Photo jam

This blog has never been a comprehensive record of every detail in our family, but I hoped to be a tiny bit better when I launched my photo-a-day project. Come on, ONE photo. Yikes -- I can't even do that consistently. Here's a look at our comings and goings, all the same:

April 22. Jeff and James work on a pinewood derby car.

April 23. Race-day greasing.

 James' car is the gray one, in the middle.

April 24. Samuel and James eat ice cream in the garden box Jeff assembled.

 April 25.

 April 26. Shoulder villain! I took the girls to see Uncle Matt in the Hale Theater production of "Arsenic and Old Lace." We loved it, and Matt did a great job playing Dr. Einstein. Here, Elise stands in front of a lobby poster. We are new fans to the Studio C comedy troupe and its "shoulder angel" sketches, so we couldn't resist this set-up.

May 2. Samuel at play. He is the most imaginative child; it was strange to see him playing with actual toys instead of sticks or kitchen utensils.

 May 3.

 May 5. Emma.

May 7. Spring rain.

 May 13. Elise cooks dinner. She earned the rank of queen for medieval day at school by completing a series of service tasks. Best homework ever.

May 14. Samuel was atop his scriptures in bed, and rolled over just as I came in with the camera that morning.

 May 15. Jeff earned a district level Scouting award.

 May 17. First dutch oven dinner of the season.

 May 18. Kyle graduates from seminary! (And slurps root beer floats.)

 May 23. Proof positive that it's time for school to be OVER. Here is a thank you note station in the school lobby, encouraging students to write a note of appreciation to a staff member. I was impressed by the one on the left that said, "Vous etes beau comme une fleur" (technically belle, but whatever). I guffawed at the note in front:

 "Susie. Drop dead. I hate you." I thought it was hilarious, in a Calvin and Hobbes comic kind of way. (Incidentally, Calvin's nemesis in the strip is named Susie.) One of the secretaries, when I pointed the note out to her, took it a bit more seriously than I did. She got on the computer. "I better find all the Susies so I can warn them at recess." Er, OK. Definitely time for school to be done.

May 24. Samuel waters the newly planted garden. He is getting so tall!

 May 26. Samuel adorns my brother's grave on Memorial Day. Samuel sadly was too young to have any memories of Uncle Ben. Someone always leaves pennies on top of the marker.

At the Midway Cemetery, where I have gone on Memorial Day since I was a child. (Kyle was with his cousin so didn't join us that day.)

May 27. My piano student and I got a kick out of his resemblance to the brown-eyed, strawberry blond boy illustrated on the lesson book page.

 May 28. Flag retirement ceremony at Pack Meeting.

Also May 28. Our garden changes so drastically from month to month. Soon it will be entering its scraggly "hot and bothered" stage, a look that matches the defeated gardener.