Randomness

Tea Party


Enjoying tea in mom's new tea cup.


Me trying to be fancy with my photography. I notice Julia does crooked pictures successfully. I think I might be too crooked but it is still cute.


Close up of the tea cup.




Simplicity

Isabelle saw a pancake mix at the grocery store and wanted to buy it. What-the-heck I thought and tossed it in. We have been enjoying pancakes the past few days with it but it has gotten me thinking about the simple life. On the one hand pancake mix is incredibly simple. Add water to mix and pour on the skillet. Voila pancakes. So simple. But really are pancakes that complicated? Add water, flour, sugar, oil and an egg an you have pancake mix. We are talking about another minute of work. Why are we simplifying already simple tasks?

Pre-School

I am already bored with pre-school work stuff. See how easily I am distracted. Of course the fact that Isabelle wants to plan the curriculum might have something to do with my frustration. It is time to abandon the more structured stuff for the learning activities I am so much better at. Today we are weeding the garden. I am sure there will be some opportunities to learn something in there.

She LOVED the nature center program she did on Tuesday. Another child in love with animals. Apparently she kept telling the people about animals she saw in Africa and they thought she was just making it up as 4 year olds tend to do. No we assured them, she really had seen all those animals in Africa. Ha ha. I suppose they don't get that very often!

Africa

If you haven't seen enough of my Africa pictures I put 646 pictures onto a shutterfly web site. You can click here to see them.

This is what happens when I get sick

I got sick right before Easter and now here it is almost 2 weeks without a post. I think about someone like MckMama, who posts sometimes more than once a day and wonder how she does it even in the midst of a life crisis. SO I am a little behind and thought I would toss out a few updates from the past few weeks. At least the parts I have photographed...

Jake's Face:

Jake didn't shave for a few weeks and was really getting some facial hair growing. I found out I have a macro setting on my camera to take close up pictures and got some of the fuzz on his face which I thought I would share:



I really don't like that fuzz on young boys but I know he feels cool to have some so I try not to say anything. He did get it shaved off and is my fresh faced boy once again.


Easter:

While others may find the time they spend coloring eggs with their children to be special, I just don't want to be bothered. However, I want Isabelle to experience it. SO... I delegated it to Jake while we went on date night. John helped Jake set it up while I got ready and then I snapped a quick shot before running out the door. I love Isabelle's expression in this picture. She never stops talking.



We had John's family for Easter and had a lovely time. I was working toward the peak of my sickness and was glad we chose a simple, make ahead menu that we just popped in the oven when we got home from church. As soon as they left I literally just fell over on the couch where I was sitting and slept for 2 hours, something I NEVER do. My wonderful husband cleaned up the whole meal and even washed the china and crystal by hand. He thought the buffet with a few pre-meal appetizers, which he made, looked so good he photographed it. With being sick it was really one of the few pictures we took on Easter. I really wanted someone to nab a family picture since we all looked nice but that never happened. Oh well.



Como Zoo:

There is a wonderful little free zoo in St. Paul that I love to go to. Jake used to go to school about a mile from there and Isabelle and I made many trips last spring before picking him up. Now I drive there and wonder what I was thinking sending him to a school SO FAR AWAY! Still it is worth the drive (the school and the zoo) so on a beautiful spring day we packed a lunch and drove over with the cousins to see the animals. I was particularly struck to catch a picture of Isabelle checking out the giraffes, who are still inside until it gets a little warmer here, as I thought about seeing them this summer in Africa and what a great contrast in photos I will have of seeing them in the zoo and seeing it in a nature preserve or the wild. So exciting!





With the cousins checking out the seals. My SIL also blogged about the visit at her site.

Oklahoma:

Jake performed in the play "Oklahoma" last weekend. It was a great performance all around and he was wonderful in particular. I love watching him perform. According to Jake his role was "generic young man ensemble number 1". He said it sound better than "chorus". Although he didn't have a named part he put alot of acting and enthusiasm into his background role. And he did have 3 or 4 lines during some group conversations. I saw the play a couple times and only ever caught one of the lines. We were exhausted by the end of the weekend from the 4 performances, 2 I helped out during and 1 we attended. We also had a group of his friends over for lunch/dinner during the 1 free hour between the matinee and evening performance on Saturday. And then there was dessert at Perkins after the Friday night show and the cast party after the Saturday show, which John chaperoned. We were up til 1 am 2 nights in a row. Too late for us old fogies. We went to bed early on Sunday night.




The cousins came to the Friday night performance with Grandma and Grandpa.


OK I think you are all caught up on my life. Last night I couldn't get to sleep and laid in bed thinking up a post but now in the light of day I have no idea what it was about. Hopefully it will come to me and I can impart some great philosphical thought from the wee hours of night. For now, this is all I know.