YEA - CLEAN AT LAST

This definitely called for a bath and shampoo with Mom's help. Yea, clean again!!

A Cheery, Cherry Saturday

After arriving home from a picnic at Round Lake today, Dad picked the rest of the cherries before the birds discovered them. This little tree is producing so well and these cherries are the best tasting. I think they are called Royal Anne. Anyway, here's a picture of them. Doesn't it make your mouth water????

Papa J's Birthday Pies

The only true way to celebrate a guy's birthday is with a favorite pie. Here are the ones that Dad gets this year - Cherry and Apple - mmmmmmm (my favorite is apple and his is Cherry) that's only fair isn't it????

The Concentrators

Erin and boys came over for Sunday dinner because Jeremy was out of town on a job. Afterwards we played games. One was Dominoes, and then Bodee played "scoop" for a games and then we did Bingo. All good for letters and numbers.

Sunday Afternoon Games

Bodee playing with Scoop.

My Friend - Charly

His name is Charly - and can you tell which one is the "real" Charly?????

PAPA'S RAISED GARDEN

This is Dad's raised bed - it's finally growing. Over to the right of this is the corn, beans and a row of Zinnias. To the left is squash, potatoes, sunflowers and he is planning to plant some more Swiss Chard. In the raised bed he has tomatoes, green peppers, swiss chard, carrots, onions, leaf lettuce.

Early Morning Friend

On this beautiful, sunny morning, I stopped a minute to look out my kitchen window at our back yard. There sitting under the bird feeder, was my friend, the squirrel. He was eagerly chomping down the birdseed that had fallen on the ground - probably the sunflower seeds. When he finished eating he ran over to the pond for a drink. I quickly grabbed my camera and poked it out the blinds and snapped him. That is a hard thing to do because they sense when you are doing something close to them and they run away. This is the picture I took. I think he had gotten a drink and he was scratching his side.

Sweet Smells of Rhubarb

Last night Dad got in the kitchen and wanted to make some small rhubarb pies. So he conned me into making the pastry and we made these cute little pies. Boy, did the house smell good. So, I have this handy little cutter that cuts and seals the pastry and does a marvelous job. Some of the pies he sprinkled brown sugar on top and others just white sugar. Dad took a container of pies to work this morning so I only have a few left - - just for me~ It was a fun, late-night activity and they were yummy. The cooked rhubarb that was left we put into a pie pan and froze for a pie later on.

Baby Finn with Nana

My Visit with Finn

I spent a week at Andy's helping her and getting acquainted with Finley Reese. Mercer has taken on the roll as watch-keeper, binky-getter, diaper-fetcher, and whatever is needed he will do. This was his watch-keeper time and he did it very well. As soon as Finn squirms just a little on the baby moniter, Mercer is right there to check him out. What a great big brother !!

All the Better to See You

Mercer looks good doesn't he. These are actually Andy's older glasses and he just thought he should wear them all day. I'm not sure how "good" they were but he sure had fun with them. I called him "Potter".

One Fine Afternoon for Fun

It was a sunny afternoon and Kristi and Logan came over to hang out with us. This was Logan's first time down a slide and I think he really had fun with it. Kris put him on it several times and held his hands while he slid down. Mercer had his friend, Jessie, over but Andy's picture of them was better than mine and it's on her blog if you want to see it.

One Big Yawn

Anyway, here we are - all three of us. This is the morning that I left to come home.

A New Sound

This is an organ that Erin just inherited and she is storing at our house until she gets room for it. That only means that I get to play it once in awhile too. So, my organ is now in the family room and I suppose we could actually do an organ duet if we wanted.

It's a warm Day and Water is a good thing

After moving the organ into our house, Erin and the boys just stayed for lunch and a playtime. It was nice and warm outside - so much so that we needed cold water and this was the fastest and best method of getting it. We played every game we have outside - lacrosse, badmitton, tennis, baseball, soccor, cars and trucks and lots of running. whew! Was I ever tired.

Planting the sunflower garden

There was box of seeds on the picnic table leftover from planting the other day and Avery found a new, full packet of Sunflower seeds. He asked Papa J if they could plant them , so here they are doing just that. Now it's Av's little area and his job is to keep them watered.

Watering the sunflower garden

Papa J reminded Avery that when he comes down to our house he will need to go check out the garden and see if it needs watering.

Time out for a game of golf