Sunday, August 31, 2008
Menus for next week
Monday - Grilled salmon, lemon rice, salad
Tuesday - Marinated baked pork chops, roasted potatoes, frozen veggies
Wednesday - CLASS NIGHT FOR HARRISON - Spaghetti, fruit salad, bread
Thursday - SOUP NIGHT - Chicken wild rice soup, bread, crudites
Friday - Grilled cheese, tomato soup, broccoli
Phew!
Fair Day 08
Luckily we did visit the livestock barns first. Well, we visited one livestock barn - the pig barn! I always like to see the mama pig and her 1,000 piglets that must nurse at all times. This reminds me of having a newborn baby (and yes, we have brought all three of our children to the fair as little, little babies). Anyway, here is a shot of Roses #2 and #3 looking at a pig. Note that Rose #3 in this picture is still upright...
Fast forward some and she was in fact completely conked out with about 101.5. We walked around, saw some opera singers (you can see a lot at the fair!), ate mini donuts and corn dogs, and then poor old Rose #3 completely lost it and fell asleep.
Between walking around and meeting Uncle Andy, Aunt Tonya and Sam & Maddie at the Giant Slide, I took Roses #1 and #2 to the play farm. It is kind of an exhibit where the kids get an apron, a pail, and they walk through a pretend farm, pretending to feed the chickens, move bales of hay with a tractor, etc. At the end each kid gets to pick a food item. Rose #1 chose Golden Grahams (General Mills is a sponsor!) and Rose #2, bless her unlikely little heart, chose an apple! Anyway, H was waiting for us (with zonked out Rose #3) and he took a picture of this sunflower:
Perhaps riding the giant slide with Rose #3 in the state she was in was not the wisest, but we did ride it - H with Rose #3, me with Rose #2, and Rose #1 all by herself, on these little burlap rug thingies that you use to ride the slide. $2 a pop, per person. We only rode once!Saturday, August 30, 2008
One More Picture
Not me, that is for DARN sure!!!A Night at a Wedding
Here is Rose #2 smiling her sweet smile. She was in heaven because the dessert table was placed on the balcony, so she could steal away and sneak extra helpings of dessert.
Here is Rose #1 and me. Rose #1 did not care at all about taking a picture with me. All she wanted to do was find her cousin Sammy to dance.
My sister and her husband and baby were there too:
Here is me and Aunt Boo:
And another infrequent character on this blog, the father of the Roses:
I had to include this picture. The reception was at a local dance hall, and the dance instructors came out every 15 minutes or so to teach new dances. Here is the crowd doing the swing (or the salsa, I don't really know). But look very carefully in the middle of the unfocussed people and you will see a little head of dark hair and a pink dress (that's Rose #3!):
Getting Ready for Bed
Rose #3 thinks in all seriousness that she can swim. Here she is laying down in the bathtub. Don't worry - by the time the water got a bit deeper I had her sitting up:
Here she was laughing at her immense talent for swimming:
Friday, August 29, 2008
School Open Houses
Rose #2's teacher is also new to her school. She used to be a special education teacher and decided to take on 4-year-old science kindergarteners for a change! We loved Rose #1's 4-year-old kindergarten teacher, and we are hoping that the new gal will be as effective for Rose #2. Rose #2 takes everything in stride - of course I am going to school, of course everything will be fine. This is in contrast to Rose #1, BTW.
Rose #3 was along for the ride, as usual. Her time will come!!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
An outdoor Saturday
They played Star Wars, and run around the yard, and probably eight other games that I was not privy to. And at the end of the evening, our neighbors two houses down made a fire in their new fire pit. Here are some pictures of the tired players.
Rose #3 with very nice neighbor girl Krista, who dressed her in a sweatshirt:
Rose #1, smushing her face into a tennis racket:Rose #3 was MAAAAAD

Friday, August 22, 2008
School Year Update
Rose #2 will be going to a.m. 4-year-old kindergarten. This is good news for the bus. She can take the bus in the morning and the 4-year-old kindergarten bus will bring her right to the door after school. After Rose #3's trials with the bus last year, this is a relief. I am very excited for her to start 4-year-old kindergarten.
Rose #1 is starting first grade. We found out her teacher's name - Ms. Swenson - and also that her friend ever since the baby room at daycare, Anders, will be in her class too. We are very excited for her to start her new school.
Rose #3 is very, very mad that she is not starting school. I am thinking about a preschool-type group at our nearby recreation center. It is 3 days/week, 2 hours/day, but she would at least start getting used to school. I wish you could see Rose #3 cry when she is mad. Her mouth opens so wide, it looks like it might become unhinged and the top half fall off!!
Friday Night Menus
Here is next week's menu:
Saturday - Pasta with Sausage and Peppers (p. 71, Silver Palate), bread, salad (double and bring dinner to Mary's family this week)
Sunday - Bombay Chicken Legs, Rice, Broccoli
Monday - MND (Thanks Guppy and Poppy!!)
Tuesday - Chicken Provencal, Egg Noodles, Fruit salad
Wednesday - Breakfast dinner
Thursday - Crock pot chicken, frozen veggies
Friday - Pork chops, citrus glazed carrots, bread
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Silent auction for a good cause!
The auction and wine tasting was fun. Here are Uncle Eli and Aunt Brenna and Aunt Brenna's friend staffing the white wine/cheese/popcorn table:
Here are Guppy and Aunt Charity:Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Rose #1: Guest Blogger
Me, Gus, Rose #2 and Pierre were trying to build a ship. But we didn't have enough time.
Well, I have the whole week to try to build the ship.
Rose #2 has some things to say: Anyways, I love you and when I got the Frisbee I went in the little pool with Mama for awhile. We played catch. I love you so much I hope you have a great day!
More about the pool from Mom: Rose #1 has a very cute tan line from her swimsuit, even though every time we go swimming we put SPF 50 on her. I did a handstand, and then a front somersault. I had terrible vertigo, thought I was going to throw up, and could barely find the surface of the 5' water.
Yesterday we visited Jill and brought her dinner. The girls love Jill so much, and it was good to see her in good spirits. We brought a couple of dinners for her freezer, which I hope is helpful to them as they prepare to welcome twins into their hearts and their lives.
Friday, August 15, 2008
More Kirksville photos
After the long cave trek (at the Mark Twain Cave), we needed an ice cream (my favorite part of this shot is Rose #3 at the end of the row - she is so proud of herself for being a big girl):
Finally, our last night in Kirksville, the kids posed with Grandpa Pete on the merry-go-round:
Phew. That's it for Kirksville shots. Rolling Down the Hill in Kirksville
Perhaps aptly named, on Friday night in Kirksville we had a picnic at 1,000 Hills State Park. Here is Aunt Heidi and various children rolling down just one of those hills:
Love you Aunt Heidi. I couldn't resist posting the video showing you and the kids having so much fun!
Planning Menus

H and the Roses climbed on the monkey bars at the park tonight. We had a great time at the Turtle Park. Roses #1 and 2 and I ran an obstacle course. (I won with the best time.) Then the Roses made friends with some preteen girls that were playing at the park and they ran around, playing tag, going down the slide, etc. A gorgeous evening, etc.
Back to menu planning. Here is my plan for this week:
Saturday - Chicken enchiladas (we are going to visit Jill and bring her dinner), broccoli, spanish rice
Sunday - Turkey lasagna, french bread, salad
Monday - MND (thank you Guppy!)
Tuesday - Chicken wild rice casserole, frozen veggies, dinner rolls (I am going to make an extra casserole for Jill for the freezer and one for us)
Wednesday - Turkey burgers, home fries, crudites
Thursday - Spaghetti night
Friday - Make your own pizza night
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Bedtime woes
Monday, August 11, 2008
Tattoo Parlor

The first picture is my favorite since you can see the marker on the bottom of Rose #3's feet. And, in case you are wondering, the marker that I THOUGHT was washable, was, in fact, not exactly all that washable. Alas.Friday, August 8, 2008
Here we are in Kirksville, MO
1. Uninterrupted time with mom and dad. Mom and dad like this too.
2. Movies in the car. Our minivan has a DVD player which we do not use except on longer trips. I remember when Ellie pointed to the DVD player in the van and said, Mom, that is used for playing movies! We had not told her what it was; I still do not know to this day how she knew!!
3. Treats. I generally say no, as a rule, automatically, when the kids ask for a treat at the grocery or Target. But on vacation, I usually say "yes." So far we have had: Hubba Bubba, chocolate skittles (yuck), Milk Duds, and Hershey's Kissables.
One required part of the trip to Kirksville is the annual "run around the classroom" excursion. Grandpa Pete teaches on the science faculty, and so we always go to Science Hall. This year we got to go into the venomous reptile lab (no kidding). All children had their strict instructions to keep their hands at their sides and not to touch ANYTHING.
Then we went into an empty classroom. Uncle Jay and I wrote on the blackboard a little bit:

After our trip to campus we went to the Northeast Missouri Conservation department. We took a little walk around the grounds and then went to the interpretive center. This is Grandpa Pete with 6 of his 7 grandchildren (Gus was in the stroller so he couldn't go down by the pond):
The best part of the interpretive center was the bee hive. The bees come into the building through a little tube. It was very cool.Monday, August 4, 2008
Ducks
Some ideas for retribution:
1. Call up Poppy right before a meditation session and have a grandchild honk the honker toy into the phone. Repeatedly.
2. Call up Guppy right before bed and have a grandchild honk the honker toy...oh, you get the idea.
OK, I only have two ideas, and to be fair, they were really Uncle Andy's.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
A Good Weekend
On Saturday evening our very good friends stayed for dinner and for a sleepover! We had a great dinner - chicken and steak on the grill - and good conversation. The girls loved being together. Here they are on Sunday at snack time, eating chips. The box, which proves the aphorism that children will always rather play with the box than the thing that came in the box (although in this case it was a large sun umbrella, so it is better that they play with the box) was doubling as a boat. A boat which happened upon a can of Pringles, as it turns out:
Rose #4 was our guest. She is so sweet and polite, and she did not even cram the Pringles in her mouth (unlike the other Roses):
Rose #3, of course, had to cram about 6 Pringles in her mouth before she even could feel at all right about the situation:
Rose #2 really likes her modeling poses. It reminds me a lot of her Aunt Boo, who is also her birthday buddy:
And Rose #1 was hamming it up for the camera. I hope that one of these next few blog posts will be "Rose #1 lost a tooth," because one of the bottom ones is wiggly: 





