Garden Shots

Does anyone know what this plant is? I have cared for it for 6 years, I even moved it to our new house. It has kind of fern like greenery. The the flowers start as bunches of pink balls that all of the sudden seem to sproing open into these white flowers. I love it, I just don't know what it is.

Also I tool this picture because it was so cool. It is a leaf encapsulated in a bead of water, with a puff of pollen floating in it. It reminded me of a marble.

Advice for the Day

Ok, you know these tops that allow you to pull just one sheet of, say, clorox wipes or diaper wipes, out? My advice for the day is that if you accidentally pull one too many out, just throw it away and call it a loss. Don't try to stuff it back in.

I did try to stuff it back in and could not get my finger back out. I tried for 2-3 minutes, which doesn't sound long, but I had no circulation to the tip of my finger, and those barbs were really digging in.

I succeeded in sliding a baby spoon handle down between my finger and half of the barbs, but that just transferred all the pressure onto the remaining barbs, thus digging them in deeper.

I considered a photographic journey in the very beginning of the process, but I quickly became scared that I was going to have to call 911 to come cut the thing off, so I abandoned the idea to save time.

Finally I was able to wedge a pair of scissors in there and cut off the remaining barbs (don't worry I only barely nicked my skin once, it didn't even bleed.)

I am not sure if you can see it in the photo, but my pointer finger is still red and hot 20 minutes later.


Here is the damage the top sustained, the poor thing. Actually, Ben was watching the whole time and when I got out the scissors he begged and pleaded that I not use the scissors to hurt the top. He was excited for my finger when it finally came free.

One More Thing

If you ask Ben how old he is, he gets all upset and says, "I'm not old, I want to be new!!!" While trying to figure this out, I learned that he is worried about death. Old people die, so he is not old, he is new.

He asked how old Jacob was and I answered almost 2 years old. Then Ben asked if Jacob was going to die. Then he asked how old I was, I told him 30, and he asked if that was old and if I was going to die. Such deep thoughts from a little boy!!

Sophie' Birthday

I can't believe that my first child is now six years old!!! She is growing more and more beautiful each day, inside and out. Sophie's party was a little more mellow than Ben's because eventually she is going to have one with some of her school friends.

After Sophie saw Ben's monster truck cake I knew she would want a fancy cake. The first thing she asked for was a little mermaid cake. I told her I didn't know how to do that. I was waiting for her to say, princess cake or something intricate, but she very excitedly asked for a flip flop cake and that is what she got.

It was a strawberry cake made with real strawberries. It also had a box of jello in in. When I have more time I would like to tweak the recipe so that it is just real strawberries. The frosting was pink entirely from strawberries.

The interesting thing is that Aaron said it was the best cake he had ever had, even better than chocolate with peanut butter frosting!!!

Here it is!!!


Blowing out the candle (which fell and burnt the hair off my pinkie finger.)


Ben and Sophie playing in their new sleeping bags.

Here is the story. We went cheap on sleeping bags for the kids birthday. We tried LLBean, but they didn't have any in our price range.

The bags came in plenty of time, but when Ben opened his, I wasn't really impressed with the quality. I figured it was ok, but within 12 hours, 8 of which were spent sleeping, there where 2 little tears. I was rolling it up when I noticed the stitching coming undone, so we packed them both up and sent them back.

In the meantime a navy blue and a thistle sleeping bag went on sale at LLBean. In the end, these top quality bags cost less than the cheapy ones we had originally purchased.

Also I ordered them Wednesday afternoon and they got here Friday, just in time for Sophie to open hers before we had to leave for graduation. I love LLBean!!! Oh and that was with a extra day added on for the monogramming!

Spider

The other day (Wednesday or Thursday I think,) I cut some peonies out of my garden. I LOVE their scent. Then Ben and I picked some wild flowers. That night at dinner we had two lovely bouquets on the dinner table. We also had two lovely dinner guests who must have come in with the flowers. I could only capture one of the spiders. The other one was the size of a speck. I tried for a long time to get the spider on its perfect web, but my camera or maybe it was me, couldn't capture it. Still it was a pretty spider.

Ben's Birthday

Ok here are the rest of the pictures of Ben's Birthday. At the least minute he asked if he could have his friend Ella over for his birthday. Luckily she and her family were available (thanks in part to the tornado warning.) So...

Here are the kids ready for presents


The digger the Joe and Mariana gave Ben


The book about diggers and tractors and the like (I can't remember the actual title right now, but you can tell Ben like it!!)


Blowing out the candles

So that is what a four year old boys birthday party is like. We had a lot of fun, good company and no tornadoes (YEA!!!!) I can't believe Ben is four already. He has grown and changed so much this past year. I can't wait to see what this year brings!

Birthday Stuff

Here is my first attempt at a theme cake. It is supposed to be a monster truck. I think it turned out a little more like a monster mini-van, but either way it is a vehicle so Ben likes it.

Mandala

One of Ben's new favorite things to do is to this Magnetic Mandala my sister gave the kids for Christmas.

It comes with a little pattern book that states that the mandala, "provides hours of fun and relaxation." I am not sure what they are talking about because first of all there is a grid on the board and the pieces almost never line up exactly which really irritates me. Then just when I get it perfect someone will bump it so we have to start all over again. Ben really wants to make the pattern in the book, but doesn't want follow the directions to actually accomplish that.

I really don't understand what the booklet means by, "the harmony of the Mandala, symbols of the earth, the universe and life, is transmitted to the child, who is often affected by the tension of adults..."

Here is our free form result.

Crab Apple Tree

Our crab apple tree has never flowered since we have been here, but this spring we cleaned some vines off of it that must have been choking out because it is blooming now! I can't tell you the joy I feel when I look out the window and see that gorgeous tree, or when I walk by it and smell that delicate perfume. It makes me think of a song... Whenever I hear the song of a bird or look at the blue blue sky... Well, I guess it doesn't come off so well in print.


You can see the offending vines on the fence. We like the vines because the cover the ugly fence. We will just have to keep on them to save the tree.

Just a couple of shots of Ben and Sophie...

I have a video of Ben swinging that will appear when we have DSL, so a still will have to capture the joy for now.

I took lots of photos of Sophie playing with her Polly Pocket, but she wasn't interested in a photos shoot so the best I can get is play in action. She looks so grown up to me. By the way do you know that she only has 6 1/2 days until she is done with her first year of school? And only 5 1/2 days until she is 6?

Prom

Last Saturday Aaron chaperoned the prom which had the theme, "Hollywood." He went as security. I have always loved a man in uniform.

Catch Up

I haven't posted in a week because I keep trying to load some videos and they are giving me a hard time sooo.... I continue without video. I will add all the videos in a week and a half when we get DSL, 6 times faster than our current internet connection!!!!!!! Until then...