1st trip of the year to "big water"

Pics from the past week

The guitar Fairy- a cautionary tale to parents

I've been reading this GREAT book about the brain and teaching. One of the strategies it talks about is the power of a novel situation. Emory's guitar has been going pretty well over the last month but in the last few days he has had a renewed resistance to the project. So I decided to apply some teaching strategies to parenting. After giving it some thought I told Emory that someone very special was going to come and do guitar with him that night.

"Who IS it?" he asks.

"The guitar fairy! She said that she made some special time to come and play with you."

"Oh when is she coming??"

"Pretty soon, why don't you go downstairs and play and then when you hear the door bell ring that will be her."

He happily left. I went to my room to go put on my costume. One wedding veil and tiara later, complete with cape and funny shoes, I sneaked out of the house and rang the doorbell.

"It's the fairy the fairy!" I hear from inside the house, followed by excited feet climbing the stairs. I see the curtain pull open and an excited face peek out of the house.

SILENCE

"MAMA MAMA MAMA THERE IS A SCARY STRANGER OUTSIDE!!!! MAMA MAMA MAMA"

As I hear feet frantically running away and tears pouring out loudly, I realize, no guitar is going to happen that night.

Mother's Day part II

Some before & after of our front yard. I put in a crab apple tree for Andrea for Mother's Day.

Cute Boy

Happy Mother's Day Andrea!!

Happy Mother's Day Andrea! I hope your enjoy your new patio...not I'm got to get to work on the rest of your present, planting a tree in the front of the house.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, Andrea requested our kid's sand box be cleaned out, moved, filled with sand and the area that used to house the box be turned into a patio. Here is the 'before' picture, and hopefully the after picture will be up by the end of business tomorrow!

Photo shoot with Lily at the park

I got to spend a few hours with Lily in the park today...we had so much fun playing in the sun; and I finally was able to get some pictures of Lily with a smile on her face!