He's a Workin' Man!

Since we first looked at our home, I've been wanting to cut down two trees/overgrown bushes by the front door. Adam has been asking when he could cut them down for me -- he was excited about doing the job himself, plus he keeps telling me that the house needs more curb appeal! I told him today was the day and he ran off to grab his choice of tools and began chopping the first one before I could even find my camera. Here's a before picture of Adam working while Ryan and Isaac supervise. The one he's working on had been as big as the tree on the right. Adding another branch to the pile ... it took Ryan two truckloads to haul all the remains to our city compost site.

He loved how much he was sweating and how dirty he was getting!

One of the two root balls. I helped him dig ... that was work! The other root ball was too big for Adam or me to lift ... thank you Ryan!

After! It looks so so so much better!

Thank you Adam!!!

Oh the Tangled Web We Weave

This past week I went camping with some very dear friends to PJ Hoffmaster State Park. PJ Hoffmaster is considered to be the founder of the Michigan State Park System. My friend Mark spotted the arachnid in the top photo and we both tried grabbing the shot. Mine was a bit blurry. The next morning I was about to place my foot into my favorite pair of crocs when I noticed that another arachnid had taken up residence. I pulled out my camera and spent about 15 minutes trying to capture the web. It amazes me how well constructed these webs are. Do you know that spiders trap their prey in the web, spin more silk around their capture and then inject an enzyme that digests the insides so they can suck out the nutrients? ewwhhhhh! Yuck. My tent had about 30 daddy long legs on the outside. I just kept hoping they weren't planning a coordinated attack on me!!

The Final 10 . . 16 Anyway

This challenge was much harder than I expected.  I ended up printing 39 photos and matting 16 of them.   Thanks to everyone for their input - it was very helpful.  Did any of your favorites make it?

Happy Boys!

Adam thought long and hard how he wanted to spend his birthday money and much to my surprise he wanted to buy a futon for his new bedroom! He saw it at Target and the price was amazing (it's part of their dorm room collection) so he made the purchase. I was amazed at the quality and he's so proud of it! He has the table Grandma Carol made for him and Isaac in front of it so they can build with Legos together. Usually there are Legos all over the floor too but Adam wanted to clean his room before I took the picture! They've spent many hours here using their imaginations together.

Thank you Linda for the Blockus game -- it's a huge hit and I recommend this game to everyone. Adam was the winner of the first game and I know they're be plenty more : )

The winning board ... Adam was blue, Isaac red and me green.

Be prepared for a Blockus challenge!

Love, Joy

TOP TEN

Tracy, Are we going to see the top ten pics soon? We are looking forward to it. Love, Carol

Wondering

I am wondering what you are doing today, Adam. You are always a busy boy. Today I am missing you a lot. Love, Grandma

Family Camping

It was good to see a lot of us at family camping.

Blokus

I gave Adam and Isaac the game Blokus for their birthdays. Hope they love it!

Welcome To the Double Digits!

We had fun at family camping. It was a great time also for Adam to celebrate his first double digit birthday. Most of the rest of us have been in double digits for some time.

Adam and Isaac were checking out the greenbacks in his birthday card.

New Furniture . . . addendum

By the way, even though they don't look like it, both chairs are recliners. Yeah!

New Furniture

Carol and I went shopping in Green Bay and I found two chairs that I really liked. Unfortunately I couldn't come to an acceptable deal with them, but I was able to make a great deal with a shopkeeper in Pestigo. Would you believe that he had relatives in North Lake just like we did? He is even going to deliver the chairs free of charge. They should be arriving in five weeks.

I had to make sure that the chairs complemented Ziggy and my couch.

Turtle Time

As I was coming home, I spotted this creature on the road by my house. The shell and head alone were at least a foot long. If Karl had been here, I know what he would have done. This turtle would have been safely relocated to its more natural environment at Deer Lake.

Heavenly Yard

This is one of my favorite pictures of my yard.

Angels Looking Over Us

Angels looking over us.

Windchimes

I love my new wind chimes.

He Really Loves It!

You can tell he really loves it. I like to think it's a designer bowl for a designer dog.

Ziggy's New Water Bowl

This is Ziggy's new water bowl.