Late April- the Great Outdoors

Maggie and Sammy spent a lot of time playing in the fresh air and glorious lower-70's, humidity-free weather after school today.  Maggie is my mud and dirt-loving little princess.  She usually wears shoes outside, which promptly come off and are left to the ravages of the rain and sun unless I remember to go out and hunt for them before bedtime...She absolultey WILL NOT leave shoes on.   Our garden is soaking up the rain and sun,and the little seedings are just starting to emerge.   Maggie romped adn stomped in one corner of the garden after the huge deluge of rain made it so, so muddy.  Keith rarely gets upset with her, but this time she was in trouble with him.   He had spent the day before  the rain hoeing and tilling and making it look great.       BTW, Keith's pigeon disappeared the night after the first of the major thunderstorms one week ago.  We are hoping he found his way back home. 

Easter 2011

We began Easter morning by checking out the gracious gifts of the Easter bunny, remembering that the Easter Bunny's gifts are nothing compared to the gift that Jesus gave to us all on Good Friday.     Sadie got a new watch from the bunny and Maggie got a bracelet, and both of them received a movie each and candy.   Then, we celebrated Easter with our church family.    We joined my family for lunch and another egg hunt.   Sadie was a bit tired because she went to an amusement park all day long with the youth group from church on Saturday, but she got up and got ready for Sunday School without complaining.   What a great teenager.  We got back home by early afternoon on Sunday because more bad weather was scheduled to come thru;  and it did.   This is all so great for our garden;  more of the promised garden pictures will be posted soon, I promise.     I have taken Easter morning pictures in front of this bois d'arc tree for as long as we have lived here.   At the bottom of this post, there is a picture from Easter morning 2007.   My babies are growing up!

Stormy Weather

Maggie and I were home Saturday night when the unpredictable Texas weather got a little crazy.  There were confirmed tornadoes and funnel clouds over our little town.  Maggie got to spend some time in the laundry room with Sammy and her books, and books on tape.     Since Sammy was there with her, she stayed pretty calm.   Our town's tornado siren was sounded, which only happens when rotation is confirmed.   It was one of those memorable afternoons.   The sky view from my upstairs windows looking east was spectacular, but unfortunately the lighting and my camera did not cooperate to get a good picture.

Palm Sunday 2011

Last Sunday, our church's annual Palm Sunday potluck and Easter egg hunt was a lot of fun.   It is a lovely tradition we have taken part in since Sadie was a toddler.  Sadie "helped"  Maggie find eggs this year.  There were just over 1000 candy-filled plastic eggs used, so there were PLENTY to go around.   Interestingly, the children were very relaxed and no one grabbed more than anyone else.   This is one of my favorite church traditions.  

Just for fun, you can see some photos of the egg-hunt 2 years ago by following this link: 

http://amethodistfamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/spring-2009.html

Happy 7th Birthday, Maggie...a celebration with family

Happy 7th Birthday, Maggie.   We had such a wondeful time celebrating Maggie's birthday with family this weekend...the weather could not have been more beautiful.   We were able to eat outside without any bugs or extreme heat to spoil it.   

Sunshine on my Shoulders makes me Happy

I absolutely love the way these pictures came out.  The sunlight is gorgeous, the expressions are priceless.

Happy Birthday, Maggie....a celebration with a friend

Maggie's actual birthday was earlier in the week; we are celebrating today.  She enjoyed the picture-perfect weather with a friend and also our family.  What a wonderfully memorable day.  It seems only yesterday we were celebrating her 3rd birthday with a new tricycle.   How quickly the years go by.

1st grade musical

Maggie's first grade musical was a great success.   It is difficult to pick her out of this picure, but she is 3rd from left in the orange shirt and pigtails.  She was so excited for us to come and see the performance.   I allowed her to wear flip-flops to the musical, since she had left her shoes outside and we were in a hurry to get there early to get a seat.  I thought she would be standing on the risers only; of course, she had a part which required her to leave the risers and run in place during a song.   I felt terrible that she had to do this in flip flops before an audience, but she never missed a beat.   Also, Maggie's 7th birthday was this week, and we will have a birthday party at home with friends & family this weekend.  It is so hard to beleive that seven years have passed since she was born.   I cut several inches off of her hair for summer the night of her birthday and she was completely crushed.  I did not realize how much of her identity is wrapped up in her hair, literally!   She will soon grow it back and will not want for me to come near it again.

Sadie and our Pigeon

Sadie has had some fun feeding our pigeon;  we call him our pigeon now, since he shows no indication of going anywhere.  We also watched a migrating flock of cedar waxwings strip our formerly berry-covered holly bushes in a matter of minutes.   Cedar waxwings love fruits and berries; a flock was here and moved on, but not before stipping every holly berry from the bushes.   It was amazing to see how quickly they ate and moved on.   Sadie hates it when I take "those babyish sleeping pictures" of her; but I can't resist.  She has needed a few naps lately; the spring season is so busy.   Mowing season is upon us, with so much to do outside and inside, plus lots of activities pulling us in several directions.   Soon summer will be here, and hopefully bring with it some time to enjoy being home.  If gas prices go up as expected, we will most definately spend more time at home.  

Baby Carolina Wrens....so cute!

My crafty hubby built this bird house several years ago, and recently hung it in a new location right outside my kitchen window, on the side of the carport.  A pair of Carolina Wrens found it and have built a new nest there.   They currently have 3 baby birds;  there could be a fourth in there, it's hard to tell.  The little house is crowded!  We have all watched the parents come and go, feeding the little ones and cleaning out the house.   The parent birds have actually "house tranined" the babies to the extent that the babies "do their business" right after getting a bit of food from the parent; the parent immediately takes the offending material from the baby and away from the nest.   It is truly amazing to watch this bird family.  Nature goes on taking care of itself regardless of the troubling things we see in the newspaper each day.  On another bird note, my husband has adopted a stray banded pigeon that has appeared and taken up residence here.   The pigeon is wearing a leg band and we don't know from whence he came, but he follows Keith around the yard begging for bird seed.  Of course, Keith is secretly pleased with the attention.  I will get a picture of the pair of them and post it here soon.