I'll Fly Away

Remember the begining?

Finally hatched. 

 They remind me of little old men that are losing their hair on top.

They have filled out nicely.

I went out to snap a photo of them today and they flew away.

What a mess they left behind.

They didn't go far though.  I found this one right behind me.



We Bake

So, I don't know about you but on rainy days I like to do one of three things.  Sleep, read or cook. Oh and eat.  Sometimes I do them all.

Since today I didn't have any good books to read, not that I really could have gotten lost in one with Adrian here, and nap time only lasted for 20 minutes today (not because of me, that's for sure!), we baked.

We made a borrowed/altered recipe today.

Strawberry streusel with dark chocolate drizzle.

Adrian was getting started whisking the main ingredients. I don't really know why it said to whisk.  It wasn't really whiskable.  Should have just stirred it, but he didn't complain.

 Adding the butter.

 And cutting it in, this is the tough part! Sometimes we used our fingers. 
They were clean.

 Spreading the strawberry preserves.  Yum

 Sprinkle with strawberries.  He only ate a few.  A few being handfuls. 

I bought extras.

 Sprinkle on the topping.  I would have added chopped nuts but I didn't have any.

 Waiting, waiting, waiting

 Drizzle the chocolate.  He didn't lick the spoon until he was done.  Promise.  At least not that I saw, not that I was watching.

 TA DAAA!! Here it is!

And there it goes!

 



Animal Kingdom

This morning came early.  Very very early. And Adrian was up with excitement.  Today we were going to a friends farm to see what's in his barn.

Hellooooo, hellooo hello.  What's in there?

Awww so cute.  Baby lambs.  I have to say, he was way more excited about these lambs than the baby cows at our house.

 Time for breakfast.

 Then he found the pigs and Charlie. (And no he didnt pee his pants.  That is from the bottle and the lamb.  Their not exactly neat eaters.)

 He also found a batch of new kittens.

 And a tiny pony.

 Then we went to a park/free zoo to check things out. 

 They had little bunnies there.  He wanted one.

Then we saw the bears.  They were putting on quite the show for us.  Rolling around and climbing up and down this tree.  Adrian was tired of watching and wanted to play.  He got on the bears back and grabbed him by the ears.

 

It's true!  Just a different bear.

 Then he cleaned out the poor guys sinus's

and all was good in the animal kingdom.



Adrians Visit: part one

So last Sunday Adrian and I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and loaded in the car for our 11 hour trek north through Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and then East to That One Place in Wisconsin.  It was, no doubt, a loooooooong drive.  He sang "I have a tiny turtle, his name is tiny Tim"  5892 times give or take a couple hundred.

And he spent a lot of time watching dvd's.

Then we passed through Iowa.  Iowa where there is NOTHING for miles and miles and miles.  Kind of like western Kansas, but worse.  And of course during this part of the trip mother nature called. 

"Gramma I have to poop" 

 "I will stop as soon as I find a place" 

"but I have to go NOW!" 

"Adrian look out your window.  Do you see any where?"

"Um no.  But there are animals out there"  "They go poop out there.  But gramma, they dont wipe their butt.  That's just naaaasty"

Sorry I had to talk about poop.  But it was funny at the time.

And he did a tiny bit sleeping.  Ahhh the quietness. For a minute anyway.

 

He slept through the important part.  The part where it was storming.  It was hailing, pouring rain and the wind was shaking my car like there were people jumping on it. I was skeered! He was asleep. And then it passed. 

We got home and Papa thought little boys should have baby calfs to feed and pet and love on so off we went to the sale and home we came with not one, but two calfs. 

 Paps is showing him how it is done.  Nigel is so hungry.

 Now Adrian is giving it a shot with Rigby.

Needless to say on day two, Adrian tried to give me the calfs because feeding just wasnt fun anymore.

While they were feeding I noticed these paw prints on the window sill and took a picture. 

 I know, I am weird that way. 

I wonder if it belongs to this cat.  One of the many we have discovered that live in the loft of the milk house.  I dont remember that being in the rental lease.  Hmmmm

Then we saw this one day.  It is beautiful and it was around for a looooooong time.

Then one evening my brother in law, his wife and kids and Kelly, Adrian, and myself went on a picnic/fishing trip.  The kids, aahemmm, caught a lot of fish. And when I say kids I mean Rocky and the Barbie Pole.

 Adrian caught a few on his new pole too.

 Today we went to Family Dollar to get bathroom cleaner and a bubble gun.

The cleaner was for me.  The bubble gun for Adrian.  Just in case you were wondering.

He couldnt get it to work at first.

 Ah there we go!

So that is it for part one of the visit.  If I survive, I will post part 2 next week.

Mason and Levi

While back in Missouri I got to spend some time with two of my grandsons and Katherine. 

 Sweet Mommy kisses.

 Take a picture Gramma.

 Like my shoes?!  I love them because they make a LOT of noise in the kitchen.

Say cheese.

That's ALL!

Arkansas

I had a great time visiting my sisters new home in Arkansas.  There were no storms when I was there so that was a plus! We shopped, we ate, we sat outside, and my niece and nephew snuggled with me in the mornings.  Can't get much better than that.

Here are the results of a shopping spree one afternoon.

When I was there watching Chase and Holly play in the yard I had a tiny flashback of my youth. Ya see I spent a many a summers at my Gramma's house, as did a lot of other kids.  Right off the front porch there was a sidewalk that ran down the side of her house and next to the side walk there was an oval of bare ground.  This oval was big enough for two kids to sit on, or maybe three. We played in this dirt for hours.  We played with cars, sticks, spoons and I cant imagine how many watermelon seeds  got planted there on the 4th of July weekends.  I remember many, many failed attempts to grow grass there. I didnt think it would EVER happen.  Although, my mistake,  there is grass there now.  All it took was for some kids to grow up. Then the grass grew up too.

Here Holly and Chase were making a dam.  Although I am not sure why because there was never any water around.

Ahh to be clean again.

 Chase having some quiet time with his Leapster.

 The sweet smiley Kylie

 And my #1.  Okay so this photo was taken a while ago but I couldnt leave her out and she some how managed to elude the flash of my camera the entire time I was there.



The Wedding

The wedding of my blue eyed boy was amazing. And it seemed like it was over in seconds. In the blink of an eye my son was sporting a wedding band and I gained a new daughter. How quickly things change. And I, being such an amateur, did not take my camera to the wedding. ( well, really I just wanted to soak it all in and not worry about angles and light and background distractions) There fore, you should know that the rehearsal pictures were taken by me (and Kate, when she snatched my camera) an the wedding/reception shots were borrowed from others.
So here we go;

Chris and his best man and laying back waiting for the rehearsal to begin. He just wanted to eat and be married. Practicing was a pain.

Ms. Lauren wanted everything to be perfect.

Practice makes perfect.

(There are fill-ins on the groom side.  Most of his groomsmen were in North Dakota right now celebrating the graduation of one of them from college.  Will they make the drive in time for the wedding?)

Yea! Time to eat!

Phew! Everybody made it.

Now for the cake.  How do you cut this thing excatly?

FYI,  there was no cake smashing.  :)

 The happy couple

Mrs. & Mrs Collins

(There are so many of us now)