More signs of spring ...

... in my own back yard! New leaves, seeds, and flowers! Lovely!!

Spring!

This is one of the most beautiful blooming trees I've ever seen. I think it's called the Eastern Redbud. There are many around this area, mostly in the yards of the older houses south of the golf course, but since we drive through that area almost every day, we get to enjoy their beauty.

I took these photos about 10 or 12 days ago, and the flowers have almost completely faded by now. The trees' green leaves are coming in and the purple blossoms are dropping away.

Fleeting, but gorgeous!

A trip to the Houston Zoo

Last Saturday -- a PERFECT day -- we left early, at Anne's insistence, and went to the Houston Zoo. I hadn't been there before, but she and the kids had -- and leaving early was an excellent idea. Parking wasn't too bad and all the animals were out. (I imagine in summer, they all go someplace shady for the majority of the day!). We had a good time.



First we found the ring-tailed lemurs and then the lions.

More pics

The top photo is of the black spotted leopard. At first we thought it was a panther, but then we could see the spots (and we read the sign). It's a great photo for a Tummy Tuesday!!

The rest of the photos are of a leopard (not black!), being his usual lazy self in the middle of the day! He couldn't be bothered by all these gawkers. Snoozing was the best option!

More zoo pics

Below is a photo of the rhino, several of a tiger (very lazy guy!), and one of the snow leopard, who is very hard to see, but he's beautiful anyway.

More at the zoo

Below are photos of the new baby elephant, Mac, and one of him with his mom. Others are of a koala, then the daddy giraffe (and what a TALL guy he is!), and finally the baby giraffe. What a fantastic day!

New playground to break in!

There's a new playground in the neighborhood, just right for kids to try out and break in during their Spring Break. It has all kinds of interesting "equipment" on which kids can work off steam!

Austen, Parker, and Kira, as well as neighbors Austin and Alex, gave the playground a good work-out yesterday -- after some little sprinkles and before the big, night-long storm!




We'll go back, once the storms go away for what's left of the week.

TALL trees!

There are two VERY TALL pine trees in the Linehan back yard. I hope these photos indicate how they dwarf just about everything around, including the two-story Linehan house! (Not the house behind their yard that shows up in the photos.) And these trees are loaded with pine cones -- if they ever all fall down, we can make a good planting bed cover out of them.

Hoedown!

Last Friday, the K, 1st, and 2nd grades at Kira's school had their annual Hoedown performances. They have been practicing for weeks, and it was a really fun event. In the first two photos, Kira and her partner were performing quite well together.




In the third photo, they are performing the Hokey-Pokey -- you know, "Put your right foot in, put your right foot out..." Not everyone knew their right from their left, but Kira did!

In the last photo, Kira and Abbi can be seen doing the Macarena! Everyone had a terrific time -- and best of all, they got to go home early!