Singing swimmers

Love this!!!

More pool stuff

New swimming pool

Potter and I stopped at Target and got the kids (mostly for the little kids) a new pool. They spent a good two hours in the pool Sunday afternoon, despite the fact that the water was freezing and that there wasn't too much sun out. They loved it!!

Potter's piano recital

Potter's spring piano recital went fantastically!! He played 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody' like nobody has before him!!

Recorder video

Potter and his grade playing 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'. It was super!!!

Dave and the kids

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Caleb and Molly feed the geese

After I dropped Potter at Neil's house, I took Molly and Caleb down to the river to feed the geese. I have been saving the heels of the bread, so we had plenty. There was even a baby goose who came to get a snack!!!!

Caleb makes French Toast

Caleb was the one to shake the cinnamon sugar on the French Toast this morning. After that, Dave did his Emeril 'bam!' with the powdered sugar. Yes, we are gluttons for punishment giving our kids that much sugar at one meal........

'Baby' eagles

Went to check on the babies yesterday morning. They are now out of the nest, don't seem to be flying. No sign of the mom and dad.

Group photo

Yesterday, Caleb insisted that Potter pick him up and hold him. Molly wanted to be part of the picture too.

Molly's class had their ice cream and cupcakes, so I snuck in to get a few pictures while Caleb was happy in the duck pond.  This girl can scarf down the food!!!  Then I got a shot of Molly with her friend, Zoe (and her sister in the background).  I hope that we can get together with some of these friends over the summer.  They are really all very sweet children.

Caleb and his teachers

Caleb still playing with his friend Brody, but now I managed to get a couple shots with Miss Carpenter, and then one with Mrs. Wasley.  They have been so good with him this year.  He will really miss them!!!

Caleb and his buddies

Caleb's class didn't play the carnival games for prizes like the older kids, but they did get to just play however they wanted with them.  With some initial clinginess, he decided that we wanted to play in the duck pond with his buddies, Ronan and Brody (twins).   Caleb will miss them a great deal.  They were the only boys in the class!!!

Carnival pictures with Molly

I helped out at the carnival today, first with the 4s class, then with Molly's class. She loves all the games they have and one of the stations she got a tattoo with one of her teacher's, Mrs. Bixby. We will certainly miss her!! Potter had her as well when he went to RDN.

Caleb and Molly say goodbye to RDN (sniff sniff)

Molly and Caleb had the last day of preschool this morning. I took a few pictures of them this morning (Molly in a new outfit with capris, Caleb cheering on the Sox), and the first picture you see is them on the first day of preschool this year. They have gotten so much bigger!!!

Potter is headed to Broadway!

Potter was in a drama group this spring at school that was sponsored by C.H.A.R.L.I.E. (which is an acronym for something I can't remember) using grant money. There were many other after school programs as well, including cooking, arts, Spanish, History, and of course the most fun, DRAMA!! Potter just loved doing this so much, they rehearsed every Wednesday after school. His teacher, Mr. Henderson, actually authored the play based on a program that are using this year at his school. It is sort of a take-off on 'Finding Nemo' where there is a Clown Fish (Felix), some piranhas (Potter was one of those in the dark shirt and sunglasses, they were the rebels), some angel fish, etc..... Felix has to decide to do the right thing and not make fun of his friends or run with the wrong crowd (the piranhas). He did such a great job, was not nervous or anything. Am thinking I need to get him into some theater type stuff with kids his age. He would thrive with that!! (Doesn't he look like a badass in those shades?????)

Goodbye Mr. Raccoon

You can see the raccoon's furry rumpus in the tree. He stayed in our yard until around 9 last night. Dave and I timed it right by dumb luck; we went out with the flashlight right as he was waking up and we watched his descent from the tree (by following his orange glowing eyes in the flashlight) and then he sort of doodled around in the backyard woods for a few minutes and the darkness overtook him and we imagine he headed back to his stomping grounds. Today, no sign of him, so the children will be free to play outside once again!

Raccoon snoozing in the tree

Here he is sleeping in the tree this afternoon.

Raccoon in our backyard - early morning

This morning as the children were about to begin eating and I was setting the table, I noticed that a very large raccoon was running as fast as he possibly could across the backyard. He scampered up into one of three trees the kids climb in, but then he realized that he was too heavy for the branches to support his weight. The squirrels began freaking out over this huge invader!! As you may know, raccoons are mostly nocturnal, so evidently, he didn't get the memo that the sun was coming up and, duh, it was time to head home. There he sat in the tree looking pretty frantic, when he decided to run down the tree and over to the next one. He stayed in that tree for a few minutes then decided he wanted to be in the silver maple next to it where he could wedge himself in the crook of two large branches which he ultimately did. He did such a good job of getting up there to nap that I have not been able to get a good picture of him since. Hopefully, we'll see him make his escape later this afternoon, but I don't see myself letting the kids out there to play until I know he is gone. Do they still do a round of 13 rabies shots in your stomach??? That sounds none to fun to me!!!

Raccoon movie

The best view of the raccoon is in the first couple of seconds. He seemed to not know what to do in order to get away from the squirrels.