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.