Birds and Water

I snapped a couple of pictures of the baby birds before they flew the nest. Here they are acting like my kids at breakfast time.
This was our view from the bathroom window.
Here are the little guys before they got so camera shy that they wouldn't even look at me. They were already starting to hunker down in their nest when I would come by, though.
I didn't get any pictures of the chickadees that were nesting in our bird house. I hope we didn't disturb them too much with my birthday party last weekend. We also have woodpeckers of some type nesting at a house around the corner from us. I'll try to take a picture of that nest soon. It's kind of an interesting story.
Here's a photo of Saturday's excitement. We had a water main break on the corner. That's not spraying water in the picture, it's just the sun rays. But the water was bubbling up from under the asphalt. It was pretty cool to watch the digger tear the street up. Then we were out of water from about 6 PM until 1 AM. I hope those guys made some good overtime!
Yesterday was pretty hot, especially in the sun. I was trying to think of ways to keep the kids cool and entertained in the shade, so we set up some water play.
The kids had a lot of fun, but then got a little off track when Anna and Sebby came over.
Today is wet with rain, which we're happy to have, but it may interfere with the barbecue we're supposed to go to across the street in a bit. We were kind of excited to be invited over to the new(ish) neighbors' house. Now Henry is up from his nap and wants to sample one of the cookies I made for the barbecue, so I'd better go tend to him.

Did I forget to mention...

...that Henry made me a May Day basket this year?

Getting Old!

This blog is getting old! 700th post today!
Oh yeah, and me too....35 now. Goodness.
It was a pretty great birthday.
Friday evening we enjoyed some Lou Malnati's and watched Charlotte's Web (2007) because we had just finished reading the book. Around 7:30 Rob and Eleanor arrived. Eleanor was immediately excited to play in the kitchen, while Clara was immediately excited to play host.
Saturday morning came early. Henry woke me with happy birthday wishes at about 5:55. Eleanor is not a sleeper-in either, so we got up and had crepes. Pretty much anything served with strawberries and Nutella promises to be good.
Then we had some gift time. Henry and Clara picked out an awesome pair of lavender Chucks for me, but we need to exchange them for a larger size. Those tricky Converse sizes...
There was lots of nice book-reading time too.
Shortly after lunch Adelaide arrived with Amber and Jeff. The kids all laid down for naps. Henry conked out, Clara napped for about an hour and Adelaide spent her time peeking out the window at us as we tried to set up for the party.
Party set up involved food-prep, chair borrowing, balloons etc.
And then guests started to arrive!! Pete grilled up some meats, Amber and Mary and lots of other people contributed tasty eats too. There was lots of yummy food.


I love this photo for so many reasons.
I think people enjoyed themselves!
Thanks to Mary for taking pictures. Here's proof that I was at my own party.
And so were lots of other great people...
And lots of kids!
Clara was working the crowd for drinks (we had a kid's cooler of juice and chocolate milk). In this picture she has a strawberry dessert cake in her hand.
This one comes with a bit of a story. Henry and his pals had thrown a frisbee over the fence. I led a small army to retrieve it from the yard which backs up to ours, which means we had to go half-way around the block. While we were over there looking for it I heard Pete's voice back in our yard saying "where is she?" I jumped up to look over the fence, only to see that he was out there with the birthday cake and candles lit. So in this picture I'm pointing and saying "I had to run from all the way over there!!"
Here's another fun one. We had a crazy candle that spins around, opens up like a flower, and plays music.
After difficult and late settling down for some kids (mine), we had another fairly early morning. Fortunately the kids were happy to play together quietly for a while before everyone had to hit the road.
Thanks to all for a delightful birthday!

Hot Dog

The best thing about this picture is that I found it after putting the kids to bed.

Unattractive Pictures of Me

Henry's bike riding has been very exciting this weekend. He somehow went from a few unsteady pedals and crashing on Friday to zooming up and down the sidewalks on Saturday. I can't even believe it. He was easy to potty train too. Maybe it's his way of making up for his difficult entry into this world.
I thought I'd update a bit about mother's day. I got to sleep in a bit, even though Henry came in to blow his nose in my face and Clara came in to jump over me and shout "I a frog!!" When I made my way to the kitchen I was greeted with gifts and french toast. Pete even offered to go to Starbucks for me, but I'm still on hiatus until next weekend. Okay...so I've broken it a couple times for special occasions, but for the most part I have done very very well.
After breakfast and cards and gifts (the kids chose some very sweet earrings for me and Pete gave me a lovely silver and turquoise bracelet) there were baths to be had. If I had taken a photo of Henry in the bath tonight you would have seen bruises all up and down his legs from the bike riding. I guess he's getting a little old for me to be taking bathtub pictures.
We stopped by Deerfield so Pete could wish his own mother a happy day. The kids gave her a card with a special Grandma sticker. I wonder if she really did wear it all day...?
After naps we went for an early dinner at Bennihana. I had wanted to go to Ron of Japan with the kids, but they aren't open on Sundays. Also, I don't think they have these cool hat menus.
This is not a very pretty picture of me, but it gives me good memories of that Mai Tai. Good thing I had two so each kid could have a cherry. Clara also enjoyed playing with the chopsticks.
It's been true spring around here with unpredictable weather. Thursday morning we were all set to spend the morning at the library, out of the rain. We had to drive the long way around because the road was flooded from the creek under the train tracks. When we got to the library it was suspiciously dark and the lot was empty. They were having some flooding problems and had closed for the day. So we ran to the grocery and then back home for craft day instead. This scenario was the precursor to the 2-year-old-with-glitter incident that happened later that day. And again the next morning.
The last two pictures are from today. I decided last night that I would try a new trick to keep the kids quiet so Pete and I could sleep in a little bit. I told them that after they were asleep I'd find a toy they hadn't played with for a long time and I'd put it in the middle of their room so when they awoke they could play with it. They seemed excited. I pulled together a couple of dinosaur things and a couple pages of dino stickers. When I got out of bed a little after 8 (miraculous!) they looked like this:
And here are Clara, Anna and Henry spying on a mama robin who likes to nest right outside the bathroom window. It makes for lovely easy viewing for us! We also have a chickadee family nesting in a little birdhouse on the garden bench. The mama sits on the telephone wire and scolds me the whole time I'm trying to do any planting.

Henry Rides his Bike

Listen for Clara saying "marching, marching". Also watch for Anna and Sebby on their vehicles.

Marni- Close your eyes!

So, knitting friends, I am slowly plodding into the world of dpns. It's scary, but I had the mother of a former kindergarten student holding my hand along the way (her son, my former student, is now almost driving and she is now my knitting teacher). I think I'm going okay now, if I can just keep the stitches on the needles. This is the baby hat from OneSkein- Joyce, did you make this one for Clara? The green hat? So far I have high hopes...but no idea how the size will be by the time I'm finished. Fingers crossed!!!!Here's another project I have going right now....this is my first real project in the round. It's going to be a jumper for Clara if I can ever get it done. Maybe I already shared something about it on here? Right know it's just knit knit knit knit knit knit knit. I need to get the skirt to measure about 12 inches before I get to the tricky part. I'll probably have to sign up for the next round of classes if I ever want to finish.
I also have another project on the sticks and several ideas for future projects....no idea how I'll ever get any of them completed.

Henry's First Hundred

Ever since losing his first two teeth and a recent break-in to his piggy bank to discover all of the money in there, Henry has been moderately obsessed with the concept of money. Mostly he likes to look at it. Sometimes he likes to trace the bills and make his own $100 to keep in his wallet. This morning Pete and I finally took him to the bank to open up his own account and deposit his bills. We made him clean up a bit for the occasion as well.
Henry walked up to the teller and said, in his small embarrassed voice, "I want to open an account." And then he stood there and jiggled his leg back and forth so everyone could hear the coins jangling around in his pocket. The teller was nice enough to notice. She said "Oh! I hear it in there!"
Henry was offered a drink while he sat at the big desk in the office. He also helped himself, quite delightedly, to a Tootsie Roll. Here he puts his new card into his wallet.
After filling out all of the appropriate forms we went back up to the counter to make the deposit. First Henry counted out all of his singles and a pile of quarters...just enough to make $100. Then we asked if he could trade that all in for a $100 bill.
Henry spent a lot of time inspecting both sides of the bill, before finally, reluctantly, handing it over.
He did get this nifty receipt, however, to show that he had made his deposit.
I wonder where he imagines that bill to be now. I always pictured that there was a vault at the bank designated just for my money and I pictured my stacks of bills sitting on pallets in the middle of the floor. Hopefully Henry's bill won't be lonely.