Band Concert, 1 of 2

Danielle's band concert was Monday evening. Tyler's is next week. The kids had one concert that was supposed to be together this year, but it was cancelled due to a snow day.

Danielle has definitely improved over the course of the school year. I think she is enjoying it and will continue in band next year. Thank you to all our family who came to hear her play Monday evening.

She wanted a selfie together before the concert.

 

 

Mother's Day

I had a very nice Mother's Day on Sunday.

We enjoyed lunch out.

 

 

We went for a walk at the Metro Park after lunch.

 

Barn swallow making its nest

Snapping turtle

Face off between the snake and the turtle

Baltimore oriole in flight. 
His pretty orange feathers were catching the sunlight just right.

 

 

 

 

 

Danielle hears so often how much she looks like me. I always worry that somehow that bothers her. She also has a lot of my attitude, both good and bad. She knows I worry about that, so this was a very thoughtful card.

 

 

 

Tyler's card was funny, but I especially appreciated the personal note he wrote to me.
It was serious and sappy, and I loved it.



Flowers from my kids

It was a good day. I appreciate all that Ron did to be sure I got to enjoy my day the way I wanted to.

Last VB Tourney

Danielle's team played in their last volleyball tournament yesterday. It was at the Convention Center and had 200+ teams playing on 50+ courts...all in the same giant room. Ron measured the decibel level a few times and it was always around 83.

Danielle did great. There were a couple girls on the team that clearly stood out this season as better than the others, and Danielle was one of them. She always tried her hardest and was a huge part of her team's success. We really enjoyed watching her.

Ready to start the day

Getting ready to serve

They came in 2nd place in whatever bracket they ended up in. It was a long day. I don't remember.

Danielle's biggest fan (other than Mom & Dad, of course).

Last Dance

Tyler went to the last dance of the school year tonight. This was the third dance of the year, and I think he'd say each dance was a little better than the previous one. There was a time I didn't think he'd want to go hang out with other kids at social events, especially ones at school, so I have really enjoyed watching his excitement and listening to his stories. He is still at the age where he talks to me and tells me things he probably will not always be so willing to share, so I am doing my best to just listen and remember. This is one of those times when it is fun to be a mom of a teen. 

The theme for tonight's dance was "neon color explosion". He put (washable) purple hair dye in his hair, shared glow sticks with his friends, and took the blinking glasses Ron brought back from his trip. 

I got on his Ipod tonight to forward a picture to myself and looked at the other pictures on there, too. There were several goofy pictures of him with his friends. They made me smile. I'm glad he had a good time. It makes me think of the fun times I had in high school, and I'm glad Tyler is making his own happy memories.

Waking Up

My backyard is slowly waking up from its winter sleep. We seemed to have skipped spring and jumped right into summer with our 85 degree days. I'm not complaining!

The birds are migrating back. For the first time since fall, I've had brown headed cowbirds, chipping sparrows, and pine siskins in my backyard. My favorite backyard birds, ruby throated hummingbirds, also returned this week.

The chipmunk has been hopping ninja style through the grass and along the fence and trees to make her way to the bird feeders. I wish she wasn't so destructive. I love watching her.

Clara found this little baby in our yard tonight and pointed it out to us. She looked at it and wagged her tail until we noticed. It's awfully cute with its little stubby tail, but it's a baby house sparrow and they grow up to be obnoxious adult house sparrows. We left him in the grass for his momma to find. When I went back out tonight, he was gone.

I've seen a few butterflies this week but haven't been able to photograph any of them yet. I'm also looking forward to planting some flowers and tomato plants soon. Our last day of school is 3 weeks from tomorrow!!

Today's Pic

This & That

The elementary school carnival was yesterday. I wasn't feeling well and Ron was busy but Danielle really wanted to go. So her big brother went with her. They rode their bikes to the school and hung out together. I love that they are old enough to do this kind of stuff, and I love that Tyler is stepping up to be the kind of big brother a little sister needs.

 

 

 

Getting rid of the playset was not as easy as it initially seemed, but we are convinced that was all part of God's plan. The person who responded within 30 seconds came and looked at it, decided it wasn't good enough, and left. Seriously. It was free. What's not good enough about that? Two other people came, looked, and also declined, mostly because it would have taken too much work to take it apart. Again...free!? Ron had a list of about 20 people who responded to his ad and said they wanted it. He kept going back to one name but it was way down on the list and he felt like he should go in the order people responded. After the 3rd person declined, he called that person. They came out right away and we knew this was the family God had wanted us to wait for. They didn't have much money and weren't afraid to work hard. They had two little kids (under 5). The little boy fell in love with it immediately and cried when his parents made him leave. They came back the next day, disassembled it, and hauled it all away without issue. It was perfect. Even Tyler was touched by the whole thing. It's neat when things work out like that. Now we need to fill in the spot where the sandbox was and sprinkle a little grass seed. The yard looks so much bigger now.

 

I have no idea why the kids are always complaining about not having any room for their feet under the dinner table. Clara insists it's the best seat in the house.

 

My milkweed is growing like a, well, weed! It's about the only thing that came back like it was supposed to. These extremely cold winters the past two years have been rough. Our cherry tree isn't looking very good either. We finally broke 80* today. Our average first day above 80 is 4/17, so we are a little late. My hummingbirds are late this year, too. Hopefully they will be here soon.

Another VB Tourney

Danielle's team did great yesterday. Danielle had a really good day, too. They went on to play in the gold bracket and came in 2nd place after losing the tie-breaker match in the championship game. One highlight was watching Danielle serve 10 points in a row in the championship game to bring her team from behind at 13 points to ahead with 23. She was on a roll. They went on to win that match.

On the road before sunrise. Got home after sunset. Long day.



The other team called a time out in an attempt to ice the server.
Danielle went on to serve the next 3 points to win the semi-final game.

Passing the ball to our setter.






Danielle as line judge. Note the cute hair ribbon. :)

 

Their prize? Tshirts. Seemed a little lame.

(The girl beside Danielle broke her arm a couple weeks ago and couldn't play.)

A Volleyball Tradition

One tradition of playing on a club volleyball team is collecting team hair ribbons. At each game, someone brings matching ribbons for all the girls to wear. After the game, the girls tie the ribbons to their volleyball bags. Each hair tie represents a game. After a couple years, a player can accumulate quite a collection.

Danielle is responsible for bringing the hair ribbons to this weekend's tournament. We worked on ours over a couple days. Hopefully they will bring the girls good luck tomorrow.