Summer

 The chicks are growing!  We often let them out to run around the yard. Heather and I agree that her's is the prettiest.

 Spike, chained at a safe distance.

 The chicks like the playground.

 This one sat on Wayne's shoulder for a long time.

 I never realized how amusing chicks could be.

 In other events, we made painted rock garden markers.

 Heather painted pumpkins.

 And tomatoes.

 I painted sunflowers.

 Cole painted green beans - the boy will never be an artist-

 and spinach. Somehow, I didn't get photos of Wayne's beets and zucchini.

 Patches, not allowed outside, lounges in the open window.

Cole and T-ball

 This is Cole's last year for t-ball.  Next year he'll be in th minor league with Wayne. This picture (above) is going to go in my sidebar along with Wayne's toothless t-ball picture when he was the same age.

Cole has become a pretty good hitter this year.  See the ball leaving the frame to the right?

 First base.

 Some second base advice from the coach.

 Cole with some teammates.

 Next year Heather will be old enough to play t-ball. For now she has fun with her friends on the sidelines.

I'm still working on some good pictures of Wayne from his games. There's a big game tonight - Glover against the other Glover team (yes, Glover actually has two teams and they're both the top teams in the Lake Region league). It's a big rivalry and he'll be playing against some of his 3rd grade classmates, so it's always a big deal.

One Free Day

Friday was a half day of school for the boys. Cole complained of tummy troubles so he stayed home and then, as you see, made a miraculous recovery and had a great time visiting the pond with Heather while Wayne was in school . I've checked a few times, and seen no sign of our ducks, so I guess they've moved on. We've had so much stuff going on lately with school, ball games and practices, piano lessons, trips to Maine, that I think Cole really needed to take a "personal day."

The first grade "class pets" came home so we could get them some fresh pond water.

 We actually didn't keep nearly this many.

 Later, when Wayne came home, he worked on a project.

 Can you tell what it's going to be? It's not done yet.

We're looking forward to the rest of the long weekend and doing absolutely nothing except going to the cemetery and catching up on some yard work.

Waterfall Park

It's been a while since we've taken you to Waterfall Park, so let me refresh your memory.  Waterfall Park is a pretty little area near the driveway where the outlet from the pond and a spring fed brook converge to form a paradise for birds, bugs, salamanders, kids, and dogs.  In the early spring, when the snow is melting, it's like white water rapids.  In the late spring and early summer, it's a gently flowing little stream. Later in the summer, it may nearly dry up completely.  It was founded by Joanie, Wayne, and Cole a couple of years ago.  Cole dubbed it "Waterfall Park" because he was going through a waterfall fascination phase and loved the way the water cascaded over the many rocks forming tiny little waterfalls.

That sparkly sequined skirt didn't slow Heather down. Earlier in the day she was digging holes and making mud in the gravel in front of the garage. I told her not to get her clothes dirty and she said, "But Mommy, I'm a KID.  It's OK for kids to get dirty!"  Which actually, is totally my philosophy about childhood, but usually I have them dressed accordingly.  Oh well, luckily she has the lovely pink net to match her stylish outfit.

Cole reaches for a critter with that nice long handle.

Wayne finds a salamander, but it scuttled away.

We've been avoiding the pond lately, because there has been a pair of ducks around over there.  I'm hoping that they will nest and we can have ducklings to observe. In the meantime, I figure three hollering kids and Spike galloping all over the place might scare them away.  However, at one point when it was just Wayne and myself, we went quietly over to see if the ducks were still around.  We didn't see them at that time, but we did discover that the pond is absolutely infested with tadpoles.  Wayne stuck his net in and scooped up a wriggling, slimy, black mass of them.  Here are just a few in a jar.

Cole took a fraction of these to school to be the class "pets."

LET THE SUMMER SCIENCE PROJECTS BEGIN!

A New Chick

Heather has a new chick. She's so tiny, only about the size of a golf ball.

 Heather thinks it's really funny that her chick is so tiny, she can walk right under the other chicks.

RIP Baby Chick

Baby chick update: Heather's chick, the smallest and weakest of the three, died yesterday. Heather cried all afternoon. maybe we can get a replacement from Wayne's teacher who is hatching eggs at school.

So far, the other two chicks are getting bigger and stronger everyday.

Chicks!

Three baby chicks. You wouldn't believe how excited the kids were about these little guys. Or gals, I guess I should say.

Hopefully, if we can somehow get them to survive Spike, someday we'll have fresh eggs.  Maybe we can sell them at the C+W.

Wayne's 3rd grade class is hatching some eggs at school, so we might have one more to add to the flock.

Total cuteness.

Refresh

Here are a few random photos in my attempt to dust off this poor, neglected blog and bring it up to date!

A couple of weeks ago Cole lost one of his front teeth.  And in fact, yesterday, Wayne lost TWO molars - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

At Gramma's house getting ready to go to the cemetery for Grampa's graveside ceremony.

 Stealing a few moments at the shore before heading over to the cemetery.

 From the pictures I get of Cole, you'd never know how truly handsome he is.

A hint of what's to come later this weekend on the blog: Chicks, compost worms, T-ball, various arts and crafts projects, and aunts, uncles, cousins.