Memorial Day Picnic

We gathered as many as we could out at Willow Hill for a little picnic by the campfire yesterday. It was plenty warm and windy but the windy helped keep the warm at bay. The kids were entertaining as usual...Natalie swinging on trees and telling everyone secrets...

...Harvey playing with a ball almost bigger than he!

Mindy was in charge of the cake and what an appropriate masterpiece it was! I think she must have passed her cake baking class with flying colors!

Saturday 'Sit

Angela and Darrick went to a Twins game Saturday (and it was even a victory for the home team!) so we had an evening with the girls. We went to the playground over by Silver Lake and this was Claire's favorite thing.

Cate even got in on it even though she's a bit on the short side yet to do it by herself.

It was a pretty active evening but Cate's pretty good at settling down.

Claire, on the other hand, swears she's not tired and just wants to wait for Mommy and Daddy. We went in and gave all her babies baths and when the two of us laid down after that, I swear, she was asleep in 30 seconds!

With Apologies And Thanks To Angela!

Well, for one thing I needed to post an entry so that eye wasn't the first thing you'd see. And since nothing much has happened I stole a picture from Angela's photogallery to put on here. I LOVE this shot of the girls!

Isn't It Ironic?

Jill said I've put a picture like this on here before but isn't it ironic that the only sunny day this week is the day I get my eyes dilated?!

Construction Complete

After our annuals shopping we went on out to Mom and Dad's to finish up the little bridge we've been working on. Dad's had this one in place since who knows when. The boards were getting pretty spongy and one railing fell off about a week ago. So we decided replacing that had to move up on the priority list.I think it took at least twice as long to build as we thought it would but we did actually finish it up. It looks like a bit of a monstrosity but I hope it'll weather a bit and blend in better in time.

An Annual Chore

Yesterday we went shopping for our annuals. We like going to Sargents because some of the faces are familiar and we know where most things are but we thought we'd try something different this year. We went up to Houston's in Kasson because they've had such nice pointsettia's at Christmas and oh my gosh! Did they have some nice stuff now!! The pots they had planted up were so colorful.

One whole greenhouse was dedicated to nice, bushy geranium plants.

We were able to find everything we wanted, even some we had a backup plan for if they weren't available. And the prices were right too. We get pretty much the same things every time and we saved about $55 over last year! I do have to say, it was stiflingly hot and humid in those houses. Jill finally dug for a kleenex for me to wipe away the visible sweat that was, literally, rolling down everything! But this is my testimonial for a small town greenhouse that most likely has just added us to their regulars list!

Bridge Builders At Work

Dad's got a little, old bridge up into the woods that's been in place for probably 30 years. It finally got to the stage where it was hardly safe to navigate and, in fact, one of the handrails fell off. So............Jill and I are in the process of building them a new one. Do you think our level is working?!

Spring Fling

Bev and Fay left yesterday for a few days in Door County Wisconsin. I've never been there but I've always heard it's just beautiful. And if their apple blossoms are popping like ours finally is it should be!

I Toad You So

I took a little walk up through G and g's woods today and, while trying to photo some Spring flowers, was startled by a little rustling in the leaves. This little guy was only about the size of an egg but I put the camera in supermacro mode and had the lens only about an inch from his face. Still, he didn't move!

Last Leg

Here she comes! The flight had been listed as "departed" for about the last 35 minutes. Now that they're finally in the air they're scheduled to arrive in just 16 minutes! When I took the rest of that flight from Indianapolis from MSP to here we were just barely in the air when they said "we're now beginning our descent into RST." Distance passes quickly at 380 mph!

Headed Home

Cher's on her way back from her excursion to Baltimore. Once when we were coming back from Indianapolis we flew near this route and I remember looking out and thinking "that's some really wide river!" Wasn't 'til later I realized it was Lake Michigan. (I'll never be mistaken for the brightest bulb in the bunch.)Coming back doesn't appear to be the rigamarole that getting there was. The only thing left is MSP to home and that's supposed to be by 3:08.

Right Place At The Right Time

We were at Natalie's swimming lesson Sunday night even though we knew viewing the class was less than optimal since there is quite an expanse of pool between the seats and where she swims. BUT....since it was the last lesson of the session we were permitted to be up close and personal! They had a little fun time just doing some splashing.There was some one on one time with the instructor.And she was a very apt pupil. The best part was the big duckie slide they got to frolic on at the end of class.Most times her eyes were closed when she hit the water but not here!Natalie said she had fun but even so we couldn't coax a smile for the camera. I think she'd used them all up in the pool!

Great Day With The Greats

Mindy had Muffins With Mom yesterday in her pre-school class and their daycare was closed so voila! I spent the day with the kids! Since Mommy had muffins we had doughnuts. Natalie had chocolate frosting...

...Harvey had white...

...and I had a big-ass Persian with maple frosting but we all had sprinkles. We talked quite a bit about Grandma Cher flying to Baltimore so Natalie got us set up in an airplane with her as the pilot.

As Grandma Cher was winging off from our airport to the Cities we were out in the wind playing mostly in the backyard. (Too many cars passing by for me to be comfortable in the front!) Natalie rode on the bike path......Harvey swung on the tire swing...

...and they both played in the sandbox.

Natalie asked for mittens so I knew it was chilly for them so we went in and took a peek where Grandma Cher was on her leg to Cincinnati.Natalie says she's hungry about every 45 minutes so one of the treats we had while Harvey was sleeping was a blue Tootsie Roll.The kids are like Claire and Cate when it comes to self-timed pictures. It's fun to be the one to push the button and run for your spot. Thanks Natalie! You did a good job!

Maybe There IS Something To This Friday The 13th Stuff!

It started out with Jill calling to say she had a flat tire when she came out of work. She couldn't get the spare off and ended up breaking the jack. I was tied up for the day and she chose to walk the four miles home. Don't ask me why she didn't take a cab!(Those tiny spares are SO unattractive! As of today Jill has a set of four new tires.)

Then Cher called from the airport in Cincinnati to say their connecting plane to Baltimore was tied up in Atlanta with no word on when it'd be coming in. You may have read in an earlier post it was about four hours later than expected!

Finally, before the show at the theatre last night we saw that one of the characters was being played by this lady with an absolutely gorgeous voice. We'd seen her as the Mother Superior in The Sound of Music last summer. BUT.....we also learned that she and another lady traded off performances. Somewhere I just read that anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting what you want, 90% of the time it doesn't work out that way. Such was the case here. I'm not usually superstitious but hmmmm, I'm beginning to wonder!

Contraband And Camerawork

Claire's got it in her head that breakfast is followed by dessert. With our warmer weather freezee pops seem to be the thing.

And her camera skills continue to amaze me for a four year old. I only Photoshopped a tiny bit on this and that was mostly just to resize.

The Theatre

So we went to the production at the Repertory Theatre of "Loving Lorna Doone". We had to wait 'til the end to catch sight of Tony...

...but throughout we enjoyed the music that he as musical director and his friend, Jaymi, as assistant and accompaniest had composed. It's funny how sitting in the fourth row or in the next to last row can be one and the same. In that theatre we could almost reach out and touch the stage!

Almost There

Cher's headed to Baltimore for some nursing conference this weekend. I missed the first leg of the flight from RST to MSP but this is the second leg of the circuitous route.Then after a considerable delay in Cincinnati they're due to arrive in just a few minutes "only" four hours late into Baltimore.Looks like there was weather along the way and Cher said she'd gotten some pictures of thunderheads that'll be interesting to see. And now...off to the theatre for Jill and me!

The Age Of Electronics

The results are in. Jill filed her tax return the old fashioned way...by mail...with her refund to be deposited directly into her checking account. Her state refund came back in 15 days and her federal in 25. I filed mine electronically and got my state back in 4 days and my federal in 15!

Mothers And Daughters

Our family history has been to stay as far away as possible from any restaurant on Mother's Day. But I called Hunan Garden right away when they opened yesterday to order take out and that was ready in ten minutes.

We just aren't very fancy when it comes to celebrations but Mom loved the meal so I guess it was a success. You know that saying "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Mama was happy!

Natalie's School Program

On Friday evening we had the pleasure of attending Natalie's Spring Program. She got to be by her good friend and neighbor, McKenzie.I can't remember now which actions went with which songs but they acted out a lot of the lyrics.Harvey proved to be a good little boy throughout the show and we were all rewarded by some delicious bars before seeing some of the projects Natalie had done during the year.