We attended a fun graduation party with the theme 1940s and 1950s. I thought it a great opportunity get some good pictures of the gang. The boys all dressed in suits with matching hats.
Quite the handsome bunch, aren't they? Of course, they deny that charge.
Here's Corbin:
Caleb (with Birdzie):
and Alex:
The girls didn't have any poodle skirts handy, so we made do with regular dresses and some curlers.
Here's Rosa:
and Anna:
(Nora was already at the party helping out.)
Here's Lee:
Finally, Ella:
Back at home, school was finishing up. Birdzie saw Caleb through finals week.
Then, summer! The kids decided to try out their skates. Anna got into the grove pretty quickly.
Rosa decided to try it out this year. For a while she was all legs, but slowly she figured it out. Lookout world!
Monkey girl just stuck to her balls.
My camera finally was dropped one to many times so I bit the bullet and bought a new one. It involved a bit of a learning curve to get good shots, but now I am happy with my purchase. The following are some of my first shots taken with it.
Here's Ella fussing because I won't pick her up:
And here's a much happier Ella with a brand new ball:
Every spring birds of all types nest around our neighborhood. Being bird lovers, we enjoy watching the young robins, cardinals, and finches. So we were overjoyed when a finch family chose to nest right out our kitchen window in some nearby bushes. The little babies chirps, which sounded like crickets chirping, wafted through our window. Here is a parent feeding the nestlings:
Then the crows came. Every summer the same gang of three crows comes to our small town and ravages the songbirds. First they killed all the baby robins and cardinals. We hoped they wouldn't see "our" babies! But sadly, that morning we saw two tiny, lifeless bodies on the ground. They looked almost ready to leave the nest.
Why? The crows don't even eat their kill. It is so sad. We have decided to build lots of bird houses. It might not help the robins, but hopefully it will save some of the songbirds.
Luckily, our Kingdom Hall's resident birds were spared. A killdeer family chose to nest right in the rocks by our parking lot. The parents didn't seem to mind the occasional traffic, but they definitely let us know if we were getting too close! Here is a proud parent:
After a long while we were finally rewarded with the cutest, fuzziest babies we'd ever seen!
The swallows nested like mad, as usual. The nests used to be knocked down by some well meaning ones, but after Caleb plead the birds' case one year, it was decided to not knock down the nests until the babies were gone. Here is a nest full:
We had a fun gathering of some friends to play some baseball. The weather was perfect. Here's Alex waiting his turn at bat:
Corbin up at bat:
Oh, you noticed the cast?!? Yes, Corbin broke his arm. Again. He was on his bike and accidentally ran into Caleb, who was in-line skating. Caleb says what is amazing is he didn't even fall. Corbin, on the other hand, did. His wrist got the worst of it. Just in time for summer. As you can see in the above picture, however, that wasn't about to slow him down!
Anna and some of the younger ones were having fun with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Here is a little slideshow of Anna having fun with bubbles:
Another favorite activity the kids have is our slip 'n' slide. Here's Rosa having a go:
Annie B.'s turn!
Nora has become very motherly, which I enjoy. Here she is watching over Ella in the pool:
And here's Nora on the slide:
What a pro!
Ella is at the stage where she wants to do everything all the big people are doing. Here she is sitting in a chair, just like her big brothers.
Here's Corbin in his full cast. Doesn't he look thrilled to be spending another summer in a cast?
Here's one final shot of Ella in the pool:
We'll end with Corbin's perfect day. First he got to have a smaller, waterproof case put on. Then he got his next Lego kit in the mail. But the icing on the cake was winning our local radio station's guess the temperature. He won all kinds of coupons and such from local businesses. Here he is with his loot!
