Claire's Turn

Last Sunday it was Claire's turn for a sleepover at Grammy and Babu's house. Annie and Justin have lots of house projects to complete before the arrival of Baby Girl Shoe #2, and had planned to use Monday as a workday. So Claire stayed with us Sunday night and most of Monday.

She is always asking for "num-num" and I just happened to have a bag of Twizzlers in the pantry - one of my favorite yummy-nummy treats, so she found a new num-num that she LOVED. The only problem was that she wasn't too interested in eating her breakfast or lunch on Monday, but always had room for a Twizzler!

We've had tons of rain lately - seems like it rains every day! But it did stop raining for a couple of hours on Monday - long enough for me to take Claire to Bever Park where they have Old McDonald's Farm. Claire is at the age where she loves animals, so I had really hoped to take her there. She was entranced - she saw the prairie dogs, chickens, goats, donkey, calves, pigs, and lots and lots of different types of ducks.

They have these little animal deals the kids can sit on and rock back and forth. Claire knew instantly what to do - was rocking away. It was hilarious -but that little monkey REFUSED to look at me so that I could get a good picture. I kept calling her name and when she saw the camera she would turn her head.

I finally got a close-up of her face, but this was the best I could do. I need one of those cameras that takes several pictures seconds apart to catch a really good pose.

Claire really loved watching the ducks swim and splash. I'm looking forward to going with Claire soon to Niabi zoo where she can see lots more animals!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Jim's folks just celebrated a milestone that most people won't get to in their lifetimes. On June12, Bertil (age 97) and Linnea (age 94) Engstrom celebrated 73 years of marriage! That's a lifetime in itself! Linnea always says "He hasn't changed a bit - still looks like the handsome guy I married!" So sweet! Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Garden Helpers

The arrival of spring always requires many weekends of hard yard work for Jim. He hauls numerous bags (75-80) of mulch down the hill into the backyard every year to spruce up our woodland garden. He added several more brick borders this year as well, outlining areas that previously weren't so well-defined.

It's always nice to know we have two little helpers living down the street who LOVE to help grandpa with his outdoor work. They are actually learning a lot about gardening, and can't wait for a chance to maneuver the wheel barrow.

Joel got pretty serious about it this year, and wheeled it all the way up the steep incline with a pretty good load inside!

The load can get a little tipsy around those steep curves, but Joel handled it very well, and made it all the way to the top, load intact!

The trails and tiers ended up looking pretty nice when all was said and done!

sleepovers

Jim and I have found that when our grandsons spend time in our home together, it is difficult to enjoy the unique qualities of each one. So we decided to invite Joel and Silas over for individual sleepovers. Joel came Sunday night, but due to an activity with Jorie, Mark and his brothers, didn't arrive until 8:00 PM. The evening passed quickly, but we found time to teach him a new card game - 7 Up. Joel caught on right away, but didn't appreciate Grandpa using his adult level strategies to beat him and me every time! Grandpa, do you have to win at EVERYTHING?

Joel loved having Grandpa put him to bed and continue with the latest episode of the "Adventures of Snuffle-upigus," Joel's stuffed dog. Grandpa makes up wonderfully exciting adventures about this dog that keep Joel dreaming all night long!

Grandma time was the next morning, starting out with Swedish pancakes hot off the grill!

Next, Joel wanted to make some new "shape" pictures, an activity we started last week after Joel read his take-home book about making pictures out of paper circles, rectangles, triangles, and squares. He made two great pictures - a rocket and a truck.

Then he spent some time assembling a few more Lego creations. He has become quite the expert, including lots of fun details in his trucks and houses.

Silas came for his sleepover on Monday night. We had a great time, too; but since Silas had to leave pretty early the next morning, I didn't have as much time to take pictures. When he arrived he said, "What do you want to do first??" and we started in with a couple of games of Memory. Silas is a champ at that one! Next was hot tubbin' - Silas proudly wore the new Toy Story swim trunks I bought for him last weekend. I decided he needed a pair to keep here so he's always prepared for the hot tub! Silas chose an Arthur story for bedtime. He hasn't learned to enjoy Swedish pancakes yet, so just had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. One of the activities he enjoyed in the morning was playing with Marble Works, and showing the cool ramps to Chocolate Milk, his brown puppy.

He also made a darling shape picture of a cat's face - so sad that I don't have a picture of that!

Maybe next time it will be warm enough for Grandpa to "camp out" with the boys on the screened porch. But we'll definitely have to plan on regular sleepovers after seeing the fun we all had with these first two.

A Visit from Claire

We loved having Claire spend the weekend with us while her parents headed to Chicago.* She was busy little girl. It was like having built-in entertainment - hearing her talk and seeing her strut around was such a delight.

She found a piece that had broken off from a necklace. Apparently she thought it was an earring and tried to put it on her ear!

I climbed up in the chair all my myself!

I loved playing in Bibi and Babu's huge bathtub! Don't tell Mommy that Bibi let me have my paci for awhile when I wasn't in my crib!

*Annie ended up getting sick and they had to turn around and go home. But we still got to have Claire to ourselves the entire weekend!

Spring in Iowa

Perpetual summer sounds pretty inviting, but you can't beat spring in Iowa!

Though the blooms are short-lived, we so enjoy our beautiful magnolia tree.

Forget-me-nots that I transplanted from Mom and Dad's condo in Wheaton.

Rhododendron bush in front of our house.

Spring wouldn't be spring without the arrival of dandelions!

Flood Insurance??

There are still so many remnants left here in Cedar Rapids from the 2008 flood. Homes that have never been touched - left to be bulldozed. Debris, piles of timber, and collapsed garages are still seen throughout the areas that were flooded. Signs and phone numbers advertising flood insurance. Jim recently discovered this house on his way to work and noticed that the owner has devised his OWN flood insurance plan. Just raise up the foundation 10 feet and plop the house back down on top. Voila! No more flooding here!