The Guddat Gang

Despite the fact that everyone was sick, we tried to celebrate Mother's Day as best we could. Delaney made Brittany handprint flowers at school. She was so excited that she didn't wait for Sunday to give them to her. This was Friday night. Delaney explaining how she did the artwork. Breakfast in bed for mommy, as ordered: Donuts, with bacon cooking on the oven. Delaney gave Brittany a frame with the words "The girls" on the bottom. Adelyn gave her a photo album to be filled soon. We don't have as many albums of Addy as we do DRae. My gift... ...new earrings. We finished the night with stories and brownies.

So the big news is Delaney graduated from level 1 to level 2 for swim lessons! She was thrilled as was her proud parents and her swim teacher, Hannah. She can float on her tummy and back with help and has no problem jumping underwater. Great job Delaney! Since Adelyn doesn't turn three until later this summer, she has to stay in the parent/child class before moving up a level. She's hot and cold about the whole swim lesson thing. She loves the water, but she is so carefree that she doesn't always want to do what is instructed. We've enrolled her in another round of parent/child swimming, but I'm now in the water with her which allows Brittany to watch Delaney as well.

So the big news this week was the fact that Delaney lost her first tooth on Monday. At first she was scared because she figured a loose tooth meant she did something wrong, but was very excited that a loose (and soon after a lost) tooth gave her another reason to be considered a big girl. Then the idea of a strange person (the tooth fairy) coming into our house in the middle of the night to take her tooth and leave money under her pillow wasn't the greatest thing to her. But she was fine with it the next day when there was a pile of cash under her pillow. I strongly supported the idea of donating pennies and nickels to the cause (it's a tight economy, we've all gotta pull in the purse strings) but I was outvoted. It was a 1-to-1 vote, but my wife's opinion I guess holds more significance than mine.

This is Jon. For Duane's birthday, I bought him Mariners tickets to solidify my spot as his favorite son in law. It worked. We got there pretty early (as you can tell by the 12 people in the stadium) since he was giddier than a school girl. But it gave us a chance to take it all in. Great stadium. The roof was open pre-game, but by the first pitch it was closed since it was nasty outside. We sat pretty close to the field (again, favorite son in law status...alright, I found 2-for-1 tickets). Doug Fister pitched a gem of a game, but the M's found a way to lose to the Texas Rangers. As I write this, they're working on their sixth straight loss. Great game though. There's something about just watching baseball.

This is Jon. We decided to expand the garden without losing any space, so I decided to build some planter boxes to place along our existing garden. Last year once our corn got tall (...watch our corn pop up in rows...as the Tim McGraw song says, great song by the way, it's on Dan and Angela's wedding CD that they gave to all of us in their wedding, thanks Angela!) the shadows the corn rows cast pretty much stunted the growth of our beans and carrots (at least that's what I think). So, we're mixing it up a bit and it also gives me the excuse to drive Old Wilson to the lumber yard like a real man. As the picture demonstrates, I'm a "measure twice, cut once" kind of contractor. I'm all about the safety, as you can tell by the goggles while I was sawing. I might be all about the safety, but this picture also demonstrates that I'm clearly not all about the fashion. This must be one of those days that I get dressed without Brittany's guidance. Mu...

Despite the constant springtime wind, our tulips have done well in the back yard this spring. Our apple, cherry and apricot trees are all in bloom as well. Our Topsy Turvy plants have taken a beating due to the wind and a last minute cold snap that dipped down to the mid 30s a few times over the last two weeks. We're pretty sure we're going to have to replant our tomato, but our strawberries are hanging in there. We haven't planted any of the garden yet. That will be closer to Memorial Day.

This is Jon. Delaney and her class had been planning a "Special Lunch" for their moms and dads for a while and Monday was the day! A few days before, the kids got to vote on what kind of food they wanted to have for the lunch. Delaney voted for chicken, hamburgers won. Delaney voted for carrots, corn on the cob won. Delaney voted for oranges, watermelon won. She didn't mind though. In a flash of maturity, she came home, told us what happened, shrugged her shoulders and said, "it happens." She didn't seem to mind because she scarfed down her food. Delaney sitting next to her friend, Bianca. Beind them in the blue is "Teacher Connie" one of Delaney's teachers. Very nice lady. Delaney has three teachers ("Teacher Debbie" and "Teacher Cindy") and all three of them are very nice and just great with Delaney. The class made flower centerpieces for the tables, complete with colors and sparkles. If you look closely, they are egg ca...