More Trip Pictures

Good try, veganbaby, but this park is farther away. A few more pictures to help the identification.



Any guesses, anyone?

Love Thursday

Love is having love and support from many, many friends during challenging times.



Sitting here, sipping tea sweetened with honey I got from a friend last weekend. Life is good! Happy Love Thursday.

Kids Trip

Here some pictures of my kids trip.



They had a great time.



Even if they had to spend the whole Sunday morning at a car repair place, because my friend's van had car trouble.



Luckily they could spend the rest of the day at the park, and even got to see the fireworks at night.



Bonus points if you can figure out where they went.



I'll post some easier to identify pictures tomorrow.



They came home really really late on Monday night, Sylvia was asleep already. But when she was carried to bed, she rolled over and happily woke up to sleepily murmur 'mama!' before nursing and falling back asleep.

Quiz of the Day

While I was on vacation, my kids and my friend worked on a surprise for me. What was the surprise?

1. Shaved their heads (including some of the girls);
2. Painted the living room pink;
3. Built a tree house;
4. Cleaned up the boys room;

Good luck guessing!

Weekend Getaway

I am back home, after a wonderful and fantastic weekend, and so are the two kids who went on their own weekend getaway.

Taking Weekend Break

Taking a break this weekend to study go, so working my butt off to get ready. At least somewhat ready.



My kids are helping.

One Hour Ago

My sister stopped smoking.



Send her TONS of quitting vibes and positive energy. I added a counter to my sidebar, to show how long since her last cigarette. She rocks!

LOLcat sighting

Posted by Jane to icanhascheezburger

Romeo and Juliet

'I love you. But we're not meant to be...'

Quote of the Day

'Mama, I have money. See? In this toy cow. I keep it safe from evil forces!'



Cow power!

Baking Day

Today, I made our weekly 'Sunday = Pancakes for Breakfast Day'. While I was making those, I realized we had only half a loaf of bread left, which wouldn't last more than... hmmm ten minutes?



Time to start new bread! Didn't take too long before four loaves had been made and were waiting to get into the oven.



Hmmm, pancakes and bread, what else could I make? Next weekend, I will attend a go workshop, and I promised a friend I would bring brownies. Today seemed as good a day as any to bake some of them. I made a double batch, so half can be eaten by my family today, and half will be frozen for the workshop.



Another friend had been bugging me to bring cinnamon raisin bread to the workshop, so I decided to bake a batch of that today too, even if it seems unlikely any will survive till next week ^^



In between all this, I ran the dishwasher three times, did normal day - to - day stuff, went swimming with the five youngest, 'biked' 3.8 miles when I took Tim for his strength training, and explained to the kittens why I did NOT want dead snakes in the house, thank you.



Did I mention that yesterday, I made deviled eggs?



Life is better with homemade food ^^

Mysteries of the Universe

How does sand migrate from the sandbox into our clean bed sheets? Curious mind wants to know. I asked the kids, and they all claimed it was Not Me's responsibility.

New Baby!

Kathy had her new baby! Go over, admire him, and send her congratulations. He shares a birthday with my brother.

Quote of the Day

Today was one of those 'running around all day' days, and I found myself tired enough to decide to skip aikido and stay home to make brownies and build a fire. I took a nice, hot shower, and got into my pajamas, ready for a relaxed night.



Of course, me being me, I went outside to feed the bunnies, and realized that I finally got new gas for the lawn mower, so why not mow at least the front lawn. I looked down at my pajamas, and while they were fine for my back yard, somehow I did not quite want to wear them in my front yard while I was pushing a loud lawn mower around. I ran upstairs to change, while Sylvia followed me. She observed me picking out clothes, and I figured I would explain to her why I changed. 'I decided to do some lawn mowing, and did not really want to do that in my pajamas.' She pondered for a moment 'Oh, you are wearing shorts, so that you won't run over your pants!'. Um... right ^^



I told Jane to help me remember the quote for later blogging, mowed the lawn, made dinner, did five thousand other things, and totally forgot about it. When I finally sat down at the computer, Jane came in and said 'Mom! Don't forget the quote of the day you wanted me to remember. And please add that I tripped over my own pants after she said that.' Um... ok. Dangerous things those pants are ^^

Love Thursday at the Beach

Love is spending time at the beach with good friends.



And yes, that is ice in the background, why are you asking?



Although the pictures are 'old'.



But actually less than a month old. The pictures were taken late April. You know, when those Texans all are out practicing their surfing (hi Jody ^^)



Welcome to life in New England ^^



Happy Love Thursday!

More Mother's Day

So much to post, so little time! Jane gave me a very cool tea cup to go with all those chocolate chip waffles. Erik decided to learn how to make tea in honour of Mother's Day.



Tim gave me a book.



A few friends came over and we went on a geocaching hike. Since everyone goes geocaching on Mother's Day, right?



Sylvia admiring Adam's hobo stick. She had never seen one before.



Crossing a stream.





Resting after the crossing.



Girl Power!



More pictures to follow another day. I need my beauty sleep.

Student, Majoring in Art

Jane on her way to art class, carrying her portfolio. I didn't get a good frontal, but I kind of liked her expression in this picture.

Spirited Survivor

That's the rating I got, playing drums for Nirvana in Rock Band. (song: In Bloom)



Aren't you jealous of me?

Tadpoles

This year, we have an amazing number of frog eggs hatching into tadpoles in our pond.



When you sit and watch for a while, you see more and more of them.



Erik watching them while brushing his teeth (don't ask!)



Happy tadpoles mama:



We have other water bugs too, although I wonder how long before the frogs eat them all.



Frog under a leaf, waiting, waiting, waiting.



The girls dug a new pond, hope to get the materials to finish it soon. They are excited about having dug their very own pond. Looking forward to seeing it grow into another cool pond ecosystem.

Life is Better with Ice Cream

Today was first day this year, we visited our local ice cream shop.



After ice cream shop, we went to town and the teenagers got Rock Band.

How could life get any better???? ^^

Lina Cat Girl

Another one of Tara's creations.



This is Mina's companion, Lina.



Cat girl resting on cat.