Pic of the Day #88

"Up the hill, up the hill"

Okay, if you're familiar with Super Why! then this explanation will be unnecessary. Super Why! is a story where all of the characters are story book friends (fairy tales, nursery rhymes, etc.) and one of them is Jill, from the rhyme "Jack and Jill went up a hill" who decides to play mean and knock down block towers being built by Pig (son of one of the three little pigs). So Jill walks back and forth, carrying her water bucket and singing a little ditty "Up the hill, Up the hill. Stomp, stomp, stomp!" as she tramples Pig's block towers. So, in the picture Madison is carrying a small yellow bucket and singing "Up the hill, Up the hill. Stomp, stomp, stomp!"

Pic of the Day #87

"Alphabet Soup"

Madison had a blast playing with her alphabet letters, putting them in my 4 oz. containers and then filling them up with water. Then she was taking them in and out of the fridge for a while, too. I got after her for that one, though. The last thing I need is for her to let all the cool air out of my fridge!

Pic of the Day #86

"Morning Friend"

While Madison and I were playing at the park yesterday morning, we had a little friend who hopped around the perimeter eating his breakfast and watching us.

Pic of the Day #85

"Just Desserts"

Okay, so I went a few days without pulling out the camera at all, and we've skipped ahead from Sunday to Thursday. Oh, well. This is Kellen with his chocolate chip pancakes at brunch after his piano performance on Thursday morning. There were a couple of pancakes topped with whipped cream and then a whole bunch of chocolate sauce drizzled over it! He really enjoyed it, although I personally think it was just the sugar rush!

Pic of the Day #84

"A Branch of a Different Color"

This is my next door neighbor's tree. I thought it was kind of cool because the tree is covered in pink blossoms. Except for one branch of white blossoms. I'm not sure if they did this, or if it was done by previous residents at some point (I never talk to these neighbors) but if you look closely at the bottom center of the picture, you can see where the white branch was grafted in. So there is an entire tree of pink blossoms with a single branch of white blossoms growing out from it :)

Pic of the Day #83

"Kicking Back"

This tells you how far behind I am in my Pics of the Day; this picture is from last Saturday at the Earth Day celebrations. I seem to recall I was having a little trouble posting pictures between then and now, but here we go! Madison won't leave the cover of the stroller alone. Ever. As a matter of fact, lots of times she likes to pull it down so that it covers her from the tray up to her head. She called it her house just last night. But last Saturday she was getting a little bored towards the end, because I contained her in the stroller almost the entire day, so she pulled off her socks and shoes and threw them off to the side of the stroller. I had reclined the seat just a little so that (maybe) she'd take a nap - no such luck - so she's kicked back in bare feet while the other kids are checking out the stuff!

Pic of the Day #82

"Thunderegg"

Yep, that's the name of this particularly interesting piece of rock. I learned that there is a vast difference between geodes and thundereggs at the Rock and Gem Show this last weekend. Apparently, geodes have crystal that grows in the hollow of a rock from the perimeter to the center. Tundereggs, however, have a crack or opening somewhere that allows a particular form of silicone to fill them, creating the colors within. Also, geodes can just be 'cracked' open, and thundereggs have to be very carefully cut. Kellen and I each got our numbers called on the raffle and, while he chose the $5 certificate to any booth, I chose this beautiful thunderegg!

Pic of the Day #81

"I can dress myself!"Well, sort of. I know it's a little hard to see in the photo, but the dress is actually inside-out and backwards! I was a little busy with something else when she was trying to get it on, so she did it herself, managing to zip up the dress even though it was wrong side out :)

Pic of the Day #80

"Brilliant Colors"

I know (groan) ANOTHER flower. But I just can't seem to help myself. As each new brilliant piece of evidence pops up, proclaiming that spring (and therefor summer) can't be so very far away, I am drawn to capture them and share their beauty :) These ones happen to also be in my own yard, out front, so I get to see them outside the living room window all day long! Just lovely :)

Pic of the Day #79

"Old Toys, New Life"When Kellen was between the ages of 2 1/2 and 5 years old, we collected a LOT of Thomas the Tank Engine and Brio train items, because he was REALLY into that. Eventually, he outgrew them, of course, so they were put away in a box in the garage. Steve doesn't get rid of anything unless I make him. So we pulled them out this weekend and they have become Madison's new favorite toy. Especially the mountain, on the right side of the picture, because it makes different noises when things go over the mountain or through the tunnel :) I thought it was funny that Kellen had so much fun helping her build tracks and put trains together, just like he used to do.

Pic of the Day #78

"I want to slide!"

This was my favorite picture from the park, and literally the only other one I took that day :) She's not really smiling, but she loves the slide and will go over and over and over and over....

Pic of the Day #77

"Peek-A-Boo!"

I know, I am WAY behind on my pics of the day, so I am going to have play catch-up (it seems like I play that an awful lot, lately) and this one is first. The original owners of the house had either a cat or a small dog because this door sits under a built in desk area in the kitchen, where one of the computers sits. Madison found this last week and kept lifting the flap so that she could kind of look through. I was making dinner and she would call, "Mommy, can you see me?" so I took a picture of her peeking through the plastic pieces that prevent it being used anymore.

Pic of the Day #76

"Worthwhile Discoveries"

In the process of all my yard-work today, I found this plant at the back of the yard. I'm no gardener, really, but it looks like one of those Bleeding Hearts to me. Anyone may feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not at all certain that's what it's actually called! In any case, it sure looks pretty, and I had no idea until today that it was even there. I've lived in this house for 6 months and today was the first time I saw it! If nothing else, that made my hard work in the yard well worth it :)

Pic of the Day #75

"Another Artist?"

Kellen really enjoys his art work, and always has. It's something he has most definitely gotten from me, because there isn't much of that on his side of the family. So while I was making dinner, Madison started pulling clean dishes out of the dishwasher. In case you can't tell, that's not actually a mini-muffin pan and spatula; she's really holding a palette and paint brush, making works of art on the refrigerator!

Pic of the Day #74

"Waiting for Breakfast"This started with just Steve leaning on the edge of couch yesterday morning while I finished getting breakfast ready (they had already set the table and put out beverages; just waiting on the food itself) but then Madison climbed up on the couch and sat next to him. Then Kellen ran over to be in the picture as soon as he saw me getting the camera out! Only minutes after this we all sat down at the table to enjoy our French toast for breakfast :)

Pic of the Day #73

"Morning Colors"

These finally are getting ready to come into full bloom and, so far, they're the only pink bloom that I have in my yard. It's just too bad that there are only two tulip plants in my front yard, other than the ones in the flower box that the cat has been pooping in (and, no, that's not over), and these reddish-pink ones are the only ones ready to bloom. I know, I'm impatient :)

Pic of the Day #72

"Birdie House"

Madison loves watching Micky Mouse Clubhouse and one of the episodes has Goofy building a "birdie house" for baby red bird. They start out with trying to make the house out of playing cards, and then drinking straws, and finally out of building blocks. Obviously, the first two materials are easily blown away (on accident) by Pete, and the blocks are the necessary material to use to keep the house from blowing away again. So now Madison's favorite thing to build with her blocks is a "birdie house".

Pic of the Day #71

"All Done!"

This is a pair of slippers that Mom gave Kellen for Christmas this year and he finally pulled them out to put them together yesterday. I did one of them for him, to show him how it was done, and then he did the other one almost entirely alone. It was kind of funny that, on the one he did, he ran out of lacing when going around the toe because he wasn't pulling it tight enough. I had to show him how to go along and tighten all the loops in order to bring up enough lacing to finish the slipper toe :)

Pic of the Day #70

"We Won!"

Friday evening we got out the Yahtzee! and played a round. I managed to win, which was amazing considering some of the stuff I was rolling, and Madison had a blast trying to roll the dice. She didn't quite have it down by the time the game was over, but we had fun playing the game together. Kellen still requires a little help figuring out where his stuff should go, so I kept track of the scores for Kellen, Madison, and myself all on one sheet. Getting things in the right column got a little tricky, though :)

Pic of the Day #69

"Mixing Things"Okay, every child does this at some point. The funny thing is that Kellen told me a few days ago that he wants to be a chemist when he grows up. He really likes participating in science in school, and is reasonably good at math. When he saw that I was taking pictures of him playing in the dirt he explained that he had been mixing a few different things; there's some dirt, some water, and a few leaves in there that he's pulverizing with a short, blunt stick.