Weekend Ventures

This weekend my parents came for a quick visit, we took them to see the Portage Entry Lighthouse. The weather was beautiful and the colors of the trees where magnificent but of course pictures don't do justice.
We walked down the long break wall to see this light house. It was funny how on one side the waves where choppy and on the other side completely smooth.
This is looking back to the trek back to land. As we walked the gulls flew away and Walter said they where watching "water movies" as for they where all looking into the waves. It was neat that we got to see a commercial fishing boat too.
We also celebrated Jeff's brother Matt's birthday and my own (which is next week). It was a nice get together as for we had all of Jeff's family over at our house.

On another note I had to laugh because today we went to a store that was already closed and Walter said "mama can't you just use your keys to get inside? Oh the innocents of young children. And little Miss Rose E is just amazing me with the words she is saying, just several new ones in the past couple of days. She's also turning into a little smarty pants trying to pull tricks up her sleeve. Last night it was cute when I put her to bed she said "patty cake?" Then she said "light?" for her night light and then realized, uh oh that means Mama's leaving soon, so she said "stop it (turn it back off)" I turned it off and she wanted it back on and we went through this for a few minutes before I said (as Walter would put it) that's the nough (enough). She is understanding everything now and follows directions if we ask her to do something.

Happy Birthday Uncle Matt!

A Birthday masterpiece in your honor, it is a self portrait of you with race car birthday cake going into your belly. If you click on the picture you can see that Walter wrote your name too. Hope you have a great day, looking forward to the party tomorrow.

Boys vs girls

Since Rose E has been into bracelets lately I got her this package of them. She's been wearing them around the house and Walter has found a more creative boy approach...to use them as a ring toss.
Walter was ecstatic that playgroup started-up again today. He seemed to enjoy it. He really played nicely with the other kids and everybody was amazed at how much Rose E had changed in four months, some people even said they didn't recognize her at first. It was interesting to watch how Walter gravitated for the boy toys (trucks and building things) and Rose E gravitated for the dolls and toy food. It is amazing to me how different they have been since birth. Though different, Rose E still loves to imitate that brother of hers as much as possible. I had to laugh because the other day when we where walking out of the library( after story hour) into the parking lot Walter realized that his voice echoed. So then he started to say "echo" and then Rose E chimed in repeating "echo." She has been doing a lot of those types of things lately. Even including watching what Walter eats and sometimes if he won't eat it neither will she. Speaking of eating, today at lunch I had to laugh because Jeff picked-up the core to the pear and was eating the edible parts. Anyway this freaked Walter out as for he kept saying "no Daddy you can't eat that part, I don't want you to get sick again." Rose E on the other hand kept signing to me that she was eating flowers and it was cauliflower. Never a dull moment in this house!
I also added these pictures of this goofy girl as for she has been into wearing my shoes lately and they look so big on her. Oh and while I am on the topic of walking she is now taking steps down steps with my assistance (before she would just take the plunge). She is just getting too big too fast!
Last but not least she has been riding this horse a lot lately she is able to get on and off of it by herself. Little miss independent!

Fall fun

On Sunday Walter helped Jeff rake-up leaves, I thought he looked so cute I had to snap this picture. They also took the camaro for a drive, this is a view of the bridge from Hancock to Houghton and the next one is of Walter sitting in the Camaro.






























Yesterday I took the kids to the pumpkin patch. We picked out two pumpkins one small one that Walter liked because it had dogs painted on them (he thought the blue one looked like blue on blues clues) and a large one. That evening Jeff conjured-up a scarecrow for the large one. I tried to get Walter to sit by it today to take his picture and he was "scared" of it. (He is excited about dressing up for Halloween but is terrified of the decorations and masks.) The scarecrow is holding a pop can and he said "mama did he drink all that pop?" Later we will carve the big pumpkin and use that as the head.














This other picture is of Walter playing with his airplanes that Mama and Daddy helped him put together. He said "they are all at an airplane party." He has had an interest in airplanes for some time now.










Last but not least I took a picture of Rose E with the Mr. Potato head in her car. Many toys have been getting free rides in these wheels lately. She has also been trying to open our bathroom drawers to get out combs and brushes, so I bought her her own to play with and this Mr. Potato head even got his hair brushed.
She has definitely been into helping too. Lately when I load the dishwasher she will go and get clean Tupperware out of the drawer hand it to me and say "thanks." Then today she spilled some milk on the table so I wiped it up with some nearby napkins. Then she wanted her own napkin so I gave her one and then watched her spill a little on the table so she could wipe it up herself. This one sure does have a mind of her own already!

Another fun four wheeling adventure!

This weekend the four of us took the Ranger out for a ride to the fire steel bridges which are located between Mass city and the Houghton county border. The trees where spectacular. Every time we go for a ride it seems we see different wildlife, this time we got to see some partridge, bird nests, wild turkey and even beaver lodges. Walter was of course thrilled to see some mining buildings and old train bridges too and Rose E kept saying "see?" It was great!

On anther note, yesterday I heard Rose E pretending to call "santa" then I said did he say "ho ho ho" and then she said "ho, ho ho." I was thinking I wish I could read her mind her thoughts where probably some babies and jewelery please, thanks!

Today Walter came up to me and said "mama what are you made up of.....cheese?"

Ahh to be a grown-up

The kids had fun playing outside today, even though it was a bit chilly. Walter found a new way to swing and claimed that he was of course a "high powered train." Every morning lately he has been paying attention to the clouds. When they are dark he has to first make sure that it is not night time (that's a big phew!) and then he says they are heavy. Then when it rains he says "the clouds are opening up." Such a little scientist. Today we had a conversation about what he wants to be when he grows up, the answer of course(drum roll please) a train engineer who drives the train, an engineer who fixes the train and an engineer who cleans the smokestacks of the train." Then he asked me what I was going to be when I grow-up. Oh and for two years now he has told us that when he turns old enough to drive he is going to buy a truck. Now he is going to have a cool orange truck that has a dump box and a plow. He will be able to "drive it to school and then do work with it." After he told Daddy this he had to go right out and buy him one, that is a hot wheels one of course.


Speaking of trucks, Rose E decided to drive the trucks today (literally). She has been really into those ride on toys lately too. She was also pretty cute playing basketball with her brother. She says "ball" then as soon as she throws it in the basket she says "yeah." In this last picture she was peeking under the beam at me, she just looked so adorable I couldn't resist a picture.

Though she likes the trucks and balls she is turning into a true girl indeed! Her latest craze has been dress-up hats and jewelry. Today I even caught her making a plastic baby toy ring into a bracelet. She is really picking-up on any new signs that her teach her now especially when we are reading books. That language is just taking off too, today I told her something and she replied with "huh? (repeat that again) and some of her newest words have been "owl" "hoot" and "ant."

Introducing the King and Queen of this household!

The kids have been wearing this crown all day and look so cute in it that I couldn't resist a picture of Walter with it on. In this next picture I got a kick out of Walter because a politician came to our door and handed out this advertisement, anyway as soon as he left Walter asked if he could have it, I said sure and he cut-it up and taped it back into an "airplane" then he used hole punchers to create "caterpillars" down below. Better than throwing it in the garbage I guess. It is amazing to me how what seems like nothing to us becomes something magical to them. I caught Rose E today using the arm cover for our wing back chair for a blanket for her dolly and her food lately has been everything from fish to snakes to cars. Gotta love it!
The other day I brought out these magnets for the kids to play with since Rose E has been into magnets lately. Walter had letters and Rose E had animals. Walter asked me to take this picture so here it is. I think he's liking seeing himself on my blog. Anyway, we spelled out his name and then he would bunch up letters and say "what name does this say?" Usually it would be something like xwackh.
Our little girl has now officially turned into a monkey! She has learned how to climb up on everything from their rocking horse to big chairs. I have been catching her standing-up in this chair and she will tell me "sit down sit down." Little stinker. Here she is checking out her brother's calender and lately she has been getting her sticker book out of the buffet and going to the table to play with it. I definitely need eyes in the back of my head now! It was cute tonight we went shopping. I let Walter get a game at Shopko and Rose E then asked for a "baby." We where going to the dollar store next so I told her at the dollar store she could pick one out. Lone behold as soon as we got into the store she kept saying "baby, baby." I let her pick out a dolly she was so cute kissing it and hugging it. Then as soon as we got to the van she kept saying "thanks" and then made-up a song about a "happy baby." Too precious!
Oh and this last picture is of her painting for the first time, she was really into mixing those colors together and repeated "blue" and "purple."

Yesterday we had an excuse to go out to eat as for we celebrated our 8th anniversary. In a few weeks it will be 12 years that we've been together too. My how time flies when your having fun!While we are on the topic, Happy Anniversary to my parents too (their's is tomorrow October 2nd).