love the new life that spring brings. I love the sounds of birds and children outside. I love all the colors that appear. I love that I can hang sheets out on the clothes line (I washed ours two weeks ago and hung them out - they smelled wonderful for three days). I love the longer daylight hours. I love bare feet, flip flops, and sandals outside. I love children in shorts and being able to see bruised and scraped knees. I love grass stains.

I LOVE SPRING!

this moment

{this moment} - A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Once Upon a February...

we live in Minnesota, and it was a nice day outside (temperature wise) so Brett decided to take the children out to get the snow off of the deck and the roof.Brett soon learned that standing under the ledge while pulling the snow off with his shovel was not the best way to do it.

He and his daughters continued to work on the deck. They removed the snow by the shovelfuls.

This was a slow, heavy process.

They also picked up any chunk of snow that they could, and they carried it to the side and threw it off.
This too was a long, slow process.
However the girls and Brett kept at it.

The snow on the roof was still bothersome to Brett, so he put Emily up there to shovel it off. Eli could not handle the fact that his sister was out "playing," so he got geared up and came out and asked to be on the roof, too.
Brett put them both up there and then made a big mistake...
He stood too close to the falling snow. Eli took full advantage of this and dumped a shovel full of snow on him.

The troops got a lot of the snow off, and it was a good start to help it melt off in the next couple of days.

The only casualty of the day was...
my favorite shovel.

SNOW LONG to winter

We got our fair share of snow and cold this year. In March we had record days of consecutive 10+ inches of snow on the ground. This is a hint at what it looks like.Then, we didn't have any new snow in March (unheard of in these parts), so the snow melted. Then last week we hit almost 80 degrees, and what a difference it makes.

(compare - this is the same tree, and the same branch, and the same child - about 3 weeks apart)

this moment

{this moment} - A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

this moment

{this moment} - A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Wishing you a lovely week!

(Thanks for the idea Micah)

Crazy Clothes

This is what they wore to school yesterday,
and I did not protest. Brett did a little, but Claire told him that stripes do go with stripes, and this was not a battle I wanted to have.

Saturday (a picture story)

Saturday was the boys' first dance competition of the season. We went up to the

for the
dance competition.

We got to this building
where the dance competition was to be held about four hours before they were supposed to perform (we were supposed to be there at least two hours early in case they were ahead of schedule). This gave the boys some time to be with their team before they had to perform.

The girls, however, got a little stir crazy, so Brett and I took them outside... We did this,

and we saw this shoe tree
as we walked across this bridge that separated the east bank and the west bank of campus.
While we were walking, we looked out and saw these.

Of course, we had to get a couple of these

This was our destination. It was a museum.When we got inside, we pondered perspective,
admired the abstract,
perplexed over the "people,"
sat by statues,

created our own displays (notice the rain boots),
listened to Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John,and had a great time being together.

When we had enough of the museum, we went back and watched Caleb and Eli dance. Here are pictures of Caleb, and here are pictures of Eli. (The pictures are in reverse order.)

Eli and his partner danced to "Let's Hear it for the Boys." This is their first duet together.This is Eli, his partner, and their choreographer.
They got a gold, third in their age category, and they got the cutest couple. They have a lot of fun together.

Caleb and his partner are in their third year of dancing together. This is one of their new lifts. They really like this one.
They danced to a couple of songs from "Dirty Dancing," and call it "A Tribute to Patrick."

They got a high gold and second in their age category.

After the dances, the awards, and getting all of the boys' stuff together to leave, I came back to the auditorium and found this,

I guess they wanted a little stage time, too.

Here are the boys with a couple of their awards, they shared the other ones with their partners.
On the way home (about 9:00 p.m.) we stopped for dinner.

Claire complained that her tummy hurt, so we thought since she really hadn't eaten anything that she needed to eat, that wasn't helping. We sent her to the bathroom; that didn't help. We decided that on the way home, she would have her friend, the garbage can sit by her, and it was a good thing she did. About ten minutes away from home (a total of a two hour trip), she threw up.

When we got home, we put her in the bath to clean her up, and she got very comfortable,
After we got her dried, dressed in pajamas, hair partially dried and pulled up (in case she threw up again - it wouldn't be in her face), and settled on the couch we went to bed.

THE END!

Ode to a Small Town

I started substituting for the public school a couple of weeks ago. I am limited to where I can sub because Claire gets home about 50 minutes before the others, so I need to be here for her.

Last week, in passing, I asked Claire's bus driver if he knew the policy, and if Claire might be able to get on her bus at the kindergarten center, then ride it to the elementary school and wait until Eli & Emily were done and ride home with them (same bus and same driver). I figured that would work, and I would be able to substitute at the elementary schools.

He told me he didn't know, and I would have to call the people in charge of the busses. I didn't worry too much about it, and then today, I got a call from her bus driver. He had checked into it for me and told me that she could ride the bus to the elementary if I needed her to, and we would just have to have a good source of communication about when and if it would happen.

I LOVE SMALL TOWNS!