The Whole Family

This has become the family tradition - to get our picture taken on the steps at Grandma and Grandpa's every 4th of July. It's about the only time we get a family picture done! That and Christmas, maybe. If we're lucky and don't forget in the rush and business!

Pictures of Me

I never realized how difficult it would be to actually have myself photographed. I'm always the one with the camera, snapping pictures of the kids, the scenery, the stuff going on. Or if someone else has a camera and takes pictures, I rarely get a hold of them. And, on the off chance I do - I usually don't like the pictures. I always look like I'm about to say something, or I have a finger pointed at a kid, telling them for the 10th time not to climb the ladder to the roof or smear mud on their sibling's head.

Sometimes I give the camera to Colby and tell him it's his turn to snap some pictures of the festivities. And then I remember why that's a bad idea. I don't know how he does it, but he manages every time to take the most unflattering pictures of me.

"Please, Dear, wait till I'm smileeeing." Okay, or not. There's another picture of me looking like I'm talking because, well, I AM talking. That'll look nice in the family album.

So it was really a pleasant surprise when the pictures that my 3 year old snapped of me when we were getting ready to go to the family 5th of July cookout turned out so well. Good Job, Emmy! Good Job!

We spent the 4th going to church, (where the kids were all little terrors) then came home for lunch and naps (which didn't go very successfully, either), followed by some late afternoon book reading by Momma. In the evening we went and had supper with Grandma and Grandpa J and had a great time with Aunt Cheryl's rocket balloons. Afterward we went down the road to visit our friends, B&R, and their 3 kids. We had a nice time, sitting on their porch and the time always gets away from us there. Before we knew it it was 10:00 and time to go! We went back up the road and watched a few fireworks before heading home. Now if someone could just explain how three little kids can go to bed at 11 and still wake up at 7 instead of sleeping in that would be nice!

Kids eating on the porch last night - they were too muddy and dirty to come in and sit at the table and after dinner went straight to the tub! July 3, 2009.

Tent Worm Infestation

This year we've been hit with an outbreak of the Forest Tent Caterpillars, more commonly referred to as "tent worms". I've never seen anything like it! I thought we were having a plague visited on us and all the trees were going to die! But then the news programs seemed to ignore the problem for the most part and I couldn't understand why they were ignoring all of my emails on the subject. Okay, I only emailed them once, but they did ignore me.

What the trees SHOULD look like.


What the trees actually look like this year.

Turns out, this happens in cycles, about 15-20 years in a cycle. The caterpillars come, eat off all the leaves on the trees, then these parasitic (but "friendly") flies come and eat them, leaving us with hordes of flies (called "friendly" because unlike most of the flying things outside in Michigan this time of year, they don't BITE) and trees that struggle to regrow a new set of smaller leaves in order to survive. The outbreak lasts from 2-5 years and doesn't usually kill the trees, just slows down the growth. It's very sad to look at, whole areas of the woods just brown and bare. I personally thought the deadness of winter was long enough! And now I find out there will be a least one more year of this outbreak?! Yuck.


These were the caterpillars I was referring to in a previous post that my kids feel the need to rescue when we go for a walk. I can handle stopping to rescue 5-10 caterpillars, but when the roads are turning brown with their little carcasses and my kids attempt to rescue HUNDREDS of 'em, it gets a little bit tedious!

I don't know what the fall foliage will look like this year, but I can imagine it isn't going to be nearly as spectacular as in years past.

** the pics of worms and flies are from the USDA Forest Service info. sheet.

Dirt Bed

On the other side of the door from that pretty little flower bed is another bed - the "dirt bed". It's edged with pretty round river rocks and will eventually have the most beautiful flowers in it. But for the moment, it serves as the kids' play area. It keeps them close to the house, where I can hear them, and they play for hours, pushing their trucks around and making roads, or carefully excavating their latest discovery of dinosaur bones, or taking bucket fulls of water from the spicket and making mud. There will come a day when I look at the flowers in that bed, all mature and full of perennial blooms and wish for the days my babies played in it and kept me from planting those flowers. These years will pass so quickly.

Found in the Dirt Bed: one VCR/TV remote (which thankfully does still work), one sand shovel, and one weird little green guy half buried. June 25, 2009.