Heather's Bedroom

Heather got a "new" bed. 

Actually, we've had this for years. It has spent the last few years in the storage room. We decided to get it out and put it together for Heather. It makes her room look completely different.

She loves it!

Memorial Day - No Snow!

It wasn't the warmest Memorial Day we've had, but thank goodness for the sunshine. I don't think I could have stood another moment of cold, rainy, snowy weather. We started out bright and early for the parade in Orleans. Wayne is in the middle school marching band this year. You can see the high school marching band in the background in the brighter blue jackets. Below, Wayne and his friends warm up and get ready to line up.

A member of the VFW passed by handing out flags for children.

A gun salute in honor of our veterans.

The video below is very poor quality. My camera was invented before all digital cameras came with HD video, so you will have a hard time picking Wayne out of the group. Keep in mind that the high school band comes first, then the middle school. (I wish they had separated the two bands more. The two songs jumbled together. In person, you could hear each band distinctly, but in this video it's a jumble of notes.)

There was a bittersweet ceremony on the common after the parade.

Then it was off to the cemetery to plant flowers with a surprise visit from Debbie, John, and Jake.

We topped the day off with an evening baseball game.

It was a beautiful day to spend honoring the souls we love.

Spring Has Sprung

A warm and humid day caused one of the pear trees to explode with blossoms one moment when we weren't looking!

We've been keeping a close watch on this pair of mallard ducks. We would love to see ducklings swimming in our pond. I don't know if they would nest here or not. Probably they would prefer a quieter spot away from the daily visits from kids and dog. Actually, they don't seem to be bothered by us very much and only occasionally mildly annoyed with Spike.

And I just thought these were cute.

Saturday

Morning

Heather's first tball game of the season was yesterday morning. It was beautiful - sunny and warm, even at 8:30 a.m.

Heather poses with friend, cousin, classmate, and teammate, Jayden.  He is one day older than Heather.

Dennis is the sponsor of the team. I don't know if you can make out his name on the back of the t-shirt below, or not. Warming up before the game started.

On the pitcher's mound. Coaches pitch, but the players still play that position.

 Heather got a great hit here. (Notice the pink bat, pink baseball socks, and black and pink cleats.)

Excited about something!

Heather did a great job at her game. A big change from last year. She must be learning a few things from her big brother.

Afternoon

Wayne's middle school chorus and band concert at LR.

His old friend Dante is beside him to your right. 

Evening

Cole was at his friend Fintan's house, which is why he is conspicuously absent from all photos in this post.  Saturday evening, Wes and Wayne went to a work bee/barbecue at the baseball fieldswhile Heather and I went to a Girl Scout sleepover in the school gym.

 I had to make a special trip to Walmart to buy this air mattress.

 There was a healthy snack.

 A game called "throw your teddy bear as high as you can."

 A craft project - they decorated small jars to make tea light lanterns.

 Here it is all lit up in the dark (it's a battery operated tea light.) The gym was pretty at night while they were sleeping with their little tea lights next to them.

There was a movie and popcorn with lights off in the gym. Many of the girls, including Heather, were asleep before the movie was over. The rest settled down pretty quickly.

 Breakfast in the morning and then, thank goodness, home by 8:30 a.m.

Water to the Pond

It's a sad fact that for several years, the pond has been dying. The inlet has been choked up with cat tails, brush and mud.

 The spring that should flow to feed the pond seeps into the ground creating a muddy swamp before it reaches the pond. We've thought that someday, we would get a backhoe to come up and dig it out, giving the pond new life. The idea of the pond dying has been bothering Wayne a lot. He doesn't like that each winter we have less area to skate because the cat tails have grown in more. He has heard about how the family used to swim in the pond and he really wants to be able to do that too.  He's been pestering us to go out and work on the inlet for a while now. He figured we could just dig it all out with shovels. So one day this week after school, I decided to go over with him, just so he could experience first hand what an overwhelming job it would be. I thought he would realize that it just couldn't be done with shovels, and that someday we really would need a back hoe to get up here and do the job.

I was wrong.

Wayne wouldn't give up. We worked and worked for hours, into the evening. Wayne did all of the digging and shoveling and I cut brush and cat tails out of the path.

 Where ther was once just a muddy swamp, there is now a flow of water.

 He worked so hard for such a long time. He never admitted to being tired until he was about 20 feet from the pond, but he wouldn't give up. He was determined to see a flow of water to the pond.

The photo above documents the moment that a real flow of water reached the pond for the first time in years. It's not a huge flow, and the job should really still be done with a back hoe, but at least there is a constant, unobstructed flow of water. 

We went back the next day and cleaned out the outlet.

Pond

 In addition to kite flying, we went to the pond.

Kite Making and Flying

We've had beautiful weather all week. Last weekend Wayne, Cole, and Heather enjoyed unlimited time outside. One of the things they did was make and fly kites. These are the same ones I made with kids last summer on Glover Day, some of you may remember.

In the background you can see, this was my first day this year of hanging clothes out on the line.

Wayne's kite

Cole's kite

I guess I didn't get a close-up of Heather's kite.

It was a warm breezy day. Wayne had a lot of success with his.

Heather did pretty well too.

Cole struggled.

Go Wayne!

Speaking of Wayne, baseball season has started, and he's moved up to the Majors (ages 11-13, I think) this year. He had his first game on Thursday evening. He hit a beautiful home run on his first time up at bat. You should have seen his face as he ran around the bases - wish I had gotten a picture. He did really well throughout the whole game, but that home run was a shining moment. A great way to start off the new season with a group of older, more experienced players.

Heather has her first t-ball game of the season this morning!