The Flowers are Coming! The Flowers are Coming!

These are day lillies that were newly planted last spring. It is always exciting to see the flowers starting to poke up each spring, and there's a special excitement about seeing new plants return to life.

Artist

Ryan has always enjoyed drawing with pencils. We've seen a variety of phases in his subjects: golf courses, monsters, miniature golf courses, macabre amusement parks, and now he is fascinated by fighter jets and tanks. He's really quite talented and shows a real aptitude for mechanical drawings. Perhaps a career in engineering is in his future?

Home

The past few weeks have been really challenging between allergies, colds, a stomach virus, Box Tops, the passing of Kevin's grandmother which added another trip to his already quite full business travel schedule.

But today he is home until next Tuesday, and things feel better already.

What Lies Beneath

The grass is just starting to get greener. I remember a book by Erma Bombeck called "The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank." Wanna take a guess what lies just below this patch of grass that is markedly greener than the surrounding areas?

I found a stack of underwear in my room this afternoon. It wasn't there earlier in the day. It was all clean, but it had not been freshly laundered. Apparently Olivia and Katelyn have decided to purge their underwear drawers of all panties that featured princesses or carebears. And while I understand the sentiment, and honestly some of these are probably on the small side, I can't help feeling a little sad.

Friends

The girls went to a birthday party today for our neighbor, Carly. It was a spa party, complete with manicure, pedicure, hair and makeup stations. All the moms helped out as the "technicians," and I was the photographer. Before the official fun began, I happened to capture this little pyramid of friendship as Olivia and Katy piled on top of Sydney.

Championship Bracket

Today was the first game in the playoffs for this year. We came up against the Blue Devils again, the only team who we beat by only 1 point. It was an exciting game, and was pretty tight until the last quarter, but we ended up winning 23-17 which puts our team in the Championship game next weekend. Go Hokies!

Pappy, Father, Daughter Dance

Par-Tay!

The class that brought in the most Box Tops for our Spring contest was rewarded with an ice cream cake party donated by Kerrigan's Ice Cream, a local parlor. After counting over 12,000 coupons, I was thrilled to award the prize to Mrs. Garver's 4th grade class! And yes, that is my son in the white T-shirt in the back, and no, there was no cheating!

Always Remember

I know the day will come that you won't be holding onto a favorite stuffed animal when I come in to check on you at night. I want to always remember this sweet innocence.

I DO Like Green Eggs and Ham!

I always seem to remember Dr. Seuss's birthday too late to have a fun and silly celebration of our favorite author. This year, the first grade classes had pajama days and pancake parties today to celebrate and I got my act together to do something at dinner. Ryan knew about my plans, and was excited to join in the silliness. Katy and Livvy were so surprised, and Katy dug in to her green eggs without hesitation. Livvy enjoyed her ham, but wasn't willing to try the eggs--not a surprise since she doesn't like them when they're yellow either.

Evidence of Them

The kids are back at school this morning after a nice, relaxing weekend. And as I walk around the house getting it back in order after a weekend of heavier use (compared to the weekdays when most of the family is out of the house), this is what I found in the living room. Guess who were making pillow forts yesterday.

Dishwasher

We had a wonderful Italian dinner at our friends, the Shraga's, last night. Each family brought something to add to our feast. I made a tossed salad with homemade dressing using the recipe from Sabatino's restaurant in Little Italy in Baltimore. If I may say so myself, it was a delicious salad with romaine and radicchio, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumbers, shaved carrots, shaved radishes and shaved romano cheese. Sure used a lot of dishes, though!

How "D" Wins Games

Our basketball team is the number one team for defense in the league, allowing the least number of points scored per game and overall. Most teams are used to getting the ball and being able to shoot and possibly score. They are totally unprepared for the aggressive defense played by our boys. Here Ryan is going for the steal while  Kyle West is trapping the carrier. It has resulted in games with typical scores of 20 - 4.

It's Hard!

We continue to have pizza most Friday nights, but there have been some changes. For instance, instead of ordering pizza every week, we either make our own or buy frozen, and save the ordering out for once a month. Tonight, we had frozen and the girls were strangely fascinated by how the cheese and pepperoni were hard! Also, instead of watching movies, we've recently started watching Survivor taped from the previous night. The kids are really enjoying this show, and it is nice to have a break from animation.

Girls' Day

Kevin and Ryan had basketball practice this evening, so the girls in the family had some time to spend. The two littlest girls thought it would be fun to do mani-pedis. So I clipped, filed, massaged and painted 20 little nails. Olivia decided to go with a single color on her toes and her hands. Katy wanted to do a pattern.

Smorgasboard

Remember the robins having a worm feast on our lawn? Well they're back today. And Bella seems to be imagining a different kind of feast...

Spring's Harbingers

Last night we had rain for several hours. There was a total racket outside this morning, and I looked to see what could be making so much noise. There were approximately 25 robins all over our yard and more in the trees and neighbors' yards. They were having a worm feast!

A TV of his Own

Cooking Out

In keeping with the warm up this weekend, we just had to cook dinner on the grill tonight. Mmmmm, cheeseburgers! With leftover tossed salad from last night's Italian-themed dinner gathering at the Shraga's. And sliced peaches.
I had planned to just cook out, but eat inside until Katy begged to "please eat outside tonight." We had to put on jackets to do so, and it was probably still a little chilly for dinner outside since the sun was on its way down, but it still felt so good to have our first outdoor meal of the year. We are all feeling the tug of the outdoors after being so cooped up most of the fall thanks to tons of rain and the winter thanks to the frigid temps. Here's to Spring! You can't come fast enough.

Yes, Spring is Coming

We hit 62 today, and even though that's generally cooler than we keep our house, I couldn't resist opening the windows and letting some fresh air in. It just smells so much better and feels so much cleaner to have that air circulating. The kitties couldn't keep away from the opened windows. Midnight kept meowing when he saw the girls outside and they would come over to the window to say hello to him. Their little kitty noses were quivering with all the smells that must have been coming in through the open windows.

Warm Up

When the kids got home from school this afternoon, it was in the upper 50s outside. Their eagerness to get out and enjoy the warmer weather is a testament to just how cold it has been outside this winter.

Yet another true harbinger of spring? Breaking out the baseball gear. The travel team is planning to get together next week and start gearing up for this year's tournament schedule.

Getting Healthy

It's easy to eat lots of fresh veggies during the warm weather months, but I find it harder to fit in as many as I should when it's cold out. Salad is just not at the top of my list of "things I really want to eat" right now.

To help add more veggies to our daily intake, I'm trying to make at least 2, if not more with our dinner each night. Kevin's and my current favorite is this pepper, onion, mushroom medley. Sometimes I'll add a can of diced tomatoes too. It is so yummy!

My Life as a Monkey

A good friend of mine once told me that her husband's philosophy about buying shredded cheese was "there's some monkey somewhere shredding that cheese and we're paying them to do it, so why don't we be the monkey?"

Made a lot of sense to me! Especially when I noticed that buying the cheese shredded vs. in a block is nearly double the price. So I tried shredding our cheese at home, and you know what I discovered? It takes about 2 minutes for me to shred an entire 8 oz. block, and if I buy the even less expensive 16 oz. block, I'm done in less than 5 minutes. I save my family at least $3.00 per week by being the monkey that shreds the cheese. And it really tastes so much better! It melts more smoothly too.

There are other "monkey tasks" I've taken on, such as buying large containers of snacks and portioning them into individual  baggies, grilling more chicken than we'd ever need for a single meal and then slicing it up and freezing it to make my own "short cuts chicken," etc. And then I don't feel bad if I take a little bit of that money I'm saving and buy a delicious bottle of wine!

Bird Watcher

When not staring longingly at our fish, Midnight is often found staring longingly at the birds out our kitchen window. I love to imagine the thoughts going through his little cat brain as he mentally stalks the creatures who always seem to be just on the other side of the glass.

Valentine Pictures

When Ryan and Samantha were a little over a year old (in 2001), Stephanie and I got together with another friend and her daughter and set up a mini photo shoot to celebrate Valentine's day. We used the photos to make Valentines for our husbands. Little did we know at the time that a tradition was in the making.

The three of us continued to get together for the next 3 years to do Valentines pictures with our kids. In 2002, Steph's son Cam and Tracy's daughter Madison joined the group. Our 2003 pictures feature a VERY pregnant version of me--about 8 weeks before the girls were born. And in 2004, our group expanded to include Livy and Katy. Tracy moved away before Valentines of 2005, but Stephanie and I kept taking pictures in 2005 and again 2006. Then I moved to North Carolina and we haven't been together at Valentines since. Were were so excited to get the kids together for one of these group shots! I think they've changed just a little bit since 2006...

Rare Bird

Getting a great, posed picture of Ryan is like searching for a rare bird. Or a needle in a haystack. He is generally so self-conscious that his smile either looks strained or fake. Or he won't smile at all. The only way I get good shots of him is when I happen to have the camera out and catch him off-guard. But today he was relaxed. And I had the pleasure of capturing him the way I see him when the camera isn't around. My sweet, funny, handsome 10-year-old son. I am so blessed to have this rare bird in my nest.

They Brought Their Weather

When I checked our forecast prior to Stephanie's arrival, we were supposed to have a chilly, but dry weekend ahead. There was nothing in the forecast about snow other than a slim chance for some on Monday.
Within hours of their arrival, our forecast began to change and sure enough, the snow began falling Friday night. We got nearly 3 inches! Crazy. Fortunately it is supposed to be warm enough this afternoon that most of it should melt quickly.

Counting on Them

It's Box Top season again, and Ryan and Sam were willing to help with counting the submissions we've received so far out of the goodness of their heart in exchange for payment. It was a fair deal to me. I got to spend the day scrapbooking instead of counting those little pieces of paper and cardboard, and they had something to keep them busy before basketball practice.

Surprise!

Steph and the kids were planning to come visit us this weekend, but the status of their visit was a bit up in the air thanks to the massive amounts of snow dumped on their area. However the snow ended up allowing them to come down a day early because schools were cancelled. All the main roads were fine for travel, it was just all the neighborhood roads that were an issue for buses.
Our kids got home from school this afternoon and worked on their homework. Just as they were almost finished, the door from the garage opened and in walked Sam, Cam and Stephie! They were completely surprised and thoroughly excited. And to top it all off, Kevin got home several hours early from his 3-day trip to Houston. It was a banner day for all of us.

There IS a Sun!

After almost a week of cold and dreary days, with some rain mixed in for good measure, it was a thrill to see the bright sunshine pouring in my front windows this morning.

Some People Love Ice Cream. And Some People LOVE Ice Cream...

Apparently Ryan's ice cream sundae was exceptionally good tonight. I suppose tomorrow's lesson on table manners can't come too quickly...

Back to the Grind

We were supposed to celebrate the 100th day of school last Friday, but our little snow storm pushed things back. One of the projects that the first grade classes do in preparation is completing an "I can Read and Write 100 Words" worksheet. It is amazing how many words the girls can actually read now and we had fun going through a few different books to fill out the worksheet. One of our favorites was "I can Teach my Dog 100 Words."

Game Time

Winding down for bedtime on a cold winter night. You can't see it real well, but the fireplace is going--Kevin got it turned on today and the kids are loving it. A joint game of A-Z is being continued while Olivia gets her bath. A nice end to a quiet weekend.

Captive Audience

The girls have logged a lot of hours at big brother Ryan's sporting events throughout their lives. I used to keep them entertained with snacks and little toys. Now they bring their DS's and I have pads of games they can play to help pass the time.
They check out the score every so often, and get excited when Ryan's team is winning (which has been every game so far this season). But generally their time is spent patiently waiting to leave.

Still There

Typically when we get snow in North Carolina, the kids have to race out in the morning because it is gone by the afternoon. But this year, not only have we gotten more snow than usual, it has stuck around longer. This has been one of the coldest winters recorded for our area. Darn global warming...

Here we are a week after it began to fall. I know it's nothing compared to what our northern friends have been experiencing, but I'm done with the white stuff. It can go away now please.

Bounce

Ryan finished his homework before any of his friends were available to play. He was dying to get outside so he made his own fun. I snapped a picture while he was bouncing a golf ball off our front porch steps and then I reminded him that perhaps he should be using a softer ball in case it accidentally slipped and hit a window...

Stir Crazy

It snowed on Friday. We only got about 8 inches. Today is Wednesday, and the kids are still home from school. Seriously. It is 55 degrees outside, and what little bit of snow that was left is close to being gone. The kids haven't been able to play outside in the snow because it rained Monday and Tuesday and we're all just a little bit stir crazy!

So instead of being bored, we went bowling! It was just the kids and me, but we had a great time together.

Dramatic Much?

"I look miserable." --Ryan, age 10.
With age comes responsibility and Kevin and I have decided that it is time to pass the torch of scooping the box to Ryan. He is less than thrilled with our decision. *insert evil grin here*

Dam Ice Dams

Somehow all of the snow has caused an ice dam on our roof. Fortunately the leak seems to be isolated to the garage. Kevin had to take down all the tubs from the top shelf and punch a hole into the soaking, soggy drywall to create a drain last night. This seems to be helping the water not to spread and cause more drywall damage, but there is still a fairly large wet spot.

This afternoon while drying clothes, I noticed a smell like burning lint. I immediately turned off our dryer and called Kev at work. He said that our dryer vents out to the same part of the roof that had all the snow, so perhaps the vent was being blocked.  I pulled all the clothes out of the dryer and hung them in the laundry room and our bathroom to finish drying. During the process, I tried to keep reminding myself that we were fortunate to have a home that could sustain damage, and clothes that required drip drying. But to be honest, I was a little frustrated at the situation.

When Kevin got home tonight, he climbed up on the roof (scaring me to death and prompting a LOT of praying on my part) to shovel the snow away from the area that he suspected was the source of the leak. Sure enough, he discovered an area that had melted, but then had re-frozen into a huge chunk of ice. This ice was blocking the melted snow from going down the roof to the downspout and the water was rising over the facia board and going into the garage. Hopefully the issue is fixed now, and fortunately Kevin is handy enough that he should be able to repair the drywall himself once everything dries out.

Hitting the "Slopes"

Those Eyes

They still get me every single time. What a lucky girl am I to wake up to those eyes every morning.

Here Comes the Snow!

We are predicted to get 6-10 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. So far we have about 2 1/2 as of 9 p.m. The kids are ridiculously excited and can't wait to break in their new snow boots and snow pants that they received for Christmas. It's a chilly 18 degrees F outside right now, and the snow is fine and falling steadily. It will be interesting to see what we wake to find in the morning.

The record snowfall for Charlotte, NC is 12 inches. I'm hoping we don't go breaking any records, otherwise the kids will not have a spring break!

More Toys

As much as I would prefer being a completely "natural light" photographer, the reality is that there are times when there just isn't sufficient natural light to get a decent image. My camera does have a pop-up flash, but these create such harsh light and shadows. So I broke down and got a Speedlite flash that has the ability to change the direction of the light (up and down, side to side), as well as a cool little gadget called a Flip-it. The Flip-it allows me to both bounce the light regardless of the height or color of the ceiling and acts as a diffuser to further spread out the light coming off of the flash. So, just when I was starting to figure things out, now I have more to learn!

Evidence of Them

It looks like the girls have been playing on the front porch and front sidewalk again. I know that the day will come that I miss finding these little reminders of their being here, and I try to keep that in mind. But if we're being honest here, I sure would prefer seeing the chalk that they left behind at least put back into its container...

Doodling with Legos

When Ryan first became obsessed with interested in Legos, he would primarily follow the directions for whichever set he was using. But now that he has an abundance of pieces, he has started enjoying making his own creations (he refers to this as doodling). Currently, he, Brandon and Brady are working on a base and several new fighter jets. The project can keep them occuppied for hours.

the rain rain rain came down down down

We had a ridiculously heavy rainstorm this weekend. At one point while I was outside for about 2 minutes, I got completely soaking wet!

The downpour was so hard that it washed a bunch of mulch out of our side bed down into the yard. Kind of an interesting pattern, but now we need to rake it back so it doesn't kill the grass.

Perhaps a good job for our growing son...