This and That

Hooray! School is out! Friday was the last day of school for the kids. I filled 75 water balloons and waited to ambush the kids when they got off the bus. This has become a tradition for us, but this was the first year Danielle was on the receiving end of the ambush. We had a lot of fun. I could hear Tyler talking about it when he got off the bus. There was a lot of giggling, and we were all soaked by the time we were done. For dinner that evening we made homemade pizzas and enjoyed strawberry shortcake for dessert. We finished off our school's out celebration by staying up late and watching a movie. It was a great way to kick off the summer.

Earlier in the week the kids had field day. The kindergarteners on Danielle's schedule had a seperate field day. The games included some water games, including a sponge relay and a fill the tube game. The tube had holes in it, so the kids had to work to cover the holes while someone poured water in the tube. There was a rubber duck in the tube, and the first team to float theirs to the top won. It was a little chilly that morning, so the girls were all shivering. Didn't stop them from having fun, though.




















Tyler had field day the next day. He asked me to volunteer, so I did. The problem is that I didn't get to watch him do anything because I was busy manning my own game. I sent Danielle over to take some pictures, but she was a little embarrassed so I didn't get many. He was playing water limbo here.










Danielle is doing really well in tball. She hasn't used a tee in her last 2 games! Here are a couple pictures of her in action. She didn't get the runner out, but she stuck with it.


































When we went to buy supplies for Snappy back in April, Danielle fell in love with a dwarf hamster she saw in the pet store. I was dead set against getting one because I do not want to take care of another pet. Ron was convinced Danielle is old enough to be responsible for caring for a hamster herself. So, when Danielle asked again last month if she could use her garage sale money to buy a hamster, Ron agreed. Danielle did not make enough money at the garage sale, though, so she had to do extra chores around the house to earn the difference. I took her out to the stores so she could find the items she'd need and make a list of prices so she knew how much she needed to earn. She finally earned enough to buy Cheese today. According to the pet store, Cheese is a winter white dwarf hamster. I read they are commonly misidentified, though, so it's possible she has a different breed. We didn't know it when she picked it out, but winter white hamsters change their coat colors in the winter. So, if this guy really is a winter white hamster and if his amount of daylight changes with the seasons, his gray coat will change to white. We thought that was rather interesting. He is very docile and much smaller (& cuter) than our other hamsters were. Danielle loves him. Hopefully she will prove Ron right.


I have seen lots of baby birds in our backyard lately. A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to see this downy woodpecker dad help his daughter find a little food. He was getting it from what was left of the woodpecker suet Danielle gave me for Mother's Day.















I saw these bluejay fledglings yesterday. They were still very fuzzy and their tail feathers were very short. Mom and Dad stopped periodically to feed them and squawk at me a little.















I have been trying to get a decent picture of a hummingbird but haven't had much luck. I took this one through the smudgy sliding glass doors.

Now that we're officially on summer vacation, I'm looking forward to lots of fun filled days with the kids. Hopefully I will be able to post a little more frequently. If it doesn't rain tomorrow afternoon, we're going to go to an Introduction to Geocaching "class" at a nearby metropark. I have been wanting to try it, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.