Sean's plane ride

Sean flew out of BWI on Sunday and we snapped a few pictures to commemorate.

Sean did his best to ignore my waving and cries of "goodbye" but the ticket taker lady told him to turn around and say goodbye to his mother. Thank you Ticket Taker Lady!









Sean waiting in line to board.
















Jeff and Sean doing what they do best.
-Amy

P.S. A friend mentioned my post about the Ducks and I had NO idea what they were talking about. I see now that Someone (otherwise known as Jeff) did post some Duck stuff that I was unaware of. I was worried that maybe my memory is way worse than I thought.

Home Sweet Home, A Duck's Home That Is

For the past few weeks, it has been raining almost every evening, thus our yard never drys ups and water starts to accumulate in the front yard. A pair of ducks have mistaken this large puddle for a pond and started living in around it. Sean and I found a duck egg today, but it was broken in to by something. We have not named them yet.

PA

A bunch of us went to Philly last weekend for a day. We had the most perfect weather you could ask for. Our first stop was Bartram's Garden. Here is a picture of Jake standing in the middle of Mr. Bartram's stone cider press. Mr. Bartram did not mind - he was dead at the time.








I asked Jake to poke a stick into the cider reservoire to see how deep it was. I can't imagine how they kept that thing clean. Maybe they just didn't.

We also walked the streets of Philly and stopped into Besty Ross's house. Here is a photo of her tombstone that she shares with her also dead husband. (I heard he was always riding her coattails). That lady lived to be 84! Her rented house was really small and charming.

Can you believe these are the only pictures I took - I am so mad at myself. We are going to Mt. Vernon next month, I'll do better there.

Bye,

Amy

Updates in Life

Here is the graduation cake I made today. It turned out okay, the high humidity and rain made it extra challenging though.











This is the strawberry shortcake we ate on Memorial Day. All the strawberries came from our garden - the fact that the berries were free made the whole thing taste better.










I tried to make Scarlet pose in front of the mailbox, but she refused - however, the irises had no problem standing still for this shot.
















Rembember the nest of birds I had in the shed? When I went back to investigate, I found this little guy (or gal, who knows) flying around in there and pooping all over the place. I know people love birds, they're cute, blah blah blah, but this one and his family moved out and left the place a mess. And me with no security deposit.

I





He didn't even make up his nest before flying the coop! See, it's all rumpled!

Calvert Cliffs

We took a daytrip to Calvert Cliffs on Saturday. The weather was perfect. Sean brought his friend Justin, and they had fun on the playground. There were cool tires contraptions to play on and a zipline.










We took a 2 mile "hike" to beach/cliffs. Here are Nan and Jeff looking for fossils. Nan was bummed because she didn't find anything good. The pesky megladon has eluded her again.







Being sisters looks like fun. At least these two have fun.









Sean and Justin were gracious enough to stop whatever they were doing so I could take their picture.











The Cliffs were pretty. The temperature of the water was perfectly chilly, which was great because it was sort of hot outside. Here, you will see Sara and Kathy chatting each other up.









We haven't picnic'd in a long while - we made a vow to do it more often.

All in all, a wonderful day.

Fencing

Sean just finished his 8 week fencing course at St. Anne's School. The last class was an elimination competition. Guess who won?











If you guessed Sean - then you are right.













He won every bout against every kid in the class. I think there were 7 students total. The girl he is fencing with here, was stiff competition. She was really fast and had good form. She had taken the class before, so she had more experience too. She was super good and very cute.








I don't know how they can see thru those masks.













Sean's teacher is encouraging him to take lessons at St. John's college this summer. He will if it fits into his schedule.

Fencing.........who knew?

Baby Birds

A mama bird made a little nest in our shed. She chose a small galvenized bucket that I had hanging on the wall. One week ago, the nest held pink speckled eggs. Now, it holds, what looks to be, 4 baby birds.









The bucket was up higher than I could reach, so I just aimed the camera, pushed the button and hoped for the best.

These babies are very quiet, except when the mama flies in with food for them. I'll try to get another pic at the end of the week to see if they have grown.

Does anyone know what happens to the eggshells after the birds hatch?

Hershey Park

We went to Hershey Park again this year. Here is Jake looking thoroughly miserable on the carousel.











Here is mom-mom looking quite majestic.

Me, Alicia and Kaleb. It was hot as heck that day, but we all managed weak smiles.

Lunch is fun!!!!!!

It's been a while.........

I'm sure nobody even looks at this blog anymore, it's been months since I've updated. Well, Sean just had a birthday - he's 14. Shawn Petersen came over for cake, and so did mom-mom and pop-pop.







It was chocolate with cream cheese icing.













Yum.













Here is the aerogarden. These herbs are about 2 weeks old.













Jake and Xander - they both look really sleepy.

I hope I post again soon, I'm sorry I didn't take vomit pics last week when we were all sick - that would have been a good one.

bye,
amy

Old Pictures

I was going thru my several boxes of photos and thought I share some of the older ones with you. Here is a cute Jake in the bath. He was probably 2 years old.










Here is Sean, also about 2, getting ready to haul some stuff in his wheelbarrow. Cute hat.


















Here is Sean holding Tangles, while Tiger looks on. Can you believe Tangles was ever that small?
















Here is Mom-mom wearing Jake's graduation cap and they both think it's hysterical. Good times.











Here is a much younger Jake, being held by a much much younger Dani. This was, obviously, 20 years ago.

By the way, Charlotte's egg sac has not yet hatched. I don't know if those spiders will ever come out - they may have died in there. I'll get to the bottom of it and post an answer soon.

Amy

Mice infestation

Well, we have a pretty bad mouse problem this year. They are bigger and bolder than ever and they party all night. Here you see two of them laughing at Xander behind his back. These mice have terrible attitudes!











I caught one trying to attack Scarlet - it ran straight for her face. Luckily, she was able to dodge it at the last minute.












This one was all up in my coat rack.



















Poor little Xander was traumatized - but in a cute way.












Tangles says that it is not her job to hunt mice - she won't even admit there's a problem. Notice Fran didn't even bother to make an appearance.

Wish us luck in winning the rodent war - I fear the worst. If you check my blog in the future and all you see are pictures of cheese, pray for us.........pray hard.

Spider

No need to decorate for Halloween, Charlotte has set up shop right outside our front door. Charlotte is about 2 inches long - and check out that egg sac. She must have thousands of little spider eggs in there.

I like her because she is catching mosquitos and other annoying bugs - I invited her to stay as long as she wants. But, if E.B. White is correct, she doesn't have much time.

I hope I can catch her blessed event on camera, with my luck the eggs will hatch while I'm at work. More later....

-amy

New Kitty

Enjoy these pics of our new family member, Xander. We got him from a friend who got him from a friend who has mean people "dumping" cats on his property. I'll never understand the pea-brains that do that.









Sean loves him. Jake hasn't seen him yet.















Too cute.














He has attitude in this pic. See you all later.
amy

Water Park

We went to the water park a few weeks ago, of course I only took pictures of Kylie. I couldn't help it, she was fetching in a cute little robe. Anyway, she loved the lazy river and was very happy floating the evening away.

Sean and I went to OC for a few days, I did not take ONE picture. I need to change my ways.

-amy