I Spy a Birthday Boy

We celebrated Daniel's fifth birthday with family this evening.

He's pretty excited about his new Sorry! game, a castle tent, . . .

. . . and a spyglass (though I don't think he's quite sure what it is).

Thanks everyone!  And happy birthday, Daniel Man!

Family Projects

Joy submitted her science project write-up for the school science fair this morning.

I was impressed by the number of first grader projects on display.  The school doesn't require science projects for that age, but the first grade tables were crammed so full that we had to scoot a few projects aside to make room for Joy's.

Back at home, Anna and Daniel worked together . . .

. . . to line up all of our playing cards in order.  Nice teamwork, guys. :)

Sand, Swing, Sling

The kids and I spent a pleasant afternoon at a park today.

The sisters dug in the sand, . . . 

. . . one brother hung out in a swing, . . .

. . . and the other hung out in the sling.

Incidentally, I need to remember to smile in selfies; I'm always concentrating so hard on centering myself and pushing the right button that I end up looking very pensive.

Visiting Relatives and a Relatively Good Portrait

My Aunt Lisa was in town tonight . . .

. . . so we gathered at my parents' home to dine, chat, and admire Grandma's new cookbook.  It was fun to rub elbows with aunts and uncles I don't see often . . . 

. . . and the kids had fun playing with their second cousins . . .

. . . and their wild and crazy uncle.

Speaking of crazy, we tried to shoot a family portrait this evening.  I think this is one of those pictures that you hang on to so that a few years down the road you can laugh at the way every single one of the kids is making a non-photogenic face.

Valentine Walk

Happy Valentine's Day!

The kids and I made some valentines today (using a method I adapted from a Mer Mag post) . . .

. . . then we took a walk so Daniel could deliver his to a friend from school.

If you look closely, you can see that Daniel chose to make his valentine a pumpkin shape instead of a heart.

We dropped off the valentine (the friend liked it, and his mom was very touched) . . . 

. . . then Joy helped wheel the little kids along on our way home.  She really loves to help out.

Catch and Misaligned Slumber

This is what I found when I went in to wake up Daniel this morning.

Dude, if you think that's comfortable, more power to you.

This afternoon we played catch outside.

When Joy got home from school she hunted for rolly pollies in my container garden . . . 

. . . and played with Todd.  Awww.

Catch!!

The Alpha-path and Joy's Quest for Knowledge

Joy's elementary school has their annual science fair coming up, so Joy decided to conduct an experiment with six items to see what would float and what would sink.

She guessed the things on the left would sink, the sponge in the middle would kind of float, and the things on the right would float.

As it turned out, only the straw sank.  Who'd have thought?

While Joy was conducting her research, Daniel and Anna exercised their brains by making an alphabet path to walk on together.  Though it may not appear so at first, the letters really are in the right order (the path doubles back on itself at the letter Q).