Praying

We have always said the Catholic mealtime prayer, and Michael has learned to remind us as soon as I set the food on the table that we need to "pray".  He says, "Pray" ... sometimes it sounds like "play", but he immediately folds his hands and we know what he means!  He hasn't learned to sign himself yet, but we'll work on that next.  Here is how he folds his hands to pray.  It is so precious!

Blackberry Picking

This is a boy after my own heart.  If there was one thing my Dad taught me growing up, that was how to pick berries...any kind of berries...strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.  I have discovered that we have an abundance of berries on our property (right along both sides of our 0.2 mile driveway) - especially blackberries.  And this year they are plentiful and pretty good size.  So I take Michael with me for a walk, and we pick berries - together.

We picked a whole bowl the first day...they are so yummy sugared, squashed and poured over vanilla ice cream!

Is There Anything to Eat Around Here?

When Michael is hungry for a snack, and I offer him "10" different possibilities, that is not good enough.  He demands that he gets to survey the refrigerator himself! 

A Morning at the Zoo

There is a zoo near my parents' house that is pretty nice considering it is local and not in a major Wisconsin city.  We decided to take Michael to see the animals.  Now Michael has not been very fond of animals in the past, but he has been warming up to dogs and cats, so Mom went with the expectation that Michael was going to love seeing the animals.  Well....he really could have cared less about the animals and was more infatuated with pushing his stroller around (into other patrons!) and running so far ahead of us that we could barely keep up with him.  It was a frustrating and disappointing adventure for Mom and Dad, but we did get a few shots worth posting.

The giraffe exhibit is so cool.  You walk up on a platform that is at the height of the giraffes and then you can buy some food (leaves) and feed it to the giraffes.  They are so tame that you can pet them!  Michael reached out to the giraffe initially (first photo above), but then got scared and wanted to retreat!



Summertime House Shots

I've posted pictures of our place in the early spring when we bought the place, and then late spring to get a feel of our landscape around the house.  Our place looks so different during each season, so I thought I'd post the "summertime look."  Many of the perrenials are in full bloom right now and aren't reflected in these photos.

Favorite Hat

As I was sorting through Michael's clothes one day, I came upon a hat I bought at a rummage sale last year.  Michael is not much for keeping things on his head including baseball caps or winter caps, so I wasn't sure how he was going to take wearing this one.  I put it on his head and told him he had to wear it to keep the bugs (mosquitoes, deer flies) off his head.  He bought my story and wears this hat now all the time.  He asks to wear it almost every day when we go outside!!  These are two of my favorite shots!

July Visitors

I'm way behind in my blogging, so I'll start with activities that occurred in July.  Our special friends from Indiana visited over the 4th of July (Paul, Marie and Nancy).  We had a great time filled with good laughs, good food, and lots of visiting/activities.  They got a taste of Wisconsin farm life, and a good dose of my immediate family.  The only thing I regret about the visit is the fact that I only got one picture while they were all here!!!!

Nancy would carry Michael on her shoulders and let him pick the crab apples from our tree and go put them in the bird feeder for the birds to eat!

A few weeks later, we had my three nephews (Bill & Bridgett's boys) stay over a weekend to play with Michael and enjoy the outdoors.  The boys' went fishing in our ponds with Russell, and Adam had fun trying to catch the plethora of chipmunks on our property.

We had a bonfire in the back yard and roasted brats over the fire for supper.

Jacob dressed Michael up in his sweatshirt and baseball cap.

And this is Michael's best bud cousin Paul.  Paul is 5 months older than Michael, but Michael towers over him in size.  Michael says "Paul" a million times a week signaling to me that he wants to go by Paul's house to play...too bad we live too far away to go on a regular basis.  When the boys left that weekend, Michael just cried that his playmates left.  He had such a good time!