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.

 

 

 

 

Saying GoodBye

The time has come to say goodbye to our playset. The kids haven't played on it for awhile, and we'd like to have the yard space back. We posted it for free on a yard sale sight and had a taker within 30 seconds. Seriously. It's big and will be difficult to move, plus we have a fence to maneuver around. We figured it was worth giving it away if we didn't have to do any of the work of removing it. They are supposed to come get it tomorrow while we are at school.

I'm a little sad to see it go. It's sad to be done with that part of our lives, although we've been done and I've known it for awhile. It was fun building it and saving up for the tube slide. We had picnics up in the top fort. We sat up there and went through our scavenger hunt goodies one afternoon. Clara dug a hole in the sandbox and then fell asleep in it when she was just a little puppy. Danielle and her girlfriends from next door used to spin themselves silly on the tire swing. There are a lot of good memories in that weathered, wooden playset.

Play Ball!

Danielle has had a few softball scrimmages over the past few weeks. She looks pretty solid in the field and has had some pretty good at bats. Hopefully it will be a good season for her. She looks like she's having fun, and that's what's most important.

Baby (Fox) Pictures

 

What I Did Today...

 

 

Another VB Tourney

I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to post pictures after yesterday's volleyball tournament. Those are long days! We have to arrive when the doors open around 7:30am, and we don't leave until our team is done with all our games and assignments. We weren't done until after 6pm and didn't get home until after 8. It's hard to spectate all day. :) I don't know how Danielle managed to stay awake on the ride home. She played in 5 volleyball games yesterday and all but one of those went to a third tie-breaker set. That's a lot of volleyball. Her team did really well and made it to the gold bracket but lost in the semi-finals. Danielle did pretty good. She had the last few winning serves in a few of the games. That's always fun. Her team played a team that had her basketball coach's daughter and softball coach's daughter on it. It was extra special to beat them. :)

At each tournament, teams have a designated spot where they set up camp for the day.
The green pillow and rainbow blanket are Danielle's.

Before each game, each team links arms and walks to the middle of the court with the refs.
The teams turn and wave at the spectators and then shake hands with each other. Danielle is always second in line after the team captain because she is the libero.

Teams often call a time-out to ice the other team's server.

Playing against her basketball and softball teammates.

Frozen!

Yep, that's ice in my hummingbird feeder. Hopefully this will be the last freeze of the season. The hummingbirds should be here any day now.

A Sweet Treat

Chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake. As wonderful as it looks.



Trying a New Do

Danielle likes to look up hairdo ideas online. She bookmarks a ton of them and then occasionally shows them to me to try. My problem is that I have to practice before we "go live" and she doesn't like to make time for that. (Honestly, she rarely sits still.) Instead, 10 minutes before I have to leave for school in the morning, she wants me to do something new with her hair. I try, and she gets frustrated and ends up going with the standby ponytail or headband.

We paused to enjoy the sunshine on the patio this weekend and I snuck in a quick fishtail braid. She had been asking me for awhile to try it. It was my first attempt, and it turned out pretty good. She had me do it for school one day this week, and the time crunch must have been too much pressure for me. It looked good but not as nice as the first attempt.

She has such pretty hair. So many different shades of brown and blonde.