At the Park

After I dropped the girls off at camp yesterday, I stopped by the park to see what I could find. Someone was mowing. There was a school bus full of kids that came while I was there. Someone else wanted to chitchat with me about my camera. To sum it up, it wasn't as quiet and solitary as I like it. That pretty much ruled out seeing any wildlife, so I went for the bugs.

Mom & Dad were keeping a close eye on their nest full of babies...and all the visitors.

I was trying to capture the pollen on his antenna. The picture didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped.

Inch worm crawling along. When I disturbed the flower, he stuck straight out from the middle, like one of the leaves.

Feeling weighed down?

I originally thought this was a bullfrog tadpole because there are so many bullfrogs at this park, but it doesn't match the pictures online. I think it may be a gray treefrog tadpole. His orange tail caught my eye.

I loved the color of this bee. I wish he would have stuck around for a few more pictures.



Another Week, Another Camp

Danielle and her friend Maggie started zoo camp today. This is an all day camp and it was hot today...which made for humorous before and after pictures.

At drop off:

Shortly after leaving the parking lot:

I would consider it a successful first day!

More Rainy Day Fun

Since it rained all day Saturday, Ron wanted to spend the day in his shop, and Tyler slept most of the day because he wasn't feeling well, Danielle and I decided to work on a project she found on Pinterest. She made tie-dyed canvas shoes.

They turned out even better than we hoped and they were extremely easy, just time consuming.  Since they were so time consuming, we worked on them in two different sittings (before the park and after the park), which explains the wardrobe changes. Danielle made the shoes. I did the shoelaces and took pictures.



To do this project, you need canvas shoes, sharpie markers, rubbing alcohol, and a straw or eye dropper

Use the markers to decorate the shoes.
Be careful not to put complimentary colors next to each other or they will blend together and create brown when the alcohol is added.



Use the straw or eye dropper to drop alcohol onto the shoe. This will cause the colors to bleed together.

Let it dry

Decorating shoe #2

 

The finished product. Aren't they adorable?!!

 

The sun came out on Sunday, making it perfect for sundresses and adorable tie-dyed canvas shoes!

Father's Day & a Drop Off

 

Happy Father's Day!!



Since we had plans today, Ron spent most of yesterday doing exactly what he wanted to do - spending time in his shop. I didn't realize it until I looked at this picture, but Tyler is quickly gaining height on Ron!


We met Grandma & Grandpa around dinner time to drop Tyler off for his dive trip. He was feeling a little better overall today but a bit more congested. Hopefully by their first dive on Tuesday he'll be ready to go. Danielle has grown an inch in the past 2 months, but she still looks short compared to Tyler. By the time Tyler gets back, he will have been home 1 1/2 days out of 17 days. They might miss each other just a little.



There he goes, leaving me again. :)  I hope he has a wonderful time.

Rainy Day Fun

We enjoyed a visit from tropical storm Bill today. It rained continuously until dinnertime. Add that to the week of rain we've already had, and we are drenched! Danielle and I thought the warm, wet weather might be good for spotting tree frogs, so we grabbed our umbrellas and headed to the park.

We had to run a couple errands first, and by the time we got to the park, the rain had just stopped. We did not find any tree frogs at all this time, but we did see green frogs, leopard frogs, a snake, a brilliant orange oriole, families of little baby barn swallows piled in their nests, and lots of crawfish. I have never seen any at this park, and they were everywhere today! I only took cell phone pictures today. This is one of my favorite places to go around here, and it's even more enjoyable when Danielle goes with me.

He wanted to fight.

There's no denying we're related, is there?

Our development has never flooded in the 8 years we've been here, but there was standing water in the streets. We saw this when we tried to get home from the park. It was worse on some of the side streets. I think it's supposed to rain again tomorrow and most of the week next week. Should be interesting to see where it's all going to go.

Home from Camp

We picked Tyler up from "smart kid" camp around dinnertime tonight. He had a great time. He looks

like he lost some weight, despite the fact "the food was AWESOME!". He did a lot of walking and it was very hot & humid this week. He got into all the classes he wanted: band, JAVA programming, basic robotics, and survivor. The class sizes were pretty small, and the learning was fun. He also had fun during rec times. One day he tie-dyed a tshirt for Danielle. Thankfully he felt like talking over dinner and for the 30 minute car ride home, because once we got home, it was business as usual. It's nice to have him home, even if it's just for a day and a half. He does have a bit of a cold. We're hoping some solid sleep in his own bed will help.

Feeling Better

Danielle's sprained ankle is better, and she was able to play in her games tonight. She actually had a very good couple games. I love watching her play. She has been really aggressive in her base running lately. She has been successful stealing two bases at once a few times. Tonight she managed to steal three when they overthrew the ball as she was stealing 2nd. She had some good plays in the field, too. Thankfully the rain held off long enough to get both games in tonight.

She was happy she was able to play tonight.

She made a few fielding outs, but the great one tonight was when she tagged the runner's feet as the girl tried to slide into 2nd.

Stealing bases

This & That

We thought Clara had been watching something on the patio now and then over the past couple days and wondered if there was another chipmunk out there. I guess there was. This looks like an adult. I suppose we'll have to help him rejoin his family.

This morning I took Danielle and her friend Maggie to get their passes at the waterpark since it was rainy and we figured the membership line would be short. I was right. There weren't any lines anywhere, so we decided to take advantage of that and fit in a few rides while we were there. The girls had a lot of fun and weren't happy about leaving.

 

Danielle and her friend (and her friend's little sister) went to softball camp yesterday and today. I don't think their hearts were in it today because they wanted to ride more rides and because they had to have camp inside due to the rain. I think they had a good time, anyway. They just wouldn't admit it.

The camp that Tyler is attending has been posting pictures on FB. Typically he will avoid pictures, but I teased him before he left that he better not only allow his picture to be taken, but he better wave at me, too. In the first picture they posted of him, he was waving at the camera. :) He was smiling in both pictures, so it makes it easy to assume he is having fun despite the never ending rain and heat.

Blast from the Past

I was looking for a picture that Danielle wanted and ended up spending too much time looking at pictures of the kids when they were younger. It seems like so long ago, yet it also seems like just yesterday. How is that? This video made me laugh, so I wanted to share it. The subject was supposed to be Tyler inflating and then sitting on his whoopee cushion, but, as you can see, Danielle stole the show. Be sure your volume is on.

The Rainy Sky

It has rained on and off for what seems like days now, and it's supposed to be like this for a few days more. When the thunder woke me up in the middle of the night, I immediately thought of Tyler in his hot, stuffy dorm room. I so hope he's having enough fun that the rain is just background noise. 

Danielle's doubleheader tonight was interrupted and the second game was finally cancelled due to the rain. We were kind of glad because she wasn't able to play today. Her ankle is still sore and she's not able to run, so she sat the bench. I know it was hard for her to be there and not to play. Hopefully it will be better by her games on Wednesday.

The storm clouds have been amazing. I took these with my cell phone, some through the car window, so they aren't the best quality, but you can see how cool they looked.