Day 90: Ever Get the Feeling You're Being Watched?

I caught this fly on a tree in my backyard when I was just wandering around looking for subjects to shoot. I saw it land on the opposite side of the tree, and was sure it would fly away when I crept round to that side, but it stayed put. It even stayed still while I took a few pictures. Then I moved my camera to adjust the aperture, and it finally flew away. I was really pleased with the clarity of the shots I got though.

Day 89: Flour Girl

Today I co-oped at Elizabeth's preschool again. In this picture she is supposed to be drawing the letter E in the flour. Today they also made Easter egg pictures with stickers, the letter E out of popsicle sticks, and tape paintings. I'm co-oping again on Thursday and I'm really looking forward to it as they're having their Easter celebration that day.

Day 88: I Wish I had More Time to Read

I took this picture for tomorrow's Photoblog post. It ended up being one of my favorite shots. I like the simplicity of it. I wish I had more time to read, but I always seem to have other things to do.

Day 87: Don't Bug Me

I spotted this bug, and several of his friends, all over our rose bushes this afternoon. Does anyone know what it is? Is it going to destroy my roses this year?

Day 86: Mary's Grotto

Today is the last day before Holy Week begins, and the last chance to go to confession, so we went today. While I was waiting for hubby to come out I took the kids outside and let them play round the back of the church. There is a statue of Mary in a beautiful, simple grotto there. They sometimes have mass there, such as on Easter Sunday when there is a vast increase in attendance and the church cannot hold everyone who shows up. I took this with my camera phone as I didn't have my DSLR with me. I wish I had taken it though, there were so many things I would have taken pictures of! Will I ever learn the lesson to always have my camera with me?

Day 85: Dandelion

Sometimes I worry that I'll run out of things to photograph in my backyard, but every time I go out there with my camera I always end up finding lots of subjects! I took lots of shots of this dandelion with my macro lens. I sprayed it with water and got some nice shots of the water drops. I'll be posting a set of them on Photoblog soon.

Day 84: Checkup

Elizabeth had her dental checkup today. She did great. She was a little bit nervous before, but she was very brave. However, every time the hygienist took her tools out of her mouth she popped her head up! Her teeth are in good condition though, no cavities. We just need to floss thoroughly as her teeth are a little crowded. Back again in 6 months. Edward will get his first checkup then too!

Day 83: Crazy Hair Day!

It's letter 'C' at Elizabeth's school this week, so they are having a crazy hair day today. I decided to get in on the act too :) I wish she would let me style her hair every day. Maybe I can persuade her it's crazy hair day every day!

Day 82: Reflections

I took this in the back yard this afternoon. It might be too small to see on here, but if you look closely you should be able to see a reflection of the bush in the water drops. I've wanted to try this for a while. This one didn't come out quite as sharp as I had hoped, but I'm still quite pleased with it.

Day 81: House of Torture

This morning I had my 4-monthly dental checkup. I really hate going, but it was mainly good news this time. I still need to floss better (who doesn't), but my gums (which have been a problem in the past) are doing well. No new cavities, which is always good news! So I'm good for another 4 months. Elizabeth has her checkup on Thursday. She was very good last time, so I hope she will be ok again this time.

Day 80: Look Who's Famous!

Last month we attended the parish night out. This week after mass I picked up a bulletin as usual, and was scanning through it when I suddenly spotted our picture on the back page in the article all about the Bishop's visit and the party! Fame at last!

Day 79: Elizabeth Playing with her New Toy

Elizabeth has had trouble learning to spell her name, and this might hold her back from kindergarten this year, so I decided to get her some 'toys' that I hope will help her learn her alphabet. The one she is using in this picture is pretty cool. You press the letter you want to learn, and it lights up a series of dots on the screen showing you how to write it. Then you trace over it with the special pen. When you're done you swipe the slider at the bottom to erase what you've written and start again. It has shapes, upper and lower case letters, and a few games. So far she really likes it, but it remains to be seen whether it will actually help her learn her alphabet and her name.

The other toy I got her was magnetic letters that you can pop into a holder to form 3-letter words. When you press the letter it says the name of it aloud, as well as the word you have formed. So far that hasn't been as popular, but it might be better once she's got a handle on all the letters and is ready to start making words.

I took this picture with my new flash. So far that's working well too :)

Day 78: My Latest Toy

This is the latest toy I got for my camera. I've wanted to get an external flash for a while, but didn't know what to get. I thought about getting a proper Nikon one, but they are quite expensive. So in the end I got this one which is designed for a Nikon DSLR camera, but was less than half the price! It got very good reviews, so I'm hoping I made the right decision. I've had a quick play with it, and got some nice pictures, but I think I need to do a lot more practicing to learn the best way to use it. The only drawback I've found so far is that it makes the camera so heavy! But I guess that's a price you pay.

Day 77: Preschool Palm Sunday Parade

Today Elizabeth had chapel at school, and they had a Palm Sunday parade. I don't usually go to chapel, as Edward usually naps while Elizabeth is at school, and I don't like to wake him up any earlier than I have to, but I wanted to see their little parade. They all made a palm branch, and carried them around the church singing a song. It was very cute! I took my camera and took several shots. Fortunately Edward was very well behaved :)

Day 76: Annual Vet Checkup

Today is St Patrick's Day, and we celebrated by taking Kishka to the vet for her annual checkup! I got behind with her booster shots a little, so she got them today too. She is fine, has put on half a pound that's all. We were in and out pretty quickly.

We are all wearing green today. All of Elizabeth's class were told to wear green, and they all looked so cute! It's hard to tell them all apart when they're all dressed similarly though! Today is also my Dad's birthday, so we hooked up on the web cameras when we got back from the vet.

Day 75: I Love Living in California!

I'm always amazed at how quickly the weather changes here. Last week we were still in coats, and now we can go out without even a sweater! The last few days have been getting steadily warmer, and today has been beautiful. We're all in t-shirts again. I hope we've seen the last of the rain!

Day 74: What's for Dinner?

I captured this bird in a tree in my back yard when I was out there this afternoon taking pictures while the kids played. It wasn't until I uploaded it to my computer that I realized he had a bug in his beak! So I ended up being much happier with the shot than I thought I would :)

Day 73: Happy Pi Day!

This is my husband in his pi shirt. Today is Pi Day. Pi is a mathematical number that starts with 3.14 and goes to infinity, never repeating the sequence of numbers. So today is March 14th, 3/14, and it is celebrated as Pi Day. The picture on Dave's shirt is made up of the numbers in pi.

Day 72: Star Wars Birthday Party

Elizabeth went to a Star Wars birthday party today. She had a great time! Her friend Jeni from school was also there which was nice. It was at a local park. They played several Star Wars themed games, had pizza and cake, and finished off with a Death Star pinata. The birthday boy's father made it, and it turned out to be almost indestructible! At least that meant all the kids got lots of turns at hitting it. The party lasted about two hours, and we were very happy that the sun shone the whole time, especially after the weather we had yesterday! Elizabeth was worn out by the time we got home, and she, Edward and I all crashed out on the bed in front of the TV for a couple of hours.

Day 71: Rainy Day

It rained all day today. Unfortunately I had to go out in it with the kids, as Elizabeth is going to a birthday party tomorrow and we needed to get a present, plus I had to go to the post office to get some stamps and mail a box of goodies to England. Fortunately we didn't get too wet though, and I got all my tasks accomplished.

Day 70: Hand's Up Who Wants Pizza?

We passed this guy on the way to school this afternoon. He was dancing around and waving the hands about and really getting into it! It didn't make me want to buy pizza though :)

Day 69: Wacky Wednesday

My daughter's school had a 'Wacky Wednesday' day today. All the kids had to dress as crazily as possible, and they were planning lots of wacky activities. She has her pants on backwards, her shirt on inside out, odd socks and shoes, and 3 pony-tails in her hair. She TOTALLY embraced this idea and was very excited about it!

Day 68: Waiting

I spotted this guy from my kitchen window. I don't know if he is waiting for a pickup, having a rest, or just watching the world go by.

Day 67: Service

Elizabeth threw up again last night so I kept her home from school today. Edward finally seems to be on the mend, but I am still queasy. I've been having problems with the car though, so I decided to take it in since I wouldn't have to worry about school pickups or anything. A couple of times when we've had the windows down and the engine off (keys not even in the ignition), the battery has died in a very short amount of time (less than 5 minutes last week). Then yesterday it died while I was in church. It was already due for an oil change, so I took it into the Honda Express Service Center. They checked the battery and said it needed replacing. That was still under warranty, so it didn't cost anything. They said the car was also due for a differential service, so I had them do that too. It took about an hour. Elizabeth played on her DS most of the time, picto-chatting with me some of the time. Edward spent the entire time playing with the toy trucks in the waiting room. So far the car seems to be ok. Fingers crossed.

Day 66: Attack of the Child

Edward and our cat Kishka love each other. She puts up with so much from him, and he loves to play with her. He's still sick, and I'm still queasy. We didn't take him to church today in case he threw up or passed on germs. I took Elizabeth this morning, and Dave went this afternoon. I've had enough of this bug now :(

Day 65: All in the Family

We're all still pretty sick. This is a vicious bug. Dave and Elizabeth are on the mend, but Edward and I are not doing so good. I'm hoping we'll all feel better tomorrow.

Day 64: Don't Come to My House Today

We've all been hit with a nasty stomach bug. I think that's all you need to know :(

Day 63: Picnic Playdate

This is my daughter and some of her school friends. As it was a nice day we decided to meet about an hour before school for a picnic playdate in the school playground. They all had so much fun running around. Not much eating went on! That did aggravate Elizabeth's bronchitis a little bit, she fortunately she recovered after sitting down for a while.

Day 62: Tiny Tree

I believe this grew as a cutting from this tree. The blossom that is growing looks very similar, but right now this is just a twig poking out of the ground! I look forward to seeing how it grows.

Day 61: Ready for the Company Picture

This is my husband. His company were taking new profile pictures of all the staff, and this is how he decided to dress for the occasion. He also wanted to have a pipe in his mouth for the picture, but they wouldn't allow it.

Day 60: Elizabeth is Sick. No Really.

Elizabeth has had a really nasty cough for a few weeks now. The doctor checked her lungs a couple of weeks ago and said they sounded fine. We've been giving her cough medicine, but some days it works better than others. Saturday morning and this morning she had a fever over 101, and this morning she also said her throat hurt. I gave her some cough medicine as usual, and some Tylenol for the fever, and figured she was ok for school as she said her throat was better and seemed to be ok. But when we got there she couldn't stop coughing, and was making herself throw up. Her teacher didn't think she should stay, which Elizabeth was very upset about. I took the kids back to the car and called the pediatrician to see if they could see her today. I got an appointment for about an hour later.

While I had been on the phone I had wound the car windows down so the kids wouldn't get hot. I was standing outside, and I had the keys with me. However, when I went to start the car, the battery was flat! We've had this happen once before when the windows were down with the ignition off, so I guess we have a short circuit or something. Anyway, fortunately there was a mom nearby who agreed to give me a jump. I have cables in the back, and know how to use them. The car started first time, and has been fine the rest of the day!

So anyway, we eventually got the doctor's, and they checked her out again. Her ears and lungs are still clear apparently. Her throat was a little pink, but they tested for strep and that was negative. So the doctor thinks it is probably mild bronchitis. She prescribed some antibiotics which she only has to take for 5 days but will stay in her system for a couple of weeks, and hopefully that will do the trick.