Went to the park today. We were the only ones there, so I forced the kids to let me take a couple pictures. After that, they played and I read and it was delightful.

I went outside to dump the some stuff on the compost pile and thought the blades of grass and clover looked neat. Rather than large drops of water, it was all covered by very small, fine drops of water. The yard looked as if it was sparkling.

Around the yard

Bleeding Heart

Weeds (but pretty ones)

Blueberry blossoms

Wee, baby blueberries

I was thinking we could probably get by with the socks we had until fall. It didn't seem necessary to buy new socks when the kids will be exclusively wearing sandals or flip-flops and no socks in just a few weeks. But I think we are very close to losing sock integrity.

Celebrated Christina's birthday with the family tonight.

This was a lollipop. I think I've mentioned here before that Tina loves candy. Can you tell?

Strawberry Cake

Happy 9th Birthday, Chistina!  Where has my baby girl gone?

This weekend my mom, my sister, and a friend of theirs (who is now a new friend of mine) had a girls' weekend in Greenville together. I took no pictures, to my dismay and their relief. But after we got home we celebrated the girls' birthdays together and I did manage to get a few pictures.

Pretty girls

Cool girls

Taryn was excited to get a season of Little House on the Prairie

And Tina was excited about her new Bible

And we were all excited about the yummy cheesecake with choice of toppings

Finally got around to changing from the "Love is Born" Christmas flag to the spring flag. And it was fitting that the kids were out enjoying spring.

Found this little bit of happy on my kitchen windowsill this morning. Thank you Tina!

Company coming tonight for dinner. Hmm. We've got some work to do!

Tonight we celebrated Taryn's birthday with cake and presents. The nice thing about being as laid-back as we are, is that we don't feel constrained by a date on a calendar. Tonight was a more convenient night to celebrate, so that's what we did. (And there is that little fact that we had to go shopping last night to buy some gifts for her. It would have been a sad little party, had we done it last night).

Odie thinks he is one of the kids

Rebekah crocheted this adorable little octopus

She wanted a ring, but got earrings instead. I think she liked them just as much.

Birthday cake. It was lemon. Her dinner was white bean chicken chili.

We also bought new bedspreads for the girls' bedroom and plan to paint it, so that is her big gift. Pictures will be posted when it is finished (hopefully some time before she turns 15).

Happy FOURTEENTH Birthday, Taryn!! What a beautiful, young lady you have become.

A little trick we have used at various times with our kids: push two chairs together to make a bed. Perfect for little ones, as the arms of the chair act like crib walls. We did that last night for David, but I do believe that is the last time we'll be able to do that. My little babies are getting big!

Devils Fork State Park

Staying in one of their villas overnight.

Swimming (though this really could just be considered a lot of screaming accompanied by running in and out of the water)

Hiking/Fishing (neither of which I took a picture of)

Smores

Games

Tickling

Perfection.

Supermoon. It was so bright and beautiful tonight. I zoomed in as far as I could with my camera, but had to zoom digitally on the computer to get this image. Still, a pretty neat looking picture.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The kids relayed this story to me at dinner tonight. They were playing a game at the playground which required people wearing a certain color to run. When they called green David ran. A girl looked at him and said, "Hey! You're not wearing green." David replied, "Yes, I am" and pointed to the green dinosaur on his shirt. "That's not enough green" she persisted. David was unconcerned. "Oh, I've got more" and proceeded to pull down his pants to show off the green on his underwear.

What a mess! And I say that in the most affectionate way possible.

Not a great picture because my camera was set on manual focus instead of auto and I didn't realize it. But the expressions were so cute I had to post it anyway. This was a spelling lesson!? Joseph was reading a list of words and Tina was acting them out as he read. I think this was "together".

Tuesdays I go to band practice with the Clemson University Concert Band. So I thought one Tuesday my picture of the day needed to be of a clarinet and I'm finally getting around to it. I couldn't decide if I liked the one which focused on her fingers better or the one focused on her eyes. What do you think?

We were sitting and doing our reading for school. I looked up and noticed that the light was so nice on Sam's eyes that I had to grab my camera for a couple of pictures.

Taryn loves her shoes. She feels like an

(She thought this would be a cool picture... and I think she was right).

It's Popsicle time....

(Truth be told... it's always Popsicle time. It is just now you can eat them outside)

What little girl doesn't love her own little hidey-hole?



We ordered new bedspreads for the girls off the internet and they arrived yesterday. Next time maybe I should just order the box.

After the rain: