June 29

The kids were playing Ninja Warriors with broom handles this evening.  I don't very often get a picture of all 3 of them together, so I took advantage of the opportunity.  Alex didn't quite get that he was supposed to be looking mean.  :)

June 28

SMORES!

June 27

Doug and I walked along a couple beaches in Erie today ... in between bike rides.  This photo was taken at Misery Bay.

June 26

Obviously I didn't take this picture.  Doug took it.  I am sitting in one of the rocking chairs for sale outside Cracker Barrel where we ate dinner on our weekend away.  If we would have had room in the van, we would have bought one of these rockers.  They are really nice ... and inexpensive!

June 25

Alex's preschool teacher, Mrs. Saeler, hosted a picnic at her house.  Alex is trying to break a water balloon during a racing game.  The kids had a blast!  Playing in the pool, playing games like this one, and riding in Mrs. Saeler's golf cart.  FUN!

June 24

I needed to get out of the house for a little while last evening in order to save my sanity and my children's lives.  :)  This is the sky I saw.

June 23

Keira at Vacation Bible School today.  She's doing the motions for the song "Stop, Drop, and Roll."  The meaning ... when you feel like you want to sin, stop what you are doing, drop to your knees and pray, and roll (read) through the Bible for God's wisdom.  Great message!

June 22

I have been trying to get a picture of this Cardinal for a while now, but he's pretty quick.  I had my 55-200 zoom lens zoomed all the way to 200 and he was still just a little red speck.  :)  I cropped in some but if I crop any further, the pixels start showing up making the picture blurry.  :(  I'll just have to try to get him again.  *sigh*

June 21

Keira and I went for a bike ride on the Butler/Freeport Trail this evening to break in my new bike.  :)  We rode approx. 8 miles.  On the way back, the sun was reflecting off the water on this pond.  This picture doesn't quite capture the full beauty of it.

June 20

Just playin' around.

This is the big walnut tree in front of our house.

June 19

I bought a bike today so I can ride with the family.  Hoping to use it tomorrow when the weather is nicer.

June 18

Here's something you (I) don't see very often ... Doug in non-work clothes!  He surprisingly agreed to wear the shirt I tie-dyed for him (we all wore tie-dyed shirts).  He was getting tired of me taking his picture (while we were at Idlewild).  I had my zoom lens on so I could take them w/out him knowing ... but he knew.  :)

June 17

Nick decided he didn't really like the mohawk, so he got the rest buzzed off today.  His head is so soft now!

June 16

I managed to catch a bumble bee doing its job today.

June 15

The volunteer firefighters that came to assist at the car wreck near my home today.

June 14

Nicholas videoing his lighting bug catching adventure.

June 13

The kids and I walked down to our neighbor's pond to feed some stale bread to the fish.  Keira caught two blue gill with a bucket.  She just scooped them up with it.  Pretty cool!  This is one of them.

June 12

I posted the original picture yesterday on My Perspective.  My good friend and fellow photographer, Laura, made a couple suggestions on how to improve it.  So here's the edited version of it.

Cropped, contrast adjusted, and increased saturation a teeny bit to bring out the orange in the butterfly's wings.  What do you think?

June 11

We've been trying out some new recipes this week.

This is fruit and spinach salad (before the poppyseed dressing).  It was pretty good.  Except the raspberries weren't good and the kids weren't crazy about the blueberries (too mushy).  If we make it again, we will leave those out.  The other ingredients are sliced strawberries and canned/jarred mandarin oranges.  They were both a big hit with the kids.  And they even ate the spinach w/o too much fuss.

For the dressing, you mix 1/3 cup poppyseed dressing with 1 tablespoon frozen (thawed) orange juice.  It was pretty tasty.  It was similar to sweet-n-sour dressing.

June 10

Nick has been wanting to get a mohawk for a while now.  I told him he could now that school was out.  I figure - it's hair - it will grow back.  And guess what?  He doesn't like it!  He wants me to buzz the rest off.  :)

June 9

The one good thing about having a tree branch fall down ... now we have firewood to roast marshmallows.  :)

June 8

This is so weird.  A couple weeks ago our neighbor's mulberry tree had a branch just fall down.  Then on Tuesday a branch on our oak tree came crashing down.  Thankfully it didn't hit the house and Doug was able to get it down the rest of the way w/o incident.  I'm pretty sure he'll be removing this tree this summer.

June 7

Yeah, he's a dork.  :)

June 6

My lilies are blooming!!!!

We looked at them yesterday and they were ready to burst.  Today they did!

June 5

The kids found a couple more toads while outside playing today. 

 The one of the left is a big one!

June 4

This was a big squishy ball that the kids put a hole in.  It fits nicely on Nick's head.  :)

June 3

A very common occurrence here ... catching toads ... or bugs ... or worms ... or whatever.

June 2

Alex was like ... would you stop taking my picture and just come push me on the swing already mom?!

June 1

It has been a while since I posted a picture of Honey. 

Didn't want you to forget what she looks like.  :)