random pics from my phone 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

random pics from my phone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday John!

This guy is 38 now!  eek...
We had a nice evening- John requested Italian Beef and Garlic Noodles for his birthday meal(which really pleased Jeffrey!) and then he opened his presents.

My parents gave him this fishing vest- he loves it!
It has special meaning too because it belonged to my Uncle Tony(for his photography) but he never got to use it once because the day after he got it he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
I'm sure he is happy that John can use it now though and will always think of him when he does.

Mary Beth had been saving odds and ends for months to make this sculpture for her Daddy.
It turned out so cute!!

 

Oh the bunny ears... what is it that kids love about that?  The silliness I suppose...

Apple pie instead of cake!  Baked with the apples we picked ourselves.

 

 

Happy Birthday Honey... I hope you had a good one!

A Series of Unfortunate Events book club

The boys and some of their friends were going to join The Series of Unfortunate Events book club at the Fargo Public Library and to kick it off everyone got to attend a fun activity night.  We brought Mary Beth and Emma, even though they were too young to join the club, so they could join in the fun at least for the party!

Have you read these books?  Or heard of them?  We have owned them for many years and Mickey read one of them awhile back but refused to read any more.  He said they were too sad and depressing.
He is maintaining this stance but we said he could just go to the meetings anyway.  I'm not going to force him to read something that makes him feel depressed for pete's sake!

There were games, sing-a-longs, a library scavenger hunt, and snacks.

How hilarious is this song??

Here are some pictures of the scavenger hunt.  No one in our crew won a prize(I hate timed activities- don't you??) but they weren't too disappointed because it ended up being a can of tomato sauce.  Ha!

 

The punch had a bunch of plastic mice floating in it... I hurried up and snapped this picture before they were all gone.

These were powdered donut holes with gummy life savers on top- to look like spooky eyeballs.

The library did such a great job at this party- the kids had a blast!

Genetic Roulette- The Gamble of Our Lives(watch free!)

And if you want to watch the full version go here where they are offering a free viewing of the documentary Genetic Roulette until October 31st.

Depression Soup

 

We've been reading all of the Kit Kittredge American Girl books lately and I've also been trying to use up all of our veggies left from our CSA boxes.  So I concocted this soup(it's really just a made up veggies soup with navy beans but we ended up calling it Depression Soup because it made so much we ate it for 3 days in a row!  I just kept adding new things to it the next night, changing it up a little and adding broth.  It was delicious but by the 3rd night the family was over it.  I just kept telling them to pretend we were living when Kit's family did and that we should be thankful for all we have.  It was a good lesson and an excellent way to make a big dent in the remaining fresh veggies that had to be eaten up before they went bad.

Grapefruit birdfeeders & random

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone sure loves his Zorro costume!

Minnesota Zoo

Our generous friends gave us free tickets to the Minnesota Zoo this summer and we were thrilled since it is SO expensive for us to go- even with our Fargo Zoo membership!  So we don't go very often.

Shortly after we arrived Jeffrey's sunglasses slipped off his shirt and into the petting pool with all of sting rays and sharks!  We all sat there forever staring at them until a worker came to the rescue with a net.  It was an interesting start to our day there!
 

 

 

We never get tired of studying the penguins.

Look how close the bear was!

 

They make me take a picture of this every time we go.

Mingos!

The river otter was very friendly that day also- they are one of our favorite zoo animals.  We are ecstatic that the Fargo Zoo recently acquired some!

 

Fun Fun Fun day- thank you again to our friends for the tickets!

(Sept. 29th 2012)