On Its Way

The Zoo

We are enjoying a 4 day weekend. For whatever reason, our school observes a long weekend on President's Day weekend. I think the past 2 years we've had to go to school on the Friday in order to make up for an excess of snow days. Since we have yet to use even 1 snow day this year, we got to keep all 4 days of our long weekend. Ron has Monday off, and he took Friday off to spend with us. It was a beautiful, sunny day so we spent our afternoon at the zoo. Tyler got a camera for Christmas and really hasn't had much opportunity to use it. He took it to the zoo with him and entertained himself quite nicely. Danielle enjoyed using my old camera.

Tyler took a lot of video. He did manage to get a rather funny one of the penguins, but he and Danielle have decided to send it in to America's Funniest Home Videos. Compared to some videos I've seen on there, I think they have a good chance of having their video aired; I don't think it's worth any $$, though. I can't post it because the rules say you can't post something online if you submit it to them, so you'll have to settle for these clips instead.

Tyler's video

Danielle's video

Here are some of Tyler's pictures he wanted to share.

Here are some of Danielle's. It's hard to take good pictures through glass. The flash accidentally went off on the 2nd snake picture. Obviously that's not how she envisioned the picture turning out, but we all thought it was funny (in a freaky sort of way).

This & That

I had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday with my sweethearts. We started off our day with heart shaped pancakes and finished it off with heart shaped pepperoni pizza. There were a couple Valentine parties and some chocolate covered strawberries thrown in there, too. I know Valentine's Day is a card holiday, but it's nice to have a little something special thrown into the ugly, gray month of February. I have happy memories of my mom making Valentine's Day special for us when we were little, and I enjoy passing that on. I hope Tyler & Danielle do the same for their kids someday.

I found this in Tyler's school folder today. Cracked me up! I thought it was clever.

(It says "I think it's to big to play.")

Birthdays & Such

Today was Clara's 3rd birthday. She celebrated by rolling around in the snowy mulch under the trees, barking at her shadow, and sleeping in the corner of the couch. She got a new squeaky toy and enjoyed some doggie ice cream w/3 "candles" (pretzels). You can tell she really did not want to pose for the picture with her ice cream!!

Today was Danielle's 1/2 birthday. I remember when I decided to start celebrating 1/2 birthdays. The kids weren't in school yet, and the gloomy winter months had caught up to me. I thought we needed something to brighten up our day. I'm glad the idea has stuck because it's fun. This year's "celebration" was like last year's - the 1/2 birthday girl got to pick the dinner menu and got 1/2 a pan of brownies with 8 1/2 candles while we sang 1/2 the birthday song. It was 1/2 as much fun as a real birthday. :)

Our hawk friend was sitting right over my feeders this afternoon. He was quite poofy because it was so chilly out. The first picture is a little fuzzy because it was taken through the window, but you can see how poofed up he was. I like him.

Photo Sundries (continued)

End of the Season

Today was the last day of Danielle's basketball season. She has decided that basketball is her favorite sport now. A couple times this week when I've walked the dog, she's gone along so she can practice dribbling as we walk. Tonight she asked if she could watch basketball on tv. I'm glad it was such a positive experience. Hopefully she'll enjoy it just as much next year when it's a bit more competitive. The league had a pizza party for the kids and gave them all medals. Now on to soccer season.

Ron's mom came to visit for a couple hours late this afternoon. On Ron's birthday on Monday the kids were asking Ron a lot of questions about when he was little. They decided they wanted to see pictures of him as a baby, so they asked Grandma to bring her photo album with her. She came bearing 2 very large photo albums and entertained the kids for awhile. They enjoyed looking at the pictures and were still giggling about them after dinner tonight. Tyler was amused at all the plaid. They liked Uncle Andy's poofy blond curls, too.