angry birds

Pics galore, due to messin' around with the new camera. I'm pretty intimidated by it. I need a DVD that explains the 'How to use this camera' DVD, and a Photography for Dummies book.

The boys helped plant flowers a few weeks ago.  Sanctioned diggin' in the dirt, yeehaw!

 Apocalypse alert?  A bunny takeover in the backyard.

Nate and I took turns trying to snap photos of the robin nest under the deck while the other stood watch to shoo away the dive bombing mom.

Lacey and Christian

Very cool...kleenex a must.

Mother's Day and stuff

Michael's last concert of the year (7th grade band) was May 10th.  He's looking so grown up lately.  I bribed him to hug me in public when he was whining for some bakery treats at Target last week.  I was gonna buy something anyway.  But soon enough it'll be a hug for the car keys, I 'spose.

Mom's Day was nice.  We had lunch in a park, and I got a sweet new camera, and Nate and I watched another of the new Sherlock Episodes on PBS.

We're down one kid right now since A is at camp with her 5th grade class.  A little 3 day bonding/right of passage thing before they move on to middle school this fall.

I'm Gumby, Dabbt!

"Dabbt wants to follow a recipe that needs 1 cup of milk."

Nicky's math worksheets have word problems with weird (er, I mean...cool & ethnic) names in them.  Of the ones I've seen, Dabbt probably takes the cake.  I get it, they gotta use names from various cultures and stuff.  It's only fair.  People in, like, Mongolia do math too.  But it feels like they're trying a bit too hard sometimes.  So what the sam hill kind of name is Dabbt?  Google is not super helpful.  Did you mean debt?  No.  Or dabt either, which is an acronym for a few things:

Acronym	Definition
DABT	Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology
DABT	Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (Florida)
DABT	Daam Aatu Basaltic Tuff (geology)

Maybe somebody at Houghton Mifflin made it up, or one of the kooky people who name race horses or paint colors.

Anyhoo, it's concert season and Michael had a jazz band concert last week.  I have no suitable images of that.  Adrienne had her first official band concert too.  And Nicky had a piece in the district art show, a weaving.  He had me fix the fringe after I snapped this photo.

Nicky's 1st Holy Communion 4/28/12

"I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." John 6:48-51

Congratulations to Dominic on his first reception of holy communion, and thanks to our families for celebrating his special day with us!

nerd alert part deux

a milestone b-day

Had a full day on Saturday.  We attended a brunch at church in the morning for the 2nd graders who'll be making their 1st communion soon, then it was off to Iowa to celebrate Duane's birthday with all the family.  He'll be 70 on the 19th.  Happy birthday to my fantastic father-in-law, whose youngest son I was lucky enough to lay eyes on 15 years ago this month.

Happy Easter 2012

We went to the 2.5 hour Easter vigil Saturday night, and the kids did pretty well.  Michael slopped some candle wax on his new shirt, though.

the teenager

Kyrie Eleison

Lord have mercy.  It's official.  Michael is a teenager today.  He's been morphing into one for several months, though.  To go along with his changing appearance, he frequently cops a teenager 'tude.  This is our conversation when he comes home from school:

"Hi Michael."  Silence.  "How was your day?"  "(unintelligible grunt)."  "How was jazz band (or the math test, etc.)?"  "Fiiiine."

Every single day.  No exaggeration.  Buuut, we signed up for this.  He was such a cute little bologna loaf in the hospital bassinet.  Maybe I'm nuts, but I've always looked forward to the kids' teenage years - to watch them mature and discover their individuality and talents.  What a cool gift.

Happy 13th birthday Monkey!  We love you!