Boys being boys

This is the boys mega-sized "sand-box".  The huge dirt hill/cliff in our driveway has brought hours of fun.  They've carved out roads in the side, dug deep holes with diggers, and so much more. Recently a few older metal toys were reconstructed, the digger Jake is using had a new bigger digger put on it.  The kids were thrilled when their daddy fixed up some of the toys and made them like new again.  Such a sweet daddy they have =)  Love how despite a 7 year age difference these two often times play together.  So thankful for this. ♥

Emily is 9

 

Happy Birthday Sweet Emily! 

I hope you have a super fun birthday =) 

You have been counting down the days for the last few weeks and are SO excited! 

You are turning into such a sweet, thoughtful girl.  You are always looking for ways to help, and many times you help do chores without me even asking you. 

You love to read, which I am SO glad that you do!  You love being outside playing, you have a wonderful imagination and I love hearing and watching you play with your favorite toys----horses, of course =)

 

We love you tons! 

Are you sure?

If you know James, you know that he is almost CONSTANTLY talking.  Seriously.  ALWAYS.  So I had to laugh when I saw him playing with this tape measure and just talking away.  I knew I needed to get a video.  Well, this video is so not how he normally acts, it's just too funny.  You'll see what I mean =)

our travels

 outside story time with Gramma Ruth

 A "bozer" as James calls it =)  A BIG hit

 James favorite truck...This thing was drove EVERYWHERE!

 Basketball game with Grampa Rowe & Jacob & Meri pedaling

 Fishing

 Dipping in toes--that's as far as we went.  The ice had just gone off 2 weeks earlier, so it was still very cold.

 Belated birthday for Mom

 Fire, with cute fire coats on=)

 Kicking back eating a s'more

Fishing...waiting

 Bingo with Gramma Ruth

 Biking on their road system Meri drew.

 She wanted to go higher

 Us, Sunday AM

 A walk out to the old fishing pier.  This used to be the Minocqua bridge many years ago--before my time

Grampa Rowe & Gramma Ruth with the kiddies.

Rocks?

Getting in a snuggle with his favorite puppy pal....

We were making brownies this morning, and little boy pulled up his stool by the mixer to "watch" aka pick out of the batter bowl ;-) 
I added the flours/cocoa mix.  He said Mmmmmm.  Then I added the mini chocolate chips and chopped walnuts from a bowl.  "Mom, are those rocks??"   It just cracked me up because earlier in the day he'd found someone's stash of "pretty rocks" smuggled in from outside. He put a few in his mouth and scared me...
Anyhow, just wondering what he's thinking....well, if mom bakes with rocks, why can't I eat them???  Oh, that boy causes quite a few chuckles around here =)