America's Next Top Model

Grace wanted to do a fashion shoot tonight after her bath. She really wants to be America's Next Top Model....look out Tyra Banks! The fuzzy ones were taken using my diffusion filter...so they are supposed to be fuzzy. Not sure if I like it or not!

More flowers...sorry!

I know, everyone is probably getting sick of my flower pictures. Thing's have been really boring around here lately, it's about all I've got LOL! School gets out on Friday and I'm sure things will pick up a little then! The top pic is the lily I got from Grace's class....it's so full and pretty now! The middle pic is my whiskey barrel, and the last is a viney flower at my mom's. Not sure why, but I can't move the pics to be under the text today!

Ankeny wildlife

We've seen lots of animals today! The craziest thing was this morning...there were 2 deer across the street from our house! We live in the middle of a 40,000 person city, not many deer roaming the streets! Hopefully they made it a little bit south to the fields, poor things were probably scared to death! This is something we usually see at Grandpa Jim's house, not here.

We took the kids fishing this afternoon and saw the cutest mama duck with her babies! They were adorable. Grace caught her first little fish today all by herself!

And finally, my mom and Don have 3 robins nests in the rafters of their house. One on the north, west and south. The three on the north side are getting so big they can hardly fit in the nest anymore...I saw one flapping its wings today like it wanted to fly away, I bet in the next couple of days they'll be gone!

Grace Gonzalez Kinney

Grace informed me the other day that she wants to change her middle name to.....Gonzalez :). Her friend Shaylin's last name is Gonzalez and she likes the name so she decided she wants to take it for her middle name. I told her that some people have two middle names, so maybe she can be Grace Elizabeth Gonzalez Kinney :).
Lots of playing with Ava in the past few days. So lots of good photo ops!

Pretty flowers

Just testing out some new filters I got for my lense today. These are flowers mostly from my mom's house....the orange lily is the one I got from Grace's class!

Yes, another day at the park

I know these get boring, but I try to take my camera everywhere I go...you never know when you'll have a photo op! A few of the kids at the park this evening. Tyler and his friend Derek were there playing basketball too.

Goodbye, and RIP old friend

Rich's old friend, the '67 Lawn Boy has officially retired. He's been a good lawn mower, passed down through the years. Dick bought him in 1967 at the hardware store in Red Oak, Iowa. And he's mowed many-a-lawn since then. But it's time to set him free, let him go to the great lawn mower meadow in the sky. The first pic is from the day he was born...fresh off the assembly line. And the second is ole '67 today. Rich and Ole '67 were born the same year, so I think he's a little over-attached :). We'll miss you (0k, really I don't think that I will. Ole '67 didn't like me, and I had a heck of a time starting the dang thing)!! Click on pics to enlarge!

Feeding the ducks

We've had a couple of ducks roaming around the neighborhood the past couple days....Grace decided to give them some bread (about 1/2 a loaf to be exact...I'm sure those ducks are a little puffy today).

I went in to Grace's class yesterday morning and they gave me a beautiful Asiatic Lily in a pot they all signed. They were all so cute! I go in to the class every Wednesday morning for an hour and help out...usually play games out in the hall with a few kids at a time, so the Lily was my volunteering gift :).

Baby Bunnies

We had a nest of baby bunnies back by the playhouse. Unfortunately we discovered this after the dogs inadvertently killed 4 of them :(. Poor little babies! There were a couple that survived...we blockaded off the fence around the playhouse so the dogs couldn't get back there anymore. They've all hopped off somewhere by now, but here are the little tiny guys. They didn't even have their eyes open!

Playing outside

Ben, Grace and I picked up some Burger King tonight and ate it at Hawkeye Park. It was a beautiful day today! I heard Grace talking to a little girl she had just met there named Isabelle. They were on the swings talking to each other and Grace told her that she had 3 mean brothers. Isabelle said "Wow, that must be a hard life" :O). So cute and funny! Isabelle said that she had one brother named Sam who was annoying. She also said to Grace "You may think I'm sweet but I'm actually really funny. My Great-Great Grandpa is Dr. Seuss you know, that's why I'm so funny!". Not sure if that's true or not but that's where she supposedly got her funny gene. :)

Here a couple pics from the driveway tonight...Grace was drawing with chalk on the driveway. She also has been riding Ben's bike lately, it's a size up from hers and after we put the seat down a little it's perfect! She's a daredevil on that bike!

Matt's chorus concert

Matt had a chorus concert last week....I know, I'm a slacker. He LOVES chorus (insert sarcastic voice here). I've been struggling with him and wanting to quit chorus all year. His teacher is a bit...annoying. She's one of those overly enthusiastic music people who fawns over her special honor choir students...needless to say Matt's probably not one of her favorite students :). Anyhow, it's almost over for him, thank goodness. Too bad he doesn't enjoy it more too, because he has a good voice! Here are a few pics.

Doing the hand movements that represent the scales....it has some wacky name that I can't pronounce (or spell!). Matt does not like to do these hand movements, as is expected :). To the right of him is his friend Nate from his basketball team.

This shot pretty much sums up his 6th grade chorus career!:

And this...watching the clock above my head the whole time:

Looking at me with an enthusiastic face:

Tired kids!

Grace and Tyler fell asleep watching the X-Men movie after dinner tonight. Tyler's allergies have been acting up and I think that Grace has been playing way too hard the past few days...her and Ava have been inseparable and with the nice weather she's been outside almost all the time. She got up briefly to get her pj's on, then crawled on the bench in my room and fell asleep again. The battery on my camera died but I got a pic with my cell phone:
Ben played basketball for awhile after school and then watched a movie on Tyler's laptop. He's been doing really well with his new medicine! His friend Steven is walking home from school with him tomorrow.
Matt on the other hand is grounded for quite possibly the rest of his life. He did not call me after school to let me know where he was going. I figured he went to JC's cafe, a teen hangout spot at our church. But that closes at 5:00 and by the time 7:30 rolled around we were getting a little worried. I drove around town looking for him, then Rich drove around looking for him. We called his friend Hunter's cell phone and home phone...no answer. At 7:45 he calls using Hunter's cell phone (WHY couldn't he have done this at 3:00 when school got out??!!). I use 5 words: Dad's coming to get you. Needless to say he went straight to his room and he will be grounded indefinitely. He is the smartest kid, with the least common sense of any of the children. His excuse is "well, I don't have a cell phone so I can't call you". WHAT? #1, his friend Hunter who he is always with has a cell phone, and #2, how in the world did any kid survive in the 70's and 80's without cell phones?

The park

Just a few pics of Grace and Ben at the park the other day. The trees and flowers are blooming and look so pretty :).