Traditional 4th of July Celebration

To the right in my side bar you'll see a photo widget I made with the pictures from our 4th of July Celebration. We had more food then we needed (nothing new), drink a plenty, and games. There were 14 of us, and for awhile my 3 neighbors joined us making 17. We had corn on cob, salad, potato salad, marinated chicken breasts, a variety of drinks both soft and adult.

A good time was had by all. We played corn hole, had 2 games going at one time, badmitten...lots and lots of badmitten. Had the croquet set up; but we ended up not playing that game.

After the family all headed their separate ways, hubby and I walked down to our neighborhood fireworks display. It was wonderful! One of the best we've seen. We were up close and personal, loved it.

It was odd not having Mom with us this year, her favorite holiday and all; but she was in all of our thoughts as we enjoyed each others company.

***Question:
does anyone know if you can put one of those picture widgets in the actual post? I tried, but perhaps I didn't do it correctly?

Child Labor Laws, should this be reported?

See first, you gotta turn it on here.

Sometimes it takes more then one try.


Then you push, push, push.

"Jake, our you mowing in your PJ's?" The only thing as cool as Thomas The Train is Mickey Mouse.

He loves to come early in the morning. I was drinking my morning coffee, and had to run get my camera. If I could write, I think lots of fun short stories could be written about this little guy.

Two wild and crazy sisters

Wine for lunch, sure why not! We'd been busy and productive that morning. We'd gotten to the barn, took tons of photo's; toured a cemetery ...why not have a nice leisurely lunch with a glass of wine.

We had our lunch, and our nice wine downstairs since upstairs was closed; but we did venture up there afterwords. This is a waterside restaurant with inside and outside seating; as well as an upstairs more casual bar with great view of the water.


We had such a good time, we're thinking of making this a regular routine. In fact, we've penciled in another date to return--drink some wine, have lunch, and enjoy the views.

Wedding Gown, Memories

Memory Monday, continuing with my alphabetical memories to honor my Mother.
GWedding Gown. Mom used to make lots of my clothes. Though when I was young I complained about coming in from playing to try stuff on, the long list of wonderful things she made is impressive. She made my wedding gown. White Dotted Swiss fabric. I didn't much care for lacy veils and so she suggested a hat. That was a bit of a trick because I have an usually small head; but we did find one that fit and she sewed on little flowers to decorate it.

Here's a better look at the dress.She also made my SIL, Jan's dress which was the same color purple as Mom's wearing. Hum, somewhere I have a picture of that. She stood up with me.

Another memory starting with the letter G has to do with Grape Pop. Mom loved grape pop and peanut butter crackers. This was a snack she often ate when she worked at The Mead Swimming Pool back in the day. Mom couldn't swim, and so wasn't a life guard; except on the days when they drained the pool to clean it. They would drain the pool, clean it, and then refill it. Apparently, by law they still needed to have a guard on duty; Mom's big chance. She laughed about sitting in the chair drinking her grape pop with no one or nothing to protect! lol

The silly things one remembers.

Thanks for making my dress, I loved it and I love you.

Previous Memory Monday, letter F

Learning to Ride

Things are different it seems today with how children learn to ride a bike. Remember our tricycles, then a bike with training wheels? This cute little Thomas The Train Bicycle has training wheels and is small enough it can apparently eliminate completely the tricycle stage. Sometimes I feel old.
You've seen this cute little guy before, my pseudo grandchild. He's 2 1/2. He loves trains, he really loves Thomas The Train. Remember he and hubby playing with all the Thomas The Train, trains on our deck?



Such fun watching him.

***Hope you didn't miss the previous post, Let the Killing Begin!

Let the Killing Begin!

Argh......enough of you Beetles. I'm not even gonna try to get rid of you without going right to the heavy duty chemicals this year.

For two years I've battled and battled them. I've been kind to the environment and pinged them off into bucket after bucket of soapy water. They kept coming, and ate and ate. They ate my Rose of Sharon, they ate my Mallows, they ate my Lillie's, they ate my Petunia's....even the ones in pots on the deck.

I bumped up the killing and tried to keep them off the plants by soap spray, another kind to the environment listed as worth doing. NOT so, I say. You get rid of them for an hour or two...or until it rains or you need to water again or something like that.

This year, sorry not to be green; I'm going right for the big kill. Been seeing them in my petunia's again in the pots on the deck. Love the smell of them, love the way they attract Humming Birds, particularly the bright red and purple ones.

After all it's not like I'm killing a nice animal. Anyone wanna write last words, cause they're going for sure. I've had it with them.

And, besides I worked too hard with this to let them win
See Previus Post, Wordless Wednesday (Mulch)