Random pictures in my "Flagged" file

Laura's artwork

Laura's facepainting attempt

Adam's facepainting attempt

Built himself a "nest" at quiet time

Silly little man in PJs and my boots

Children's Theater!

Training Wheels? What training wheels?

Breakfast for dinner picnic

Laura's field trip to the Art House

Science Night at Laura's school

My birthday cake. (I remembered the sugar on mine :) )

Hermit crabs can climb stairs!

He wrote back!

Science Night again

Jim likes sushi. Sushi. Sushi. Sushi.

A long time ago, Jim got a sushi kit for some birthday/Christmas gift. He finally got around to using it. The results were surprisingly tasty and authentic!

Easter pictures that I forgot

Maybe you'll remember that the kids and I went to Kim's for Easter? Well, here's some pictures that I found that I forgot to post...

Happy Birthday, Love!

Happy Happy Birthday, Jimbo!

We love you so much

P.S. This is clearly not my year for birthday cakes. After making Adam's lopsided, I left out all the sugar in Jim's cake. Aaack! What is wrong with me? But the cherry pie filling in the recipe must have added enough sweetness, because everyone had 2 pieces! It tasted a bit more like muffins than cake, but we survived and had a good laugh (again).

Making it our own

For 7 years, we have been trying to work our way around the previous owner's concept of garden design and slowly changing it to meet our ideas and needs. We recently tackled one of the last confusions and made it our own. We used the existing pavers that were in an L-shaped flower garden to make a square raised vegetable garden in the sun. It needs some sod on the muddy parts around the outside, but the garden is ready to go.

Laura's garden has a tomato, some peas, carrots, zinnia, basil and dill. 

Adam's garden has a tomato, carrots, peas, black-eyed peas, marigold and lemon basil.

And I have tomatoes, peppers, dill, carrots, black-eyed peas, asparagus, nasturtium and a cucumber.

Now, if the sun would just come out, maybe we could get this growing season going!

Hi Ava! 

So far, she's been a very effective bunny deterrent and hasn't spent any time digging anywhere. Let's hope that keeps up!

Look who keeps growing!

 I tell you, these kids keep trying new things and growing and growing. 

By his own insistence, Adam is trying a 2 week trial of karate. He's doing pretty well, considering he's only 4 1/2. He gets pretty goofy sometimes, but the Mr. Quinn assured me that "I will always win" any discipline battle and I feel pretty sure of that. 

So far, he's been enjoying it. I think it might come down to the teacher's opinion of his maturity level. We may end up waiting a few months and trying again, but I hate to dash his enthusiasm if we don't have to.

Laura earned a new belt.

She moved on from white with 2 gold stripes to white with one green stripe. When she joins the youth classes at age 8 or 9, she will get a full green or blue or whatever belt, instead of the white with colored stripe. And she is still as enthusiastic as ever about karate.

She played her first piano recital on Monday. She did a marvelous job and I think she was impressed by the older players.

Welcome Home, Ava!

 Meet Ava!

I needed a dog. I can't explain it; I just did. Its been on my mind for a while, but it still seems like it was a super fast move. Luckily, we have found the perfect one first try. 

She's super easy going and loving. 

And too much of a licker for Adam. He's interested in her, but not really in petting her. Mostly, he wants to boss her around and close and open her kennel door. Or pretend to be a dog and do whatever she is doing. Whatever. 

Laura is interested and pets her a lot, but still not super comfortable with her. It makes sense, though. Neither kids have ever been comfortable with dogs and this will take time. 

Our fierce watchdog.

Oh, and she sleeps under blankets. She noses around until she's completely covered. Super cute!

And she came kennel trained! She loves it in there and goes in and out all day with the door open. Bonus!

Ava is 3 years old and was found as a stray in Wisconsin when she was about 1. The couple we got her from took her in and seem to have treated her very well. She is probably a beagle/boxer mix. The couple had to move houses and couldn't take her with them, so they put her on craigslist.org, where we found her. She has been very good at staying nearby the few times a kid didn't close the gate. Just call her back and she comes right along happily, so she doesn't seem to be a runner. Her only issues seem to be that she wants to lick the kids' faces and she will bark when a neighbor approaches our fence, which are pretty minor issues, especially since she is probably part beagle! Jim is tolerating her very nicely. This is definitely my dog, but I think we'll all end up fond of her.