Happy Birthday Luke!!!!

Can you guess???

What is this??????
Here are some more clues.....
Did you guess it????

Of course you did......it's makes my car very clean....
It's an old fashioned CAR WASH!!! I thought the kids would enjoy seeing all of the rollers and brushes....now that's entertainment!!!

Tea time with the Brownies...

On Tuesday nights, twice a month, the Brownies meet....and Anna is a Brownie. At the last meeting, they were celebrating Juliette Gordon Low's birthday (founder of the Girl Scouts) by having a "Fun Night." The girls rotated to different stations, one was painting, one was singing, one was hopscotch and the last one was the tea party. I just happened to be in charge of this station. I figured that the girls wouldn't want to drink hot tea, so I served apple juice and orange juice in our very delicate cups and saucers. The girls did a great job and made sure to drink their "tea" with their pinkies UP!!!! Aren't they sophisticated????!!! Here's Miss Anna Grace......

Wordless Wednesday- Costume Day

It's chili time......

On Sunday, my hubby got a hankerin' for some chili.....so he stirred up his Mom's recipe....it's a good one!! Yes, that's John's evil smile.....that turkey!!!

Grandma Ellie's Chili

2 medium onions, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 pound ground beef

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes

1 can (20 oz.) kidney beans

½ tsp. basil

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 Tbsp. sugar

Brown beef and onion. Add all other ingredients. Cover and simmer awhile-the longer, the better.

Up North....

This weekend John and I made a quick trip "up north" to winterize some things at our cottage. We left on Saturday afternoon and were back home Sunday afternoon. It always amazes me how different we can live at the cottage with just the two of us....instead of the six of us... We got dinner at our local convenience store. They have the best deli!! Broasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw! and when we were done, we just threw it all away....no dishes!! While we were eating dinner, I looked out the patio doors and saw this little guy meandering down the fairway. He just kept looking at us.....
John did the winterizing.....packing away all of the patio furniture, grill and ran all of the gasoline out of the mower.....
I tidied up the house and ran the vacuum....here's how it looked right before we left.....
We had the best trip home.....listening to the Packer Game and chatting away....

This and That....

Here are a few leftover photos from the week. Here are Luke and Anna at the Pumpkin Farm....too bad we only stayed for 15 minutes....lines were too long for tickets to the corn maze.

and here's the latest rage at our house.....building card pyramids...Anna built this one...
Here are Ben and his friends being silly before the dance....

Dog Party

Many people ask me what I do all day now that the kids are in school. Well, here's just a sample....I met some friends at the park with their doggies the other day. Everyone had a blast...the dogs played, sniffed, fetched the ball and pottied. The Moms talked, bonded and laughed...A LOT!!! Here are the 4 doggies....Bentley (black lab), Champ (golden retriever), my Bella (yellow lab) and Minnie Moo (Yorkie in the pink argyle sweater). It was cold!!! Oh, and yes, I have a fair bit of laundry to do that keeps me busy too....

Wordless Wednesday....Keeping Warm...

Rite of passage....

It was a momentous day on Sunday. Luke was taught how to mow the lawn! That big green machine is kinda tricky, but we felt that he was old enough to handle it. John made sure to cut the dangerous hills and the sharp turns and Luke mowed the straightaways.....and LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!

Homecoming Weekend....

Saturday brought cold temps and a soccer game in the morning. Gma and Gpa invited us over for a nice, WARM lunch....what a treat!!! While we were there we watched this team win.....
Later Saturday night, Ben got dressed up......(& wore his Dad's shoes, I might add)

had a few buddies over for dinner and went to the dance as a big group.....safety in numbers, ya know.....
Sunday we went to a pumpkin farm where Anna said she had a sore throat and a headache. She ended up here all afternoon.....after reading her new book, of course.

Recipe

Here's a recipe for my favorite fudge....My Mom makes it at Christmas time, but personally, I could eat it year 'round. It was originally my Grandma Jeane's recipe (My Dad's Mom) Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Fudge
3 cups of sugar
3/4 c. butter or margarine
5 1/3 oz. can evaporated milk (2/3 cup)

Heat the above ingredients to boiling. Cook to 240 degrees on medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the following:

1 cup peanut butter
8 oz. jar of marshmallow creme
1 tsp. vanilla

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Let cool.

Here's a picture of my Mom doing a little cooking in her "new" kitchen...

The "Preppie" Brothers

It's homecoming week at our high school and each day has a different theme. Tuesday was "Preppie/Argyle" Day, so the guys drove to Good Will and bought some very preppie attire. Here they are before they left for school....I think they look very nice.. I personally like the preppie look....OK, the hat is a little much =)

Wordless Wednesday...Ben the goofball

Birthday Party

What would you do with 8 eight year olds at a birthday party??? Well, we took 'em swimming.....
Here are the handsome lifeguards....

We let them play for a little while....
Anna opened some presents....oh yeah!!! I think she secretly likes playing teacher with her friends...see how she sits above them? She would show them every card and present....

and of course we had some yummy DQ ice cream cake....watch out for that blue frosting...it makes your teeth turn blue!!!!

Weekend

The snow flurries started on Saturday just as we had gotten home from Anna's soccer game....boy did we pick a good weekend to work concessions...IT WAS COLD!!

But the furries didn't stop Luke from going to the mall and modeling the latest "winter look" from the GAP!! I guess Andrew and Luke got a little bored waiting for Ben to try some things on in the dressing room....
Saturday night was a perfect night to have a fire in the fireplace....
and watch this team win.....
Sunday was an afternoon of celebration, as Anna had a few friends over for a little belated birthday party fun!!!

Lots of giggles and squeals were had by all!!