P365 May 24-30

Monday was quite hot, over 90. It hadn't been that hot since the last week of June last year. Alisha was running at a track meet that day. Sarah & Daniel met me at the car when I got home and they were in their swimming suits. "Can we go to the park??" I was hot & sticky too, so I changed, and Sarah, Daniel, Michael & I went swimming for an hour or so before we came home for dinner. It was very refreshing.

Alisha's graduation party was on Tuesday. It rained (only a little--it poured elsewhere), so most of the adults stayed inside. The kids played games outside, and Michael manned the bonfire (which was really quite impressive) where they eventually roasted marshmallows. We had tacos/nachos and a rather nice turnout. Thank you to all who came.

Graduation over, I had to start working on my quilt again. Here are over 100 flying geese blocks, that are finally cut out. Now, time to assemble.

On Thursday I got to go to Como Zoo with Daniel and the rest of the 2nd grade. It was a perfect day of about 76 degrees, and low humidity. My friend Mary came to chaperone her daughter Elizabeth (Daniel's best friend), so we all hung out together. It was a lot of fun, though we didn't get to see the polar bears, because their new exhibit doesn't open until June 3. :-(
We went to another ward party and drove home just as the moon was rising. It was really big & orange...
I went with Alisha to a graduation party of a friend of hers at Clear Lake Park. There were a couple of dead trees that recently got cut down. This week the stumps got transformed. This one has an eagle perched on a stump, and at the bottom, it has a bear sitting at the bottom of it. The other stump will be a fish.
This is my flower bed in a rather boring state....all green. The spring flowers have faded, and the summer flowers haven't opened yet. It is rather pretty, with the long straping leaves of the daffodils and daylillies, the flat leaves of the peonies, the little, light leaves of the ferns, the pointy leaves of the wild dasies, etc.

Have a great Memorial Day. I get to work (for holiday pay), but the kids will participate at the ceremony at the cemetary.

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope this works!

p365 May 17-23

Monday was the best band concert of the year. The pops concert, aka the 'pie concert'. and yes, there is pie. Lots of it too. I like the concert because it shows the band progression. First the elementary band, then the Jr. High band, and finally, the High School band. After hearing the elementary band, you can certainly appreciate how well, the high school band has improved. :-)

This is my last daffodil picture of the year. They are now all gone. :-(

Wednesday night was the Cub Scout end of year Pack Meeting/picnic. Daniel recieved his Wolf badge and 3 arrow points.

Thursday night was Bacculareate/awards night. This is Alisha receiving recognition for being a part of SNAP (a group that worked with inclusion of kids of all abilities). She also was recognized for going to Girls' State this past summer, and for being an honor student.

Our ward started having Friday night fireside/picnics last summer. We've started having them again this year. Friday was the first one of the year. This is John, Michael & Richard relaxing by the fire.

O.K., its a carpet. Its a really ugly carpet. But I can see it! Its my basement floor, and I haven't seen it in at least 6 months. Alisha cleaned it up so people can go down there for her graduation party this week.

Today was Alisha's graduation. The class of 2010. I'm proud of her, and she graduated with honors as well.

Have a great week!

p365 May 10-16

It's mid may, and the sun finally came out. It rained for 12 of the first 14 days of the month. Not only that, but it got warm again--We should be near 80 degrees by Thursday. YAY!!

Monday I ran to St. Paul to buy the patches for my Girl Scouts. Buying for 10 girls makes for a lot of patches!!!

I came upstairs Tuesday night and found Sarah & Daniel counting his money. He had over a dollar in pennies alone!!

This beauty is in my yard. If I put weed killer on my lawn, I would have no lawn left. One of the benifits of living in the country.

Thursday was the Girl Scout Court of Awards. They got all the patches I bought on Monday, plus I had 7 girls (including Sarah) earn the Bronze award. They worked hard this year, and I was proud of them.

Friday I went with Alisha to the Mall of America for her Senior Class trip. We went shopping and then stopped at Bubba Gump Shrimp ("Its a household name") for lunch. It was a fun place to eat. We had coconut shrimp, tempura shrimp, shrimp cocktail, and fried shrimp..."that's about it."

This little guy was in my garden when I was planting pansies in my garden on Saturday. He wasn't too excited at being caught so I put him down where he posed for a while before he hopped away.

This is my new toy. (I got it a couple of days ago, but took the picture today.) It was time to upgrade my phone, so I went android. This is a Motorola Cliq Blur. I've got my Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, etc., but the fun part is the apps. I've found pitch pipes/metronomes, grocery list makers, etc.

p 365 May 3-9

On Monday, Alisha & Emily had their annual FCCLA end of year Banquet. Alisha recieved a plaque for being a member for 6 years. (for older folks, you may remember FCCLA in high school as FHA (future homemakers of America) it changed in 1999 to FCCLA(Future Career & Community Leaders of America)).

We had kind of some wild weather this week. For several afternoons, it would rain, stop, rain, stop, and with all that some really cool clouds rolled through. This group was right at sunset.

Really not the most flattering picture of me, but that's what I get for having someone else take the picture. :-) The 4th grade had their annual 'Festival of Nations.' The kids are supposed to research a country that their ancestors were from, make a report, and then display it, visual aids and a food item at the festival. All my kids have done a different country since we are such Mutts. Alisha did Sweden; Emily, Norway; Michael, Ireland, and Sarah did England. Daniel still has quite a selection of countries to pick from when it is his turn. We made a Trifle that was very well recieved.

Another picture of storm clouds.

The flowering trees are in full splendor right now (actually, this is just past their prime-the pink crabapple trees were spectacular-now they are just pretty). So, here is a crabapple next to a popcorn tree. :-) No, they are not in my yard. Click on the picture to make it larger, to see the blue bottle tree in the bottom right corner of the picture.

Yes, this is what it looks like. On the evening of May 7-the morning of May 8, we got this. Snow. We haven't had snow since February!! At least it wasn't much, and it melted as soon as the sun came out.

We got a new car! O.K., it has 130,000 miles on it, but the price was right. Dave wanted to give it to us, but he had just recently had some new parts put in it, so we paid him for that, and we now have a 3rd car. Runs a little rough, but Richard is better with rough running cars than Dave is, so we now have a vehicle. YAY!!

Happy Mothers' Day to my mother and all my sisters, sisters-in-law, and all my other mother friends!

p365 April 26-May 2

Monday night was Alisha's last Jazz Band concert. She has been going to school early twice a week since 7th grade for jazz band practice. The band sounded great, and this year was maybe the first year that she also didn't have a track meet right before the concert.

There are some sheep that live about a mile down the road. I brought my camera with me on my walk on Tuesday.

I also have this lovely vista not too far away. With the morning sun coming through the trees, and the still water, it was just gorgeous.

Michael finally got his plaque for having straight A's first semester (now that the 2nd semester is almost over).

My spring flowers are really at their peak right now. Spring is so far ahead of schedule for us, everything is blooming about 3 weeks ahead of when they usually do. We just finished the warmest April on record. No snow in either March or April. Highly unusual, indeed.

On Saturday we went to a reception for a girl from our ward (Michelle Peterson)who has been at BYU for several years, and got married a week ago in San Diego (to Dustin Schleisman).

Its the 2nd of May and the wild trillium are blooming. You will see whole hills covered in them around here, but in my yard, I only have a few and I have to search carefully to see if they are still there every year. I found them today, and that makes me smile.

Have a great week!