catching up....

Here are some pics from the month of May that have been waiting to be shared.


This is what my morning view is. Only a week left of this.


This is E in her house/fort. I catch her hanging out just like this when she doesn't know I'm looking.

The grass clippings make up the carpet that she got the little, Amish, neighbor boys to help her gather and lay down.

And baby bro flies by.

I love that they are still willing to play in the tiny pool.

Look who is riding her bike...

by herself.

We think he might be a soapbox preacher.

Or the first deer whisperer.

Or a punk.

Coloring on the last day of preschool.

Waiting the inning out...

to play catcher.

no words necessary

This wasn't posed, she just started picking and sniffing and I started snapping. I don't think you can tell but she is rocking a side pony.

Dave & Gina had everyone over for chicken BBQ (not the same as BBQ chicken for my fellow westerners, a lesson I learned) and Joash and V had some fun together in the pool.

As well as chill-axin in Aunt Abby's sweet ride while feelin' her bumpin' bass.

These two were on the hunt for wildlife all day and were thrilled to find a dead snake that they measured and recorded the data.

Can you see what he's looking at?

Daddy took us on a 4 wheeler ride to the lot.

Clockwise: view looking toward where back of the house will be; View from where the back of the house will be; top of the driveway; bottom of the driveway.

To clarify...there is no estimated start date on building the actual house. Den has had some extra time to clear the lot and work on the driveway as all this costs him is time and gas. A lot still has to happen before any real construction happens (well, electric, septic, house plans!) But it's still fun to see something happening.

Already trying to climb Mom Mom's trees.

Birthday Week

Yes. This was my view on Monday.


All because of this guy. He arranged places for the kids to go while we went to the beach and did nothing. I did get in (all the way), but it was freezing. West coast freezing.


See that little black speck in the upper left portion of this picture? It's a dolphin, and you can tell if you find a way to zoom in. There were tons of them, playing and really close to shore too.


We also saw this birdie on our way to the car. Can you see that he has his dinner?


On my actual birthday I used my free ice cream birthday coupon for Cold Stone's (if you live within range of one you simply must sign up for this. People...it's FREE ice cream).


Accompanied by this band of well wishers.


Their not digging this early courtship. Mia's not into younger men that way.

After J's game (in which he actually caught a hit ball and then tagged someone out for a double play!) we came home to the ice cream cake Den got for me. Seriously, what a guy.

E made me a card that morning. She chose the words and had her daddy write them except for her name. It reads, "Happy Birthday Mommy! You're beautiful"

Complete with a pic of us together, she even drew herself with curly hair.

He gave lots of bday hugs.

D was trying to trick her into looking at the camera by asking her if there was a blue light blinking. Notice her intently searching for it.

one more...

This was one of my favorite shots and I forgot to add it. There is an insect museum in the natural history museum and the kids love it.

may days

May has brought us rain, these past few pretty days and it brought us a special viz w/ my mom an dad. Mom came in for a week (i took ZERO pics, what's wrong with me?) and then we headed to DC for the weekend and saw dad. It was nice to have the rare treat of spending mother's day with my mom. We went out to eat for dinner, just the two of us, and ordered a chef's choice 3 course meal with additional salad and dessert. YUM. And the conversation was nice too :)

The first day in DC was mostly hanging out at the hotel. That evening there was a dinner with fundraising, awards & recognition, etc. This was also the end of Dad's final term as ICA president. It was touching to see him honored and appreciated for all the hard work he's done over the years.

Saturday we headed to the mall and did a little bit in 3 different Smithsonian museums.

Waiting for the subway.

We were 15min early to the opening of the American History Museum. So the kids played on these benches. This all started with the second pic where E said she was the Statue of Liberty. I suppose she was feeling patriotic, being in our nation's capital and all. Then I set J up as the thinker, and then they just started making silly poses and asking me to take pics of them.

Um...dream toy?

I took one of them 2yrs ago next to this rabbit.

Holding up the memorial. He looks confused because I didn't explain, I just said "stand like this."

We took a DC at night tour on a trolley type of bus.

Guess who got to be the "navigator" and sit in a special seat up front. Oh my, this was totally up my boy's alley. He was answering questions, some he actually got right. Everyone would cheer for him, and he soaked up every drop.

View of Capitol, Washington & Lincoln Memorials from Iwo Jima.

J and FDR. It started pouring on us here.

Didn't seem to upset him.

J had to wipe off the inside of the window for driver Jorge.

Korean War Memorial

On Sunday we went to the...

Can you say "sweet"? There was actually a baby gorilla there that we did get to see, pretty cool.

I wanted E to kiss it, but instead J hugged it.

They kept referring to Kung Fu Panda.

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*photos by den, he was proud of them so I must give him props. Some of the pics (not his necessarily ) are grainy. I need to get more into the technical side of my cam, thanks for the grace.

The Dancing Never Stops in this House

Listen to the lyrics when he is laying his head down. He's a genius at literal interpretive dance.

Dance Recital

E's dance recital was last night. I took most of these pics at her dress rehearsals as I was helping backstage during the actual show. After her first practice I asked her if she like being up there. She replied, "yes, i like being on stage." I will not deny having a happy moment. If you were one of the unlucky who did not attend, you missed out on more than seeing the cutest dancer ever. You missed out on dealing with the reactions of 80+ girls under 10 when the fire alarm went off. Some little one wandering the halls with dad decided to feed his curiosity one and for all. Actually there were only a couple criers and once we settled them back into the room, convinced them that it was a false alarm, it was more about comforting the parents that rushed back stage to check on their girls. Then I remembered my son, in the audience with his dad and grandparents. My heart started to beat a little faster. My sweet, soon to be 8 year old has a few fears and smoke alarms make the list. This wasn't the high pitched annoying beep that you have at home. This was more like alerting the people that we had gone to Defcon 1. D had a harder job than me, as I found out later. Still, eventually all was well and the show did go on. Dance is more than just bobby pins and sequence people.


Waiting in the wings.






Does anyone else love this one as much as I do?



Pep talk from Miss Amy.

You can see that one little one didn't know where her spot was, things were stopped because the poor little thing started to cry. She did fine during the real deal.

Please don't shoot the camera girl , she's an amateur. Just be thankful for this as they did not allow video taping the night of the performance, which they did last year. I think that discriminates against those of us that are cheap, or frugal. :)