The "five dollar footlong" makes an appearance in Crystal Falls

We took a trip today with the Ranger four-wheeler. We drove to Crystal Falls, Mi and then rode to Iron River, Mi and Florence, WI. Our ride to Crystal Falls was over an hour long but Rose E was so excited about the Ranger ride that she even wore her helmet on the way there while in the Suburban. Walter said that our rig was so long with the trailer hooked-up that he was calling it the "five dollar foot long"!
And here he is standing in front of a "porcupine tree (pine tree)" camera in hand ready for some action.
Off we go!

Through many spots of the trail it was as if we where traveling under a canopy of trees that arched over us. Here Walter had to stop and "take our picture because it was so beautiful." He has been cracking me up lately too when he doesn't want to forget something he opens his eyes really wide and says "I'm recording this with my video camera in my eyes."

A favorite part of the trip was lunch, which was of course in an old depot in Iron River.

We went over some gorgeous bridges too, but here it kind of looks scary!

A family portrait, on one side of the bridge is Wisconsin and the other Michigan!

It was so nice to see that the trees are finally green, we saw lots of wild flowers and wildlife out and about too.

When we got home Walter said as we where eating pizza "this is the end to a good day."

Also, Happy Belated Birthday to Jeff's brother Dan!

A true boy, A true girl

I blew up some balloons for the kids yesterday and they both had fun throwing them into the air with their hands and batting at them with paddles but...Walter enjoyed batting at his the most with a baseball bat and...
what Rose E enjoyed the most was drawing a face on hers and dressing it-up. It is fun to see how the same thing can be enjoyed in totally different ways with a boy and a girl! It has been funny to listen to Rose E lately as she is picking-up a lot of Walter's phrases too. Sometimes if I ask Walter to do something when he wants to be building with blocks or laying train track he will say "I'm too busy (in a little protest)" so last weekend I was trying to get Rose E to eat her meat at the supper table and she said "no I'm too busy to eat the ham." Then today she dumped out a 250 set of dominoes all over the floor and when I asked her to help me pick them up, at first she helped ,and then she got tired of it so she said "I'm too full" (that's what Walter says when he is done eating). Such a ham!
The kids are loving watching all of the spring flowers in our neighborhood bloom and are identifying quiet a few (even Rose E is pointing out tulip now) and whenever I do anything to our gardens Walter is right there as curious as could be, so the other day when I thinned out one of the gardens and transplanted some plants from one spot to another Walter asked what I was doing and I said I am digging out a bulb, he looked at me with a curious look and said "a light bulb?!?

Pure Beauty!

We took the Ranger out for a ride yesterday, what I love about our area is that there are so many beautiful rolling hills, waterfalls and little streams to see. This was taken at Hungarian falls.
Another Hungarian falls waterfall.

The kids sure do love our rides and that you just never know what we are going to see! Yesterday there was a skunk on the trail and as we drove up towards it it ran into the woods and sprayed a tree! Yikes good thing it wasn't us!

Jeff took this picture of us in the Ranger while standing on a trestle bridge. Calumet is in the background, that big long building along the trail is the old depot.

Last but not least, our little fashion queen now does everything dressed-up. Here she is walking her dog and before that she was helping Walter and Jeff build with blocks while still holding her purse (and wearing her shades).

Happy Birthday to my Rose Petal!

My oh my, two already, where does the time go?
She picked out this Elmo cake. Whenever Rose E gets a little bit of t.v time she says "I wanna watch Elmo" so I wasn't surprised when she wanted this cupcake cake.

Yum, yum it was good too.Jeff set-up a race track with a garden fence around our yard and the kids went around with bikes and cars. Here Brady was just sitting in Ligtning though.

Here we where at the football field in attempts at flying a kite.

Rose E got so many nice girly gifts, clothes, jewelry, dress-up clothes, dolls, etc. Here she is wearing a rose hat that Jeff's mom made. The glasses and necklaces where also Birthday presents.

Feeding a new doll.

All dressed-up! She is loving all of her new dress-up items and keeps running to the mirror and saying "see Rose E, princess."

2(well almost) and 4 going on 24!

Mama's little helper and a fashionable one at best! After playing outside today she insisted on wearing her hat and shades in the house, however, she changed her shoes when we got in (she caught me going through her bigger clothes and shoes I had stashed away and now has made two pairs of shoes into dress-up shoes). Speaking of shoes, the other day we where heading out to our vehicle and her shoe came off and she said "oh man." I couldn't stop laughing it just sounded so cute coming from an almost two year old!
Somebody has also claimed my laundry basked as her own cozy little nook! Lately she has been drawing on this magna doodle too and will say "look I made an A" or look I made an I."
I just love it that these kids are starting to do more and more things together! Whatever Walter is doing Rose E has to do too. Walter's newest accomplishment is that he can now write his name from memory. He asked me the other day "mama why wasn't I an indult(adult) when I first came here(when I was born)?" Just can't wait to do all of the things that Mom and Dad do, including getting to stay up later at night!

Hope all of you Mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day!

3,2,1 BLAST OFF!

This little girl has been trying to blast off the jokes lately, it is so cute! The other day she was holding a toy dog and said "this doggy Mama.....I'm teasing you Mama!" She'll also show me her belly and then cover it back up with her shirt and say
"my belly hiding!"

Two peas in a pod enjoying a snack together.

Speaking of snacks, the kids have been into making jewelry out of licorice and cereal. Anyway, Walter said he made "superhero bracelets that have special powers "(gotta love the shades too).

We where all excited to see our first daffodil bloom. Walter kept inspecting it to see "if bugs where eating the nectar." He also thinks that if we water it, it will miraculously grow (and has been asking if we can water the dog too, in hopes that he will grow as well).

A dandelion, a true sign of spring!

I've never been so happy to see a Dandelion! Ahh some color!
We finally had spring weather today and the kids where excited to have their first picnic outside and to bring a few of their favorite toys out to play (and for walks).

Rose E loves the swings this year, in fact whenever we are outside she begs to go swinging (even if we are heading off to go somewhere else).

This past week we finally took out the Ranger four wheeler (Walter had been anticipating it for months) anyway my little bobble head bobbed off after catching some of that fresh air here.

Walter of course couldn't wait to see all of the mining buildings and train bridges. This time of the year there are so many little waterfalls and rivers along the trail too and it is just nice to be back out in the woods! P.s Also note that there was still snow in spots on the trail just a couple of days ago!