Day 29: Black and White

Trudy has found a new outdoor hiding spot.  She hides under the yellow irises, resting on a tree stump. 

Eric

This afternoon, Eric was asking me about how kids do ugly motor games.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  I asked him a few questions to try to figure things out, then he finally said how we discussed how kids need lots of physical activity.....he meant to say gross motor.

Playground Update

I believe our playground tally is now at 18.  On our recent trip, we were able to play on 7 different playgrounds.  One was at Hunter's school, so we are up to 3 school playgrounds.

Day 27: From a Distance

On our way to IA, we stopped at the resovoir park in Casselton for a picnic and to play.  The kids wandered down by the lake and had fun playing with cattails.  I told them how Amy and I would go to the creek just west of our house and play with cattails, and feeling all nostalgic.  They didn't seem to care.

Day 28: Flowers

These little mini-daisy looking things were along a trail we were on while looking for a geocache.  I thought they were cute.  For all I know, they could be weeds.

Day 26: Close-up

This is Maddie and the firefly she caught.  One of many, many, many fireflies caught by the kids.  I was not able to get any good pics of the fireflies lit up.  They move too fast.

Day 24: Animal

Some bird in the aviary at the Blank Park zoo.

Day 25: Something Pink



I had many potential subject's for today's challenge.  I could have simply opened Megan's closet, but instead, I liked these pink flamingos at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.  Don tells me they are orange.  I'm sticking with pink.

Hunter

We got to see Hunter this weekend!!!  He is doing great.  He has grown up a lot since we last saw him.  He had presents for all the kids, including some bath crayons that he made for them.  He has every letter we've sent him hanging on a bulletin board in his room.  They had fun.

Backyard Sumo Wrestling gone bad.....

What happens when twin brothers decide to use inflateable pool tubes to Sumo wrestle in the backyard????  More specifically, what happens when twin brothers decide to use inflateable pool tubes around their heads to Sumo wrestle head first in the backyard?

Day 20: Bokeh

If only I had a macro lens with f/1.8 .....If only it was Christmas season and there were lots of lights to take pictures of.  I never even knew what 'bokeh' was until a few years ago.  From the about.com website:
Definition: Bokeh simply means fuzzy or out of focus. It is used to refer to the effect of shallow depth of field that creates a pleasing blur of color behind the subject. The type of lens and the depth of field play a large part in determining how out of focus the area is and whether or not it creates a pleasing effect in the image.

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 16: Long Exposure

This is a few days late....a challenging challenge w/o a tripod.  I made the front steps of our house work to stabilize the camera.  The street was the only place I could get a decent depth for focus.  Lucky for me, Eric likes riding back in the street in front of our house.

Day 19: Something Orange

Day 18: My Shoes

Still a little lazy....

These are my new Saucony Ride 5 shoes.  Men's size 10.5.  Are they comfy?  Comfy is now relative term, thanks to the fun orthotics I get to wear to correct my foot issues related to 2nd metatarsal overload syndrome and a broken and poorly healing 2nd metatarsal. 

Day 17: Technology

I'm getting lazy.....

The boys love getting computer time.  Jonathan plays games.  Eric watches Lego videos on youtube.

Day 23: Sun Flare

I know, it is not yet day 23.  Yesterday's challenge was silhouette, and today's was long exposure.  I lack a tripod, and had very fast moving targets, which made success with both of these  difficult.  I did get some good sun flare shots, and this is one of my favorites.  We went frisbee golfing after supper tonight.  I took this while Megan took a little rest break. I realize there really is not much sunflare in this picture, but I am tired and don't really care.  Close enough.  It's not like I'm getting graded on this challenge.  I also realize I added this pic twice, but don't know how to delete the extra one.  Good thing Megan is cute. 

I did look back through my old pics and found these.  They are much better.

Day 14: Eyes

Don't mess with a 3 year old and his ice cream....

Day 13: Me with 13 things

This is the best I could do.  I keep a secret stash of candy in the freezer (well, not so secret anymore, since the boys are cuddled up at my side reading as I write, and now have snickery smiles on their faces....)

Would you believe my first handful grabbed had exactly 13 mint M&Ms? 

Day 12: Sunset

Ugh.  I'm not good at sunset shots.  They are especially hard in our backyard, as there is not much scenic backdrop in front of the sunset.  The other challenge with this challenge is the fact that the sun sets pretty darn late this time of year.  Tuesday night, I thought I would bike along the Lewis and Clark bike trail that runs north of town.  I left at 8:54 pm.  I biked 5 miles before I had the chance to take a sunset pic.  I really should have gone further, but was well aware that I needed enough light to get home. 
I got home at 9:50.  The ride home was mostly uphill, and bucking a 16 mph wind.

Huxley

 Megan painting the outline of her hand

Huxley has been spending one evening a week at our house.  His Dad started a new job working evenings, and his Mom is taking 2 summer classes, so has one night to get her homework done.  The kids love having their cousin here, and are always fighting over who gets to play with him.  Last night, we played in the sandbox, painted with sidewalk chalk paint, and ate ice cream.  He also loves riding Megan's scooter.
It is 6 am, and all 4 kids are already awake!

Day 9: Someone You Love (a little late!!)

Hmmmm.....will I show favorites within my family by posting a picture of just one of my kids?  To alleviate this problem, I will post a picture taken last summer of someone I love that I am very excited to see in 9 days....

We will see Hunter next Friday.  He is currently at a residential adolescent psychiatric school in Iowa.  I know he is excited to see us as well-he is allowed to make 2 phone calls a week, and last night he called us instead of his Dad or Step-Mom.  He likes getting letters from the kids.  So much love and hope for this young man!

Day 11: Something Blue

I took the kids bowling this afternoon.  Midway Lanes participates in the Kids Bowl Free program.  Basically, kids bowl free.  Simple as that. Each kiddo gets 2 free games of bowling every day of the summer.  Shoe rental is $2.  Not a bad deal!  The boys wanted to be manly and skip the gutter blockers.  Megan agreed to this as well.  That last 2 frames.  Any guess which child caved and requested the blockers after scoring only 2 pins in 2 frames???
They also have lunch specials for the kids who are bowling.  I think a return visit will be in order.

Day 10: Favorite Childhood memory

Yesterday's challenge assignment was "Favorite Childhood Memory".  Most of my favorite childhood memories occured 200+ miles from where I currently live, so this was a bit of a challenge.  Many favorite memories were at Lake Melissa or the farm.  I thought I could get a picture of Missy this weekend (my friend from Lake Melissa), but ironically, she was at Lake Melissa and not in Makoti.  So, I took a picture instead of Megan playing on the piano.  This is the same piano that I learned how to play piano on, and that my Mom learned how to play piano on.  I get all mushy when I think that a 3rd generation is learning to play on the same piano.  The boys just finished their 2nd year, and will not continue.  Megan will start in a few years.



Dorothy Gust was my piano teacher.  I would walk to her house after school on Mondays.  I would usually stop at the Casselton Library and The Federated Store on my way to check out books and buy candy.  Mrs. Gust (who was also the school secretary and pulled out my first tooth) always had some snacks in her living room, usually generic Hydrox cookies.   Her students would wait in the living room with Clem and watch TV with him while we waited for our lesson.  Clem and Dorothy were also our families' "storm home".  I do remember one night when we had to stay at their home because of a blizzard.  Dorothy cooked a ham for supper.  I think she was as excited as we were. 
Here ends the history lesson for the evening.

Minot

We spent the weekend in Minot helping Don's parents unpack their new house.  They have a really cool house in the south part of town.  It is primarily one level, but there is a loft with a bedroom.  The kids have claimed that as their play area.  We took a little break last night to find a playground.  We went to McKinnley School, which is near the house they have been renting since late last summer.

The kids all had fun playing, until Megan had to go to the bathroom....we had to cut things short then.

Day 8: A Bad Habit

I bypassed Day 7, as the challenge assignment was fruit, and I just didn't get the chance to do that yesterday.  Day 8's challenge is a bad habit.

However, I do not think it is fair to call my coffee issues a bad habit.  According to many reliable sources on the internet, coffee can:
1. Lower my risk of depression
2.  Lower my risk for Alzheimer's Disease
3.  Protect me from Type 2 Diabetes
4.  Decrease my risk of Parkinson's

And, a May 2012 study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that, during the course of their study, coffee drinkers "who drank at least two or three cups a day were about 10 percent or 15 percent less likely to die for any reason during the 13 years of the study.

In celebration of my bad habit, I bought a carousel for my Keurig today.

Borden Harbor Park

This morning we visited Borden Harbor park in southeast Mandan. Traditionally, the boys play some type of rocket/space themed game when we are here. There are little triangle shaped platforms that are set on springs that they think are rockets. There is lots of grassy area for playing tag, and a basketball court. Jonathan was prepared today and packed his basketball. Prior to visiting the park, we stopped by the Mandan library to turn in our first week of reading logs and get some more books.

 The boys had a blast swinging on the swings and getting some great vestibular input

 Eric and Jonathan chased each other all over the playground, burning off all kinds of energy.

They couldn't get enough of the slides!

The boys spend most of our time at the playground reading a book Eric checked out on folklore creatures, which highlighted their strengths and weaknesses.  First, Eric read on the swings, then at the base of the slides, then on the triangle shaped bouncy platforms (my battery died at that point.)  He and Jonathan had lenghy discussions on which characters would win in battles against other characters (ie....a centuar vs scorpian man).  Finally, they did put the book away and re-enacted the battles they had just read about.