Catching Up With Claire And Cate

The girls came over for a short bit the other day. They found the caps hanging in the back entry and thought it'd be a good idea to wear them.Cate had her rally cap on!Then at their house a couple days later, can you tell Claire earned a little juice for dessert by finishing up her mac 'n' cheese?And who would ever guess behind this sweet face is a pretty tough little girl?

Boy Wonder?

My little great-nephew is getting ready to turn one year old. He might only just be getting his first tooth but last night in my dream....while we were standing at some concession stand he, very clearly, said to me "They got lime here" and "I don't stink!"

Burned Out

My mission for the day was to burn brush. We have two piles and this was the bigger one.

After about five hours of burning it's all cleaned up ready to start piling it on again.

The cool thing was, you can apply for a burning permit online and just activate it each time you use it. Five bucks for the whole year! So maybe I can get at that second pile this weekend and get that crossed off the chore list too.

Makeover (Not Extreme): Home Edition

Some of you may remember we have bats in our belfry! Er, I mean... they like to roost up in the vent at the peak of the house. It was becoming a problem because they're messy and we couldn't get up there to paint without worrying about them flying in our face. They also like to perch behind the shutters. So we decided to do something about it. What used to look like this...

...now looks like this. The siding guys removed the vent, filled the hole and put up shake siding. Then we replaced the louvered shutters with raised panel ones. Maybe you'll even notice that we painted the pillars a better brown, too (but that has nothing to do with the bats). Glad to have that project off the list. So now, moving on to the next thing............!

Swingers And Sliders

We made our first journey to the nearby park today. Just a gorgeous day for an outing. Claire's pretty good at pumping her legs to make herself go. Cate still likes a push.

The slides weren't very fast so everybody could be on their own.

(You see in this picture there's a little "one shoe off, one shoe on, deedle-deedle dumpling, my son Jon" going on.)There was one spiral slide, though, where Cate must have got going crooked because by the time she got down to my level she was coming around the corner sideways!

Proving A Point

My photography philosophy has always been "you have to take a LOT of pictures to get one good one." Here's why...

(some people cut off the tops of people's heads but...the whole thing?!!)

(and poor Harvey...probably got a rope burn out of this and now it's forever captured, unintentionally, on film!)

Order! Order! Order In The Court!

Our friend, Kelli, has always been a defender of the law. :)

Yesterday she graduated from the U of M Law School with her Juris Doctor degree.

(Kelli on the left with big sister, Dr. Sara)

We were very pleased to attend her open house and are quite proud of the work she's done. Way to go, Kelli!!

Nanny's Little Helper

Cate was foregoing her sippy cup today for a big-girl one.

Claire was my little helper and bringing her just the right (small) amount of water to try to manage.

She would show her how to hold the cup...

...but the effort still resulted in the need for a dry set of clothes!

Mother's Day 2010

Here's a Great-Grandmom...

...who's also a great mom! Happy Mother's Day to everyone's mother!

Snow And Mow

Yesterday when I went to work there were snow flurries in the air. But in the afternoon I was mowing! Go figure.

Why Dogs Don't Drive

You can teach a dog to sit but you still can't teach her to read!!

(This is actually a picture from my friend's Facebook profile. Thanks, Carla, for the funny!)

Going Back In Time

We were transported back to colonial times last night in the play for which Tony is the musical director... "1776".

He also played the part of Richard Henry Lee...

...from the first fam-i-lee of Virgin-i-a!

There's a lot of time and effort that goes into those productions. Good job, Tony!

Shoe Fetish?

The girls were really into shoes the other day. Cate in mine...

...Claire in her mommy's...

...and the two of them in boots from season past and season present.

After the shoes came off it became necessary to block the front door from intruders. Toys and books did the trick!