My Picture Blog

Kindergarten Graduation

2009-03-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

These are nearly a year over due but the following are some pictures I took at Isaiah's kindergarten graduation last spring. The story surrounding these events can be found here.

Looking back the kids all look so tiny!

He was either just standing or getting ready to sit in this one.

Isaiah must have gotten bored because he started making faces. Actually it was only one face and only briefly but long enough for me to take a picture.

Picture with teacher.

Spring Cometh

2009-03-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

Pay no attention to the time and date on these photos. They were actually taken on Sunday I just didn't realise that the time and date (which I had not set) would appear on the photos.

Winter aconite at the community garden.

Purple crocuses at the community garden.

Checking out the ducks and geese at the pond.

Dogwood twig and bud ready to go.

Lilac twig and buds also ready to go.

Seven Months And Growing

2009-03-18T21:48:00.004-04:00

Jewel has a mind of her own when it comes to food. I gave up trying to get the spoon back by force and just waited for her to drop it. Then I give it back to her with some more food on it.

Starting her on Veggie Tales already. Of course she just wanted to eat the DVD case.

With a pilfered blow pop. She's got fast hands.

Dress Up

2009-03-18T21:39:00.004-04:00

More birthday festivities.

The cow boy.

The chief.

The traditional blow pop and birthday cards.

Birthday 2009

2009-03-18T21:28:00.004-04:00

Since I've been threatened with bodily harm if I don't I'm going to try to keep up with the picture blog. Someone had a birthday today.

Taking a birthday phone call.

Mr. Bling.

The cake. Mom got to playing with the frosting a can.

Decked out in birthday gear.

Hazards of Being A Younger Sibling

2008-11-17T20:58:00.003-05:00

Your older siblings will decorate you.

Words fail me on this one.

Ethan was similarly decorated. I don't know if it was his doing or Sophia's.

Jewel eventually saw the humor in this too. Ethan and Sophia were jumping up and down to show her how to jump in the command center (so named by a friend of ours). This she found funny enough to laugh at.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-03T19:24:00.005-05:00

Below is Sophia running wild with her classmates at the pumpkin patch the week of her birthday.

Say "whiskey" on the hay wagon.

Picking a pumpkin.

Posing with the pumpkin.

Posing on top of the hay bale maze. Actually I think I caught her in the middle of the potty dance.

Running free 'cause that's just what kids should do.

Isaiah

2008-10-16T10:52:00.007-04:00

The boy formerly known as the ghost is getting a little more comfortable around cameras.

Apple picking in September.

Getting ready to take off after inspecting big brother and the baby.

Covetously eying the paint, as hubby says, in Sophia's now purple room.

Mmmmm chocolate icing. For his next birthday I'm just going to pop open a can of icing and let him have at it. He never eats the cake.

Jewel

2008-10-16T10:33:00.007-04:00

For those who asked here are some new pics of the latest addition to the clan.

Little big sister with baby sister on her lap.

The ultimate big brother holding baby sister.

Caught the smile on camera. She's about 7 weeks in this picture.

Checking out Sophia's birthday festivities from underneath a quilt that great grandma made.

Birthday Girl

2008-10-14T20:59:00.003-04:00

When I was a kid (alright I was a teenager) I wanted a purple bedroom. That never quite happened so I gave my daughter a purple room for her birthday. I had to talk her down from a deep dark purple but she's happy with the colour she got.

She's child of the week at school and wore this birthday crown home.

She insisted on a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and purple sprinkles. I couldn't find purple sprinkles so I got some extra purple icing instead. She was so excited about her cake that she sampled it before I got to icing it hence the odd shape.

She loves shoes and dressing up.

She also loves purses.

Dirty Jobs

2008-09-12T18:37:00.004-04:00

"Hi! This is Dirty Jobs. Today we're going to talk about lava."

We had watched a Dirty Jobs marathon the day before he did this. The episode where Mike Rowe tags along with a vulcanologist must have really stuck with him.

Back In The Day

2008-09-11T12:00:00.009-04:00

nap time...

This DOES NOT taste like chicken... Ethan

We are innocent.. you didn't see anything... Ethan & Isaiah

You talking to me buddy? You wanna start something? - Sophia aka Scrappy Doo

Signs From the Bus Station

2008-09-06T14:51:00.004-04:00

Hubby took the kids with him when he went to drop my mom off at the bus station the first time (long story) last week. It clearly left an impression on Ethan because a day or two later I found the following on the stairs and in the upstairs hallway.

It's funny how his handwriting is neater on the magnadoodle than it is on paper with a pencil.

Technical Difficulties

2008-08-28T22:09:00.003-04:00

Comments have disappeared for the moment. Hopefully they will be back soon.

Update 8/29/08 3:40 PM EDT: Got 'em back.

An Exercise In Avoiding Going To Bed

2008-08-28T20:43:00.004-04:00

What better excuse is there for avoiding going to bed than admiring your new baby sister? Isaiah is absent form these photos because he actually goes to bed when we tell him it's bed time (most of the time).

Summer Garden Pics

2008-08-22T16:01:00.005-04:00

The main bed of purple cone flowers in the front yard. They did really well this year. By August most years they are pretty ratty looking.

Some more purple cone flower near the front porch.

These zinnas bloomed despite my neglect of the garden as I got closer to my due date.

The goldenrod is starting to turn yellow heralding the beginning of the end of summer.

New Addition

2008-08-22T15:19:00.004-04:00

Jewel Elisabeth a few minutes old in L&D.

A few hours old in Maternity.

First day home with big sister. Funnily enough Sophia had a similar look on her face to Jewel's when we brougth her home to Ethan and Isaiah.

Birthday Boy

2008-08-11T21:49:00.004-04:00

Celebrating the big 06. There was no cake since Isaiah doesn't care for it. I made ice cream sandwiches instead. No candles either since A)I was tired and forgot to get some and B)I really didn't want to find out what my little MacGyver/Evel Knievel/A-Team hybrid would do when presented with an open flame.

Mom scores! Mr. Potato Head is a big hit with the birthday boy.

Cutting the wrapping paper was as much fun for Isaiah as actually playing with his presents.

Whack-A-Mole! Those critters never had a chance.

Toothless

2008-08-06T13:40:00.003-04:00

Isaiah's not big on have his picture taken but I managed to get this shot of him while he was disassembling his PB&J sandwich.

Look carefully and you can see where his first baby teeth have vacated the premises and some new teeth are starting to grow in.

He Can Build It

2008-08-06T13:32:00.003-04:00

After watching construction crews tear up many of the sidewalks in our neighbourhood for most of the summer Ethan has decided that he's a construction worker. Here he has his hard hat and shovel for digging. Sophia is checking out the action from the couch.

He also made himself a construction vehicle out of a rocking chair and he drew a construction road sign on the chalkboard. I'll try to get pictures of those later.

Listening to Baby

2008-08-03T13:54:00.002-04:00

When Ethan and Sophia start fighting they can briefly be distracted with an offer of listening to the baby. They usually conclude that the baby is either sleeping or laughing.

The Makeup Artist

2008-03-29T15:28:00.000-04:00

My budding makeup artist got her hands on some eyeshadow. I'm really impressed that she realised what it was and where it was supposed to go (sort of). She was very proud of herself since she went looking for me when she was done to show off. She even showed me the eyeshadow she had found to prove that it was eyeshadow and not crushed chalk or something. I had to distract her with an offer to take her picture and then wrestle the eyeshadow away from her.

BIrthday Boy

2008-03-18T19:39:00.000-04:00

Ethan turned 7 today. Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

The Cake: Ethan had asked a few times for shamrocks for his birthday so I made him a shamrock cake.

The birthday green eggs and ham egg pie (also know to some as quiche). We love Dr. Seuss in our house.

Ethan blowing out the candle.

Ethan with birthday cards from Grammy and Papa and Great Grandma with Isaiah swiping frosting off of the cake in the background.

Ethan and Isaiah playing with some of Ethan's presents.

Sophia playing wish a large light kosh catepillar.

Ethan standing in one of his presents.

Spring is Coming

2008-03-17T18:30:00.004-04:00

I saw these beautiful sights as I was running in and out doing errands today. Sophia excitedly joined me as I took pictures with my new camera.

First up, winter aconite and Sophia's finger.

Next, two yellow crocuses. There are lots more ready to burst forth in the next week or so.

Toothless

2008-02-01T22:16:00.000-05:00

Here's Ethan showing off his missing teeth at the end of the summer. I strongly suspect that both teeth were helped along the way by the candy apple he ate on the last day of the State Fair just days before he lost the first tooth. Ethan has since lost his two top front teeth. The bottom ones missing here have grown back and one of the top ones is also growing in.

Read the stories about losing the first two teeth, One Down, 19 to Go and "Now I have to grow a new one".

Independence

2008-02-01T21:42:00.000-05:00

Sophia really developed a thing for dressing herself over the summer. As with learning all things new she ran into a few snags but she was always happy with the results she got. Here's to Independence.

Back From the Dead

2007-11-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

Since cameras seem to have a short life span in our house I haven't posted any pictures in a long while. So I've decided to start pilfering the pictures that my sisters and other family members take of the kids. The commentary will be all mine of course.

I'm ready for my close up now

2007-05-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

"Mommy,mommy! Take my picture!"

"Take my picture again mommy! Take my picture again!"

Baby Bird

2007-05-26T09:35:00.000-04:00

I found this little one as I came back from a walk on Thursday evening. I assume it took a tumble out of the neighbour's arbovitae while trying to fly. I took its picture and left it alone. Friday morning it was gone. I hope it recovered and went on its merry way.

Look, it's Spiderman!

2007-05-26T08:56:00.000-04:00

That's Ethan enjoying the present that my family got him when we all got together a little while ago. We'll to let him see the movies one of these days.

We made the news

2007-04-05T09:08:00.000-04:00

(I posted this on my main blog last night. It goes well here too.)

Sophia made it into the picture of the day.

The caption reads: "Anya Burkhart, 5, center, attempts to catch some of the bubbles floating around the Upstate Cerebral Palsy's Promise Family Picnic Tuesday, April 3, 2007, to help celebrate Autism Awareness Month in April. Behind Burkhart is Sierra Larkin, and at bottom right is Sophia Pierce, 2."

This picture and a picture of me rolling up Isaiah's sleeve made it into the Utica paper today. I haven't been able to find that picture yet. We were visiting Isaiah's school for the annual family picnic.

If you're wondering why Isaiah is going to a school two counties away (two and half if you count the fact that we are in the middle of our county) it's because there were no programs for autistic children that we thought would be appropriate for Isaiah with openings any closer than that. It's a long haul out to Utica but it is the kind of environment that Isaiah needs.

Dance

2007-03-22T15:12:00.000-04:00

Here's a photo of me struttin' my stuff with a couple of the other ladies from y dance troupe. This performance was back in January (I think).

Summer Memories 2

2006-10-20T20:00:00.000-04:00

More items from the vault to reminds us of warmth and sunshine.

Riding off into the sunset.

Ethan and Peanut on the trike with Kay in the background.

Sophia sneaking off to the house.

Peanut on the trike with Sophia dancing in the background and Ethan just passing through.

Summer Memories

2006-09-19T23:42:00.000-04:00

I've gotten a few not so subtle reminders that I haven't posted any new pictures in a while so here are a few of the kids running wild in my parents' backyard at my birthday party this summer.

Sophia says: Don't mess with me and my ice cream man.

Sophia feeding Sis 2 with something (probably something already slightly chewed) with mom in the background and hubby bringing one of the boys back from an escape attempt.

Sophia and Ethan sharing an ice cream bar. That's Sis 1's hand and bright green shirt in the shot.

Isaiah caught standing still and looking in my direction while I had the camera.

Sophia purposefully striding off somewhere.

Ethan being cute for the camera.

Sophia trying to drown herself in the ice bucket. She was too short to actually get in the thing but Ethan and Isaiah were not. They ended the day by stripping and climbing in the thing while Sophia stood on the side and tried to splash in it. I'll post the picture of it if I can find it.

Puddle jumper

2006-06-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

It must be a childhood rite of passage to go jumping and stomping in puddles. Here is Sophia's first encounter with a muddy puddle. She started out wearing shoes. When I found her in the puddle I handed her inside to hubby to take her shoes off and clean her up. He got as far as taking her shoes off before he got distracted and she went right back outside to the mud puddle.

Lip Gloss

2006-06-03T08:01:00.000-04:00

Sophia's never met a shade of lipstick or lip gloss that she didn't like. In this case she found a brand new never been opened tube of Mary Kay downtown brown lip Gloss. She had previously gotten into a tube of lipstick that I had had since before I met hubby. She applied it to her face, hands, toes, hair, you get the idea. (Sorry no picture of this incident since I wasn't home when it happened.)

As you can see she's got some practicing to do yet. This episode taught us two things, Sophia knows how to open screw top containers and she's taller than we realised. I had thought that the lip gloss was far enough back on the counter that she couldn't reach it.

I made this

2006-06-01T21:12:00.000-04:00

I saw this fabric in the remnant bin at the fabric store and it just screamed little girl's dress to me. So I tried my hand at sewing a dress for Sophia. Not bad for free handing it eh? All that's left to do is add a button in the back.

Camera boo boo

2006-06-01T20:46:00.000-04:00

I found the kids playing with the camera earlier this week so this next series of pictures may be the last I get to post for awhile. I'll post the photos I managed to rescue over the next few days.

Flatware skills

2006-05-03T23:55:00.000-04:00

Earlier today Sophia came running into the livingroom with a fork in one hand and looking back over her shoulder. Ethan came running after her trying to get his fork back. I settled the squabble that ensued (don't ask how because I don't remember) and they both went back into the diningroom. This is what I found when I went to check on them in the diningroom. Yes, my that's my boy eating rice cakes with a knife and fork. Sophia trying to pilfer whatever she can (she made off with several forks and the equivalent of one whole rice cake), as well as hamming it up for the camera.

Birthday pictures

2006-05-03T13:12:00.000-04:00

Here are the rest of the pictures from Ethan's birthday party. We've got Ethan diving into his birthday cake and enjoying his birthday lollipop while playing with one of his birthday presents. Isaiah and Sophia also enjoyed Ethan's birthday cake with homemade chocolate ganache (is that the correct spelling, the blogger spellchecker doesn't recognise it) frosting.

Happy Birthday

2006-03-18T16:23:00.000-05:00

The birthday boy hanging out at school.

This time I got him actually looking at the camera.

Now this is the life!

Getting to lick the beaters and the bowl from your homemade birthday.

On the couch and on the porch

2006-03-17T20:31:00.000-05:00

Here are the kids cuddled up on the couch back in February. By the intent look on all of their faces they are probably watching something staring Elmo.

Sophia hanging out outside on Tuesday just before the big storm that made it all the way to the Berkshires hit. (All of that snow melted yesterday.)

Spring is coming

2006-03-15T18:05:00.000-05:00

In the past 30 or so hours since I took these pictures we have had a major lake effect snow event. It blew in off of Lake Ontario and reached all the way to the western Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. Schools and colleges in the north country around here either closed or had delayed openings. As I type it is still snowing. I don't know when it will stop. I checked on some of my flowers today and they are still hanging in there.

Winter aconite. This specimen is in my front yard near the end of the driveway. It is now covered under at least an inch of snow but that's okay because these little guys can take it. The bright yellow flowers are a big pick me up in dreary end of winter landscape.

Crocuses are also early bloomers and when you see them you know that spring is on its way. I have purple, yellow, and striped specimens in my front and back yards (none of the striped ones where up when I was taking photos).

Snowdrops. These from my backyard. I would have missed them blooming if I hadn't noticed the winter aconite and gone looking for what else was blooming.

Daffodils bloom a little later in early spring. These daffodils are in my front yard. Their flowers should open in another week or so. I have daffodils in other parts of the yard that aren't this far along yet though. The tulips that are planted along with these daffodils won't be in full bloom until April and May.

Fun with camera phones

2006-02-24T09:46:00.000-05:00

Sis 2 took these pictures of the kids when she visited last weekend.

Bacon baby.
Sophia's got a thing for bacon. All of the kids do. I've started cooking the bacon in the oven because they kept trying to take it out of the skillet when I cooked it on the stove top.

Smiley girl.

Smiley guy.

Say what?
Getting Isaiah to smile on camera is almost impossible. This is as close as Sis 2 could get.

Ethan builds again

2006-02-13T19:11:00.000-05:00

Ethan likes to build stuff and he has lately taken to build replicas of the places that he goes.

This is a surprising replica of the set up at church. We met in the gym of a school. The coin jar with the car on top of it is the pulpit. Those two blocks off to the right are the doors to the gym. The stack of blocks are the stairs the kids go up to get to their Sunday school classrooms.

The kids gather upstairs for their assembly time before their classes. This quarter they are learning the books of the New Testament.

The grown ups rearrange themselves a bit once the kids leave.

Everyone mills around after church. We fold up the chairs, put away the sound equipment, and roll up the carpets (a favourite task that all of the kids like to help with).

Ethan has also built models of his Sunday school and regular school classrooms (complete with chairs for students and teachers) and the assembly time set up. I may have pictures of some of those.

Fun with dinner ware

2006-01-30T22:10:00.000-05:00

Sophia likes to do a lot of those classic kid things like putting an empty bowl on her head.

Her standard operating procedure is to eat as much as she wants. If there's anything left in the bowl or on the plate that all gets dumped on the tray of her booster seat and/or the floor. Then the bowl (or plate but usually a bowl) gets up ended onto her head like a hat. I have no idea why but she does this every she eats. I've even caught her moving her head around in the bowl as if her intention is to wipe the thing clean with her hair. It's always fun trying to get the stuff out at bath time (not).

Pretty things

2005-12-17T12:05:00.000-05:00

These photos have been hanging around in draft limbo since August. This is a new hip wrap that I made over the summer just because I saw that beautiful blue and orange yarn in the fabric store and just had to have it. I used these photos to help me plan the layout of the piece before I started gluing and sewing stuff on. I crocheted the base of this hip wrap myself and made the tassels by hand. The little mirrors got glued on and so far only one has fallen off. The shells were sowen on. I eventually added some flowers I made out of the blue and orange yarn with tiny bells in the middle of them.

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Since costume pieces are always a work in progress, just a couple of weeks ago I added some angle hair yarn fringe to the belt to add a little more movement to the piece when I dance. The yarn was on sale and I'd been wanting some since the spring. I got the mirrors and the shells from Oriental Trading Company.

2005-12-16T11:05:00.000-05:00

I had nothing to do with this. I came out of the kitchen and found her in the toy box.

Snow day!

2005-12-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

No school today thanks to the collision of two moisture laden low pressure systems right above our heads. Hubby went out at ~~8:30 AM or so~~ 8:54 AM (so says the time stamp on the first pic on the camera) to shovel snow and just came back in. There's a lot of ice underneath the snow. Hubby cleaned the car off and chiseled it out of the ice so we won't have as much work to do later if we want to go somewhere. That's assuming of course that we can make it out of our driveway. It doesn't look like there's been a plow down our street yet. Anyway, ~~there'll be pictures up shortly~~ here are some pictures.

Hubby standing in the snow outside our basement door.

Hubby down on the sidewalk as a minivan inches down the street.

This is the Zelkova at the end of our front walkway. It's a memeber of the Elm family. (Learn more about the species here.) There are some really impressive specimens at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

Little Girl

2005-12-07T19:00:00.000-05:00

Sophia stands at the door watching the boys wait for the bus on the front porch. This picture was taken on a warm windy day at the end of November right before the current cold snap set in. Shortly after this was taken Sophia was blown over by a particularly fierce gust of wind.

Wrestlemania

2005-12-07T18:23:00.000-05:00

Despite appearances I think Isaiah is winning. Shortly after I took these pictures Isaiah wiggled out from under Ethan and ran across the room to sit in the rocking chair grinning like the Cheshire cat.

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Wild Child

2005-11-28T09:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, that is a pair of her brother's underwear that she's got on her head. It was all her idea.

Prim and proper

2005-11-28T09:08:00.000-05:00

We got back into town on Saturday night. We popped in a Veggie Tales video to keep the kids quiet while hubby and I got the car unpacked and started putting stuff away. Imagine my surprise when I went to check on the kids and saw this:

Isaiah, prim and proper, quietly sitting and watching an episode of Veggie Tales.

This is a kid who is constantly roaming the house and getting into everything. This morning I found him standing on a box of diapers in front of the fridge trying to open the freezer door (he had seen Ethan doing it just a few minutes before).

Yardwork

2005-11-21T16:50:00.000-05:00

I took Ethan out to play in the leaves while I did some yard work about two weeks ago. I hoped to get a shot of him body slamming a leaf pile but I missed it.

Here Ethan demonstrates his fan rake dance.

Ethan was very excited about being outside and not very interested in standing still for pictures.

This is a really cute picture of Ethan looking off into the distance. Probably at a dog across the street or a car.

Picture blogging down

2005-11-19T14:27:00.000-05:00

Hello (the service I use for posting pictures on this blog) has been down for days. None of its users (including yours truly) have been able to log in. The problem appears to be with the program itself not with the users' computers. I've got some great pictures of the kids to post but I can't do anything with them until Hello is up and running again. No one seems to know when that will be either. If you've been trying to access Hello and need to vent you can post a message on this forum. The thing has been pretty finicky the entire time I've used it.

Blast from the past

2005-11-12T13:01:00.000-05:00

Here's a blast from the past. This photo was taken just a few days before Ethan's first birthday. That's Leslie holding him. He was going through a phase where he looked like his ducky.

Resemblances

2005-11-04T13:48:00.000-05:00

Ethan, 13 months.

Sophia, 13 months.

Ethan, 20 months.

Smile

2005-11-04T13:12:00.000-05:00

Ethan had a great time out on the back porch yesterday in the unseasonably warm weather.

Ghost

2005-11-04T13:11:00.000-05:00

Isaiah as earned the nick name ghost for the difficulty people have in getting a picture of his face. I was trying t get a picture of the Oreos and peanut butter smeared around his mouth but as usual he wasn't cooperating.

Golden Carpet

2005-11-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

The maples in our neck of the woods are in full colour and shedding their leaves. There is a beautiful carpet of golden leaves in our backyard and some trees with their leaves still on.

The kids' sand box shares this shot with a nearly bare box elder (in the maple family), maple saplings on the wooded slope, and some dead grape vines that I cut a couple of summers ago. Oh, and the garage of the neighbours on the south east side of the house.

The north westerly view with the neighbours' lilacs in the foreground.

North north west, I think the evergreen back there is a spruce.

Back to the south south east.

Sophia meets spaghetti

2005-11-03T17:11:00.000-05:00

I made spaghetti with clam sauce for dinner last week and, well, just see for yourself.

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Creepy crawly

2005-11-03T16:45:00.000-05:00

I found this little guy parked in the middle of our driveway on a rainy day back at the end of September. From time to time I find salamanders in the basement and under rocks in the back yard. I've never found one out in the open like this. I'm not a herpetology person so I can't tell you what kind of salamander it is.

Salamander 1

Salamander 2

Auntie takes some pictures

2005-10-18T22:23:00.000-04:00

My sisters visited over the weekend and took some adorable pictures of the kids. So with out further ado, here they are.

Ethan with morning bed head.

The birthday girl all dressed up for church.

Cute isn't she?

Isaiah displaying his dismayed-at-being-caught-doing-mischief face. This may have been after he knocked over a suitcase.

Baby Diva

2005-09-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

Sophia was in destructive baby mode yesterday constantly roaming and looking for something to play with. I took my hip wrap and wrapped it around her middle to keep her occupied. She likes to jingle keys and the like so I figured she'd enjoy the jingling of the coins. Sophia proceeded to walk back and forth in the house just to listen to the noise she was making.

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You can see Ethan's great wall project in the background.

Ethan's Apples

2005-09-15T18:31:00.000-04:00

Ethan has taken to drawing fruit. He's imitating an animation sequence from the Mimi & Sam: Melodies of Nature DVD by Baby Ventures (hubby reviewed the DVD here). Ethan draws coconuts, apples, bananas, watermelon, and grapes. His rendition of the apple is the best (meaning most identifiable) because he adds a stem and leaf. The other pictures mostly look like smears of colour on the page. Ethan really likes to practise his new found talent so no sheet of paper is safe. Below are some of Ethan's best apple drawings to date.

Apples 1

Apples 2

As you can see Ethan has two versions of his apples:

Long apple

Round apple

I'm not sure which form came first.

Sophia Series

2005-08-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

Sophia has recently mastered the art of walking. She's been making good use of her new found talent quiet a bit.

Here she is making her way around Isaiah's speech therapist to help herself to some toys.

In this shot she fell on her bottom as I took the picture. It didn't slow her down one bit.

Sophia fought the boys off for that ball she's got but she's always on the look out for the next toy.

Every time I lined up a good shot she walked away. The nerve!

Sophia had a grand old time with those bells she's got.

Looking for more trouble.

Ethan's hands

2005-08-26T20:47:00.000-04:00

See here for the story.

More fun with paint

2005-08-22T10:17:00.001-04:00

I brought along Isaiah's paint and brushes to help entertain the cousins in New Hampshire. Funny how kids who live hundreds of miles apart will get into the same kinds of mischief when brought together. The kids all enjoyed painting the paper, themselves, and Grammy and Papa's front porch. Everyone got tossed in the tub afterwards.
[Warning: Again do not try this at home without adding dishwashing liquid to the paint even if it says it's washable paint.]

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Fun with paint

2005-08-21T15:42:00.000-04:00

Isaiah got paint (washable of course) and some brushes for his birthday. I took the boys out onto the front porch to have their way with the paint and brushes. Ethan wandered off to play with the sprinkler by the time I thought to get the camera out but I got some good shots of Isaiah.
[Warning: do not try this at home without first mixing some dish washing liquid (not the stuff you put in the dishwasher) in with the paint.]

Isaiah the budding Picasso.

There's almost as much paint on him as there is on the paper.

Admiring his work.

Bye bye I'm done!

Sophia and the chicken leg

2005-08-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

There's an old trick that West Indian moms have to keep babies at bay while mom grabs a few bites of food. You give the baby (who should have at least two teeth) a mostly bare chicken leg. Baby has a good time gnawing on the bone while mom gets to eat mostly unmolested. We tried this on Sophia over the weekend. It work pretty well.

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Hubby and the kids

2005-08-01T10:58:00.000-04:00

The kids decided to swarm hubby on the couch a few days ago.

Isaiah of course was more interested in climbing over the back of the couch than getting his picture taken.

That's one of my homemade bandanas that Ethan is sporting. A couple of nights before this picture was taken we found him asleep with it on his head.

I finally get all of the kids looking at the camera and hubby's looking the wrong way.

Update: Hubby makes mention of his missing beard in the trackback. Here's the story of how it came to be missing. A few days ago I told him that he needed to trim his beard because he was beginning to look like a shaggy mountain man. Now what usually hapens when I tell him this is that he disappears for a bit and when he turns up again he's clean shaven. It seems he begins with the intent to just trim his beard but can't quite get it even so he keeps cutting. Eventually his beard is gone and he sneaks back to whatever he was doing before he went off to trim his beard. I'm assuming that this is what happened this time as well.

Star Fighters

2005-07-26T23:18:00.000-04:00

At this time of year gardens tend to be shriveling under the summer heat. There aren't many flowers that can stand up to the heat and humidity, or lack there of depending on what kind of summer you're having. Oriental lilies bring new life, bright colour, and gorgeous scent to the mid to later summer garden.

I've got the Star Fighter variety in a couple of spots in my garden. (These are in front yard next to the house.) I'm a sucker for a good name. This one makes me think of spectacular battles in space. I want more. In another year or two I'll dig and separate the bulbs in hopes of increasing my supply.

Star Fighter 1

Star Fighter 2

Star Fighter 3

There is another variety called Star Gazer that has little or no white in the petals that I have been coveting for years. The bulbs are a bit pricey though and I haven't been able to talk myself into spending the money on them yet. (Here I am going on about price when they're practically on sale at White Flower Farm. I may go shopping tomorrow.)

Star Gazer Lily

Casa Blanca is beautiful white oriental lily that I think would go well with Star Fighter and Stargazer but again I just can't bring myself to plunk down the chunk of change for them. (These are twice as much as the Star Gazers.)

Casa Blanca Lily

Purple coneflower

2005-07-20T10:57:00.000-04:00

I've got purple coneflowers growing like crazy in my yard. I planted them in the fall of 2000. Since then I've dig some up and given them to friends once. I may have to do it again next year. I had other things planted near them but they have pretty much taken over the bed they're in. Dead heading keeps new blooms coming well into September. I've even had a few blooms hanging on until October.

Purple cone flower

Echinacea purpurea

Letting a few of the flowers go to seed gives plenty of new plants in following growing seasons (as if they needed any help with that). That's how I got these mutants that have no ray flowers. I think the spiky clumps of disk flowers are cute.

Coneflower with out ray flowers.

Disk flowers with a few vestigial rays

Purple coneflower is also a favorite with insects. There are two species of bees that I regularly find in my garden.

Species 1

Species 2

Garden hitch hiker

2005-07-18T11:03:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure that I didn't plant this flower in my garden but I like it any way. It's a cone flower from the composite family. I was doing a casual inventory of my garden the other day and realised that nearly all of the plants flowering right now are composites.

Rudbeckia bicolor

There are also some daisies in these pictures (also composites). I've got two or three kinds of them.

Rudbeckia bicolor

That's Ethan in the distance sitting on one of their wagon thingies waiting for the school bus.

I really like these flowers so I'll be letting some of the blooms go to seed for planting.

Isaiah in the bird bath

2005-07-18T10:18:00.000-04:00

The boys and I waited for the bus outside this morning. I took a few pictures of the flowers that I'll post later. This is the last picture that I took this morning. Isaiah likes to visit the neighbour's yard. Today he decided to explore their bird bath. With my garden trowel (not pictured).

Butterflies

2005-07-16T15:47:00.000-04:00

I found one of these in my purple cone flowers this afternoon.

Black swallowtail

Spicebush swallowtail (male)

Mourning cloak (link 2)

I can't really decide which one it was. It was dark brown with larger prolongations on the hindwings than the mourning cloak. There were yellow spots at the margin of the forewings and iridescent blue green spots on the margin of the hindwings. I didn't see any orange spots that would be indicative of a swallowtail butterfly but I was keeping an eye on three kids at the time so maybe I missed it. There are also at least two species of bees in the cone flowers as well.

(Cross posted at Uncle Sam's Cabin.)

Baby girl

2005-07-16T09:09:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted too many pictures of Sophia on here. So here are a few from 4th of July weekend at my parent's house. Sophia was 8.5 months old at the time and all dressed up for church with grandma and grandpa.

Sophia loves her bear.

What a smile.

Mom, what are you doing?

Make sure you get my good side.

Now how do I get off of this thing?

Song and dance

2005-07-15T16:53:00.000-04:00

Here's a shot of Ethan singing and dancing with one of his buddies at school.

Fresh from the where is Isaiah sleeping now files

2005-07-15T16:35:00.000-04:00

Sometime back after going upstairs to check on the kids hubby came down to tell me that I had to go take a look at Isaiah. What could he possibly be doing now? Sleeping on the bed for a change? No such luck.

Isaiah loves his Larry Boy pillow.

Of all the things in the closet to use as a blanket he chooses my curtains.

Isaiah's gotten a nice tan though.

Mmmm... Lunch

2005-06-29T11:14:00.001-04:00

A few weeks back I went to Ethan's school for his class's graduation ceremony (Ethan wasn't graduating but some of his classmates were). I took the other kids with me. Isaiah wasn't about to sit still so he wondered around the room until he found something to interest him.

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The kid really knows how to build a burger

Ethan the builder

2005-06-29T10:38:00.000-04:00

Ethan likes to build extensive roads using video tapes. He includes ramps, bridges, and what not. Here's a sampling of some of his creations in no particular order.

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Spring time past

2005-06-08T20:06:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to post some pictures of my garden for a while. These are some pictures that I took in the spring of 2003. It was a nice day so I took the kids out (there were just two of them then) to enjoy the weather and the view.

Red Dynasty and Ice Princess tulips in bloom with Queen of the Night tulips still in bud. May 2003. The Queen of the Night tulips are a deep dark purple that sometimes appears black. The Ice Princess tulips didn't bloom this year. This past winter may have been a bit harsh for them.

Isaiah, May 2003.

Isaiah making a break for it, May 2003.

Golden Appledron tulips, blue grape hyacinths, and white anemones in bloom. Alfred Heineken tulips in bud. May 2003. I admit it, I bought the Heinekens because of the name. And the pale yellow flower that fades to white at the top kind of resembles a froth topped beer.

Big Smile tulips. May 2003. These tulips are apply named. The big yellow blooms always make me smile. They've multiplied over the last two seasons but haven't handled the dry spring this year well.

Ethan and Big Smile tulips. May 2003.

Apple Blossom tulip mix. May 2003.

The peanut butter incident

2005-06-01T15:33:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when mommy radar goes offline. I forgot that I had left an open jar of peanut butter (one of Isaiah's favorite foods) on the kitchen counter. I also made the mistake of ignoring the screaming silence. It's the silence that little children exude when they're trying not to get caught doing something that they shouldn't be doing.

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Here we go again

2005-05-31T10:53:00.000-04:00

I found Ethan on the dresser again last night. He had his duck with him this time.

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More sleep pics

2005-05-31T10:46:00.000-04:00

Here's a series of Ethan asleep in the crib on top of the laundry. The crib has become the holding place for the laundry until I can get around to putting it away.

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Bathing Beauty

2005-05-28T21:13:00.000-04:00

Here's a series of shots of Isaiah in the bathtub. I made the mistake of leaving the bathroom door open a bit too long after giving him a bath. I guess he decided that he wasn't done.

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After I fished him out and got half of his wet clothes off of him he got away from me again and went right back into the tub.

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Sleeping beauties 2

2005-05-25T10:15:00.000-04:00

This is what I found when I checked on Ethan last night before I went to bed.

How and why did he do this?

Unbelievable.

Notice that he's cuddled up next to his new favorite CD, Kid's Praise.

Here's Isaiah asleep in his favourite place.

The closet.

Sleeping beauties

2005-05-24T10:41:00.000-04:00

This is what I found when I went to check on the kids before I went to bed last night.

Ethan
Who needs a blanket and bed when you've got a floor and a carpet?

Isaiah
He's usually in the closet.

Sophia
At least she stays where we put her, for now.