This & That

Saw this on a car at the grocery store today. Coolest "family" stickers I've seen!

I've been bombarded by starlings lately. They have been eating the seed cylinder the robins like and the suet the nuthatches and woodpeckers like. I wish they would just go away. I looked online for ways to get rid of them without getting rid of the food I'm putting out, and the best suggestion was to use a dome because "big birds don't like to eat under them". Right. The 2nd starling flew away when I got up to take this picture.

In honor of opening day (and because I don't have anything better to post), here is a picture of Danielle's new bat. We've been assured it's full of doubles and triples, with the occasional homerun sprinkled in. She hasn't gotten to use it at practice yet.

In the Backyard

These are from earlier this week. There is now SNOW on the ground AGAIN. Sigh.

Spring Break Outing

The kids and I visited one of our state parks yesterday. This one is a bit of a drive, so we've only been there with the kids one other time. It was a little chilly when we first hit the trails, and some of the trails still had ice on them, so it might have been better if we had waited a few weeks. However, if we had sat around and waited for the temperatures to cooperate on our spring break, we wouldn't have accomplished anything!

One More Spring Break Project

The other project I wanted to start on Monday was making eggs out of embroidery floss. It turned out to be an awful lot of work, and it really wasn't very fun. Tyler thinks getting his fingers messy with paper mache type stuff is gross - yet he won't use a napkin! - so he didn't even try it. Danielle made a couple with me, but she didn't enjoy it either. I finished them up out of obligation. I need to get some Easter grass for the basket, but you get the general idea.

Danielle finally decided she might like to add running to her list of activities, so Uncle Ron went jogging with her tonight. They ran 2 miles. Pretty impressive for her first outing... and after an afternoon of hiking at one of our state parks (pics tomorrow). Thanks, Uncle Ron!

Another Spring Break Project

Today we went to a paint your own pottery place. We decided to paint a couple pieces to put in the flower bed by the patio. Danielle painted a big mouth fish that we decided could be used as a very small planter or maybe a toad house (but most likely just a cute decoration). Tyler and I worked together on a large frog. The colors will look much darker after they're fired. We had a very nice time together. The kids worked hard, and we're all looking forward to seeing our finished pieces sometime next week.

And...Isn't this just wrong?! Mother Nature has had a rather cruel sense of humor lately.

Spring Break Project

Grandma C came to visit on our first day of spring break. After meeting up with Grandpa C for lunch, we hit the craft store and then headed home to get busy. We had two projects on the agenda today but only finished one - making spring wreaths.

I found the idea for this wreath on a website a couple years ago and bookmarked it to make at a later date. We changed them up a little by adding the bunny and eggs. They were very easy to make except for the knots in the yarn!! Both skeins had tons of knots in them, and it was very difficult to get them out! Otherwise it was a very simple craft project. I think the finished product is adorable, and we had fun making them together!

12.5

Today is Tyler's half birthday. He will officially be a teenager in 6 months. He forgot about it, which made it all the more fun to tell him I made his favorite cake. As you can see from the picture, he had to sample a piece before we were ready to enjoy it after dinner. We switched things up a little this year and sang every other word rather than just the first half or last half of the song. We are a multi-talented family, after all. As you can also see from the picture, the sliding glass door is open. Although it started off cold enough to snow this morning, it made it up to 65 degrees today!! There's a chance of snow in the 5 day forecast, but I will deal with that then.

Tyler's classroom doodles have taken on a new format recently. I have been assured these are only created when his work is done, and, based on my conversation with his teacher, I think she likes them, too. He teamed up with a girl in class who colors the pictures according to his specifications. Apparently there has been a lot of interest in the drawings and people have asked to buy copies.  He was kind enough to give Danielle free copies, although she was prepared to pay. I think the drawings are great.

Tyler's programming class is going really well! He's breezing through it and really enjoying it. Today he and a couple teachers were discussing him designing some type of test generator for them to use. I didn't really understand it all, but he was pretty excited about it.

Today was the last day of the 3rd grading period. That means we only have 9 more weeks to go. Hooray! We are also on spring break next week. Hooray! Hooray!

Today's Pic

It's spring...let's play ball!!

At the Park

I had to run a couple errands after work and found myself with 15 minutes to spare, so I made a quick trip to the nearest metro park. I didn't have my camera, but I thought I'd peek at the wetlands and enjoy the sunshine for a couple minutes. The first thing I noticed when I got out of my car was the chorus of frogs "chirping"! Hooray for spring! I also heard a meadowlark singing. The migrating birds are making their way back. The most interesting attraction, though, was a nearby helicopter.

I keep a small pair of binoculars in my van, so I was able to watch the action unfold. Unfortunately all I had was my cell phone camera. This helicopter had a long line dangling from it. Two people were standing at the bottom of the line. The helicopter dropped one guy off at the top of a huge electrical tower and then flew the other guy to another tower. A couple minutes later the helicopter came back carrying another person and a long ladder. That's what's in this picture, although you can't see it very well. It dropped this person and ladder off at the first tower and flew away. A couple minutes later it came back carrying something else. In the meantime, the second guy on the second tower sat at the top and waited. At that time my 15 minutes of freedom ran out and I had to go, so I didn't get to watch this all play out. I wonder what they were up to. I also wish the kids had been with me to see it. They would have thought it was pretty cool.

For the Birds

Wildbirds Unlimited had a 17% off sale if you wore green today. I needed another seed cylinder so I stopped in to pick one up. They believed me that my green was not able to be seen in public. :) This cylinder was called Bugs, Nuts, & Berries. Yum.

 

As a follow up to "Tyler's Epicness", he finally received his official science fair grade today. He must have been right. He received a superior and a perfect score, along with several great comments from his judge.

Window Art

So far March hasn't been much prettier than February. Danielle and I made some window decorations to add a little color to the landscape. We will add some more tomorrow.

It's really nice having a daughter.

My Prize

Picked up my prize today. This is what 150lbs of bird seed looks like. No idea where I'm going to store it all!

Today's Pic

Tyler's Epicness

Tyler was pretty confident in his science fair presentation. :)

He actually gave it a couple weeks ago, but I saw this on the floor of the van yesterday and it made me smile. It was his first experience in putting together a real presentation. Just to get things started, I had him write out what he wanted to say. Then he read through it a couple times and put together notecards with just the highlights to help him remember what he wanted to say. No memorizing and no long, word-for-word sentences on the notecards. Then he practiced several times with his notecards. He did a great job. I was impressed. He said he received several compliments and the principal told Ron how impressed everyone was. I honestly think this will be the most important, long term skill he learns this year. Before I quit my job to be a mom, I had to give presentations a lot. Ron presents a lot. Knowing how to confidently stand in front of people and deliver a well organized presentation is a valuable skill to have.

I thought this was kind of cool, too: Danielle has the same teacher that Tyler had in 4th grade. (That was by choice because she is by far the best teacher...EVER.) Anyway, they are doing a poetry unit this week and are learning to write different types of poems. Every day they are learning a new style and for each one the teacher shows them an example to follow. The examples? All of Tyler's poems! I didn't realize she kept Tyler's poetry journal, but she did and she used his poems last year and this year to teach her classes. Danielle thought that was pretty cool. I do, too.

A Keeper

Sometimes a pat on the back comes on the back of a school paper left lying on the couch.

That's a Lot of Seed!

I entered a couple photographs in a photography contest at a local feed store a couple weeks ago and won the grand prize. The grand prize? 150lbs worth of bird seed! That's a lot of seed. My backyard birds will be happy. This is the photo that won.

A New Do

Danielle decided she wanted to get her hair cut short.

 

I can't believe how different she looks - so much older! I love it, though, and she is really happy with it.