Family – Page 69 – M. Sullivan Photography

June 8, 2010 M. Sullivan Photography Animals, Family

R.I.P. Ty

It was a sad day at our house yesterday. Mike had to tell Sebastian and Sophia that our next door neighbor’s dog, Ty, passed away (I had chickened out and couldn’t do it). Ty had lived next door to us for Sebastian and Sophia’s whole lifetime. Sebastian used to take Ty for walks with our neighbor Greg. It was an exciting time when Greg and Pam would go out-of-town for a few days and we would be in charge of feeding and walking Ty. Sebastian did the math and Ty would have been between 91 and 98 years old in dog years. We never knew how old he really was because Greg found him as a stray. The kids made cards for Greg and Pam last night. Sophia drew a picture of Ty and wrote on the front “I’m sorry Ty died”. Sophia likes to get to the point. Sebastian thought she should say “passed away” instead of “died”. She went with her original wording in the end. I’m sure Greg and Pam understood – she’s only five. Sebastian wrote out a letter with all the thing he loved about Ty and how much he will miss him. The kids brought the cards next door with a batch of home-made cookies. They said they didn’t need me to come with. I was very proud of them for their thoughtfulness and true sympathy.

June 3, 2010 M. Sullivan Photography Animals, Family, Flowers, Photos, Weather

Thirty-Nine

Tuesday was my birthday. It wasn’t a big milestone birthday, but in some ways it seems like maybe it was. As my Mom said in my birthday card, “…your last year of your thirties”. Wow, when did I get so old? Despite the number, I had a fabulous day. Mike and I took the day off from work. He got the kids off to school in the morning and brought back flowers, a fancy coffee and bagels with cream cheese. We enjoyed our breakfast while watching the Today Show. After getting our fill of the news and bagels, we decided to take Daphne for a long walk around the neighborhood. The weather was in the 70’s and it was sunny – no rain, tornado warnings or 39 degree temperatures like I’ve had some years on my birthday.

We checked out our yard and gardens when we got back. I also looked in on our nesting birds. Three babies had hatched!

Backyard blooms…

After our stroll around the yard, we headed to Valentini’s restaurant for lunch. We had a great table outside overlooking the lake. We were planning to go to a movie in the afternoon, but the weather was too nice. We opted for a walk along the Lakewalk instead. We ended up having ice cream at the Bridgeman’s at Fitger’s and walked down to the lake to dip our toes in to cool off a bit.

We picked up the kids from school and opened presents before Sebastian’s baseball game.

Sebastian had two hits in his game – a single and a double – and also pitched an inning.

We finished off the evening with a quick dinner and some birthday cake.

I can’t think of a better way to spend my last birthday in my thirties. 🙂

May 10, 2010May 10, 2010 M. Sullivan Photography Animals, Family, Photos, Weather

4.5 Inches

That is the amount of snow that we received on May 7. Rather than being completely freaked out, the kids, Mike and Daphne decided to enjoy it. I was personally a bit freaked out, but kept myself amused by seeing how much fun they were all having.

By lunchtime this is what our backyard looked like. I didn’t have much luck playing fetch with Daphne. She had difficulty finding the ball and when she did actually locate it, she rolled it around so much that it turned into a snowball.

After we all got home from work and school, Mike pulled out the sleds from the top shelf in the garage while I dug out winter boots, hats and mittens. Mike and the kids piled up snow for a jump in the backyard, then pretended it was February instead of May.

The plants, bushes and trees took a bit of a beating.

After getting my fill of snow, I headed inside while the kids and Mike stayed out to play some more. Sophia found it amusing to throw snowballs at me while I was looking out the window.