Photo of the Day: May 19 (a fort of sorts)

Annika and Ava's Forest Room Fort

Annika loves building "forts".  Her forts so far consist of sticking sticks into the ground.  And this year she's added an umbrella.  It usually involves a shovel (and minimal crying from using said shovel).  At least I think I've got her trained NOT to dig holes in my yard!  This fort is located in our Forest Room- a tiny part of our forest we're trying to cultivate into a garden/hang-out space.  It's more of a Battle with Sticky Weed than anything else but I can't help but continue to try weeding. Chances are, if I'm in a stinky mood I've just tried (and failed) at weeding eradicating the sticky weed & stinging nettles from here. ;-)

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This Flower Made Me Laugh Out Loud!

Mr. Grumpy

A close-up of an orchid we saw in the Bolz Conservatory (at the Olbrich Gardens).  

I'm not going bonkers-or am I? 

You see it too, right?  Right???

******

What caption would suit this flower?

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Daily Photo: April 27

Jumping Over the Pillows Show

Last night the girls put on a Show for me.  First some singing with props.  Props included squids and feather boas. Boas made of blue jay and pink jay feathers.  (At least that's what Ava told me.)  Songs ranged in topics from squids (some with glasses...as I'm sure you're aware that squids wear glasses) to $10,000 puppies who ran away to The Big Bad Wolf blowing down Pigs' houses.  At least the last one I could follow!

After the Singing and Dancing Show came the Jumping Over the Pillows Show.  The girls started with three pillows and worked up to jumping over a stack of six pillows.  Ava had a little trouble clearing the Six Pillow Hurdle.  Annika cleared it- no problem.

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(not quite) Daily Photo: April 21: Jumping for Japan

Our little elementary school did a school-wide fundraiser- 

Jumping for Japan

The kids raised over $2300 $2500 to help Japan's tsunami victims (via the American Red Cross).  I'm so proud of our kids!  

The kids were placed in groups and each group was called to the gym to participate.  The kids were asked to jump for 20 minutes.  The little kids got to bounce on small trampolines.  The older kids had several options- jump ropes, ropes with balls on ends to jump over (no idea what they're called!), jumping jacks...you name it!  The parent helpers tried to keep the kids motivated and that at least one person was jumping during the entire time.  I tried doing the jumping rope- I lasted for about a minute!  LOL!  It's hard to do!  (and I'm no longer ten years old) 

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(not quite) Daily Photo: April 20

Homemade Glasses

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Daily Photo: April 19

Boice Creek

Wee bit of flooding going on in the valleys around here.  Hopefully this will be the worst of it!

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Daily Photo: April 18

Ava had her first optometrist's appointment.  She did very well and she was disappointed to hear that she doesn't need glasses.  Don't worry, Ava!  Chances are you'll have them sooner or later (based on your family's genetics.)

 :-)

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Daily Photo: April 17

A little hideaway

Sunday was a busy day!  The girls found a way to escape all the craziness happening.... in the little tent they made in their play area.  Some days I wish I could have a little place like that to hole up in.  Oh wait!  I DO have a place like that!  It's my little red library/office.  :-)

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Daily Photo: April 14

Sometimes Mommies have to bribe

Sometimes McDonald's is just the right thing...especially after a slightly traumatizing experience at the doctor's office (notice the sparkly band-aids on Ava?).  Fortunately the McDonald's bribe worked!  (and no, this isn't a place we go to frequently)

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Daily Photo: April 13: Story Time at our Local Library

Ava (in pink dress & tights) with one of her best friends, Wynne, at story time at our local library.  Susan, the librarian, always makes story time lots of fun!

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Daily Photo: April 12: Dealing with all the Kid Artwork!

 And here's what I'm doing lately....

scanning the girls' artwork into the computer.

Oof!  What a task!

And what will I do with all those scans?

Create Art Books for the girls

:-)

Creating these does take a bowl (or two or three) of Skittles!

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Daily Photo: April 10

Doggy Kisses are the Best. 

(especially when that dog happens to have a bow on her collar!)

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Daily Photo: April 9: Saturday Morning Ritual

Saturday Morning Ritual...Ava making waffles with Daddy.  

She's got the recipe nearly memorized and can do most of it by herself.  So sweet!  (Annika used to enjoy making the waffles with Daddy...and now it's Ava's turn).

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Daily Photo: April 8

Mr. Cantankerous Coffee 

Maybe it's time to get a new coffee maker?!?

I can't believe we've still got this coffee maker....it's been making countertop coffee for over a year now. 

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Daily Photo: April 7

It says, "Ava...Mom...I luv you".  (I'm pretty sure most of you can translate that into proper English. Hee hee hee!)  Don't you love the bows in her hair?  Her hair looks like it was "combed by an egg-beater" as her Daddy would say.  :-)

Boy, I've been trying to keep up with the daily photo (I only started last week!) and I'm ALREADY finding it difficult to remember to take a photo (let alone post it!).  Keeping up with it will be an excellent goal for me!

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Daily Photo: April 6

American Goldfinches eating from our thistle feeder.  (they're rather messy eaters!)  The teepee we built last fall is still standing (that's the white thingamabob in the background).

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March Snow Melt Brings April Flowers...or something like that

Mini Narcissus

Such tiny little blossoms...as if the flower fairies had created them.  Only standing a few inches tall they're quite cheerful and bright.  Such a lovely sight after a long, cold & dreary winter.

This is what they looked like on April 3 (with a locust tree bean pod to keep it company)

This is what they looked like today, April 6:

I wanted to get a ground-level photo of these cuties...so I placed the camera as close to the ground, auto-focused and snapped the photos (not having confirmed what was in the actual camera frame).  This is what I got using that "technique":

What do you like most about Spring?

I like seeing the world come back to life after a long winter's sleep...seeing the flowers popping up and listening to a myriad of birds singing in our woods.

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Daily Photo: April 5

Daily Dose of Decluttering!

I'm sure most of you can relate to the amount of stuff that seems to breed and multiply exponentially in your home.  Ever since we got back from Hawaii I've been doing battle with the Clutter Monster.  Today I tackled the girls' play area.  Egads!  The girls have collections of every kind of thing you can think of!  No, I didn't toss out any beloved collections as there was plenty of just plain old trash...or...what I think of as trash.  I'm sure the girls would both disagree with me on what is and isn't trash!  That pile of coloring books/misc. books was created by me.  No little girls participated in the making of that pile.  However, the pile-o-stuff that I put away/tossed away  was their doing!  Little by little I hope to win this battle with Clutter.  Wish me luck...as I really could use all the luck I can get!

** Did you know that some Goodwill locations take used computers and computer parts? Goodwill and Dell have partnered up to create Dell Reconnect.  Visit >this< link to see more information about that program and to see which Goodwill locations will accept the used computers.  We donated a bunch of old computer stuff a while back and it was just so freeing to get rid of that it!**

How do you keep clutter from becoming a problem to begin with? 

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Daily Photo: April 4

Annika doing her homework after school.  (with green grapes as a yummy & cheerful snack!)

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Daily Photo: April 3

Deck Railing Panels-  spray painted & drying

Perhaps some of you will remember that Mark took it upon himself to replace our not-that-old-but-falling-apart deck railing last summer.  You can go >here< to read the post I wrote about our new deck railing last summer.

Needless to say it's been a long, slow process.  And we're not even half-way done!  The Good News is that Mark really enjoys welding.  The Bad News is that with him going back to school (to get his MBA) things like new deck railing are lower priority.  However, I'm super proud of him taking on the task of getting an MBA!

And do me a HUGE favor and PLEASE overlook our messy garage!  It seems the harder we try to maintain it the messier it seems to get!  LOL!  Anybody else have that same predicament?

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