School Picture Day

Today is school picture day. The boys will get their pics taken alone and together. It was quite the fiasco last night looking for just the right shirts to wear and finding blue jeans that didn't have worn out knees. I tried to find new long sleeve shirts at Wal-Mart and Target without success. Johnny is going through a 'I won't wear short sleeves' phase:-( Luckily, I had these shirts in the closet in roughly the right sizes. Joey gave the thumbs up all excited about the horse embroidery, and Johnny agreed to his too. Yippee! Oh, we've had fights in previous years/sessions over what Mom wanted the boys to wear vs. what they wanted. Johnny's shirt ended up being a 5T and a little too big in the sleeves and body, but there was no turning back this morning. I took these pics before school. The boys were excited, and so was Mom.

The rest of the pics are here including Mom and Joey's parent lunch and Johnny being reunited with Buster.

Happy Easter

We had the annual kids' spring party at our house today. Some years it is a Shamrock party and other years it is an Easter party. For a while this year, the party had an identity crisis due to the holidays being so close together. But, in the end, it worked out to be an Easter party.

We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. We hit a high of 75 here in Willow Spring. Wow! And, double wow!!!

The kids did the usual assortment of crafts, and I was happy that we got through the ones I wanted to do and that the kids were into them today.

We ate...lots. Chick-fil-A nuggets followed by cupcakes and cookies and of course the bingo (candy) markers.

The kids got to do an Easter egg hunt and a 3-legged race. Next year, a sack race for sure!

It was great seeing everyone. The kids were all really good today. Fun!


The rest of the pics are here.

Signs of Spring

I noticed the first butterflies of the season earlier this week flying through the yard. Usually I spot them on my azalea bushes along the front of the house, but those aren't quite in bloom yet. Then, while I was outside with the boys this afternoon, I saw a bunch of them on one of my yoshino cherry trees. It was tough leaning my neck back to track the butterflies and snap these pics, but I'm glad I didn't give up. These are pretty cool:-)

My bradford pear tree is about done. My forsythia is in full bloom. The late blooming daffodils are going strong. Azaleas are waiting for just one more day to burst open. It's a pretty spring. Jack Frost stay away!

The rest of our late afternoon pics are here.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

The cute little Leprechaun is gone, and the Easter Bunny has arrived! For a mom that does a lot of decorating and holiday preparation, having the two holidays within the span of 1 week is a bit much! But, hey, I do what I gotta do. The boys were thrilled to come out this morning to find that I'd put up the Easter Bunny after they went to bed last night. The rest of the photos I took are here.

For a trip down memory lane, take a look at Joey from 3/26/04/. He's about 18 months old, and I'm pregnant with Johnny.

The Wheel Is Turning!

The boys and I visited Yates Mill Pond again today. We've been so many times recently that I've forgotten how many times we've been now. Besides being a gorgeous 60+ degree day, they were running the water wheel and actually grinding corn today. For $5 (kids under 6 are free), the boys and I were able to go inside on the ground floor and learn a lot of cool facts about the mill. We saw how the mill grinds corn up close:-) It was really quite fascinating to hear the tour guide talk about the mill even if the kids were spinning around like tops for part of the tour. Of course the highlight for me was getting to take pictures of the mill with the waterwheel turning. Wow! And double wow! We walked the loop around the lake and spent a few minutes inside the 'museum' building too. Nice:-)

On the way home, we stopped by Lake Wheeler Park to feed the ducks. The seagulls ended up coming over too (that's never happened before at the fishing pond). Of course I took more pictures.

Enjoy the few pictures imbedded below, or go here for the rest of the pics.

A Picture Comparison

Dad was in town this past weekend. One of the things we did on Saturday was take a drive and take pictures with our cameras. I have a Canon Powershot G3 that takes 6MP pics. Dad has a Canon EOS 40D that can take up to 10MP pics. I gave Dad his first digital camera for Christmas, a reasonable Canon, and he's traded it in for this big gun.

Can you tell which camera took which picture? Dad had his camera set to take about a 6MP picture too.

OK, Dad's camera took the top picture, and mine took the bottom picture. They were taken a few minutes apart, and I actually took both of them. Off hand, the quality seems about the same, but I like the blue color in the G3 shot better.

I have to admit that I did like the feel of Dad's camera. He had a nice zoom lense mounted out it, and it was heavy and professional feeling. Good for nature shots. Not good for kids' parties.

You may have noticed lately that I've had a few nice pictures that weren't horizontally level. I've had trouble seeing well enough on the LCD or through the view finder to get them level. You can't really use the LCD to take pictures Dad's, but the view finder has such a nice, bright picture, you can really see to line up what you're taking pictures of.

There are more pics from our outing here and here.

MoonSand...My Turn

Aunt Debbie gave the boys MoonSand for Christmas. The boys and I were excited! I'd heard about MoonSand through Patricia. I was kindof waiting for a sunny, warm day so we could play with it out on the back deck, but I was looking for something fun to do after dinner, saw the boxes sitting under the air hockey table, and figured we'd give it a try tonight.

Each of the boys had their own inflatable 'sandbox' and MoonSand. It turns out that MoonSand is a lot of fun. We were able to use the molds that came with it to make several pretty neat castles princess included.

And another castle.

But in the end, it was everywhere. On the floor, on their clothes. But hey, look at that smiling face! Straight to the tub they went. Straight to the wash their clothes went. I got out the vacuum. The kitchen was cleaned up pretty quickly, but then of course I had to vacuum the whole downstairs since I'd lugged it out. We'll play with the MoonSand again soon. It was fun.

The rest of the pics are here.