Creativity plus!

Rose E made a new discovery today, how to open all of our cabinet doors and drawers! She is now officially into EVERYTHING! It was cute though because it started out that she was dragging her pull dog around while I was making lunch and I said "Oh does your doggy need a drink?" So I pulled out a little container and wha la the light bulb went on. The kids then used my plastic containers for everything from a train horn(which is what they are doing in the picture), to helmets, to a water tower to different buildings. It's been fun to watch that they have been playing more and more together too.

Lately Walter has been asking about trees so this afternoon we went on a scout for different kinds of trees. We took pictures of them and collected leaves (then covered them with contact paper) and I have started to make him his own tree book. Then I thought we would go back for each season and take pictures of them then too. He was fascinated with how many different kinds there are and started to recognize some of them.

He has been making us laugh at meal times whenever we sit down to eat too he says welcome to (pizza hut, or Chilli's, Arby's etc). He sure is just like his Daddy a little jokester and keeps us smiling that is for sure. Rose E has been quite the little social bug when she sees people lately too. Even if they are a distance away she has been saying "hi" and then when we are all done talking to them "see ya." Her new words lately have been "ball", "ruff ruff" and "on."

Trucks, cars and playgrounds who could ask for anything more?

We've had lots of fun the past couple of days. Yesterday I took the kids to this fire truck museum in Calumet. They had some interesting things there and one of the men even let Walter sit in a few of the old trucks and see the engine. They just don't build building like they used too, upstairs in the old firemen quarters is a work in progress but is pretty neat with all the old woodwork, wainscoting, and a fancy fire place. It had the old beds, a fire pole, a cooking stove and bath tub too. I also added a picture of Rose E next to an old horse drawn hearse, Walter got a big kick out of it, just a bit different than his Daddy's!
Today Walter had fun watching the construction across the street from us. As he saw one of the excavators digging-up the sidewalk he said "Mama is that excavator eating?" Though he loves watching the trucks I will be glad when it is all done. Tonight we met Cyrus and his family and had ice cream with them then played at the playground. It was nice, it's fun to see the two boys together and to listen to their conversations as well as imaginary play. Then we topped of the evening and let Walter drive his motorized lightning car, he was in his glory!
Little miss Rose E here isn't missing a beat. Yesterday I said something about her hair (which by the way is now blond and is getting curlier by the minute) and she touched her hair then I said where are your feet and she touched her feet. Little smartie! She is also now running and boy is she ever a Speedy Gonzalo! She was cracking me up yesterday as she was running in the yard she would run to a spot where she had to turn around and say "the end" then go to another corner and do the same.

A visit to a fish hatchery!

Yesterday our summer literacy story hour ended off the program with a field trip to a fish hatchery in Aura. It was very interesting, they raise them from eggs and then stock them back into the lakes. Just one of these troughs held 30 thousand trout! Of course the kids favorite part was when they took a couple of the trout out and let the them touch the fish (then they released them into a creek). Walter's description was that they felt "soapy" I think he was trying to think of a way to say slimy. You can see his cousin Cale in the pictures too. Oh and another interesting tid bit was that they sedate the fish and clip a part of their fins so that they later can record information on them when they recatch them in the lakes. So if you are ever fishing and catch a fish with a clipped fin or metal piece in its nose you know it came from a hatchery.
Then tonight we went to the story hour in our library. Walter is so fascinated with the huge chimney at the school and it made me laugh last week because he said "mama that smokestack is attached to the school so does the school move?" We hit the jack pot tonight at the library because he found a book about a coal miner and it was about a mine and trains, his two favorite topics lately!
Rose E is just talking away and understanding everything! I had to laugh a few days ago because after lunch Jeff ate a cookie (she has been saying "please" lately asking for food and even said "thank you" the other day too" ) anyway she wanted one, so I said you have to eat your food first, so she then scarfed down her food! She is also making me chuckle too as for when she doesn't want to do something such as have her diaper changed she will scold us with gibberish and it is the funniest thing to hear. As many of you know Jeff and his Dad work together a lot, anyway Jeff had a school board meeting yesterday and Walter was asking where he was going and when I said "to a meeting" she replied "Papa?" (with Papa)? On Sunday too we all went out to the camp which was fun and it took me by surprise because when she saw her baby cousin Brady she said "hi Brady." Little smarty!

A new name for our residency!

We where busy little bees buzzing all over today. Earlier today we did a little shopping and then this evening we took a drive out to the camp. Walter made me laugh after we did some shopping, he saw a group of motorcycles pulling into a motel and he said "I want to go to our motel." I said "what motel?" He then said our address and I said "Oh what is the name of our motel" and he said "loggabella." Fancy smanzy eh! That imagination is just taking off! He has been playing with pretend food lately and it is so funny the scenarios he comes up with. One day I had to wear a hat that was about three times too small for me and pretend to be "an ice cream seller (if anybody would have peeked into our windows it would have been quite the site to see me counting block money and handing out fake food)." Rose E has been digging it too and pretends to eat the food as well! She has been into the laughs too lately, today in the car someone even laughed on the radio and then she was rolling, it is so cute. I have also noticed that she is now saying some phrases with I in them (she is getting too big too fast)! Today she said "I all done" and "I want that." Oh and I had to laugh too today because I brought out two pull string dogs for the kids and they where having fun walking their dogs around our house in the big circle from the kitchen to the dinning room anyway she got fed-up with not being able to keep up with Walter and his dog so she picked her dog up and ran with it! Couple of goofs in this house!

Some overdue photos!

Well, here it is finally, the pictures from our home tour. It was kinda fun to dress-up, the morning of the tour I even had somebody put my hair into a bun too. Oh and I forgot to mention earlier that our flowers looked beautiful too. We had an arrangement on our dinning room table where they put flowers into an old teapot of my Grandmother's, an arrangement on our kitchen island, and roses in our wash basin pitcher that my Grandpa gave to me. I also stuck some flowers in a couple of vases in Rose E's room, they seemed to add a lot. We are still talking about all of the comments that people said and everywhere we go somebody seems to comment about the tour. The next picture is of the Red Hat Society ladies who helped us that day, we where grateful for them that is for sure.

Slowly but surely we are trying to get back into some normalcy here now that it is all done (Phew) now we just have to got through all of the modern stuff that we hauled into our basement! It was nice because a couple days after the tour we met Emily, Kirsten, Cale, and Brady at the park. The kids really seemed to have a good time together.

Yesterday too my parents came for a visit. On Thursday we took a jaunt up to Copper Harbor and had a nice meal at the Lodge which is where this picture was taken and then enjoyed the scenery as we drove around. The picture of Jeff and Walter was taken along the roadside where we walked in the sand along Lake Superior. Then today Walter was beside himself that he and Daddy got to take Papa A.J on a ride on the Ranger four wheeler. It sounded like they had lots of fun together.

The kids sure have been keeping us entertained as usual! Walter is now coming up with ways to tease us, little trickster. Anyway he was excited the other day that we where able to pick tomatoes, broccoli, and a green pepper out of our garden to eat. At supper time then as we where eating the cooked broccoli he turned to us and said "you a broccoli, you a broccoli, you a broccoli but me is not, me gonna eat you all up." Goof. Rose E has been keeping us smiling too. She is still saying "see ya" when she plays peek a boo, but is also saying "bye bye" after the " see ya" as she covers her eyes. The smiles and laughs never stop coming in this household!

Home tour news

Sorry to all who have been wondering how the home tour went with no updates. The modem to our computer went out so we haven't had a computer until just now (we had to have a new one shipped). Anyway, the home tour was a huge success. We had over two hundred and twenty five people come through our house and had many nice compliments. The tour lasted from 1 in the afternoon until 4 and we had a steady stream of people almost the entire time, it was fun.
My parents are visiting right now so I will be sure to add a picture of Jeff and I all dressed-up tomorrow evening.

Happy Birthday Papa!

Sending warm wishes to "papa" on his birthday! Hope your Birthday's a good one!