Paint by Love

I love Daddy days.  James set the girls up with paints and lets them go with decorating boxes to wrap my Mother’s day presents.   They were covered, the table was covered and the boxes were priceless. 

April Construction Update

Bye Bye Birdie

James and the girls came home one afternoon to discover a sweet baby bird hopping around in our garage.  He wasn’t quite big enough to fly yet.  They put him in our butterfly net to admire him and take a few pictures.  When they released him in the driveway, two birds flew down and ushered him into the bushes.  Very sweet.

Pond Poking

Lily’s class had a field trip to the James Island County Park to go pond poking.  They poked around in the pond with nets to see what wildlife they could discover.  We learned about tadpoles, mosquito fish, spiders, lily pads and much more.        I have never seen so many tadpoles.

Lesson Learned

I learned an important lesson while on an evening beach stroll with Neita, Sheri and the girls.   Don’t leave the children with Ms. Neita.  I left to go to the bathroom and came back to this:

 

Well, at least the kids had fun – all three of them!

I’m still cleaning sand out of her car seat.

April in Review

Looking at the pictures from April, I almost forgot what a rough month it was for us.  James traveled 3 out of the 4 weeks.  Sarah Ellen had a six day fever, then, of course, Lily got it.  We were all sick, homebound and away from our friends for way too long. 

It sure puts things in perspective.  These were all minor issues, but hard none the less.  My hat is off to single parents.  My hat is off to parents of children with chronic illnesses.  My hat is off to parents who home school. 

So why do I bother to post this?  Because I had forgotten how hard it was.  As hard as it was at the time, I have now forgotten and remember the good.  Life is indeed so good!

Outtakes

I have decided that one of the most frustrating jobs must be that of a children’s photographer. 

“Smile pretty girls”  “You can have an extra piece of candy if you smile.”  “Just look at the camera and smile.”  “Sarah Ellen, LOOK AT THE CAMERA.”

All I want is one picture…with smiles.   The irony is that in attempting to catch the perfect picture of my cute, sweet girls, I usually end up yelling at them and they usually end up in time out.  This is why I much prefer candid shots!

So I post this one:  pretty decent, right?

But this would be reality: