I am working on the list of "things to do" before we leave on our trip this Wednesday. I know I will be heading out the door to the airport at about 10 that morning, ready or not!!!!
Getting pretty excited about all the people and places we will visit!
Today is Ella Dawn's birthday - she continues to be the joy of our lives, a sweet girl with a huge personality - and a 7 year old who would love to fill in her toothless grin one of these days!!
Wishing Ella many happy returns of the day!!
Worked outside in the back yard today ~
The good: Ligularia in bloom, windflowers reblooming, zinneas bursting with colors, a cardinal nesting (3 eggs!) in the climbing roses
The bad: Japanese beetles chomping away at the climbing hydrangea, aphids on the butterfly weed, mildew on the honeysuckle
The ugly: My inner arm with a skin gash, torn open and bleeding that I got when I was yanking at a dead branch on a thankless rhododendron bush, that suddenly broke and stabbed me and the six yellow jacket stings all red and puffy that I got while I was yanking on the dead rhodo branch (stepped on their ground nest!) Don't know which hurts more, the stings or the gouged out skin gash!!
Update: I was wondering why the gash was hurting so much (it is in the exact spot where they'd put a needle to draw blood) and I now see that there is also a huge sting spot right beside it! No wonder I can hardly straighten my arm! It matches the stings in the soft area behind my knee - it also hurts to bend that!!
This afternoon we took the girls to the Y to swim. Steve and Delaney were in the deep end, and she was determined to learn how to dive. Steve gave her some demonstrations and pointers, and before we knew it she was diving like a pro! Unbelievable. It's amazing how well she and Ella swim, considering they have never taken a single swimming lesson.
As for me, I took lots of swimming lessons at Cross Lake while i was growing up. The one thing I never quite learned to do (fear factor!) was to dive. I did do it in order to pass my Junior Lifesaving class. But I haven't made a dive since then, which is at least 45 years! Safe to say, my diving days are done!
Happy Birthday wishes go out to Steve on his 59th bday!! We are squeezing in a little celebration today, with hamburgers on the grill and a birthday cake that Delaney is making right now! It has been quite busy around here with travel, Steve's web design work, gardening, and Europe trip preparations among other things. Tomorrow he is going up to visit his folks for a few days and that will be enjoyable for them all.
Outside it continues to be warm and at times quite humid. The flower gardens are doing fine as we have had such good rainfall the past month.
Well, it's off to do Saturday chores!!
We are back from our trip up to Minnesota with Delaney and Ella - had a nice visit with Steve's folks, plus went on some fun outings while we were there. The girls loved the Mall of America and the shopping time in the American Girl store. Delaney had saved $ to buy a Bitty Baby, and Ella had $ to buy some accessories for her regular sized doll. We ate at the Bistro inside there also. The mall is so huge that we really only spent time in one-quarter of the place. There is a full sized amusement park there too - I took Ella on one ride. I also drove up to Pine City to visit Glor (she owns the house I grew up in there!) but unfortunately she was in Duluth! But the girls and I had a blast roaming around inside my old school, eating lunch curbside at the rootbeer stand, and driving around the town, lake and river areas etc. Also took them to Como Park in Saint Paul - a nice zoo and beautiful conservatory, Japanese gardens etc. , to the Minnesota State Capitol and twice to the Minnesota History Center. We didn't begin to run out of things to do in the cities. And for Steve's folks, Delaney and Ella put on the "Shakespeare's Sonnets" program (the one Gloria and I did at Poetry group - including the quiz at the end, Maureen!). Delaney read the sonnet and Ella (a fantastic reader for a 6 yr old) read the paraphrased meaning.
We had a nice 4th of July and today Taylor, Melissa and girls are coming over for mesquite smoked turkey breast on the grill. Missing Matthew and Davie, who were part of our Independence Day celebration for the past three years!
