Category: Family Fun

Our Library…

Our town library is huge!  I mean HUGE!  It used to be a very small town library that was warm and cozy…but they knocked it down and built a humungous 21 million dollar library!  I still can’t believe it cost that much money!  It is a nice library, but I actually miss the old library.  The new library is so massive and cold feeling.  It seems like a lot of wasted space and energy!

But we go to the library a lot!  River loves it there.  Besides the books, one of River’s favorite things about the library is the statue outside.  It is called “Sunday Morning” by sculptor J Seward Johnson.   The library had it on loan for two years, but when the two years ended, the library purchased it through donations and fund raising….it was a bargain for only $65,000!  I guess when the library costs $21 million, what is another $65,000!

She loves to stand on the statue plaque and pretend she is a statue..but then she starts to giggle….Quinn told her to sit by the statue and they would both pretend they were statues…that just made her giggle more!…but Quinn was good at being a statue!

We have a piano…..

Yay, we have a piano!  We have always wanted one, but just never had the extra money.  Well, this weekend, we found someone who was getting rid of their paino…..actually, they were throwing it away!!!  Who throws away a piano!  Luckily, my friend, who lived nearby, and has grown boys, helped us put it into the mini van.  Then, when we got it home, Christopher and my father-in law, along with our neighbor and his two sons helped get it into the house!  Right now, it is sitting in the foyer…but I think I like it there!  We figured we might as well decide if we like it there before we move it anywhere else!   River loves it.  She can’t wait to learn how to play!

I can’t wait to search for a really cool and funky piano bench!

365 Stories….


We have a “book” called 365 Stories. It will eventually have 365 stories, but as of now..it probably only has 80!

Some day it will have 365 stories…some day.

I can’t believe we started the book six years ago. I must say I had hoped to have all the days filled in by now. But, life got in the way…..

Sometimes Quinn will write the story and do the illustrations, sometimes Tuesday will draw the pictures and Quinn will write the stories or sometimes I will make the story! It is a little bit of everything..all creative!!

It actually is quite fun that the stories are spanning many years. We started it when Quinn was only 4 years old and River wasn’t even around! Now she is old enough to start working on some stories. On holidays or special occasions, it is fun to see what type of story the kids come up with to memorialize that event! They love going back and reading the stories over and over again!

Dress Up……

River loves to play dress up.   I think all my children enjoyed dressing up.

She’ll ignore the dress up bin for a couple of weeks…and then go on a binge….changing into costumes all morning…..

Sometimes she’ll just put on some crazy outfit and decide to wear it for the rest of the day!

And sometimes her brother and sister get involved…but I’m not allowed to show those photos!

Favorite Shoes…..

Who doesn’t have a pair of favorite shoes?  Quinn’s favorite shoes are his Crocs.  He literally wears them everyday, all year!  It doesn’t matter if it is snowing, raining or hailing!  We had so much snow this year and he still wore his Crocs!

Tuesday’s favorite shoes are her Adidas flip flops.  She needs a new pair.  We’ve ordered her a new pair.  She is very picky about her shoes.  Once she finds  a pair of shoes she likes..she wants the same pair over and over again.  This isn’t always easy.   They always have to be “ordered”…thank goodness for the internet!

River’s favorite shoes are her pink Uggs.  She needs new ones.  Hers are disgustingly dirty!  You can’t call them boots…they are Uggs..she reminds you of this.  She wears them even if it is 99° outside!  She loves them!

Summer Popsicles….

It all starts out innocent…..”Mom, can I have a popsicle?”

But it is summertime, and there is nothing innocent about popsicles…they just melt too fast…

Kids just don’t get the ratio of licks per second to counteract the melting factor!  It is agonizing to watch…as a parent, you just want to take over……

You want to help your child……but you know they just have to learn…one of life’s most important lessons…..

That if they don’t figure out the licking/melting ratio factor thingie…….the inevitable is going to happen…..

the popsicle spills to the ground…..

but that’s okay….you just teach them the other rule in life…pick it up and keep on going……

Atomic Fire Balls, Hot Tamales and Cry Baby Sour Balls……photo shoot…..

So, I am still following along with the Giver’s Log Shoot Along and this weeks assignment was to do a sour face or fire ball photo shoot.  So, we went out and bought some Hot Tamales, Atomic Fireballs and Cry Baby Sour gum.  Everyone got in on the act and got their picture taken.  The real challenge of the day was to put all three different candies in your mouth at once…but no one was up to that challenge!

River didn’t want to try the hot stuff…and I didn’t force her….she thought the sour balls were delicious and didn’t make any good faces…except cute ones!!!!!  Tuesday was convinced that River is too young and didn’t know what sour was…but I assured her, that River knows what sour is…but for some reason…thought the sour balls were yummy!

It was  a lot of fun to look over all the funny faces….especially my own!  I think Tuesday made the best faces of all…with Quinn coming in a close second!

Butterfly Friend….

We have had a butterfly hanging out in our driveway for several months now.  Whenever we are playing in the driveway..he (or she) is there….fluttering about.

Truthfully, I don’t know that much about butterflies. Someone asked me if it was a moth…so I had to do some research and I think he is definitely a butterfly…..butterflies have a “hook” on the end of their antennae and when they are resting, they rest with their wings together, not spread out.  And this little guy seems brightly colored, not dull.  Now, supposedly, there are exceptions to these rules..but in general….I think he is a butterfly.

If you sit still, he will instantly land on you.  Sometimes he has a friend with him, but mostly he seems to be by himself.  He seems to come out around late afternoon and he hangs out until dusk.

When he flies close to your ears, you can actually hear his wings fluttering….pretty cool.

River wants to have the butterfly land on her…….at least she thinks she does…she sits still…and just as the butterfly is about to land…she runs away…….I kept trying to get shots of the butterfly landing on her…but she kept moving away……though she made a cute pose as she waited for the butterfly!

Farm Fair….

So today we went to our local Farm Fair.  The kids had a great time checking out all the cows, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks………and many more….

It was hot.  Really hot.   Luckily, the animals were under tents and they had lots of fans.  The bunnies had frozen bottles of water in their cages to keep them cool!

We got there late, so we missed the milking contest..and the women’s skillet throwing contest!  We couldn’t find the pig tent, so we missed the pig races!

There were lots of different types of pigeons and chickens and rabbits!  I never knew there were so many varieties!

We also got to the chicken incubator just in time to see a baby chicken being born..literally pecking its way out of the shell!  But I couldn’t get a good picture!

The animals are so gentle..they don’t mind being petted at all…..which is great for the kids!