Attached at the Hip

My parents and my 12-year old nephew Jacob (Bill & Bridgett's son) came to spend the weekend with us.  Michael was ecstatic that we were getting visitors. Jacob provided all the attention for Michael, and quickly Russell and I (and my parents) were just an afterthought in Michael's mind.  


Michael was attached to Jacob's hip (I mean literally attached)...the entire weekend.

They enjoyed the cold water at the beach in the local state park.

They rode the lawnmower together to get the mail.

They had a blast with water guns and water fights.

They roasted marshmallows over a bonfire together.

And when the days were all said and done, Michael would crawl up in Jacob's lap for the evening instead of mine!!!

Thanks Jacob for the great weekend of entertainment for Michael!

The Attractions of an Orange

I cut an orange in half and placed it in the flat wooden bird feeder in hopes of attracting a beautiful Baltimore Oriole.  I didn't attract an Oriole, but I did attract a rose breasted woodpecker who had a feast day on this succulent orange for several days.

Not only did we attract this beautiful woodpecker, but we attracted this character this morning at breakfast time....

After checking out the orange....

...he walked away not the least bit interested (and I later found out why because all of the orange pulp was eaten out by the woodpecker and only the peel was left)

He nosed around all over the yard clearly looking for something to eat.  He walked around the house to the back yard, and came up on the deck to the back door just smelling away.  He saw us looking at him from the windows but didn't retreat at all.  This was a small bear, probably a cub from last year.

Pretty exciting!

Dad's Garden Helper

Exploring the Local State Park

We recently took a trip to the local state park which is about 15 minutes from our house.  It was a beautiful warm spring day...we packed a picnic lunch and our fishing poles and went out for an afternoon adventure.

Michael was all excited to once again get the opportunity to fish.

This was the fishing pier on the lake in the state park

Here are the boys bringing the fishing gear to the pier

Michael enjoying his fishing experience.  Unfortunately, we caught no fish.

We continued on to explore the park, and found a beach area along the lake. 

We found a massive rock along the lake to jump from and take and mom and son photo.

And then we found the beach, the sand, the mud and the water.....

It was so warm and cozy on this beach with the warm sunshine and no wind that I just took Michael's shoes, socks and pants off so he could wade in the water and play in the sand.  He loved it!

The Pizza Priest

Our parish priest, Fr. Mike, made a visit to our home this week to make his infamous south-side Chicago thin crust pizza.  He is known to all folks in town as the "Pizza Priest" and loves to share his delicious pizza with as many people as possible.  He loves to promote his motto of "Food and Relationships" and how food promotes positive and healthy relationships with those that we love.


Now when Fr. Mike said he was coming over with pizza, I just assumed he made and baked them at home and in a 10-minute drive to our home, we would be sitting down to eat warm delivery pizza.  I had a salad and fresh fruit prepared and on the table, ready to go, when he pulled in the yard.  But as he began to remove the items from his vehicle, he came in with two large bags of ingredients (including almost every type of cheese possibly made) and it was then I knew we were making the pizzas at our house!


Fr. Mike is excellent with children, and it's taken a while for Michael to warm up to him.  But each encounter with Fr. Mike softens Michael, and last night was no exception.  Fr. Mike makes the pizza dough and sauce from scratch, and as he began to roll out the first blob of dough, he asked me if I had another rolling pin so Michael could roll out his own pizza crust.  It was such a grand idea, and Michael gladly joined in, took direction from Fr. Mike, and rolled out his own pizza crust.

Fr. Mike brought all of these awesome toppings including sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, whole back olives, and dill pickles (yes, dill pickles....try it sometime...it's delish)!  And in the end I think he put on 5 different types of cheeses!

The pizza was absolutely awesome, and Michael can attest to that because he ate the whole little pizza he made!!  Normally, I'm lucky if I can get him to eat one piece of pizza, whether is a store bought frozen pizza or a Pizza Hut pizza.  His smile says it all....

....and so does Mom's!

Thanks Fr. Mike for the great night of food and relationships!