Zoo Trip

Tuesday, Anna's school went to the zoo all day. I decided to meet them there and we all had a blast... Here are some of the girls from her class in the "Dairy" exhibit. (Anna is on the far right.)
Another fun photo....Anna and Hannah on the train that runs around the park. Each student had a chance to ride on the carousel, train and also get an ice cream cone....what a treat!!!!
Oh, and here's just a random photo from this week....Ben as "Pitcher". Grandma's love random pictures, ya know.....

Beautiful Birds....

Living in the country you sure have lots of wonderful birds come to the feeder....Here are a couple of pictures that I captured from our front window..... a nuthatch (below)

This is a Baltimore Oriole.....male (below)

This is the Baltimore Oriole......female (below)

and this was a very interesting shot.......the male oriole was at the feeder and a black bird (grackle)swooped down and got into the picture.....look, he's got a worm in his mouth.....
I didn't get a picture of the lovely (ahem) squirrels that come to the feeder too.......always hungry.

Tennis is done for the year!!

The long weekend

John decided to take a trip to visit his parents this weekend and took 2 of the boys with him. I decided to stay here and watch Andrew's last tennis tournament, which, by the way, was canceled as soon as their bus arrived there because of rain.....bummer. Our weekend was full of relaxation, friends and a movie.

Anna and I went to "Night at the Museum 2" on Saturday with the Zagorski ladies. Madison then came back to play at our house but ended up falling fast asleep while spending time here.
We had fun with Minnie Moo too....can you find her in the sea of Webkins???
After the boys arrived home from Iowa on Monday, John and Anna went back to the garden and planted some potatoes.......they knew it was going to rain tonight......
You NEED to have very stylish gloves to plant potatoes, ya know....that's the secret....

Great Job, Anna Grace!!!

Grandpa Phil

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA PHIL

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Best Buddies

Yes, this is a blackmail photo..... (wink, wink)

BIG and little...or 17 and 7

This is a typical scene from the Peterson home at 6:30 am......The big one is making a sandwich to eat after school (before tennis), and the little one is looking for some waffles in the freezer....
can you believe she eats them frozen?? She's very low maintenance--like most women...

Wordless Wednesday...The Gardener

Gardening.....continued

The day AND the kids were cooperating so we decided to try to get the garden ready for planting. We had the big boys weed a little and then start "turning over" the soil. Ben then came through with the rototiller, which he enjoyed WAY TOO MUCH.....he liked to rev it up!

We ended up planting tomatoes, cucumbers and a rhubarb plant. I will get to the store soon and get the seed potatoes to plant and the green bean seeds will be plopped into the ground too.......We'll have a beautiful crop of vegetables, IF the yellow dog stays out of the garden. (She's "eye-ing it up" already.)

John and Anna were even motivated to plant some flowers in pots and place them on our patio....they'll be beautiful in a month or so.

Weekend Highlights

It was a fun and productive weekend here. My Mom and Dad came up to visit, so we celebrated Mother's Day by taking G-ma out for dinner. Here are the "girls"
At the restaurant, Ben was daring enough to try the strange meat on the buffet......

FROG LEGS!!!!!

On Sunday, it was gorgeous here, so we decided to go out and buy a few flowers and some garden plants. We decided to put people to work and get the job done..... here are Anna and John preparing the soil for the flowers.....

and here's a picture of Minnie Moo's new haircut, which has absolutely nothing to do with the weekend, but I had to share it because, ya know, she's cute....

Sweets for a Sweetie

Anna had a dermatologist appointment yesterday and we were running way ahead of schedule, so I decided to treat her to a Starbucks drink. It's pretty impressive that she could walk up to the counter and order her own "Tall Caramel Frappachino with a cream base."

Back in the day........

A long, long time ago I used to be very coordinated. I could run fast and catch just about any ball that came at me.....then I got "hips." :( This was one of the teams that I played on...."General Electric". Aren't the uniforms SO PRETTY???? Only wish I could remember what year this was....... Can you find me?

Wordless Wednesday....Ben on 1st (School softball team)

A day of GOLF!!!

No, what you are seeing is NOT a mirage.......Jill is actually golfing.......


Some friends and I went golfing today on a par 3 course. Now, we played 9 holes and it took us 3 hours....keep in mind, we skipped 3 holes!!!! We certainly didn't play the best or the fastest game of golf, but I bet we got in the most giggles.

Here are my friends Mrs. Peschek and Mrs. Gainer
My friend, and the best golfer of the group, Mrs. Gruber
and finally my friend, Mrs. Kahn ......and I in the golf cart.....
We had so many laughs, because really, not many of us golf...seriously. At the beginning of the game, we spent time yelling over to Mrs. Gruber saying...."What numbered club should we use?? Should we use one of these big ones or an iron?" She was very patient with us...

A few times, I even saw people throw the ball instead of hit it.....hmmmmm.....

And the times that we "whiffed" the ball...well, we just said that was a practice swing...because we are full of grace, people, don't ya know.

There was some dialogue that went on yesterday that absolutely cracked me up. One lady said "I feel good....I haven't said a bad word once." Another one said "At least I'm not in the sand trap"........we looked around and said "There are no sand traps here....."

and the best quote of the day...."We may not play good....but we LOOK good!!!"

Here I am ringing the bell, signaling the last hole.....
after golf, we had worked up such an appetite that we had to go out for Mexican food :)


did I mention that this was my best friend on hole # 5??

The day after....

It was a stupendous Mother's Day for me this year..... I sat back in the sun room and scrap booked all afternoon (after lunch at Applebee's) and enjoyed spying in on all of the love that was being put into cleaning my car... Everyone got in on the action......
This guy rode the lawnmower for a few hours and made the yard look BEAUTIFUL.....and then John did the weed-wacking too.....
and let's not forget the delicious pancakes for breakfast.....eww, I hope they remembered to wash their hands......

a great day full of great memories for me.....

Thanks, John, for organizing the special day for me.......