Graduation Weekend

Sarah received her Masters in Education from JMU on May 7th. We are SO proud of her!! Bridget, Dillon and I went up to Harrisonburg for the ceremony and to spend some time with Sarah and Mom. The ceremony was on Friday night. The kids did a good job during a long ceremony and mostly made it through to when they called Sarah's name and put on her hood. We celebrated afterwards by getting Sarah's favorite ice cream - black raspberry at Kline's. Saturday we went to a town craft fair in Luray....I forgot my camera, so pictures of that are on Mom's. It was a fun afternoon! Mother's Day was a good day - brunch at a yummy restaurant, then packing up stuff in our car and heading home.

Sarah's future elementary kids are so lucky!! Can't wait to see where she'll be next year.

Playing with Jonas

Dillon and Jonas played together this morning. We took a walk - looked at tadpoles, butterflies, and the lizard on our front steps. Dillon hears any kind of truck or motorcycle sound and he has to know what it is. Our neighbors had a cement truck today and the boys were enthralled with it!

Castle playground

Sunday we went with the kids to a local playground that looks like a castle. Bridget loves it, of course...here she is Rapunzel in the tower. It continues to amaze me how Bridget can make friends with anyone...she was playing with a little girl named, Chloe. They were playing that under the playground was the stables and dungeon.

Whoa! There is a long curvy slide...the kids must have gone down it 30 times!

Dillon loves to hang!

Looking for bugs

I got Dillon a little bug collector and the kids have had fun trying to catch bugs. I put a couple of ants in there and it was funny to watch them watch the ants. Eventually the ants got out - the top of the bug holder is not the best seal.

Where's that ant?

Profile of my beautiful girl!

Crazy Hair

Bridget's hooded sweatshirt does crazy stuff to her hair. Here's a picture of it - with a fun face from our little actress! :)

Kittens

The kittens arrived on 4-26-10.  There are 3 fuzzy furballs of cuteness in our house now.  They are all girls, and all grey.  We can tell them - one has 4 white paws and is the biggest/fuzziest, one is all grey (she may have a little brown - we'll see as she gets bigger) and one is will be grey, tan and white.  All of them are so sweet.  Izzy has been a fabulous Mom.  She comes when they call, lays down and lets them drink.  I can tell she's concerned about them.  She's also starving...she keeps eating and eating.  I guess it takes a lot to nurse 3 hungry babies.  Bridget and Dillon are quite excited, however, I don't think they understand why the kittens can't play with them right away.  Bridget has said she could just sit and watch them all day.  Both are very careful when they pet the kittens...using one finger to gently rub their backs.  Last Saturday we were all down there and I think we must have overwhelmed Izzy a bit b/c Bridget, Dillon and I went down on Sunday morning and couldn't find the kittens.  Izzy had moved them to the front corner of the garage.  I was a bit beside myself, I couldn't see how she was able to feed them in such a small spot.  Brian and I put together the dog crate (leaving off the front door) and  put the shallow tub that the kittens had been in in the crate.  Then, we covered it with a blanket.  So far she seems happy with that - feels more sheltered.  And I've been careful not to overwhelm her with too many people at once.  Like Bridget, I could just sit down there with them all day...but as it is I go a few times a day to give Izzy more food and pet the sweet babies.  Once their eyes are all open and they are moving around more we'll bring them upstairs.  I just want to make sure they get the best start possible.
We don't know who the father is, but there were 2 cats hanging around when Izzy was in heat...and both were longer hair.  I read online that short hair kittens open their eyes 5-8 days after birth, and long hair 10-14 days after birth.  So far only the all grey kitten has started to open her eyes.  She started to open them yesterday...8 days after birth.  I have a feeling they are going to have longer hair.  The biggest one certainly is fuzzy! 
Here are some sweet pictures of our babies:
The day they were born:

2 days old:

3 days old:

4 days old:

Sick

Thankfully we missed the stomach bug that went around this winter, however we weren't so lucky this time.  2 weeks ago Bridget got the bug and it was not fun...poor girl got sick from around midnight until 5am.  After a couple of days recouperation she was fine.  We thought we were in the clear b/c none of us got it very soon after her, but a week later I had caught by the bug.  Yuck!!  We've had another week free from sickness, so I'm hoping that Brian and Dillon don't catch it.