The Detroit Zoological Society

I had a really fun day on Friday with my friends' two girls.  We went to the Detroit Zoo to see the animals.  It was a hot hot hot day so I wasn't sure it we would have too much activity but much to my surprise we had some great up-close glimpses!  First we rode the train to the back of the Zoo.  We had a picnic lunch (apples, bananas, yogurt, pbj's, and jelly lifesavers)

   I thought the back end looked just as cool as the front end!

We saw the hippo really close up.  He was just wading under water trying to keep cool!  What a crazy looking animal.

The rhinos slept in the shade.

I think this zebra's stripes are very beautiful.  It is definitely a different species from the ones I see in Africa.

 This Gorilla came right up to the window and looked

at the beautiful human exhibit on the other side.

The girls were pretty intrigued. 

The original train engine hearty All-American Chevy!!

Happy Birthday Linda!!

We all had a wonderful time at Linda's Birthday yesterday at Al Qual! We did have a few rain drops but we are all troopers!

mmmmm yummy cake

Carol made a homemade Red Velvet cake and it was soooooo good!!

We were singing Happy Birthday!

What a wonderful picnic we had yesterday. Yummy hot dogs, salads, chips, homemade lemonaide, and the cake. Hope you had a wonderful Birthday Linda! We sure had fun!!

Happy Birthday Lovely Linda!

L: Lovely Librarian

I: Intelligent Industrious

N: Noble Nurturer

D: Doll & Dahl

A: Angelic Admirable

June 31st Declaration

I'm declaring today June 31st which means that there is one extra day of summer and we are not getting any closer to *c*o*l.  I don't say s*h*o* during the summer.  Anyone found saying *c*o*l will pay a severe penalty. 

Here are the girls in front of the pine tree. I took a picture of them when they were much younger in front of this tree and the tree was much smaller too. The tree is getting too big for the space so it will have to be cut down. The tree was a seedling that Lindsey had gotten from school in 5th grade.


This is the finished denim quilt I made for Pete. It is very warm!

Wishing everyone a very HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! We will miss you all!

Love, Debbie

I Love Picasa - It's How I Make My Collages!

Joy & Carol asked how I make my collages.  Good Question!!  I use Picasa which is a free picture management system from google.  It has so many great features:

1. Picture Management:  sorting, cataloging, etc.
2. Face Recognition:  You can identify a face and Picasa will search your photos for other instances of these faces.  So far, Alaina has won the "most pictures" award in my stash of photos.  Impressive for only being 2 years old!! 
3. Collaborative Albums:  We can share albums, embed albums, e-mail albums, etc.
4. Geotagging:  You can map out where your photos were taken.
5. Photo Album Synchronization:  Always keep on online back up of your photos.  I do pay for extra space every year for our blog and for my mountain of photos.
6. Tags:  You can tag, sort, and search your photos
7. Photo Editing:  Enhance all of your photos.
8. Photo Collaging:  Make several different type of photo collages (picture pile, mosaic, blocked, etc.)

Here is a quick tutorial I found on YouTube on how the collages are made!

Yogi Baby

Addison's new moniker:  Yogi Baby
Turns out this is a real yoga pose called none other than "Happy Baby!"
See for yourself:

Uncovering June's Last Blooms

After being in Chicago and then Toronto my garden was in much disarray.  Weeds were climbing everywhere and the grass was out of control.  It took a full day of work to get it back into some order.  It still needs some more attention but it is on the mend.  My "Mr. Stripey" heirloom tomato is seriously ill.  It is my absolutely favorite type of tomato so I will do everything I can to nurse it back to health.  There were some new blooms, though, when I arrived.  It was exciting to uncover them.

Red Hot Fire Poker/Torch Lilly
Family: Asphodelaceae (as-foh-del-AY-see-ee)
Genus: Kniphofia (nip-HOFF-ee-uh)
Species: uvaria (oo-VAR-ee-uh)

 

Shasta Daisy
Family: Asteraceae (ass-ter-AY-see-ee)
Genus: Leucanthemum (lew-KANTH-ih-mum)
Species: x superbum (soo-PER-bum)

Balloon Flower

Family: Campanulaceae (kam-pan-yew-LAY-see-ee)

Genus: Platycodon (plat-ee-KO-don)

Species: grandiflorus (gran-dih-FLOR-us)

Purple Cone Flower

Family: Asteraceae (ass-ter-AY-see-ee)

Genus: Echinacea (ek-in-AY-shee-a)

Species: purpurea (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

Plant Classification credit to Dave's Garden

Happy Campers!

Today we dropped the boys off at Crossways Camp ... our church camp. They were so excited to go and also brought their buddy Erick along. Can you believe he's Isaac's age? He's such a great kid!

Crossways has a very special place in my heart as it is the camp that I went to every year from the summer I turned 10 though high school and then I spent three amazing summers on staff there during college. My camp counselors had a huge impact on my faith journey and who I am today. It feels like going home each time I go.

The house is too quiet tonight but I know the boys are having a wonderful time! I can't wait to hear all their stories and am looking forward to them teaching me some great new camp songs to use in Sunday School this year!

New Sneaks

My new sneakers are well over due! 

I few years back I wrote a post above my beautiful new red & white Nike's.

They served me well.  I'ave been running in the well past their expiration date!

 Now I have a brand new pair of blue & whites.  Every time I put them on they feel so strange because there actually is some type of cushion between the soles of my feet at the cement. 

So tired ... in a good way!

Yesterday we said goodbye to my neices Cailin and Maren and my brother Mark after two weeks of fun together! I've been looking though all my pictures and am amazed at all the great times we packed in. Mark and Ryan went fishing every evening and also a few mornings. They had a great time minus the evening when Ryan's bass lure inadvertantly ended up in Mark's chin. They stopped at home to get a picture before they went to the ER but I won't share that pic with you! Mark is fine and the kids found it fascinating!


We did lots of crafts but the coolest one was making tie-dye t-shirts. Here are the kids modeling theirs. I was so happy with how vibrant the colors were even after I washed them!



We went though almost 500 water balloons ... here are highlights of the water bomb war.




Mark took us all fishing at a park near our home where we grew up. Adam is trying to be like Uncle Mark wearing his fishing and glasses : )

We didn't catch anything ... there was a huge rain the night before ... but the weather was so beautiful and so was the scenery.

The kids spent hours and hours in the pool every day ... here is an action shot of the water balloon game they made up. They took it very seriously!

Isaac making a few bombs with the cool contraption I found that makes it a breeze to make water balloons sooooo easy! There is a hose hooked up to it and it fills them and then ties them!

Most nights the kids watched a movie and slept in the camper together.

My sister-in-law Renee flew in yesterday and they're all spending the next week in northern WI at her family's cabin. Wish we could have spent time with her too but she got a recent job promotion and had to work.

Today we're packing as the kids are off to Crossways Camp tomorrow for a week. The boys are soooo excited! I'm going to spend the week getting our home ready to sell. It's going to be too quiet around here! We love having company! When we're all settled in the new house we hope everyone will come for a visit!!!

Love, Joy

Tiger Lily in bloom

Doesn't this scene look like a rain forest? That is my yard right now. It's gorgeous.

Berry Bounty

The boys and I made signs and this is one of mine.

We are have wild strawberries in abundance on our property and we are looking forward to these cultivated blueberries and wild blackberries. We have raspberries too, but they don't look the best so I didn't include those.

Good looking

I love this picture.

Bike Ride

Yesterday Ken and I rode almost 15 miles. This picture is at Hennes Park where we stopped and went down to the waters of Lake Michigan. On the way home I got stung on the back of my leg twice and today it is as big as a baseball and it hurts. I am glad I am not allergic. It was a beautiful bikeride though and we both enjoyed it.

Celebrity CRIBS

What a special gift it was to have Ken & Carol come down to the party.
Alaina LOVES the crib that carol made for her baby dolls. The problem is Alaina hasn't quite grasped the idea that it isn't for her.
What a pair of celebrity smiles from the ladies. (doesn't look Alaina look cute in her new suit?)