Pictures of Monkeys playing on our trip to Grandma & Grandpa's in Michigan.

Lots of parks, lots of water, lots of playing at Grandma's!

We had a birthday girl in our house last week! Here she is with her "cake" of fudge (Thank you, Grandma!) and two old friends.

Among her gifts were a new backpack and umbrella for school, new Little House on the Prairie books, and the Tales of Beetle the Bard (aka. Harry Potter Fairy tales). It was a good birthday!

Alia orchestrated a pretend picnic while we visited some old friends on Monday. Tanner (in the dark blue socks) was the destroyer and Elena one of two pretty princesses. We love impromptu visits with old friends!









Isn't this a pretty picture! I can just imagine how strange it is to see a drawer of eating utensils in my blog! Imagine my surprise then, when I noticed a box in the clean garage (Thank you, Martin!), opened it and found stainless steel utensils!!!!

Do you know how long Martin has been trying to get us to purchase new utensils?!? And there they were! Thank you to Grandma or to Joannie--however they came to be at our house--we are grateful for them!

Tonight marked the beginning our local County Fair. Alia was asked to step in at the last minute and serve as a "page" for one of the Queen contestants.

Here she is making her curtsy and presenting the contestant a flower.

Alia did a great job--both with her part on stage and with sitting patiently through the long evening. The contestants all did a great job and it was a fascinating experience to participate in the "show".

Alia has completed three projects for the fair this year--two posters and one sewing project. Good job, Alia!

These are the good moments: one 4H sewing project completed!

Alia has learned to used the sewing machine. She can thread the machine, do straight stitching, do zig-zag stitching, cut out fabric, etc.

Congratulations, Alia!

It's Sunday night and we needed something calm to do. Out came "Guess Who". The boys are a team and the girls are a team. The boys are doing a great job of working together. The littlest girl is making teamwork a challenge for the bigger girl. Ahh, the joys of being three!