Drumsticks and dings

Liam's recently discovered pencils and has decided they make better drumsticks than writing implements. He taps on the table, counter, chairs, papers, pots and pans, basically anything he can get his hands on. We keep confiscating them (I just sharpened them) but he just uses the markers then...

I was teasing Meredith yesterday because she said she saw snowflakes in Columbus. I made some wisecracks about being on the warm pocket of the lake, but guess what? Yesterday afternoon we had hail. It rained a few times, that fine needle rain. Then we heard dings and pings and Carrie said, "what's THAT?!" She couldn't picture what I meant, so I took her into the garage and she got to see hail up close and personal. Of course she decided to eat it and proceeded to gather as many as she could before I herded her back inside...

This little maple tree in our backyard has been so pretty! Sadly, I didn't think to take its picture until after half its leaves got pummeled off =( So sad. Christine has a matching one next door and hers fared a little better than ours did. Sunny and windy again today!