Lunch, originally uploaded by deannajo.

When I realized what was going on, I immediately put a stop to it. Right after I got my camera. I mean, you just can’t have a dog sitting at the table during lunch! What kind of mother would I be if I allowed that to continue? So I had to nip that in the bud IMMEDIATELY…after I got my camera.

ps, I don’t know why the dog is sticking his tongue out at me. I see it as a blatant act of defiance - “THEY said I could sit here, so take THAT! pffflt”

summer fun…., originally uploaded by deannajo.

well today was the day - the kids jumped in the pool for the first time today. It was still a bit chilly, and the chemicals aren’t quite stable, but we let them test it out for a bit before adding in a bunch more chemicals. Looks like its gonna be a nice summer

Happy birthday…, originally uploaded by deannajo.

it was sweet and pleasant, until the cake caught on fire halfway through Happy Birthday. No one noticed anything except me. Until, that is, I screamed and quickly blew out the fire, along with all but two of the birthday candles. The singing immediately stopped while everyone gaped at one another in shock, not knowing why exactly I freaked out and blew out the candles on my daughter’s birthday cake halfway through the happy birthday song. Luckily, Allison, the wise birthday girl that she is, gathered up her wits, and made one last attempt at getting that birthday wish granted by blowing out the remaining two candles. I, amist my giggles, ordered everyone to finish up the Happy Birthday song. Which they then did without question or comment (probably out of fear for what I might do next). Order was restored. Everyone pretended nothing had happened as they consumed copious amounts of one of the yummiest birthday cakes ever made (and torched)

just testing flickr video - so far I think the quality is better, but they limit their video size to 90 seconds… which probably isn’t usually a problem, but sometimes could be….anyway, lets see if this works:

testing this out… This is the new video camera. I’m not loving it. Seems like the image quality isn’t much better than what I was getting on my Canon Powershot digital camera! But maybe its the horrible lighting in the dance studio….ugh. I know its much worse since I uploaded it to youtube - its better on my computer or tv, but still not quite the quality I was hoping for from a sony…although its a cheap sony, so maybe you get what you pay for, sigh.

Anyway, here is Lydia’s dance - if she were dancing in the recital, this is what her class would be doing. Even though the video quality sucks, she’s still a cutie.

earlier today Meredith came inside after swinging for an hour or so. She was very excited. Seems she had been giving it a great deal of thought, and finally came up with three different poses to use on her CD jacket once she became a rockstar. She then went on to model all three poses. She’s awesome.

Speaking of awesome, Lydia has taken to the following phrase - “I’m awesome that way” - I love the contexts in which she uses it - usually after doing something really silly or crazy or something - or she will just make stuff up and end the whole tale with a knowing nod and saying, “I’m just awesome that way”

And in other news - Allison turned ten a few days ago. Her birthday was a big deal, and she had an amazing cake, drug the whole family to the cheesecake factory, and got an ipod. What more could a ten year old need? Oh yeah, a surprise birthday outing to take place later this month with her two best friends. I’m going to take them all to a local waterpark for the day - they will be so surprised! Shhh, don’t tell her! We couldn’t do it closer to her birthday because one of her friends had some family obligations. But that just means she has more time to fret about it and get all excited. She will never suspect this.. Meredith already guessed that I was taking everyone to the mall - yeah, that would be fun, but not quite right……

The girls are involved in a local Roots and Shoots group - last week they performed at a local nursing home. I took some sucky vids with my point and shoot to show you how good they did! Allison was SOOO nervous - dropshots cut them off at 2 mins (Allison’s was just over 2 mins, and Meredith’s was just over 3) - I didn’t realize they did that - that’s the whole reason I didn’t post to flickr, because I knew flickr limited things to 90 seconds, I may have to post to youtube instead, but for now this will do:

4/365, originally uploaded by deannajo.

Today the girls and I had a fabulous time - we went to see Annie at the Kansas City Music Hall. We laughed, we cried, we sang out loud in public (much to Allison’s horror) - we had a great time

studio shoot - xmas pics!, originally uploaded by deannajo.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!