My Forsythia bush really doesn't like it when it warms up and then gets cold again. These blooms are about all I got.

We had Amanda's birthday party last night. (A couple of her friends are still in high school, and last weekend was prom, so we put the party off for a week) She had a good turn out, 5 girls and 3 guys. Everything was gold because it was her golden birthday- 19 on the 19th.

I love my creeping phlox! I just have to figure out how to keep a certain dog away from it. Yuk.

I think this is some kind of crabapple tree. It's really pretty when it blooms.

The little lilac bush I planted last summer made it through the winter and actually has flower buds on it. I couldn't get a good picture of it, though. I'm very frustrated with the macro function on my camera. Oh, well, here's to lilacs.

I love this time of year. Everything seems so new, and every day something is blooming.

Today was a good day for washing the car, hosing down the screens, and cleaning out the garage. Luckily we got it all done before it started pouring.

It was a beautiful day today. A cooking hamburgers on the grill kind of day!

I can't believe how much taller Josh is than Amanda. He's really shot up in the last few months. Anyway, here they are, 14 and 19.

OK, so this wasn't what I was going for. It turned out cool anyway. Amanda turned 19 today.

The front of our garage, where the Christmas wreath goes. I like it.

This is what an $800 bicycle looks like. Note the funky shoes that attach to the pedals. Tom's all ready to take on the MS 150 and then Ragbrai!

Rows and flows of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air, and feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way.

Anybody out there love Joni Mitchell? Really dating myself, aren't I. I've never taken cloud pictures before, it's fun.

Here's Josh in his favorite shorts. We call them his golf shorts. He doesn't play golf, but if he did, he'd be all set. This kid has the strangest preferences in clothes of anybody I ever saw.

The thing about having 3 cars is you have to park them somewhere. We only have room for one in the garage, so there are two in the driveway. Amanda's is directly under the basketball hoop. Now that it's getting warm, she may have to be moving her car a lot so her brother can play. Wish we had a bigger driveway.

My birdhouse windchimes. I love windchimes.

Josh's trophy collection. Baseball season is almost here again. And he's really good at it.

OK, enough of the April snow storms already. This one didn't stick to the roads, but the yard is covered pretty good. I heard a rumor of 70's next week, though!

We've been getting a lot of birds at the bird feeder, but it's hard to get a good picture of them. To take this one, I had to take the inside screen off and shoot through the window. And the pretty red bird kept hiding behind the feeder.

We were at my brother and sister-in-law's for Easter yesterday, and I had to get a picture of this bird bath. I just think it's the coolest thing.

Happy Easter!

Today we had ducks in our yard. It was in the 30s, isn't that too cold for ducks? Anyway, it was cool. Until Snoopy saw them and chased them away.

Snoopy likes to play with this poor, pathetic looking soccer ball. I don't know where it came from. Neither of my kids play soccer. I noticed when I pulled it out of the container in the garage, there's a new one there, too. Huh? Where are these soccer balls coming from?

I just got this great book about photography, so I've been experimenting with ways to avoid using the flash on my camera. Unfortunately, I couldn't get Snoopy to move out of the sun, so here he is, sun worshiping. No flash, anyway.

The last little bit of snow from our April snowstorm. Notice we have that weird sideways icicle again. I'm sure it's because of our leaky gutters. Looks cool, though.

One of the things I really like about my house is the front door. It has character. Welcome to our house.

Under the old leaves and dead foliage my peonies are coming up. I had to carefully cover them back up after I took this picture because it's supposed to snow tomorrow. 1-4 inches. Yikes.

Ok, I'm going to keep working on this until I get it right. Not that I'm stubborn or anything. These are buds on my forsythia bush with raindrops on them. Because it's been raining for three days. On the upside, the grass is turning green.