Color of the month

is Blue.  Tyler had his exam today for his next belt level.  He moved from green stripe to blue.  He doesn't have anything new to learn for this belt...but he is required to show that he knows everything that he's learned so far before he can advance to blue stripe.  That's 7 belts worth of information and 10 months worth of time.  They do a good job of reviewing as they move thru the levels so I'm not expecting Ty to have any problems with this.

Start of exam

Showing off kicks

Ms Candice with Ty in a bear hug

Ty escaping out of bear hug.

Receiving new belt

Showing off new belt.

Work From Home

I really like the days that I'm able to work from, but probably not for the reason you may think.  It has nothing to do with not having to get up early...or even not having to fight the traffic.  It does have everything to do with these...

I love homemade waffles and I tend to eat them each morning that I am home.  We make up a big batch of waffle batter, or "juice" as the little ones like to call it, at the beginning of the week and we us it throughout the week.  They are delicious!

Today was a little cooler than it's been the last couple of days but still beautiful nonetheless.  We took a lunchtime walk with the normal throwing of pinecones.  On our route today we saw these...

Tent caterpillars

Keari loves to play with the caterpillars and is anxiously awaiting when they are big enough to come our of the cocoon and start climbing down the tree.  The greatly extends our walk time because it's hard to get her leave and we generally end up carrying one or two of the little critters with us for the remainder of the walk.

We also saw momma duck, although her brood seems to be rapidly declining.  Today just 3 baby ducklings were with her.

taking a break to make grass whistles

Even though they older boys are on spring break, they had an away baseball game to play today.  They were playing a Jewish team and the game was stopped at the end of the 6th inning because of the Jewish Sabbath.  They will resume the game Monday afternoon, play the last inning and then play another full game with this same team.  Right now we are down 1 run. 

Tomorrow is Ty's belt exam and Connor/Kenzie's Guild performance so a slightly busy day.  Somewhere in there I need to find time to fold the mountain of laundry.  I'm not quite sure what's happened but I think it's multiplied as it's come out of the dryer.

Crazy Weather

I'm not sure what is up with the weather lately but it sure hasn't been typical spring time weather around here.  Downright cold, lots of rain...our yard is so soggy it's like walking in a marsh...and numerous storms.  There were tornado warnings posted all around the area today.  I was on a conference call this morning when a lady on the phone caused us all to jump out of our seats when she yelped.  She was in a different area, was having a huge storm go thru and had such a huge crash of thunder that she thought her house had gotten hit.  Needless to say we got her off the phone pretty quick.

These are a couple of pics took of the storm that skirted around our area last night.  They aren't quite as impressive as they were irl.

Yes, that black blob in the water is the head of the snake

If you like snakes, tonight would have been the night to go for a walk with us.  We saw not one...but two...snakes.  Now, I don't care for snakes one bit so I was not thrilled with seeing two of them tonight.  But thankfully they were contained in the water so there wasn't much chance of them climbing up the rocks to get to me before I could run away.  ;)    Keari was telling me that as I was taking the photo of the second one that it stop and started slithering it's tongue out at me.  I'm so very glad I didn't see that!

So nice of him to stop and pose for  me

I'm so happy that at the end of our walk we saw these cute little guys.  :)

No guys....mom is this way....

Midday walk

Keari, Adam and I headed out for a walk at lunch.  It looked like it was going to rain any minute but it didn't.  I wouldn't have minded because it was really warm although there was a nice breeze along the water.  It's amazing how much the little ones talk.  They chatter about anything and everything.  Quite entertaining what pops into their.  Adam was quite unhappy that there were no boats to see out on the river today.  He did perk up by the time we made it to the marina...lots of cool boats to see there.  Keari was happy that the path the creepy bridge was open today.  Don't ask, I have no idea why it got nicknamed the creepy bridge as there really isn't anything creepy about it as your see shortly in the pics that I took today.  Now that the weather has finally decided to warm up, I'll have to make sure that I get outside more often on the days that I work from home.  It's nice to spend time with the kiddos in the middle of work day...although I have to say, they rarely leave my side when I'm at home.  Keari loves to play cards at the desk next to mine.  Adam wanders in and out for hugs and kisses.  The office definitely lacks that when I am there.

Too quick with the pine cones today

Dreary looking sky over the river

Heading towards the creepy bridge

On the creepy bridge.  Any thoughts as to why it might be creepy?

BCBSA 2011 National Walk @ Lunch Day

Today the BlueCross BlueShield Association, along with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, are hosting a National Walk @ Lunch Day event on the National Mall.  No matter where you are, you are invited to participate.  National Walk @ Lunch Day helps you incorporate physical activity into your work day and encourages you to increase your physical activity by walking at lunch every day.  Even though I'm not in the office today, I plan on taking part in this from home.  Hopefully I'll be able to convince a couple of the kids to come with me.   It will give me some bonding time with them and will give me a nice break from the stress of the job.

Office Work

Yes, much to my co-workers surprise, I actually made an appearance at the office today.  Due to various circumstances, I hadn't been there in a week.  I was not at all happy to get up at 5am but I was glad when 3:30pm rolled around because I shut my computer off and walked out the door.  When I work from home I have a hard time walking away in the afternoon because I always feel like there is one more thing I can get squeezed in.

Today was a gorgeous day!  Lots of sunshine, temps in the 80's.  Andy and the kids were busy today.  Andy,  Alex, Connor and Ty headed to my parents house to help dad do some work.  Mom and aunt Kathy headed to our house to help Kenzie watch the little ones.  There was a trip to Middletown, DE involved for some of the boys, some grass cutting for another.  The older ones then escaped and headed for baseball practice.  The little ones did lots of painting, drawing, playing outside.

Dinner was started by the time I got home.  Andy took Ty to karate practice.  After dinner, Keari, Adam and I headed out for a walk.  It was a beautiful evening although a bit breezy especially down by the water.  I snapped a few pics of the kids.  Keari is throwing pine cones into the river...which is something that we absolutely must do every time we go for a walk.  Then it was time to head back to get Connor to piano practice.  Connor and Kenzie have a guild recital this weekend that they are practicing for.  Connor is okay with it but Kenzie is a bit grumpy about it. She'll be okay though.  She always does a good job.

Family Time

We had a lovely day yesterday.  We were up bright and early for 7am mass because 3 of the kids were scheduled to serve.  It was actually very nice  The early mass is about the only one that we can all go to and know that the little ones can make it thru without too much trouble.  There is no singing, it's usually a small number of people and even for Easter Sunday the crowd was pretty light.  Kenzie stayed afterwards to practice and then sing with the choir at 9am mass.  She said it was packed!  Pews were filled, people lined the walls and then spilled out into the vestibule.   

Alex was able to get someone to cover his afternoon shift at work so he was able to go with us when we headed to my in-laws mid morning.  I think my parents were a little disappointed, though, because if he'd had to work, he was going to go there for brunch and then head in.

We had lots of great food, which of course I got no pictures of, but everyone had plenty to eat.  Afterward, we trouped outside for an egg hunt.  We had to brave the soggy squishy muddy ground...amazing how saturated the ground it...and we got a ton more rain last night.  The kids all had a great time and came up with lots a goodies in their eggs.

Happy Easter

 

 

He is Risen!

I hope everyone has a Blessed Easter!

Helping Hand

Andy and Tyler offered our neighbor some help in cutting up a tree he had taken down the day before.  Big jobs aren't quite so big when others are there to help you.  Something I should remember....He is always there to help us if we will only ask Him.

Colorful

It was time to dye eggs today, so Andy and the kids pulled out the 3 dozen eggs that he'd boiled this morning.  We've been saving up eggs for awhile, plus the chickens have been cooperating nicely by laying a ton right now.  I think the little one had a fun time with the dyeing.
 

Tay brought this beautiful lunar moth in so I could see it.  We're pretty sure it's a female based on it's markings.  I'm not sure if it was hurt or maybe stunned itself running into something outside, but it could not fly away.  After showing it to me, Tay took it back outside and later in the day it had made it's way to the side of the house.  Later still, it was gone, so hopefully it was okay.

We actually got to watch one of these moths change from a caterpillar to the moth one year.  We happened to find the caterpillar outside, put it in a cage with some leaves and watched it make it's cocoon and then finally hatch after what seemed an incredibly long time.

Kenzie with hatched moth 7/22/2004.  Wow that was a long time ago!