Ovenbird

This morning a frantic call from the backyard had me running out to see what Duke was after. A small bird was sitting on the ground near our garden. We're pretty sure he's an ovenbird. What do you think?

He was so stunned and I was able to pick him up. As soon as he heard his friends in the distance he fluttered out of my hand, into the garden, and finally out of the yard.

The Key to More Consistent Posting

... is to avoid posts saying that I'll be posting soon. Inevitably life gets in the way.

Living on the Space Coast

... has some advantages.

Can you guess where we're going?



How about now?



This is the Vertical Assembly Building... see the stars on the flag? I've been told each one is the size of a car. REALLY, a car! This building is HUGE! The roof covers 8 acres and it's 525 feet tall. Amazing!




Inside the VAB- so big that I couldn't get it all in one photo.


We have some lovely friends who invited us to Family Day at the Kennedy Space Center. It was a terrific morning, a once in a lifetime opportunity and I have a TON of photos to share. I'm going to be posting several installments of the tour in the next few days so check back soon.

Proud Mama

I'm going to try to import the video of Sully singing with his chorus.





It worked!!! It took forever, but it worked... now to post.

Sully is the only boy in the ensemble, so he's carrying the baritone (or is is bass?) all on his own. He sang with the full chorus last year as an alto but since his voice changed, he's moved up to the ensemble. This was his first performance and first time carrying the entire part on his own. The title of the post says it all. I think he did a great job!

Creative Definitions

Buddhist Farmer: One who sits on a horse doing reputation.

Reputation: (this one is visual) Sit cross-legged with arms out and bent up at elbows, fingers and thumb touching ... it looks like someone who is meditating

Don't even ask how we got on that conversation!

**To clarify- These were Nathan's definitions and he had the word 'reputation' confused with 'meditation'. I'm not sure if anyone could really take up that kind of meditative pose while riding a horse, but he imagined it that way. This from a child who generally has a really good vocabulary... I suppose it's time to do a little more study about world religions.

Weather and Eggplant Parmesan

Not that one has anything to do with the other but, boy, did we have some weather today! Tornado watches and everything! It seems a little early for such wild weather, and hurricane season is still over a month away.

We also had Eggplant Parmesan for dinner, homemade, a first for me. We've been ordering organic veggie boxes for the past few weeks, and last week's box included an eggplant. The vegetables have been lovely and we get some things that I wouldn't normally pick up on my own, which means I'm being forced to be more creative with cooking... it also means we are all eating more vegetables.

I used this recipe with this tomato sauce. It was really good! Rave reviews from Kevin and both boys.

The sauce was so good and so easy, I won't ever use pre-made sauce ever again... well, that's probably rash, but it was easy and good; I'll definitely make it again.


And look at the beautiful way we like to end our daylight hours here.

The pictures hardly do it justice.
Hope everyone has a good night!

Bird Watching on a Sick Day

Nathan started with stomach issues yesterday afternoon- we thought it was caused by too much candy. Nope! He's been on the sofa almost all day but just wandered in to ask for something to eat- a good sign!

We took a respite from "couch rest" to sit outside for a while and look who came to visit.

I think he's a red-shouldered hawk (the Florida pale form).

He waited patiently for me to find my camera and posed beautifully. He was way up in the tree. While I'm THRILLED to have a working camera, I REALLY miss having a camera with an eye piece- I have a hard time focusing and holding it still trying to look at the screen.

Happy Easter 2009

Look at the cake Cori made for our Easter dinner.

SO cute!!

We had a nice time with Grandma Kate, Wally, Uncle Chris and Cori. Hope everyone else had a nice Easter too.

Remember

... in the last post when I said there was no question who'd get the buns? Well, guess who got them!

NINE of them.
From the top of the stove.
Tucked away in zip-lock bags.

Hot Cross Buns! Hot Cross Buns!

One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns.
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns!

A Good Friday tradition, but a first for us.

Fortunately for the sons in our house, we haven't any daughters, so there's no question as to who will get them.

Spring

...has come to Florida. We're having some cool (for us) weather this week- it feels like spring... not summer... spring! And just in time for Easter!

The Negotiator

Kevin took the boys to our favorite hot dog stand last week but with only 2 refill cups in the car, the boys were sharing a drink.

Scenario while driving home-

From the backseat: Arguing voices

Kevin: What's going on?

Sully: Nothing, Sir.

Nathan: Don't worry, Dad. We are negotiating the Coke, and we've got it handled.

Birthday Blast

Was a paintball blast!

Very manly, no moms, perfect for ushering in his 14th.

Happy Birthday Sully!!!