News Flash: Santa's Bag Splits Open on Birchview Rd!!

My best guess is because of all the ice and snow we had last week, Santa's elves forgot to "de-ice" the sleigh, causing icicles to form, which poked holes in his bag, resulting in most of the contents spilling out at Finnian and Adalia's house. Rumor has it he was heard tip-toeing down the hall around 3:00 a.m after assembling all the toys and enjoying the cookies and milk that had been left out for him. This is what was waiting for obviously a very good boy and girl on Christmas morning:


First - there was a CASTLE BOUNCE HOUSE sitting where once a dining room lived...... yes, a full scale 12 foot high bounce house - how did Santa know Adalia loves bounce houses? It appears that Finnian enjoys it too. The protective screen isn't condusive for clear photography.

(No one having fun here!)

Then - where a sofa once sat, was a huge SLOT CAR TRACK....this was a very interesting piece of architectural wizardry - one that had to be redesigned every time Etta, the cat, walked through and around to inspect the "soundness" of the structure.

Then, it was time to try out the new air hockey table - Finnian proved to be a worthy opponent. Notice anything about this picture? Yep, Kersten is back on crutches. After many weeks of casts and physical therapy for her torn achilles tendon, it decided to tear again. Nothing like facing surgery the week after Christmas. She spent the day playing the new game of "Find Your Way Through The Obstacle Course of New Christmas Toys While On Crutches." Due to her experienced "crutch handling", she maneuvered her way through the maze in ballerina style.

While others were getting the "handle" on new games, someone was busy making tea and adding just the right number of sugar lumps and cream to each cup..... this is a very important job and Ivy makes sure its done just right!

Sending friends near and far our very best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy, prosperous and CRUTCHLESS New Year!

P.S. Last report was that Kersten and Jim are still searching for their missing furniture. With any luck it should surface before spring.

Merry Christmas

Our family gathered over the past weekend for our Christmas party. There were lots of cookies to eat, juice boxes and adult beverages to be sampled and Finnian challenged everyone to a game of checkers, and he remains the Checker Champ.....


The girls had to help Grandpa fix the stool before Ivy had time to take off her snowsuit!

Then it was time to open gifts - did anyone find the pickle on the tree??

Santa didn't bring any riding toys - but Grandpa makes a great pony!

We send our very best Merry Christmas wishes to all - enjoy family - that's what it is all about.

Ivy!

We had the opportunity to spend Thursday and Friday in Madison with Ivy while Momma and Daddy were busy at work. Ivy is taking the "I Can Say Many New Words In One Day" course and she surprised us with new additions to her vocabulary everyday. She spends the first few minutes of her nap times going over and over her new words and sounds. Because she visits the apple trees when she is at our house she affectionately (and of course Very Sweetly) refers to us as Granma and Granpa Appo. I am thankful we planted apple trees and didn't start a skunk farm.

Here she and Grandma are in the middle of a great new "car" game.

She loves the techie world and can bring Granma up to date on new things in the PC World.

Grandma is also allowed to make meals, change diapers, take her to nappy time, but it is Grandpa who absolutely, positively, has her endless adoration!!!

Here she shows her skills in making sweet music with Grandpa while doing a complicated ballet routine! Ivy really "flips" over Grandpa's guitar playing.

She's intently learning the "C" chord... a/k/a the Child Chord

There was a little quiet time for some reading and studying the dictionary.

Then it was time for some toasty warm milk - which could only be accomplished in Grandpa's lap!

And a few last adoring glances at Grandpa
before Grandma says its time for bed!! She knows Santa Claus is coming and it just never hurts to snuggle up to Grandpa and give him a few more sweet smiles

Ah - how can these little people steal our hearts away??? And what was life all about before Grandchildren!!

We'll see you on Thanksgiving Ivy - looking forward to more new words and more hugs and sweet kisses.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Every year Linus, who lives in Charlie Brown's neighborhood, waits for the Great Pumpkin to appear on Halloween night. Finnian and Adalia spent a night with Grandpa and Grandma and the most important agenda was to visit the Great Pumpkin Patch of our friends, Marcia and Marcel. A little rain and cold weather would not keep us from our appointed rounds.

Here we are just arriving and surveying the area. The rain tapered off just enough to get into the pumpkin patch, slide around in the mud, and find the best choices of the season!
Finnian made sure he stayed with this big one until Marcia could get to him and clip the vine.

After Adalia picked out her pumpkin, she found a couple of mini pumpkins she thought would be perfect for little cousin Ivy. Obviously Grandma's earmuffs were a little too big, but they kept her little round cheeks toasty warm.

The final result: A van loaded with various sizes, shapes and colors of pumpkins, gourds and mud covered boots and mittens. To finish our harvest fun we stopped at our hosts' house for scrumptous apple crisp, ice cream, coffee, tea, and a variety of Halloween candy bars. Eating a healthy lunch before having treats isn't a rule on a Grandpa and Grandma weekend is it?

Oktoberfest Fun

Fraulein Adalia in her drindl and Herr Finnian in his lederhosen.

Saturday was the annual Oktoberfest Parade in LaCrosse. Grandpa and I ventured out very early in the morning to meet Kersten, Finnian and Adalia and their neighbors, Sally and Ella to get to our "spot" on the parade route. Our thanks to Kersten's high school classmate, Bob Anderson, who graciously invited us to view the parade from his employer's lot. We were treated to many goodies, hot dogs, brats, chips, refreshments - the list went on and on.


I mentioned treats - did I mention COTTON CANDY?? There were blue chins and cheeks after this sugary delight.

There were many wonderful bands and colorful units but sometimes it just takes a simple idea to enter a parade...........

The back of die kleine Madchen's hair - braids completed the "look".

The Bicardi Razz and glass of beer prior to these Bloody Marys were good too - yep, it was Oktoberfest in LaCrosse. And NO, Adalia is NOT sipping my Bloody Mary -she's nibbling on a piece of candy thrown from one of the parade participants.

After, and only AFTER we got home, did we learn that a friend, and former co-worker of Orlin's had been named Festmaster for this year's festival. Todd Ondell, (who also owns a wonderful coffee shop in downtown LaCrosse), and his wife, Deb, were chosen as this year's royalty - our best wishes to them.

We took a good part of Sunday to rest, but are already considering going back to LaCrosse on Thursday evening to watch the Torchlight Parade! Until then, its back to some sensible eating, to the Elliptical and the stairmaster!!

Thanks again to Bob Anderson and to all our German friends - PROST!!!

TOMATOES - APPLES - HELP!!

Its always so much FUN to buy all kinds of tomato plants at the garden centers in the spring of the year....forgetting that they have to be harvested at the end of the season. I have been up to my neck with tomatoes - canning salsa and spaghetti sauce, juice, stewed tomatoes and yet more spaghetti sauce for a couple of weeks now.....

Our numerous apple trees have also produced over abundantly this year so our freezers our full of apple pies to be baked when the trees have long lost their lustre and the landscape turns to hues of gray. The house will be filled with the sweet aroma of cinnamon and sugar and we will enjoy the "fruits of our labor" on a cold January day.

So, on my way back from the compost pile getting rid of the peels from the apples and tomatoes, I decided to saunter through the tomatoes only to fill this pail AGAIN....and being brave hearted (or exhausted and using absolutely no common sense)....

.....strolled down to the orchard to find the trees hanging low with apples yet to be harvested (I am sure they produce more fruit overnight)! This picture doesn't show all 13 trees which have been so generous to us this year.

There are of course bright spots to the end of the garden season - the solace in finding the last of the few beautiful roses waiting to brighten a corner of our lives. Here's to Mother Nature and all her wonders.

LABOR DAY

Labor Day can be somewhat of a melancholy day for me since it means the end of summer and warm weather and realizing that chilly temps are around the corner. It also has been a time of fun and celebration because Shawn's birthday is always very close to the holiday. This year we all met in LaCrosse and the Falvey's hosted the end of the summer party. We strolled around downtown LaCrosse, visiting coffee shops, sipping on lemonade, lattes, Italian sodas, and of course BEER for the guys.



Soon we were back in the Falvey yard where Uncle Kevin was treating the big cousins to super high pushes on the power swings.......

Then it was time for Grandpa and Finnian to get the bon fire going for s'mores, after a wonderful meal of brats, chicken, walnut burgers, cucumber salad, fresh tomatoes, corn on the cob, apple pie.....

Every good fire "maker" has a hose handy just in case the fire gets away from you....

It wasn't ALL play - some of us had work to do - Ivy was busy, busy, busy mowing the lawn while the rest of us lounged away the afternoon.

Actually, Ivy wasn't the only one with work on her hands - Jim had some home chores also. Remember the "cucumber salad" I referred to earlier? Well, I did a bang up job of disposing of the peels in the disposal, which obviously wasn't as eager to consume fresh vegies as we were. - Here is the ever cool, calm, Jim, working on the kitchen plumbing after "yours truly" clogged up the works. (Note: DOUBLE plungers!)

We seem to have a slight "hex" when it comes to plumbing issues on holidays - there have been Thanksgivings without working showers and now A Labor Day with sinks that were not hungry for its daily greens. These plumbing issues generally occur when Grandpa and Grandma are around....hmmm, thank goodness for patient sons-in-law.
Hoping everyone had a fun, and above all, safe Labor Day weekend.

A DAY WITH IVY

Ivy's daycare worker needed a day off (thanks Markie) so Grandpa and I drove to Madison to spend Monday hanging out, taking walks and discussing current events. Here is a sample of some of the tasks we accomplished:

Farm Report:

Yep - good sweet corn crop -slurp- pass the next cob please,

Num num num.........

Reviewing Written Works:

Following in her mom's footsteps she reviews the book, "Where Is The Green Sheep" with Grandpa.

Her cordless banana phone is close by in case she needs to place a call to the Caldecott or Newbery Committees.

After a busy morning of exercise, walking down to Atwood, reviewing books and current events, it's time to climb the stairs to her cozy bedroom for a nap. There IS time for just a little silliness and to bid goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma

Ivy - we are making a list of more fun activities we will do on our next visit. Until then - eat your vegies and have sweet night-nights.

Finnian's Vacation At Grandpa and Grandma's

Finnian finally got his vacation at Grandpa and Grandma's worked into his schedule. He has been looking forward to this all summer but has been very busy with swimming lessons and karate, and birthday parties for friends and so many other activities requiring us to pack lots of things into a few days.

What?! No power steering???

He and Grandpa spent LOTS of time working on Grandpa's "New" truck. Grandpa calls it "barn fresh" - I'll agree with that! Here are a couple of shots of a few lessons on "bleeding the brakes". Isn't the truck a "honey"? Lots of trust going under that fender... hmm, trust rhymes with "rust". (Yea, Grandpa actually bought it this way and intends to leave it as is-just another one of the things I'll never understand).

It takes a lot of muscle and leg to push the brake pedal all the way to the floor.

Then it was on to wood working - another birdhouse - this one a "3 apartment" design. All apartments were numbered and will be ready for new occupants next spring. Its good to have plenty of eye protection-but maybe actually LOOKING at what you are doing might be a good idea too!

Oops! A closeup should be shown of what can happen when you take a hand saw and try to swat mosquitos and gnats....I think the insects came out on the lucky end of this idea.

There were many other activities not documented in photos. There was Perkins lunch, Classic Car show night, pizza in the valley, picking tomatoes for spaghetti sauce, picking apples for making apple pie. Finnian suggested a little ice cream and caramel sauce on top of the pie - he created a winner with that idea. We also made krumkaka ice cream sandwiches - that will be a repeat for sure! Time spent playing with squirming, licking, dachshund puppies, mixed with some quiet reading and playing with cars rounded off the days in Cochrane.

There will be days off during the school year that can be made into mini stays at the "grands" and we'll pencil in next summer's vacation before it gets too busy. Now we'll just file these memories away and look forward to the next stay.

Good luck to Mr. First Grader and Miss Pre-K when they both return to school on Tuesday. Adalia will also be attending State Road School this year, which should make it a little less hectic for Mom and Dad each morning. Remember to always be a friend and above all stay safe!

Summertime Fun

Shawn, Kevin and Ivy spent some time at Grandpa and Grandma's house last week while Mom and Dad enjoyed a week away from work. Ivy kept busy with lots of activities. After tidying up Grandma's kitchen linen drawer, she found time to get a little aerobics in on the exercise ball-asking permission from Mom first, of course.

Once she was settled on the ball, she discovered it was not motorized, nor did it have a handle to hold, but heck - Mom can take care of all the necessities!

After all the day's fun activities from swinging with Grandpa, to picking apples with Grandma, it was time for the cousins to sit back, relax, and share some girl secrets!

I'm sure there will be many more summer days spent at Grandpa and Grandma's house, with lots of time to run and giggle and share secrets with special cousins.

DUCT TAPE PURSES???

When you've been around this world for as many years as I have, you meet and befriend a lot of characters. You also get used to crazy questions like you wanna go here, or do that, so of course when old buddies ask if you want to take a "Duct Tape Purse" class, its only natural that a person can be caught off guard and say "sure, why not?" Our fearless instructor, Jeni Bauer, tolerated all of our questions, whining and patiently lead us through the steps - and two hours later here are the results of our labors (minus Jean's fabulous camouflage number). We just have to be careful not use them in the hot sun or leave them in a closed car or we'll have a puddle of melted duct ribbon. Jeri designed the catchy black and white number, Margo created the timeless black and red - and the nondescript tan and over-ripe plum number is non other than MY futile attempt.

This is my buddy, Margo - each day she gets out of bed, says her morning prayers, and gives thanks for her "ability to "accessorize". Just look how excited she is about her newest fashion accessory! Ah, such a happy girl.

Everyone should be lucky enough to have friends like these in their lives. Thanks for the fun evening -let's "do lunch" sometime - after all, we do have these cool, new bags in which to pack our provisions.

Caricature Artist and 3 Characters

We spent the afternoon in Waumandee at the St. Boniface Fall Festival. An artist asked Grandpa to sit for a caricature drawing - Grandpa thought of three other "characters" he would rather have in a pencil drawing. He pulled three photos out of his billfold (they are ALWAYS close at hand) and asked that he draw them instead. Although the photos are all from last year (just a subtle hint for some new ones), I think he caught their personalities quite well using small photographs. After watching a little softball, browsing the auction items, eating brats and chicken and catching up with old friends, we left before I was too tempted with the milk shakes that always call my name. We had a rainy start to the day, but it cleared in time for all the activities. Now its back to relaxing - maybe watch a movie with a homemade MILKSHAKE!!!

Some Work - Some Play - Weekend Post #2

Adalia has been asking Grandpa to make a tire swing since last fall. We finally found a small tire and Grandpa got this great ride set up before she and Finnian came for the weekend. They each took turns having rides on the "super swing".... And - regarding "rides"...Grandpa has been wanting a "Rat Rod" - "Why?" you might wonder - well, so do I, but hey, I bought a car on ebay a few years ago, so I couldn't deny him the same thrill, although I think I definitely got the better deal. Finnian was anxious to help Grandpa "work" on the truck - a 1960 Chevy pickup - "barn fresh" - he calls it, hmmm. Yep, barn fresh.

Adalia loves to help bake - this weekend she helped me make some muffins - a very healthy version with carrots, raisins, applesauce and wheat bran. The kids love them and we make "tiny muffins" that are cute and fun to eat. (And, it may help get us off the hook for the cookies, ice cream and gum the day before?) While we girls labored away in the kitchen.....

...... Finnian was busy helping Grandpa put in a curb edge along the boulevard in front of our house. He devised a way to "lift" the blocks off the pavement to make it easier for Grandpa to grab each piece and install it. The muffins were done in time for the guys' breaktime.

We put some additional ideas on hold for next time. There are petting zoos, and carousels, and many more parks and playgrounds to be discovered and explored for future visits. And maybe one day soon little Cousin Ivy will be able to join one of the "grammy extravaganzas", as Finnian likes to call it.