Random May Pics and Videos

I've already done several blog posts for May, but here are a few pics that didn't make it into one of those posts.

 So true.

 We are reseeding our lawn on the east side of the house. It's filling in pretty well.

 Goofy Lena smile.

 Grocery shopper in training.

 Silly girls.

 Lena trying to teach Eva to play baseball.  I love how you can see Eva's happy little face in the mirror.

 Eva watching Daddy and Lena from the deck.

Bathtime baby.

Here are some short videos I took in May.

Lena surviving a "wind storm" and riding her tricycle on the deck.

Lena hitching a ride on Eva's walker.

I have started putting my videos of the girls on YouTube, so check out my "channel" at http://www.youtube.com/user/aseleener  Subscribe to be notified of new videos I post.

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day the usual way again this year, by walking out to our front yard and watching the parade go by our house.

 Waiting for the parade to come by.  Our house is near the end of the route, so we had to wait a while.

 Eva's first Memorial Day.  I remember watching the parade last year with a big belly and counting down the days till the 3rd of June!

 Eva and Daddy playing while we wait.

 She was quite interested in Daddy's hat.

 Got it!

 Farmer Eva.

 Lena got a cookie from some nice people who sat in our yard.

 Finally, the parade is here!

 Lena got candy.

Waving at all the people.

Here's a short video of Lena dancing to the marching band's music.  She's such a goof.  The people sitting near us were cracking up at her.

The rest of Memorial Day we enjoyed just relaxing at home. I hope you all had a nice holiday weekend.

A Visit from the Stricklands

Earlier this month our friends, the Stricklands, stopped by to see us.  Christian was in Jim's class at seminary and he and his wife Cindy and their two boys are at a church in Minnesota.  They stopped by to see us for a little bit while they were on their way to Frankenmuth, where Christian did his vicarage.

Christian, Cindy, Benjamin, and Micah.

Benjamin and Lena having a blast ringing the church bell.  Lena had so much fun playing with Benjamin and Micah that she begged us to let her go with them when they left.

Playing in the church aisle.

I thought it was really funny how Jim and Lena wore matching outfits that day!

It was really nice to see the Stricklands again, if only for a short visit.  Hopefully it won't be another four years until we see them again!

Hailstorm

We had a hailstorm on Thursday.  It happened right as Jim was trying to take Lena to gymnastics class.  It got bad enough that he turned around and came home.

 A pic I snapped out the office window.  The hail wasn't very large, but even so, it's alarming to have chunks of ice pelting your windows!  

The aftermath: Tons of little baby maple leaves everywhere.

 The hail wasn't large, but it was enough to do some pretty good damage to all of the flowers we planted last weekend.  Here's our sad-looking ranunculus.

 And it really beat down the tulips in the front. 

 I counted at least 4 decapitated tulips.  :(

 And the ones that managed to keep their heads were all bent over like this.

 These little purple annuals we planted in the front bed were more damaged by the rain than the hail.  Along with the hail, it was raining buckets.  The water overflowed from the gutter and just poured down like crazy in this flower bed.  These little flowers were covered by at least 2 inches of water.

Our flowering tree outside the kitchen window was just starting to bloom.  It lost a lot of blooms.  The ground was just littered with them.

Hopefully our flowers can bounce back!

Mother's Day

I hope all of you mothers out there had a nice Mother's Day.  I did.  The weather was beautiful the whole weekend so we went out on Saturday and bought some flowers and bird feeders to make our backyard nice.

 Sunday after church.  Our annual Mother's Day picture.  Eva has recently learned to clap and does it all the time now.  We had a hard time getting her to look at the camera because she was having so much fun watching cars drive by and clapping in glee.

 We had to move to the backyard to get Eva to focus on the camera instead of the traffic.  I love the look on her little face here.

 We had lunch then got into some play clothes to have fun outside.  Eva looks so cute in her little pink overalls.

 Daddy helping her down the slide.

 Lena kicking back on a beautiful spring day.  Is it just me, or does she look really grown up in this picture?

 Beautiful red tulip.

 These are some flowers we found on clearance while shopping.  They are called ranunculus.  The blooms are really large.  They are so pretty.

 We got a pretty fuchsia hanging basket.  They're supposed to attract hummingbirds.

Jim created a bird feeding station outside our living room window.  I was afraid it was too close to the window and the birds would be scared to hang out there (especially since Lena bangs on the window and shouts excitedly every time she sees a bird), but we've had several bird visitors since putting it up and they really seem to like it.

 Here is a rose-breasted grosbeak.  We've named him Reuben.  He let me get really close to take a picture.

This is his wife, who we call Ruby.  I took this pic from inside; she didn't mind that I had the camera right up to the window to take it.  We've also had cardinals and a goldfinch at these feeders, and we've only had them up for a couple of days!

  

 Our pretty tulips out front.  The tall white one is leaning like that because Lena stepped on it. :(

 These are probably the prettiest tulips I have ever seen.

 I love the white ones too.  They are so tall it's almost freaky.

 Some pretty white and purple annuals we got for our front bed.

 Jim borrowed a power washer and is in the process of cleaning our deck for the first time since we've lived here.  What a difference!  

It's really slow-going, but it's going to look so much better when it's done.  It's never been stained or anything, so we would like to treat it somehow to keep it looking nice.

Eleven Months Old

Eva turned 11 months old on Tuesday. I put her hair in pigtails. :)

Lena loves her sister. And Eva loves her too. While Eva is a very happy baby and giggles a lot, nobody can make her crack up like Lena can. They are so adorable together.

Her hair is getting so long. I'm thinking of having it cut short for summer.

Daddy and Lena. Daddy is looking at Lena.

Now Lena is looking at Daddy.

Daddy and his girls. Yep, Lena is licking Jim. Sigh. . . .