Happy Mother's Day!

The spring semester is winding down at Bradley and we are into final exams.  A few days ago, Bradley hosted the High School Chemistry Contest, where high school student from an 11-county area in central Illinois got to take a test, get lunch, see the campus, and see a a chemistry demonstration show.  Kris got to go from her class, so I pulled her out of the audience to help me with a couple of demos that she was familiar with.  We had fun.  Weather has been warm and juicy.  On Friday night Katie and I saw several fireflies (and I caught one, too).  We have been getting rain, too - in fact we got about a third of an inch of rain a couple of hours ago.  Today was Mother's Day, and one of the last days in the Peoria area for some friends (the Blands).  We hung out with them during church and later at a park.

"Godspell" Weekend

Busy weekend. Kristine played a disciple in the Peoria Christian High School production of "Godspell".  It was a good show, and she did a great job!  She also had a high school choir concert today, and today was the last day of Sunday School at St. Anthony's.  My classes start their final exams this week. My parents and Karen's dad came to town this weekend.  They have also been experiencing warm, dry weather.  The weather has turned more humid this weekend, and a couple of people saw fireflies tonight.

April Showers and Flowers

The dry weather was interrupted by nearly an inch of rain on Saturday.  I still went out not long after the rain to finish planting my clayey garden.  Chilly weather earlier this week did not seem to damage our baby pumpkin plants.  I saw jack-in-the-pulpits in my woods yesterday and violets on a bike ride with Katie today. Katie hung out with a friend before Sunday School this morning.  Kristine has been busy rehearsing for the Peoria Christian High School production of Godspell later this week.

More Spring Flowers

The warm, dry weather continued this past week, producing a riot of flowers all blossoming in a very short time.  Katie had some friends over Friday night to sleep outside in a tent - hard to resist low humidity and very few mosquitoes!  My young godson was quite annoyed when a put a childproof cage around the campfire.  On Saturday I shot some pictures of Katie on the Bradley campus.

Flowers and Bowling

Some flower pix from the last few days, and one of Katie bowling at a Brownie event this evening.

Hail of a Day

We have had storms over the last few days.  I have seen hail three times (with some stones as big as a fingernail) and swirling clouds (one cloud formation looked like a pig's tail), but I did not see the funnel clouds or small tornado north of Peoria this afternoon (see:http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150409/NEWS/150409168, no damage reported).  A bigger, scarier looking tornado struck Rochelle, IL.  The cold front has passed so things should quiet down.

Have a Blessed Easter, 2015!

Eastertime has been busy around here.  My parents visited late in the week for a couple of days.  Kristine was heavily involved in singing at the Masses (and Karen read, too).  On Saturday, after an Easter egg hunt with Katie, we stopped at a local seed store to get some seed potatoes.  Check out the massive corn stalk mounted high on the far wall in the picture - I heard it dates back to the 1950s.Today we had lunch with friends and went geocaching at Detweiler Park (like a more challenging variation on Easter egg hunting).  Nice to see flowers, both in the woods and at home.