walks to the park again

Hey, instead of updating the the other "walks to the park", I just thought I'd put the rest of the pictures in a new post. Only a couple of captions--we're leaving for Rome in a few hours and I don't really have time to be creative or funny. I really don't have time to post these pictures either, but I've been promising them for days, so here goes...


Tadpoles!



The tadpole's two worst enemies: Snapping turtles and mommies who don't know how to take care of tadpoles (after the first of our two died, we threw the other one back).











:o)

a sad cinderella post

After just having complained how I hated taking my kids everywhere!, I'd just like to go somewhere by myself for a change!, etc., etc., and so forth!, Leah came home with terribly sad news. She asked me if I had heard about Steven Curtis Chapman. I said no, not expecting what was going to come next. His teenage son backed their SUV over his 5 year old daughter, and she died from her injuries later at the hospital . This was sad of course, and I felt for him. But it wasn't until she said, "It's so sad 'cause he wrote that song, 'Cinderella'"... I've heard this song on the radio many times. And though it's always seemed like one of those tunes with lyrics orchestrated just to make you cry, I also knew that he had a daughter that he was singing about, so it was ok. And since Aubie is going through her Cinderella phase, it always made me tear up a bit. When Leah said that, I couldn't hold back the tears. "Cause all to soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone." What beautifully sad lyrics! I don't care if I do have to take my children with me everywhere I go until they're able to drive, they're still here with me right now. This tragedy has made me rethink and realize how truly blessed I really am.
Please pray for SCC's family--especially his son.
I still plan to update my photos later. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this.

walks to the park

, its been a while. I've had this one in my head for a few days, but am just now getting around to it. (And look, after I wrote that, it still took me almost a week to get it posted.)
Anyway, these are just various pictures of our walks to the park the past week or two. Mostly we walk in the evening before Matthan's bath then bedtime. But we do go during the day some as well. Anytime we go, we have to walk down to the pond to look for tadpoles or to see how big the baby ducks are getting. This post is about what we do when we're there. No captions, just pictures this time.
I've got a few more pictures to add to this one tomorrow, but I told Aunt Karen I'd post today, so here it is. When you see *updated*, you'll know I added them.

cinderelly, cinderelly *updated

Saturday night, Leah and I surprised Aubie by taking her to see Cinderella.
If you click on this oddly shaped, badly put together photo of Aubie, you'll find that its one picture of legs and another of the rest of her. I had to find some way to get rid of Eda. I knew she would fuss if she looked on my blog and found a picture of her that (she would consider) is quite unflattering! But I just love how Aubie is sitting--you can just sense her anticipation. You might be wondering why I didn't cut Leah out on Photoshop. Well, after an hour of trying, I realized if I don't have time for flowcharts, I don't have time to prettily cut people out of pictures, either.



In fact, you can just deal with the fact that this post has several bad pictures. You can't use a flash during a play, and when people move and there's no flash, its just bound to be shaky. But I thought these statues were pretty cool. They were actually people dressed up and they did a great job at staying still. Thus making them the only non-blurry things in these pictures.


After Cinderella, the drama team did their version of Stomp! and the audience was advised to take their small children out at their discretion since it "is hiphop" and "some things might not be appropriate" for younger viewers. I was quite appalled at them feeling the need to turn Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella into a "Follies" event (there was a one act play before the musical as well). But, we could never have gotten this lovely shot of the prince and Aubie if we hadn't had to leave the auditorium for "Stomp!". He just happened to walk through while we were waiting for it to be over, and kindly agreed to get a picture with Aubie. She was so happy!


I caught Cinderella and the prince as soon as they turned the corner after the show and asked could we get a picture. It turned out great except for the one-act people behind them. Maybe one day I can figure out how to Photoshop them out. Until then, I'll just leave them there. I don't feel like chopping up anymore pictures today.Look at this! Mom's cousin Sue sent this to me last night. When Aubie saw it , I think she was a little confused, because she didn't remember having stood in front of a castle. When I explained it to her though, she said, "That's cool!"

Just when you get on a roll...

My explanation to my frequent, then infrequent blogging: Naps or no naps. If Matthan gets a nap, then I get a chance to upload pictures. If he doesn't, then I don't. I'd love to make a flow chart to explain all the possibilities--if no nap, then night time, did David go to bed early?, then no blogging--but I'm sure you're not that interested, and I really don't have time for flow charts, do I?
Anyway, on with the blog.
Aunt Evelyn came to visit with Ma April 23, and while she was there we came to see her. Here's a picture of her and Matthan. (I just love that sweet smile!)

It was also MarMar's birthday that Wednesday! She has always been so generous to us--I wanted to do something special for her for her this year. So, I asked Aubie to pick out some fabric for her, and she picked out the pink frogs. There was a whole theme with all different kinds of of matching fabrics, so I thought the pink frogs could be from Aubie, and the green frogs could be from Matthan. But what to make with pink and green frogs? I was going to make a pillow, but I remembered that I had a photo album that I meant to cover and hadn't gotten around to it and realized that of course this would be much more useful than a pillow. So I pieced the frogs, added bead eyes to the big one in the middle and quilted him so he'd stand out. I was able to use the serger again, so that was extremely helpful in making it look finished.

Oh! I forgot to say what was so cool about the frogs! When we were little, Aunt Marilyn used to tell us this story about "the Little Loud Mouth Frog". It has such a cute ending. Just one of many memories of MarMar's fun stories. So when Aubie picked out this frog fabric, I thought it was so perfect--my two "little loud mouth frogs" were giving MarMar something to keep her memories in.

Here are two pictures of Aubie that I took to go in the album (these were some of the best out of several. You just never can tell when she's going to be in a photogenic mood).