MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

Sunday, we got together with Jim's family for a few hours. They live 3 hours from us. The story: My mother-in-law wanted to come to Albany to visit her sister-in-law, who was transferred from their hometown hospital to a hospital in Albany. Jim's brother and family came as well, and we all got together at Jim's cousin's house in Albany. We had a terrific time as the kids played with "Uncle Paul". He's wonderful with the kids! Of course, they all love him!

On Monday, the boys and I went to my parents' and sister's house for another outdoor celebration and a time for relaxing and chatting.

TJ (nephew) with Jared and Owen battling, Star Wars style!


A week or so ago, we received our "butterfly larvae" -- caterpillars for Painted Lady butterflies! For his birthday, Jared received a butterfly habitat. We had to send away for the larvae with food -- all contained in this little cup. This was the day he received it in the mail. Now, a week later, they are all hanging from the top of the cup in their chrysalides. The last two began that leg of their journey this evening. It's incredibly awesome (and mind boggling) what happens! It's been so cool to watch! They'll hang like this, and tomorrow probably, I'll carefully transfer them to the mesh cage (habitat). Under the lid is a piece of paper that they're attached to. I'll remove the paper and pin it to the habitat. It'll be a week or a little more before we see butterflies emerging! It's so cool!

checking out the caterpillars

I LOVE thrift store bargains, as I've probably mentioned before. Today I dropped by our local store to see if they had a pair of sneakers for Owen -- his are really worn out. At Payless the other day, I found some for $15! I don't think so! So then, jackpot! I found a great pair of barely used sneakers for $1 AND a pair of Owen-sized LEVIS for $1.00 (retail: $30)! They're barely used as well! Of course, I had to check out the video and book section! Got White Christmas and a Veggie Tales videos plus several books: about adventures, about animals, and about Bible stories (Arch books). All for only $6!

My late nights are catching up to me. I'm SO TIRED lately! So I'm off to bed now.

Until next time...

blessings, joie

SCRAPBOOK PAGES

Not much going on. Just thought I'd post a few scrapbook pages. The first one I did recently; the 2nd one I did a couple of years ago; and the last 2 were during my Creative Memories (R) Days -- they were 2 of my favorite pages back then!

Love this picture of me with my sister Brenda -- when she was in the Navy in 1990

too cute!

Where my MIL lives it's always windy. Nathan used to LOVE flying kites!
Someday I want to get good quality kites and make this a family activity here at home on those windy days!

This page was fun to make with all the handmade "splashes"! The pictures are precious of the boys (Jared was 16 months or so) and their cousins! Oops! Just noticed that I spelled "waist" wrong on this page! Hate it when that happens!

Hope you enjoyed!

blessings, joie

GETTIN' INTO THE SWING a' THINGS

...will be the title of a page when I make it of Owen learning to swing on his own. It may not sound like a big deal, but to me, it's a milestone. I still remember when my other 2 boys learned to swing [pump] by themselves -- totally independent of anyone else! They have a really cool freedom in that! Here are just 2 pictures that I've taken in the past week. He swings every chance he can -- even if N & J are riding their bikes.

My little swinger

Let me set up the next photo. Nathan & Jared were doing a coin toss to figure out who would do something -- can't remember what. So, of course, Owen wanted to do a coin toss too. I told him he had 'tails'. He said,

"it's a HOUSE!"

This is so cool!

This is my mother when she was about 10 (circa 1947) with her grandmother!

Donna recently was contacted by an unknown cousin in Australia! Let me try to explain. Donna has been into genealogy for some time now -- tracing family back to the Civil War and the American Revolution! Its so cool what she's found out! However, when it came to immigrants, it was difficult to find information before they came to America.

One day a month or so ago, a cousin, who's family was originally from Hungary (where our great grandmother is from), contacted Donna via email. His grandfather was my mother's grandmother's brother! Paul, our 2nd cousin, twice removed (sorry, Donna, if I got that wrong) is the nicest guy, and he and Donna are in touch regularly sharing family information and LOTS of photos! In fact the above picture of my mother and her grandmother was never seen by my mother! It was sent to Paul's family years and years ago! He emailed it to Donna -- his mother had it! WILD! And my mother had a couple of photos of Paul's uncle that they had never seen! His mother, who speaks Hungarian, has been able to translate several postcards that were sent to my mother's grandmother years ago. I appreciate so much what this relationship has done for our families! Paul is as into this as Donna is!

Until next time...

blessings, joie

MONDAY...

Jim is in bed, Nathan's grooving to his new Lincoln Brewster cd in the kitchen, and Jared & Owen are watching a StoryKeepers video. This is my computer time.

We were out today for a while; Jim was home. We went to a local [small] fun park, and after that we went to Walmart to get the boys workboots. Unfortunately, Jim was called in by his boss, so he had to quickly take us home so he could go in for a couple of hours. It put a bit of a damper on the day -- we weren't able to get the boots. This has happened a few times during his day off, and it's frustrating, but... he has a decent job and we get over it.

There are advantages to Jim having a week-day off. There were only a few people there (about 18) -- one group gave us their leftover tickets when they left. And another kid gave us his extra tokens when he left! Jim and the boys LOVE the go-karts. They also did the batting cages and mini golf. I was photographer.

Owen regretted his choice of a baby ride, but it made a cute picture!

love this picture!

It was so hot last week -- 80-90 degrees for several days -- unseasonable warm. Since we don't have our pool up or have ACs put in, we were pretty hot. The boys filled up large storage tubs with water and they kept cool that way. Owen's hair was getting long, so Nathan squished his hair up, and he looked like Lincoln Brewster! See below.

Here is Owen -- my little Lincoln Brewster!
{It's the hair}

It's back down to temps in the 60's -- much more seasonable.

Until next time...

blessings, joie