Swinging

What a gorgeous day!! Here's a video of Brett swinging with his friends. M & E are "married", swinging together the same way. Brett doesn't agree with that! D wants to go to sleep in the swing. P throws the soccer ball with one sandal on & one off. Fun, fun fun! Get ready for a little motion!

In the Garden

Today we saw big bumblebees and a butterfly. Brett & his friends watched the bees and butterfly in the garden for a long time, freaking out when a bee buzzed around. They enjoy seeing the bugs up close though! In the first picture you can see the bee & the butterfly. Also, the flowers in the pictures at the top of our page are from our garden -the clematis out front, the flowering Prairie Fire crab apple tree from the backyard and a cut a bouquet of zinnnias, sweet peas & cosmos from a few years ago.

Mmmmm!

For snack today we made bubble bread. Or monkey bread, pull apart bread or whatever you want to call it. Brett calls it "cake". You can tell he was pretty excited! I just used frozen bread dough, butter, brown sugar & cinnamon. I hope six kids eat their lunch today....It was yummy!

Me & You

I just came across this again & thought I'd share it here. Julie wrote this for me (us) for our birthday last year. The poem is printed on the right side of the picture above. Pretty nice! I framed a copy & it's hanging in my hallway. I'm finally getting around to printing/framing copies for Julie & Mom too. (I had a hard time finding the frames! I'll give them to you when you come down for Brett's birthday party.) Thanks again Julie!

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Me & You

Peering into the pictures of our past I see all the things that did not last. The little dresses Mom made us The birthdays and once treasured presents in old photographs…

those we all outgrew. Thinking of how it is now and the way we were: No, the memories aren’t all bliss-- Through it all I know I’ve been lucky to have you for my sis. As we grew, our time together was precious Surely, it was more than we hardly knew! Sometimes things and times we left behind do come to mind. Now I like to think it wasn’t these things we just outgrew-- Instead, they became part of the story of me & you. Love, Julie December 2006

Carnival Day!

It was supposed to be Friday but it got rained out so Saturday afternoon from 4-7 we finally had our day care carnival. It was an end of summer appreciation party for my day care families. 7 kids couldn't come but we still had 25 of us. Dan & LaVonne & kids and Kyle & Kira came with their Grandpa Dean too. We were glad to have them all join us!

The menu: hot dogs, corn dogs, chips, peanuts, nachos, popcorn, lemonade, eclairs & cream puffs. For games we had a ducky pond, dolphin ring toss, football bean bag game, ping pong jar toss, basketball hoop, air table hockey, sand art activity, mystery box, lion/tamer photo board, penny search, knock a can, and an animal cookie guessing jar. Don't forget the balloons, cotton candy, glow sticks, suckers & treat bags! Everyone earned tickets for prizes. Then Smooches the clown & her assistant (her little dog Bailey) came to do face painting.

We had a great time and the weather was beautiful! This is something I've wanted to do for a few years and enjoyed putting it together. Mom came down to help set up and help out during the carnival. I'm so glad that worked out, I never could have done it myself! Dan & LaVonne stayed and helped us clean up-that was so nice! A great way to end summer! Next I need to plan a birthday party.....that's sounding a lot easier! Lots of pictures follow!

The food

Sand Art Activity

Games

Checking to see who guessed the closest number of animal cookies.

Our happy winner! Guessed 160-correct number was 163!

Searching for pennies

Games

Prizes!

Visiting

Visiting

Watching the face painting

Little ladybug!

Kira & Kyle

Smooches painting Brett's face

Brett's dragon face

Clown face! Chips & balloons

Oh no! Dan's going to float away! Good thing the kids are holding him down!

Rain, Rain, Rain

By the numbers 17 Days of rain this month 16.9 Inches of rain this month, making it the wettest month ever in Janesville, according to weather records dating to 1948 10.9 Previous record one-month rain total for Janesville, set in August 1979 3.8 Average inches of rain in August And it's going to rain more tomorrow...

Butterfly

This butterfly visited our garden this morning. The kids were very excited but watched quietly so it wouldn't be scared away and I was able to get some pictures.

Word of the Day

Today Brett wasn't happy that he had to help clean up the toys & really he didn't play with most of them, but I had him do his part anyway. Afterwards as he went to the bathroom to wash up for snack, he said "I feel indignant!" Here's the defination-I had to look it up to see for sure-

in·dig·nant feeling, characterized by, or expressing strong displeasure at something considered unjust, offensive, insulting, or base:

He learned it from a Thomas story of course. Way too funny!

For Me?

Damon brought home two beautiful bouquets today! Just because. Well, you probably don't want to hear all the details! LOL They are both beautiful. Certainly brightened up my Tuesday!

Brett's 4th Year

I'm thinking about our little boy turning 5 years old soon. He's grown and done so much the last year! It's fun looking at all the pictures. I'll share some of my favorites.

It Stopped Raining

Long enough for Damon to cut the grass and Brett to play outside tonight. It's kinda humid and cool outside. Strange.

Practicing Letters

Brett is very into practicing his letters the last few weeks! He's doing very well. We have pages & pages of letters! He asks how to spell words and "what does this say?" after he writes. He will be all ready for kindergarten next year! He's waiting another year since he turns 5, on September 14th, two weeks after the cut off.

Brett & Baby

Here's a picture of Brett & his baby "Sally". He sleeps with her every night. She even gets his blanket. This was August 3 when we were at the Grand Lodge in MN.

Our Little Green Friend

We found this little frog on the side of the house by the front door. Brett was so excited! We put him in the bug box and then moved him to Speedy's tank temporarily. It looks like they made friends right away! The next night we let him go but we still see him almost every day hanging out by the front door. The morning glory vine has grown up huge & shelters lots of bugs which are drawn to the light right above it. Froggie probably likes to hang out there for all the bugs. He's such a neat little green frog!

Late Summer Roses

These must be some of the last roses for the summer. There were 5 on this one stem. I cut one off since it was done blooming before the rest. I don't remember what the name of this rose bush is, but it's been very nice this summer. It was an anniversary gift from Damon.

Another Rainy Day

It's another rainy wet day. Through the night Sat pm/Sun am we got another 3" of rain and it rained all day Sunday. We must be near 15" for August! Our basement stayed dry though. Damon buried a drainage hose for the front downspout and put dirt along the side of the house. Maybe that did the trick! We still layed awake waiting for our water alarm to go off downstairs. Now (hopefully tonight) I can get the basement reorganized from the last time we had water come in the window.