Archive for the ‘River’ Category
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!
In: Family Fun, Quinn, River, Uncategorized
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!
In: Books, Family, Family Fun, Quinn, River, Traditions, Tuesday, reading
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!
In: Family Fun, River
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!
In: Family Fun, Quinn, River, Tuesday, funny things
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……
In: Family Fun, River, reflections
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!
In: Family, Family Fun, Quinn, River, Tuesday, funny things, photography
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!
In: Family, Family Fun, Quinn, River
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!
In: Family Fun, Quinn, River, Tuesday
Birthday gift for Gram…..
We came up with a great gift idea for my mother-in-law, who is blind. My husband took profile shots of all the kids and then printed them out and cut out the profile. He didn’t make the to size..he made them slightly smaller.
We were going to use some nice thin wood, but then he found some really great pieces of compressed wood in our basement. It was much better than natural wood because it didn’t splinter at all and it didn’t have to be sanded.
He used our scroll saw to cut out the shapes. They turned out great! The kids loved giving them as gifts and, most of all, Gram loved them! She was able to feel each one and knew just who they were!
In: Quinn, River, Tuesday, gifts for the blind
Taking Photos……
One of my favorite blogs is Giver’s Log. They are having a Giver’s Log Photo Shoot Along. You can read all about it at the site. I love photography and I love taking photos…so this seemed perfect for me.
The first assignment was to “think about what is part of your life right now that you’ll want to remember in a couple years? If you have kids, what is your kid doing right now that he won’t be doing six months from now that you need to remember? Does she love a special stuffed animal? Does she read a specific book while she sits on the potty? Your homework is to get out your camera, (fancy or not) set up the story, and take the shot. ”
So, I got my daughter River to play along with me…..she loves her stuffed elephants right now…so they had to be included in the shoot. Also, I love her little freckles. She has freckles, only in the summer, just like her big sister..and I love them.
So, here are my best shots from our photo shoot today…….
In: River, photography
