Leaves, leaves, brand new leaves!

I love this time of year. Nights are still on the cool side, and daytimes are just lovely. No humidity yet. Beautiful! And trees are getting their brand new leaves after the long, cold, sometimes dreary winter. What a joy!

The first three are photos of the new leaves on my crape myrtle trees. Pretty soon they'll be all leafed out and then they'll start thinking about their beautiful pink blooms. I love these trees.



These are the new leaves on my Laurel Oak. At least that's what I think this tree is, according to Randy Lemmon's description. In the fall, its leaves turn reddish brown for about a day or two and then hang on the tree all winter, looking dead and brown. They really don't lose those old leaves until the new ones (here looking rather goldish in color) push the old ones out. These new leaves will be a beautiful bright green in a few weeks.

These are the leaves on an ash tree - I can't tell from Randy's description if it's a green ash or a white ash tree - but it's not Arizona ash, thank heaven. I'm very allergic to Arizona ash trees.

All the trees in my back yard except the crape myrtles were left in place by the builder. They are all native to eastern Texas forests, and I love them all. In addition to this oak and ash tree, there is one other oak, one other ash, two pine trees, and one cluster of trees called Yaupon Holly. I love my back yard!!

Music, music, music

We are at the beginning of springtime music performances, and they are wonderful, as usual.

I took Kira to her school's choir performance at the nearby Methodist Church, where they were holding their annual Eggstravaganza Market. Anne made it there on her way home from work, in time to hear the choir perform.

Parker's band's pre-UIL concert (dress rehearsal for regional competition) was also given last night, and Austen represented our family in the audience.

Tonight was Austen's band's pre-UIL concert, and I went to that one. Gorgeous and beautiful, as usual!

I took a photo and a video of the choir performance, but I'm still learning how to use that camera ... so I may or may not be able to add them to this post later. No camera tonight!! (I don't think Austen cares whether I have a camera or not!)

Last day of spring break!

Kira had a great time on her last day of Spring Break 2010!

Parker's project for French class

I took this photo on Tuesday morning even though Parker hadn't quite finished his project. He finished Danielle's name and lettered his, Kira's, and Austen's names at school Tuesday morning. But I think his layout is a good one. Click on the photo to make it larger (and readable!).



The little white rectangles by each person's name contain Parker's descriptions of his family members -- written in French. Once in class, he had to use this to make a presentation. That would have been fun to video!