Busy Day in the garden, first the frogs and now the wrens leaving the nest for the first time... we watched #1 and #2 leave. Here is #3 thinking about the plunge.

#4 is waiting in the depths for #3 to clear out.

#3 in the air (check out the blur). #4 now takes a LONG time to consider the prospect of taking flight.


Waiting (kids got bored).

#4 in flight... finally.

Now we have four chittering babies in the trees trying to get mom and dad to feed them. Fun day - hard to recenter on the surveymonkey task at hand...

Frog Farm

i have legs?

watchful eye

belly up

find the froglet

lonely frog

frog farm

porch frog farm

on the 21st of July we had come back from vacation in Virginia, and in our new pond, in the front yard. the water hyacinths had doubled! little did we know what was under their roots. later on later on we saw tad poles everywhere! so we took a jar and caught about 20 tad poles at the same time! Now after a month and a half, now there baby frogs and take their first steps on to land!
WHERE WILL THEY LIVE???
HGV

On the 21st of July we came back from Virginia. We had more water hyacinths than we had and jillions of tadpoles. We have put some inside a fish tank. 39 days later froglets have emerged. There will be more.
ECV

The tadpoles make me feel good. At evening time I eat dinner and I always look at them and I look at the dead tree which is next to our house but the tree is not next to the tadpoles and then the other not dead trees are ours but some of them are dougs. And then the frogs sometimes go into the trees and then they are called treefrogs. At leslie science center we saw a tree frog. The frogs evaporate into big frogs.
MBV

signs of spring and bowling

This one is for my sister - who accused me of not writing enough words and hiding behind visual content.
First up this morning was a lovely (somewhat icy walk in the woods) with hemmac (aka Henry, Ellie, Meg and Mac) looking for signs of spring - and trying NOT to fall into the river! Mac was not amused... he starts looking at me like eyeore when we don't immediately leave on walks. No - not the kids - please dear god - do we have to take the kids? stop and go, stop and go ... then he sulks. Buck up white furball - you got an hour walk out of it! We found a red tail halk, some swans, black and white ducks, bugs, a squirrely, bunny tracks and cardinals - feisty ones.
Per ellie, Mama fell and per meg, mama bleeded (small scratch - quite dramatic).
All kids managed to wipe out on the icy trail - success!
After the walk - I skeedadled - managed to squeeze a nice chat with one of my school buds - thanks Nick! - good chat.
Then we went bowling (after hitting reuse to scavenge ... no luck this time). Per Ellie - everyone got at least one strike... lots of spares... meg even got to bowl (mama's handicap)... then it was nappy time - kinda.
Kids got roiled up with mac - put peanut butter in kong (note to self - try slathering it on meg... probably good for at least 15 minutes of hilarity). Mac really looks so silly trying to shove his tongue (all of it) into the small opening... he concentrates very hard - goes kind of crosseyed.
Ellies slippers from Jakarta (of indeterminate animal fur) continue to be a source of fascination for mac. Ellie walks around and he follows her every step hungrily... amuses Ellie to no end. She is giggling as we speak...
All in all a fabulous fun holiday - and it isn't over. We are eagerly awaiting Claire's arrival for a sleep over and have pawned off Henry on her brother. Mac REALLY can't wait - two giggly girls hanging on his every move.
I on the other hand have thirty exams to pore over and grade - god help me.
Meg will help me :)
Happy happy - good enough, Kat? - Liz

Spring Break in Michigan

Sleepy spring break while the snow flies and the ice (doesn't) melt.
Mac sleeps on:

Make sure to persevere til the end ... maybe its just us but his twitches are wonderfully understated.
Dave and I got some hockey against Henry in this weekend. Dave even scored a couple of times (Henry didn't :) AND he stayed (mainly) upright.
Check out some of his better moments - Henry is in the yellow helmet -

But to give everyone their due... Michigan is the place to get a good sense of keeping your edges.
Here is Henry at our favorite neighborhood skating rink:
And Ellie:

And finally Dave (and Ellie) carefully guiding Meg in her travails... she has turning right down to an artform:

More later this week... we are actually suppose to hit 40 degrees F by Thursday - break out the sun tan lotion! Best - Liz

Ring in the New Year

New Years resolution No. 4 - write more. School is helping me on the path of some things academic but I need something to keep me honest on the home front. Years ago I bought a couple of bound notebooks to record doings of and musings about my kids - needless to say they remain blank (and now like the rest of my house, are dust covered). The combination of my really bad handwriting and running around doing silly numbers of tasks at the same time has led to abject failure. I am finding that working on material that lives on the web and using my computer or public computers to access it is a much better way for me to tune in (so to speak) and keep up - the possibility of an audience just means that I will have to keep it clean and concise. Quel horreur. So, if you are along for the ride - welcome. I hope it won't be too boring - you can always stop reading! Keep in mind its going to be kid and pet centric. Even if I will be writing it from various spots along my meandering academic and professional path.