day 184 - no trainging wheels

My 4 yr old was recently learning to ride his bike without his training wheels. He did pretty well but needs to keep practicing.

day 183- Turtle

Today we went to the zoo, the kids really wanted to go to the reptile house. They had fun looking at the snakes, lizards and turtles. This is one of the cute turtles they saw, it is a McCord's Box Turtle.

day 181 - long legs

It's pretty easy to see where these guys get at least a part of their names, Daddy long legs, from ;) They are also known as harvestmen and while they are arachnids they are not spiders. The strangest thing is, as a child while I was terrified of spiders, I never had a problem w/ daddy long legs even before I knew they were not spiders.

day 178 - sunset

We had the opportunity to go out with some friends on their boat. We were still out on the water as the sun was setting. I was taking sunset pictures and playing with different settings on my camera. I can never seem to get the color just right on sunsets.

day 176 - walk

The boys walking ahead of us on another nature walk.

day 174 - hanging basket

We went to the village for storytime and they have these incredible flower baskets every year.

day 171 - Weevil

The kids & I went on a walk & I spotted this weevil (at least that's what I think it is) on a milkweed plant.

day 170 -

My son, child #2, trying some to hit the baseball at his cousins birthday party.

day 164 - Cake

I modified a store bought cake for my son's birthday party. Maybe by next year I'll get back to doing it totally from scratch.

day 160 - Lake vingette

day 158 - Lily

day 155 -

My son was taking some pictures with my camera phone and this is one of them. Great spot to hear some frogs and red-winged blackbirds.

day 153 - Baby Feet

:-)

day 152- Mud princess

My daughter has no problem playing in the mud with her brothers. She put mud all up & down her arms and allowed her brother to smear mud on her face! Mud facial anyone?

day 151- Fishing pole

My oldest & youngest sons have been having lots of fun with this broken fishing pole from my dad. My oldest has been tying on their "catch".

day 150 - Water

My oldest son just loves playing with water and has been having lots of fun digging holes and canals behind our house and filling them with water.

day 148 - Clematis

day 146 - fairies

We went to an herb farm today to buy some herbs for my herb garden. They had several little fairy houses set up in the greenhouse. This is one of them. The kids got a kick out of them.

Day 143 - Gum

My daughter had been chewing gum and lost it. I figured she had swallowed it since I didn't see it anywhere on the floor near her. The next morning my husband feels a lump on her & thinks she has a major bump. Nope, we found the gum, lol.

day 139 - hand in hand

We met some friends at the park today and as we were heading back to our cars my daughter and her son decided to hold hands as they were walking, it was so cute :-)

Day 136 - Color

I just love the color on these lungworts.

day 134 - Toad

My daughter holding a toad I found in the yard.

day 131 - Bees

I took my oldest son and daughter to a beekeeping class. We all thought it would be fun. They didn't enjoy the listening to them talk all that much but they did enjoy seeing the bees and some of the hands on activities. The wife showed us how to make bread, using some honey in it of course, which fascinated my daughter. My son was able to hammer together a frame that goes in the beehive, he loved that. Then they put some bees into a couple of hives. My kids kept wanting to get right up close to take a good look. Maybe if things are going a little more smoothly around here next year we'll get a beehive for the yard. We'll have to find out what's involved in harvesting the honey when we go back in Aug.

day 129 - Happy

Here are the 3 of my 4 kids happily playing with their dad and duplos at my sister-in-laws house on Mother's Day.

day 124 - Door

My daughter (with some help from me) made a door with her dominoes :)