From back in April

From our spring break trip. Judi, Tia, and Rob are in these pictures. The F___'s are out at "On the Border."

Deck Rejuvenated

before:


after:

Cousins

Last Saturday, our brunette (yay, finally! another brunette in the house) cousin from the north came down and paid a visit. The girls had super fun with Kristina!

End of Kindergarten

We're almost about to leave kindergarten for the last time! Here's some homework we'll be doing over the summer. Tia picks cards from the reading box, then reads them, tries to learn how to spell them, and writes them out. I can't believe we'll be out of kindergarten. Ms. B, we will miss you! She has had all 3 girls. When Nat was in Kindergarten, there were two teachers and Ms. B was one of them. Ms. B was the main teacher in the morning and Mrs. G assisted in the morning and Mrs. G was the main teacher in the afternoon and Ms B assisted in the afternoon. Pretty cool that Ms. B had all 3.

Also...

Today would have been 65 years for this wonderful couple. (This was taken at their 60th anniversary party in 2006.)

Character day (Photo of the week 21/52)

Today is Character Day at School. I'm not sure how it differs from Halloween, except maybe less candy. You're also supposed to dress up as your favorite character from a book or movie. Here are our 3 characters: Hermione, Buzz Lightyear, and Laura Ingalls.

The second photo is photo of the week because Tia is sticking her tongue out!

Happy Day!

Happy towel day! Read about it here!

And it's National Tap Dance Day.

So what happened?

I'm not sure why I haven't been posting. Work is a little busy, but it's been busier. School is ending, soon. We're down to 8 days! I'll try to get inspired.... I've got a couple of ideas.

Kindergarten homework

I took these a few weeks back when Tia was doing her homework. She read a book about a magic pebble that granted wishes. Her wish was for a dog. You can read it on her paper.

Question of the day

Tia: What if you had a time machine and you set it to go to the same time as where you are now?

Daddy: I can make you one of those!

Happy birthday, Buddy! (Photo of the week 20/52)

You are 4!

I think we'll make photo of the week for week 20 the one of Nat and Buddy sleeping.

Petting Zoo cuteness

These were taken 4/30/11 at the Petting Zoo hosted by 4H. Nat and Tia were supposed to be helping with the animals, but when we went to help, it was a really slow time, so they got to pet.

Nice Chicken

Sweet (big) bunny


A young and sweet chicken.


Big bunny!

Someday, we'll have chickens in our back yard for petting and for our own supply of eggs.

All dressed for research

Taken a couple summers back (2009) by a friend who came to visit me. I am a research scientist and I have a lab coat.

A trip to the Zoo

in Wichita, during spring break. (These were taken 4/18/11--I'm less than a month behind! Wheee!)










If you noticed, the little iPhone 4 does SUPER outdoors and not so well indoors.

A new park (2nd photo of the week for week 19)

A new park, about 30 minutes from our house. We visited for the first time, today. It was super fun. We will be back!

If we didn't already have photo of the week, I would say Kira in the little house would be photo of the week. Heck, maybe we'll have two photos of the week this week--why not live a little!

Once again, I love the iPhone 4 for outdoor pictures. I darkened up the one of the girls standing on the (fake) tree trunk, because it looked over exposed. Now, it looks a little funny to me, but I really like the colors in the rest of the pictures. Not bad for a teeny tiny little camera that also makes phone calls, connects me to the web, lets me play games and amuse my children, read books, buy shoes, etc.

Silkworm sitting

Nat is silkworm sitting this weekend for her teacher from last year.

LATE: Photo of the week 16/52

Tia pushed Grandma F around at the Botanical Gardens. Grandma said, "Why walk when you can ride?" It was a super fun day.

LATE: Walkathon 2011 (Photo of the week 15/52)

It was fun except Nat was sick and couldn't walk--very sad.


Photo of the week... Daddy and Kira walk together!


Kira walked 18 laps... Yay! Almost 4 miles (1 mile = 5 times around the track, we think.)


Tia did 10 laps!

7! (Photo of the week 19/52)

On her 7th birthday.... more coming, soon.

Oh, one of these is photo of the week. I can't decide which one, so you choose! Feel free to vote in the comments. (I might like the top one slightly better.... Thoughts?)

While we re-group...

enjoy the lovely flowers. We'll be back with regularly scheduled blogging, soon.

Sweet boy

We fell in love with you in January and wanted you to be our kitty. We are so sad we only got to spend a few months with you. Life isn't fair; FIP isn't fair. We will always think of you and we will always love you, Chocolate. We loved the little rogue white whisker under your chin and how soft and cute your little meow was. We called you squeaky kitty 'cause you squeaked. You liked to jump on people's backs when they were bending over and you loved to snuggle. Rest in peace, Chocolate, you were loved. (March 24, 2010 - May 9, 2011)

Last week (Photo of the week 18/52)

Last week was pretty busy. Chocolate is still sick. On Sunday night (5/1), he want down to stay at the woman's house who had him before we did (we'll call her R, rather than "the other woman").

We wanted to see if a little extra kitty attention and love from R could help make the difference. R had him as a kitten through when we adopted him and she just loves him! He's a very special cat. Choco came home from his visit on Thursday. He seemed to have a good time on the visit and then he also seemed happy to be home. He's still very sick, but wanting to be around the family and hang out. This morning he jumped up in my lap at breakfast. We love the little guy. These photos were taken on Tuesday when we went down to see Chocolate at R's house.

Last week's activities also included horse back riding (see previous post) a petting zoo for 4H (photos coming, soon) and a bowling birthday party for one of Nat's best friends (again, photos coming).

I'll try to post a little more this week. It's hard having a sick Choco-kitty. (Top photo of Chocolate is Photo of the week.)

Dressed and Riding

Dressed...


Riding

Kira got to go horseback riding with the girl scouts. When she got all dressed, I thought she looked ready for Polo... Go Team Apple. We're planning another trip to the stables with all the girls, soon (errr, July, but that will be here before you know it!).