Curls

I read about these new curlers on one of the hairblogs I've started reading and decided I would buy a couple sets to try in Danielle's hair.

Here is what they looked like in her hair. The lady at the store recommended the longer length for Danielle's hair, but I could have used the next shorter size without problems.

She slept in them and I took them out this morning while she was eating breakfast. Some of the curls in the back were a little flat, but I think that's because I didn't wet her hair enough first and because it was my first attempt at putting them in.

The end results turned out great, though. The curls look especially cute with all the freckles that have recently popped out across her nose.

TBall Practice

Danielle FINALLY had her first tball practice tonight. She did GREAT!!! The coach asked her a couple times if she'd played before because she did such a good job. She really seemed to enjoy herself, too. Apparently Tyler's hand-me-down sweats were a little too big, though. She was afraid she was going to lose them while running the bases!

Here are a few pictures from tonight. As you can see, she hit the ball on her first attempt! I think she has a lot of potential. (And why is it she looks so much smaller than Tyler did when he started playing?!)

Argh, Matey!

Ron made it home safely from his trip to the UK. Danielle managed to keep her new bike riding skills a secret until he got home. She is the best secret keeper I know. As they were going outside so she could demonstrate her new skills, a gust of wind blew through the house, causing the metal door from the house to the garage to slam shut on Tyler's fingers. Although he could move his fingers, and certain other nameless adults in our household thought I was doing the "mom" thing, I decided to take him to the Urgent Care a couple hours later because the swelling was still so bad.


He injured his middle finger and ring finger on his right hand. The xrays showed a chip fracture of his ring finger. When the doctor told us, the first thing Tyler said was, "Oh no! I'll never be able to wear a ring!" Then he got excited because he doesn't have to take gym and won't be able to write. He also thought one of the little girls he likes might feel a little sorry for him (but don't tell him I said that). He has to wear the splint for 7-10 days and then we'll follow up with an orthopedic doctor. The UC doc thought that if the xray showed an improvement and Tyler wasn't having any more pain, he may not have to wear the splint any more after that. Otherwise, he'll have to wear it for another 3-4 weeks. Although practice has already started, his baseball games don't start until the end of May, so I think either way he'll still be able to play.


His fingers don't hurt unless they're touched, which the splint prevents, so he's not really in any pain. He really enjoyed the attention tonight and is probably going to drive us nuts. He thought he was pretty funny when he pretended it was a hook and he was a pirate. Honestly, I feel kind of bad for his teacher. He's going to milk this for all it's worth!


Here is a picture of the hairdo Danielle picked out for today. I took this picture late in the day, but I thought this one turned out really well. I guess you can't see the sides very well, but the partial french braids looked really cute. She wanted to look especially nice for Daddy when he got home today. (BTW, our high was officially 87 deg today!)









Clara had an especially good time in the sandbox today. She dug a hole and then settled right in for a nap in the cool sand. I had to wake her up later to make her come in, otherwise she probably would have slept out there all afternoon. I thought she looked really cute.

Hooray for the Sunshine!!

Finally - our first 80 degree day this year. The temperature in my car said it was 84, but I don't know if that's accurate. It was super windy, but the sunshine made it more than tolerable. The wind made for a very nice breeze in the house, too. The only problem with all the fresh air is that my allergies are going crazy! Achoo!!

I think I just about killed our puppy today. Danielle and I were so excited about the good weather, that we decided to walk a trail at a nearby MetroPark. Although we've tried not to take Clara out too much since she still needs one final round of shots, we decided to take her with us. Well, we hadn't been on this specific trail before, and it ended up being a little longer than I expected. I think we probably only walked a mile in all, but that's a long way for little puppy legs who aren't accustomed to more than a walk down the street. Plus, this was the hottest day of her short little life. I think she had heat exhaustion. By the time we got home, she was still panting hard and was rather sluggish, so I gave her a drink and a bath in cool water. That calmed her breathing and perked her right up, but I was a little worried for awhile. So, I guess that's the last of her outings for awhile.

We did have fun on our walk, though. Danielle enjoyed throwing rocks in the pond and poking the algae with sticks. She spotted a little frog and attempted to catch him. That's a difficult task, though, when your mom won't let you get wet. Once Tyler got home, the kids spent time riding bikes, practicing baseball (Tyler), and decorating the playset-turned-clubhouse with chalk. We're looking forward to a weekend full of sunshine (and Ron's return)!

On another note, Tyler brought home the results of the Terra Nova testing he took last month. (It's a national test that consists of a series of standardized achievement tests. They take it every couple years, depending on grade level.) Compared to the national averages, his overall score was in the 99th percentile. I thought that was worth bragging about. Now if only we could raise his maturity level a little...

More This & That

Tyler has moved up to coach pitch baseball this year, but Danielle is starting Tball. Tyler has already had two practices but Danielle's have been rained out. We got to her second scheduled practice just as it started to rain. She ran the bases anyway and then we came home. But first I had to take a picture to capture her first "almost" practice.

It was chilly the evening she was supposed to have practice, and she mostly owns dresses & leggings. So, I looked through the garage sale piles and found some of Tyler's hand-me-downs. She wore his baseball socks from last year, a pair of too-short sweat pants, a thermal shirt that once fit, and a sweatshirt he outgrew. She finished off her ensemble with his football cleats. When she was all dressed, she said "Tyler, do I look boyly?"

My friend forwarded me a link to a blog dedicated to cute hair-dos for girls. I am so inept at doing anything more than a pony tail, so I thought the website would be interesting. Actually, it is a bit intimidating. Danielle looked at it with me today and wanted me to try several of the styles. I was positive most of them wouldn't turn out looking anything like the pictures! We agreed on one style that was labeled something like "if you can tie your shoe, you can do this do". Well, I can tie my shoes, but I'm still not sure about the do. It didn't turn out too bad, I guess. Danielle was really pleased with it, though, especially after the girl at the grocery store told her it was really cute. This is how it looked mid-day. (She was making dessert for Uncle Ron.)

I have really enjoyed Danielle's company this week. With the school year coming to a close, I have been thinking a lot about the next school year or more specifically, about Danielle going to school, too. I've tried to spend more time with her or include her more in my daily tasks. She is really a neat kid, and she's growing up so fast. Anyway, I had some coupons and "extra" money last week, so I ordered some summer clothes for her. We got them in the mail today and she wanted to try some of them on for Uncle Ron.

She liked everything I picked with the exception of an adorable plaid swing top. Don't you think this is cute?! I forgot she has a thing about squares. There's nothing "boyly" about this girl!

Danielle's Achievement

In an effort to distract Danielle from her tears as Ron was saying his goodbyes at bedtime last night, I suggested we work on learning to ride her bike without training wheels this week so she could surprise Ron when he gets home from his trip. She gave me permission to post these videos with the understanding that if anyone watching these happens to talk to Ron while he's in Europe, you won't tell him! (She's quite serious about keeping it a secret!)

We went to my Dad's for awhile this afternoon and took the bikes and scooters. We took Danielle's training wheels off and gave it a try. As you can see, she did quite well! She's got a few bumps and bruises on her legs, but she is so pleased with herself. I'm positive learning to balance her scooter helped speed the process up a bit. Hooray for Danielle!!

This and That

Our lives have been rather boring lately...as you can tell by my lack of posts. I guess boring is a good thing because although nothing amazing has happened, nothing terrible has happened either.


Tyler came home the other day with a very brown shirt. It wouldn't have been such a problem if he hadn't gone to school in a WHITE shirt. I guess he and some second grade boys were "play fighting" at recess. One of the boys "wanted to see how tough I was" so he dragged Tyler across the ground, totally covering the front and back of his shirt in mud. I'm not exaggerating. It was covered. His jeans had several muddy patches, too, but those didn't stand out quite as much.

Because Tyler was a willing participant in this recess activity, I felt he was ultimately responsible for what happened to his clothes. (I need to tape our "you need to make better choices" talk so I can just press the play button every couple weeks.) As a consequence, I made Tyler wash his jeans and shirt himself. After 3 washings, stain remover, and a bleach pen, the shirt is still too stained to wear to school. So, Tyler has to do work around the house to earn enough money to buy a new shirt for school. (Don't tell him he can find one at Walmart for <$5!) Do you think he's old enough to clean up dog poo yet? *evil laugh*


The other night at dinner Tyler was talking about school and suddenly asked me if I realized that sand is a liquid. I disagreed with him and told him it was a solid. This conversation was repeated the following night at dinner but he refused to believe my argument that sand is actually a solid. This morning I showed him a magnified picture of grains of sand (thanks Uncle Ron). He agreed with me that a single grain of sand is indeed a solid. I reasoned with him that if a single grain of sand is a solid, a handful of those grains would still be solids, although they may move together like a liquid. He still looked doubtful. While he was at school, I emailed his teacher to see if they had covered this specific question. She said they had not. After a couple emails back and forth, I suggested she talk to Tyler about it. I told her that if SHE told him sand was a solid, he would believe it. I have noticed a couple times this year that I am being nudged right off that mom-knows-everything pedestal so his very young, very pretty, single teacher can have a seat. Anyway, when he got home from school today, I asked him if he had discussed the liquid/solid issue with his teacher. He said, "Yes, we talked about it. She said sand is a solid, so I believe you now that it's a solid." Hmpfh. Later he asked me if I thought a car was a want or a need. I told him I needed to ask his teacher first.


Here are a couple pictures of Clara from today. She is suddenly looking SO big! And she is so fuzzy! She will be 10 weeks old on Sunday.




Ron heads to Europe for 8 days tomorrow morning. Somehow his traveling is so much worse when it's over the weekend(s)! Hopefully that trip will be "boring" too.

Happy Easter

What a beautiful day to celebrate Christ's resurrection! Although it was a little chilly, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. It was a beautiful day.

We had a nice day. The kids got scooters for Easter this year. They had a lot of fun figuring out how to ride those today. Tyler caught on immediately. I'm sure being able to ride a bike w/o training wheels helped him out. Danielle is doing really well, too, and improved a lot just over the course of the day.

This afternoon we had our annual Easter egg hunt at Mamaw & Papaw's. The kids had fun finding the eggs and redeeming the tickets inside the eggs for prizes. (Some of the eggs held money or candy instead of tickets.) Once again Mamaw did a great job putting everything together for the kids!! Although my dad was still tired and sore from his recent surgery, it was nice to spend time with his family. Actually, we got to spend time with all 3 sets of parents this weekend, and it was very nice.

And, what posting would be complete without more puppy pictures?! Clara had a good Easter, too.

Coloring Eggs

Here are some pictures of the kids coloring Easter eggs tonight. They also decorated some of them with Sharpie markers.