4/28 ~ Four

Strawberries for the catering job my husband has tomorrow... Do you think he'd mind if I took a few?

4/27 ~ Big bubbles

The girls made some giant bubbles today.  Gotta love Pinterest for the bubble recipe!

4/26 ~ Strumming

This weekend was full of friends and hops -- the twice annual hippie friend reunion my husband hosts at our house.  It is always a ton of fun!

4/25 ~ Finally Friday

Friends were in town to visit and little girls were outside to play.

I love Fridays!

4/24 ~ A bad case of stripes

How many varieties of clover are there?  We have a lot that are flourishing in our yard -- particularly in the border grass.

I used to stress about the clover and worked feverishly to rid the yard of them.  Now, they linger about.  Sometimes they flower.

It just seems that if I pull all the clover, I might ruin my chances to find a four-leafed one -- and that seems like a bad idea.

4/23 ~ No time for this

The man said he didn't have time to be sick.  I understand the feeling.  Regardless, he was knocked down for the day.

4/22 ~ Trying

Lately, my patience isn't what it needs to be.  I'm working on doing a better job with biting my tongue -- but sometimes, I just want to whip my hair around and say what is really on my mind.

4/21 ~ Colorful

Some of the flowers that Julia got at her recital.

4/20 ~ Gathered

I kept all the black jelly beans for me.  They are the best ones.

4/19 ~ Baby turns one

Julia's recital was Saturday morning.  Then we went to a birthday party for a one year old  I got to take pictures.  And life was good.

4/18 ~ The view

From the parking lot at school.  

Rain.
More rain.

Even more rain predicted for the entire weekend.

And too much planned into one weekend.

4/17 ~ Buh buh ballet

We survived the dress rehearsal.  Saturday morning is recital and the girls are ready.

I'm ready, too.

Who knew there was so much to learn about what to do backstage when changing the girl from one outfit to another?  I had several mothers show me what I was doing wrong.  :)  Better that they showed me tonight before I screwed it up on Saturday.

4/16 ~ If you'll just excuse me

I don't like to toot my own horn... but I was excited this afternoon to receive this book from Yahoo.  Back in February, I received an email asking for permission to use one of my images for the 10th anniversary of Flickr.  As a thank you, they sent a book with a compilation of all the pictures -- including one of mine -- that were used in the video celebration.

Isn't that kind of marvelous?  Plus, it makes a great coffee table book.

4/15 ~ An unfortunate siesta

A few months ago, I started playing the Frozen game in a competition with Julia.  It has turned out to be a great way to mindlessly waste time.  These days, Julia rarely plays her version of the game.  As for me, I seem to be stuck on level 63.

4/14 ~ Late light

The calm at home after the fervor of the day

4/13 ~ Silly bird

We have a couple of downy woodpeckers that hammer away on the metal tree in the backyard.  Then they hop up the trunk onto the suet feeder and act all chill while they eat.

Silly little birds.

4/11 ~ In the fountain

Massage.
Lunch.
Watch the girls play in the fountain.
Cook.
Anniversary dinner for my parents.

It was a good day.

4/10 ~ The muddy duo

While the girls were still in pajamas, we let them run and splash in the mud puddle at the end of the drive. Julia's flip flops sunk down in the mud and have yet to be recovered.  The girls dug around for the shoes for a bit while I laughed at their dilemma.  Finally, we agreed to just wait to get them out when the water evaporated.

There is always an adventure with these girls.

4/9 ~ Happy Day

Took the girls and their mother to St. Augustine Beach for the day.  The sun played hide and seek with the clouds and the wind whipped our hair into a frenzy.  It was perfectly lovely and such a privilege to share this happy day with the girls.

4/8 ~ The rising river

The girls and I are on spring break so we went to visit my sister and her students who had spring break last week.  We brought them the cupcakes we made yesterday along with some mints to get them ready for the state mandated testing that starts tomorrow.  My sister teaches a group of special needs kids and we love to hear her stories about the goings on of her middle schoolers.  They were so sweet to the girls.

On the way there and back, we noticed how the rain from the past few days has the river rising way past its usual embankment -- so we stopped to take a picture.

4/7 ~ Flood warning

The rain has come down in buckets and the streets have turned into rivers.  It was a good day to make cupcakes and stay inside.

4/6 ~ In the window

I recently started storing fresh asparagus in a glass of water rather than in the bottom drawer of the fridge.  It looks cool (at least it looks cool to me) and I don't forget I have it to roast to accompany a meal.

4/5 ~ Self-parazzi

I didn't feel like taking a picture of myself.  But it was today's prompt.  And I obliged.

Carry on.

4/4 ~ Things are looking up

Spring break officially started at 5:12 p.m.

Hello, windmill vines.
Hello, snacks for dinner tonight.
Hello, Moscow Mule.
Hello, muted work cell phone.

I am loving the humidity and warmth we are having.

4/3 ~ Surprise!

I love the look on Danielle's face as her mother and sister surprise her at the end of the slide.

And surprise... Yes, that is the mother of the girls visiting with us at the park.  There have been a lot of changes the past couple of weeks.

Things have been good and we have a formed a great bond.  We all have the same goal in mind -- do what is best for those girls.

I'm so excited that the mom is out of the situation she was in.  It has been an absolute privilege to watch the girls reconnect with their mother.  There is so much love between them.

4/2 ~ Framed

The girls walk with me in the morning as I turn on the lights with my key in the various hallways.  Danielle stopped to get some water and was not worried about catching up.

Julia: "Come on, Miss Priss."

Danielle: "Dulia (Julia)!  Don't call me dat!"

Julia cocked her head to the side and then said: "Well, come on, Honey Badger."

Danielle (smiling): "Dat better!"

I couldn't stop laughing as we finished turning on the lights.

If you haven't seen the Honey Badger video then what rock have you been living under? go watch the Honey Badger Don't Care video on You Tube.  It is a good one!

4/1 ~ Losing it

Well, not really.  Or maybe kind of just a little.

I did have a crazy parent phone call.  In fact, she was so busy ranting and not taking a breath that I put her on speaker phone so that I could enjoy her diatribe whilst doing other work.  Truthfully, she cracked me up.

Then I came home to work with Danielle on the same few words we have been working on for a month.  She is so far behind and her progress is so slow....

There may or may not have been a point when I wanted to fall upon a sword.

There is always tomorrow.  We will keep practicing.

There were no humans or pets harmed for this picture.