birthday pictures for granny

Maddie spent the afternoon painting a wonderful picture for Granny for her birthday. You can click on it to see all the detail. She drew it first with a pencil, then painted it with watercolors, then added back some detail in ink. Maddie's funny in that she doesn't draw much at all, but when she does, she can draw some wonderful pictures. Caleb, Garrick and PopPop are in three of the windows. Maddie is outside picking purple flowers for Granny (purple is Granny's favorite color). Bubbie is pushing Granny in the wheelchair. We just hope Bubbie stops before she pushes Granny off the cliff!

Caleb, on the other hand, draws prolifically. One painting wasn't enough for him--he had to give Granny three pictures. This is a red dinosaur with some other stuff going on. You probably can't see, but with my spelling help, he wrote 'Granny' across the top in yellow.

This is a trophy in the center, and Robin Hood with incredibly massive legs on the right. On the lower left in black is a crossbow.

And this is Caleb's painting of earthworms. At some point between finishing the painting and us arriving at Braden's parent's house, a big orange fish with sharp teeth gobbled up all the worms!

granny's 97th...or is it her 98th?

Well, we don't know. Seems the Great Flood swept away her birth records. She's inclined to go with 97.

Before dinner we had a rousing Scrabble game, one of Granny's favorites. I won't mention the fact that I won, much to my dear husband's chagrin.

Maddie painted a beautiful painting for Granny.

Look at all the paparazzi! (Check out that goofy one on the right.)
And that's my girlie there--hair falling out, thinking with her tongue.

Caleb watching with interest as Granny unwrapped the gift he brought over.

Caleb painted a wonderful painting of earthworms for Granny, who tied the ribbons from her packages in her hair as usual.

Happy birthday, Granny! Whether you are 97 or 98, we love you just the same!!

joke season

Ah yes, jokes have entered our household. As is classic with kids' jokes, you can't expect them to make a whole lot of sense or be funny. But nonetheless, here is one of Caleb's favorite made-up jokes:

How does the pig stawt his compyoodow?
He puts mud in it!

today's little harvest

Fennel, cucumber, orange pepper, squash, yellow cherry tomatoes, green onions.

My little garden is doing well.

so she thinks

Maddie spent the last part of dinner trying to convince me that she is really 6 and we somehow missed her 6 year old birthday last fall before all the snow came. It's been so long since her birthday she says we must have forgotten it and missed it.

oatmeal cookie pancakes

The kids helping me put in 'all the good stuff'...

...chocolate chips, raisins, coconut, walnuts, cinnamon--the same yummy things we put in our oatmeal cookies. (My whipped cream helper and me.)
Topped with a dollop of cinnamon whipped cream, those pancakes were super good!

a favorite summer dinner

We love to eat tomato sandwiches every summer! The freshly made bread, tomatoes, blue cheese and basil are a must...the rest always varies.

trying new things

This year I tried growing these miniature squashes for fun. They are so cute and super yellow! We've diced them up and put them in a pan with a bit of water, letting them steam until soft. Then we've added butter and salt and a splash of cream. Very yummy!

And an added bonus: the squash blossoms! Just the other day I picked some of the male blossoms, stuffed them with a mixture of ricotta + minced garlic + herbs, battered them and lightly fried them. Delicious!!

maddie's latest

When Maddie finds something these days, I keep hearing...

"OH!! I have been looking for that for years and years and YEARS!"

Seems she's been missing a whole lot of things for longer than she's been alive.

5 am

Braden and I awoke with a start early this morning to low, loud rumbling and serious shaking that went on for about 10 seconds from the time we woke up. I awoke with a loud gasp, hammered Braden on his back, and said, 'WHAT is THAT?!' Braden said, 'I think it's an earthquake.' The thing that made me second-guess an earthquake was all the noise--I never knew there was so much noise. After a few seconds of us sitting there in disbelief, he got out of our bed and went to check on Caleb, then Maddie, and it was only as he was coming out of Maddie's room that the rumbling and shaking finally stopped. We put the news on right away and in a few minutes it was confirmed. We had an earthquake! Here! Now I can finally brag to my California sister that I too have lived through an earthquake. :)

o hi-ho cheerios | zonked

This is what comes of lots of fun and late nights. You fall asleep just when you're beginning to look at a good book!

Yes, our trip to Ohio was full of lots of fun and late nights, good food and fireworks. We even got to hear Uncle Thad preach at his church on Sunday.

Thank you, Uncle Thad & Aunt Louise, for inviting us to come visit you!

o hi-ho cheerios | fireworks

The fireworks couldn't have been more perfect. God really blessed our little adventure. After ice cream, we headed over to a large Baptist church that hosts a big fireworks event as an outreach every year. Aunt Louise had read about it in the paper, and after considering several options, she thought it would be a good place to try.

Upon arriving there, we realized this event had been going on for a long time...classic cars in the parking lot to look at, band playing, funnel cakes and pulled pork. As we were directed by one parking crew member after another further and further and yet still further away to park in the remote corners of a nearby field, we began to realize this might not work out. Maj-Greth was with us, and she wouldn't be able to walk the distance way back to the church property.

As we finally pulled into a parking spot, we noticed some people getting out of their car and setting up their lawn chairs right there. Bray hopped out and asked them if we'd be able to see the fireworks from where we now were. They didn't know as they had never come before--they were just giving it a shot. Braden decided to run over to one of the parking crew and ask them. The guy he asked said probably not, but since Maj-Greth couldn't walk the distance, he would radio ahead and the parking crew would let us park right next to the church building. So we exited the field and went back up the road to the church property and were ushered through all the way to the building itself, where we found a spot and parked. As we were getting out of our van, Aunt Louise heard her name being called and turned around to see a bunch of her friends from church sitting about 20 feet away. They had arrived earlier and had a perfect spot to see the fireworks. They told us to come right over as they had plenty of room.

While we were waiting for our fireworks to go off, we saw fireworks go off at five different points in the distance! This was the kids' first time going to see fireworks, and they thought those were the fireworks we came to see. Little did they know. :)
At one point I turned to Braden and said, "Oh! I left that container of glow stick bracelets at home. They would have been perfect for here." Not long after I said that, a kind gentleman walked over to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I noticed your little boy eyeing our kids' glowsticks. Would it be okay if I gave him one?" About 30 seconds later he walked back over with one for Maddie too.

Then the real fireworks began.

And the kids loved them!

We all loved them. It was quite an impressive show!

And after the fireworks were done, we walked right over to our van, hopped inside, slipped right out of the parking lot and headed home. A wonderful night!

o hi-ho cheerios | graeter's

One of the things we knew we wanted to do while in Ohio was make a Graeter's run for some good ice cream. We hadn't been before, but boy is it good ice cream!

It took us a while to figure out how we'd work in the ice cream run. Before the pool, after the pool, before fireworks...when??! We finally decided to head over there before the fireworks on the 4th.

If you've never had the chance to watch Caleb while he eats, let me just tell ya it can be pretty funny. Many a dinner goes by with B & me hiding our laughter as we watch him eat. And while pictures capture some of the fun, they really miss a lot of the details.

And of course the 4th of July can't go by without a picture of us...celebrating once again the night we got engaged!

o hi-ho cheerios | classic cars

Every Saturday night at a parking lot near Uncle Thad & Aunt Louise's house, owners of classic cars all converge. They park their cars, pop the hoods, pull out lawn chairs and sit and talk with each other. People come by and check out their cars, perfectly washed, waxed and gleaming. We had been planning on taking Caleb, knowing he'd love to see the cars, but by Saturday night he was so tired. We put him to bed early, only to realize about 30 minutes later that we'd forgotten about it being classic car night. We toyed with the idea of waking him up, but he was fast asleep, and we thought we'd better just let him sleep. So Caleb saw pictures this year...maybe another time he'll get to see the real deal.

o hi-ho cheerios | family

While we were in Ohio, Aunt Louise's parents, John & Maj-Greth (middle) spent a lot of time with us. They live just a few minutes from Uncle Thad & Aunt Louise. Maj-Greth is from Sweden and is an excellent cook. She has even written her own cookbooks. On Saturday Aunt Gail & Uncle Jim drove in from Indiana. We were so glad we got to see them too!

To say we ate well is an understatement! Aunt Louise bought these enormous steaks that were so good.

Uncle Thad recently had knee replacement surgery, so Braden helped out by grilling those big ol' steaks. (You did a great job, Bray!)

Aunt Gail's birthday is coming up, so we took the opportunity of us all being together to celebrate. Aunt Louise made 2 fabulous cakes for the event, and Tarrah decorated them.

Caleb signed his name on the card (gotta love those upside down letters!) and then he of course had to add some fish with sharp teeth. What good is writing anything if there's not a fish with sharp teeth to go with it?!

Despite what you might think when you see that '70' on her cake, Aunt Gail is not 70. She is STILL in her 60's, and I know she would want everyone to know that!

Thanks for driving out to visit, Aunt Gail & Uncle Jim! We loved seeing you!

o hi-ho cheerios

We spent a long 4th of July weekend in Ohio, or as Caleb called it (in all seriousness) the night before we left, 'O hi ho cheerios.' We are home again after a long weekend of travel and fun. Thank you, Uncle Thad & Aunt Louise, for having us!!(remnants of the famous family Dip)

stats

Maddie and Caleb went for their well-check-ups with our wonderful doc. They both landed in the percentiles pretty much where they always have.

Maddie: 39lbs (25%) and 42 inches tall (10%)

Caleb: 38lbs (75%) and 41.5 inches tall (75%)

Maddie is still hanging on in height by that 1/2 inch. We've been waiting for Caleb to pass her for more than a year, but she manages to hang on. With the kids only a half inch and a pound apart, it's no wonder we frequently get asked if they are twins!

pretending to be a dinosaur

(Can this kid dress himself or what?!)

my kids are awesome spellers!

Maddie and Caleb were sitting down to watch a dvd, and the 'dvd screen' flashed up on the TV. "D-V-D...Hey, Mom! I can spell deevedee. D-V-D! Deevedee!"
"Yeah. D-V-D!"
Fabulous, kids. Just fabulous!

green beans

This year I tried planting bush beans for the first time, and we've just begun harvesting our first crop. I am sowing a small patch every 2 weeks all summer long, so we hope to have lots of them. The first to come in are these speckled beans. So pretty!

peanut butter and tomatoes

No, I'm not recommending this combo. However, I fixed Maddie & Caleb lunch, which was a pita stuffed with tomatoes and cheese. Maddie finished that and wanted another small pita. I told her that there was no more cheese but I would put some peanut butter inside instead. Her response? "Yes! Peanut butter and tomatoes! That will be so good!" I hesitated and asked her if she really wanted peanut butter and tomatoes. She responded with an emphatic 'yes'. So peanut butter and tomatoes it was...and she ate it happily. Peanut butter and tomatoes. Who knew?