Happy Birthday Mom!

We love you!

Changing Leaves

We could tell that something was afoot this week as our parkway grass was spray painted and marked with the little flags that warn of buried utility lines. We were hopeful that we would get trees, but more concerned that the parkway would be torn up to bury new pipes or something.

I was delighted when the flat bed truck below pulled up to the house.



When we had our other tree cut down this summer our venerable Alderman told me he would get us new trees. He felt he had a bit in his 'budget' that he could spare. (Usually home owners choose parkway trees from an approved list and then pay the costs for the purchase of the tree.) I told him that would be fine, but that we would eventually get new trees in any case. John and I had been debating various tree choices on and off.

I have to say that Peggy and and City of Waukegan made the excellent selection of Autumn Blaze Maples. They are beautiful!

The crew was the same group that cut down our old ones, so it there was a nice symmetry to it all.

The placement of the trees is a bit odd. It really seems like there should be a line of three. Sigh. Give me free trees and I get greedy.

The kids and Mom loved watching the equipment and the workers place the trees. My kids take such delight in everything, much like their Grandma. I hope that never changes.

Cubmobile Races

We had Cubmobile races Saturday at Bowen Park. Cubmobiles are go-carts with brakes that you steer with your feet. Below you can see one of my Tiger Scouts (orange cubmobile) racing an older boy. The course is on a step drive lined with hay bales. The winner gets a blue ribbon and the other boy gets a second place red ribbon. Getting to the bottom without multiple crashes was actually the biggest challenge.

Jay was a bit large for the Tiger Scout Cubmobile. You can see the look of intense concentration. His run consisted of crashing into the other guy, driving into the hay, crashing and locking with the other guy, running into the hay, crashing again and then finally crossing the finish.

Below Jay savors his improbable victory with 5/8's of his den. From left to right Juergen, Jay, Laziah, Manny and Alex.

They had a great time. Afterwards we went to sell Christmas wreaths and garland for the scouts. Sadly, today Jay and I join Rob and Joe in the miserably sick club. Jay has a sore throat and we both have fevers.

Getaway Weekend

We loaded the minivan to the maximum and trekked to Sheboygan for a long weekend at Blue Harbor Resort. Who doesn't travel with kites, pampers, and a walker?

Mom has always loved a good road trip and took the wind from Lake Michigan in stride.

This was our condo complex over looking the lake. Mom and Doug were in the lower right condo, we were in the upper left with Tina, Majid, Matthew, John's sister Bert and Oma.

When we weren't at the water park or visiting with friends we flew kites and watched kite surfers like the one below.

Housekeeping services were lacking so Matthew and Anna picked up the slack.

Of course, the kids love a good jacuzzi.

"Ho, ho, ho!"

We wanted to get a photo of the kids all together by the cool water fountain. Yeah, right.

Ben, doing things his way.

We had a great trip. We spent time with Aunt Marge, Uncle Jack, Amy and Brandon. Brandon even stayed a night at our condo. He is twelve now and just the nicest kid you could have around. We had loads of fun feeding him- Brandon can seriously eat. I suspect he will be 6 feet by the end of 2008.

Crazy Day, week, year

Every year Jay's school has spirit week allegedly to whip the kids into a frenzy for homecoming. I think it's true purpose is to make parents appreciate the uniform code. For crazy Day Jay wanted his hair spikey. After I shallaced it with moose and spray, he decided he hated it.

It actually suited him. Eventually he got used to it.

Ben liked it so much he had me do his also.

Anna wanted no part of the hair product frenzy.

We are off to Blue Harbor for the weekend!