Balloons and Chocolate

Summer time is here and we will be having a few of our Grandsons for a about a month . 

 Right now Adrian is visiting and we have been doing some fun things.  Most of them his idea.

Today we made chocolate bowls.

We started with  some water balloons.

Minus the water of course.

We blew them up and dipped them in melted chocolate.

After we let them cool in the fridge for a bit, 

we took them out and popped the balloon so we could pull it out.

Oops!  some of the balloon stuck. 

No worries, we scrapped it out with a spoon.

Chocolate bowls ready to fill.

We chose some vanilla ice cream, strawberries,

whipped topping and of course, 

MORE chocolate!

Roxy a.k.a. Roxanne, Roxster, Roxy Doxy

On January 14, 2015 we gained a new member of our family, Roxy.

Its kind of like gaining a toddler and a sassy teenager all in one.

Lets just say that she was a little more than I bargained for.

But she LOVES to go for rides

 So today I took her to the river.

and she loved it!

"That was fun Mom!"

Happy dog

Shake it off

Wait! Who is that?

This is Alex. He was making his first solo canoe trip down a 92 mile stretch of the Wisconsin River.

He planned on it taking about 2 weeks. Unfortunately , a dam up river opened up and the river is high and swift.  A lot of the large sand bars that he had planned on stopping at are 6 feet under water.  

So, he decided it might be best to stop after day 3 and try again another time.  

I dont make it a habit to stop and talk to random people.  He saw Roxy playing in the river

and asked me if I knew where the nearest pay phone was. 

 His service provider didnt cover this area and he needed to make arrangements to get picked up.

So I let him use my phone.  He called his Mama. She is picking him up in the morning.

Botteron Boys

So, it was a long, long winter and I seriously did very little.

 And my good lense got broken so my picture taking was minimal. 

The photos I did take mostly ended up on Facebook instead of this blog.

Anyway, I am almost afraid to say it but winter is mostly over here.

Kate and Mason had spring break from school so the two of them and Levi

came up for a visit.  We did lots of stuff.

One of the places we went was called  the

It was great fun and well worth the cost! 

We were having way to much fun to take pictures.  

That and I didnt even take my camera.

But here are a few photos of things we did on other days.

(Not in this particular order)

The day before they arrived I colored some pasta 

with rubbing alcohol and food coloring.

Super easy!

Then I laid it out to dry.

 I was mostly concerned that the purple looked very brown 

when it was wet but when it dried it was beautiful!

  

Levi loved making a necklace out of it.

While he was stringing it up he was listing all the people that he was 

going to make one for.  "Gram and Gramma Betty and ummm, okay I'm done."

Modeling the only one he completed.

Dont mind that huge green knot on his forehead.  

His mother assured me it was from last weekend and he was fine.

 Papa  bought a child size .22 for the grands and Mason couldnt wait to try it out.

There was lots of instruction

Taking aim.

Let's check it out.

They did this every. single. day.

This was the last day.

Pretty darn good if you ask me!

He did inform me that the hole in the head was a zombie shot.

 I also made delicious corned beef and cabbage on St. Patricks day.

But they opted out and had hot dogs and mac & cheese

Arent my little Irish boys adorable

One day we cut a noodle in half and had marble races on the stairs.

The giggling was endless.

And yes they wore out pajamas a lot.

They were on vacation you know.

Stuff on the drive

Today I woke up to a beautiful Wisconsin fall morning.  

The sun was shining and it was nice and cool outside.

One of the things Mom and I had planned during her visit was a 

tour of the barn quilts in Lafayette county in the most southern part of the state.  

Apparently they are a big deal around here.  There is even a website for them.

But we saw so many other random things that I took pictures of that the

 barn quilts got put on the back burner for another blog, another day.

So here are a few of the things that caught my eye today.

I love this faded barn.  

Here is mom admiring the Wisconsin river.

And here is a photo of the hills in Governor Dodge State Park.

Definite camping potential.

We saw some hanging tobacco and Mom thought I should take a shot of it.

Then we pulled into the small town of Shullsburg.

 It was a very cute  town that had lots of little shops along the skinny main street.

 Someone likes hopscotch because we found this court on the sidewalk.

And it went the entire length of the block.

 

Shullsburg has a population of barely over 1000

but they are important enough to have an Opera House.

The cows in Wisconsin are a little on the wild side I guess.

And this was the last shot of the day.

Also, my favorite.