Breakfast wih Friends

A picture says a thousand words....

Hard Work for Some

On Saturday Paul and I decided to tackle a big project of taking out a flower bed from our front yard. Before we were ready to head out, Rudy went to play in the back yard. It was a hot day and by the time Paul and I headed to the front, Rudy was hot and tired, so we brought out a blanket and some toys and he relaxed (for a while).

We left the bush in the middle but took everything else out. This is in the beginning stages. Rudy eventually decided he wanted to help but kept swinging a shovel around that we had to take away from him. It went from bad to worse and eventually I took him in to calm him down while Paul finished the work (Really, I had done all I could- he had to do the heavy digging. And it ended up working well for him because several neighbors came over and offered tools that helped a lot.)

The finished project- and then Paul bought soil and grass seed and a day later we got rain. So hopefully by spring we will have a nice grassy patch instead of dirt.

A Crafty Afternoon

After school on Friday, Rudy and I went to a local park that had a kids craft class. I convinced him to go because it warned the project might be messy - I was expecting more than just paint, but it was a painting project.
Surprisingly, Rudy didn't complain, since lately he has stated he doesn't like doing art and crafts. He painted a leaf and then made a tree with colorful leaves.

Of course, the most interesting part of the visit was the blue-tongued skink in the cage right behind us!

Crazy Dog

Does this look like the face of a dog who would carry his bone around for 24 hours before finally eating it? All because of a brief thunderstorm that occurred during the time he usually eats his bone?
Well it is.

Babies and Cousins

The second new baby, Charlie, son of Chris and Patti, joined our family this month. On Saturday we went to meet him.
The proud Grandpa (Charlie was given my dad's name for his middle name).

The big sister using a water bottle to 'clean' the outside of the house.

The big cousin who really couldn't care less about the babies.

Charlie again.

Chris, Max, and Rudy riding bikes - one of the few activities that Max and Rudy could agree to do together. They are at a difficult age and haven't been getting along well lately. Both are very opinionated about what they want to do and are not willing to compromise much. Plus, Rudy likes sports, but with his own rules. Max likes sports with the official rules.

Lucy chilling out by the garage.

The bike riders - Max on his with no training wheels!

Rudy riding Lucy's bike.

The proud big brother!

Paige also came to visit - she seemed so big and so much older compared to Charlie; I'm sure that won't last if Charlie is anything like his brother and sister!

The moms switched babies - Renee with Charlie...

Patti and Max with Paige.

Rudy with darts on his head....

Lucy getting in on the act too.

Charlie snuggling with Grandpa again.

We decided to try to get cousin pictures since we were all together. These two were the most cooperative, so we started with them.

The girls together. Rudy and Max wouldn't agree to a picture together so we don't have any of just the boys.

Almost have all five together...

Success! It was amazing it came together so well since we had Rudy and Max not wanting to sit together and Lucy not wanting to be in the pictures.

So then we decided to push our luck and move all the kids over to sit with Grandpa. Success again!

As you can see by the last picture, everyone was full of smiles, and Rudy was actually looking at and touching Paige - progress for a boy who was excited about the baby cousins but barely pays any attention to them once we visit.

Parade and Dedication

On Saturday, September 11, our town had a parade and a dedication of a new mural on the firehouse. The parade was essentially fire trucks and more fire trucks. The route went right past the end of our street - it was really nice to just walk half a block to be there!

Rudy enjoyed the parade, but watched it like this the whole time. He isn't scared, he just seems to be a little sensitive to noises.

An hour after the parade we walked over to the fire house for the dedication - made up of lots of speeches. Rudy sat on the curb and took pictures of the stones.

There were several booths set up with give-a-ways or activities. One was a building project for kids. Rudy (or rather the lady at the booth) made a tool bench. He was more excited about it then he looks!

First Day of School and a Surprise

Rudy has been so excited to start PreK. Today, the first day of school, he was awake and picking out his clothes immediately. I reminded him he had to wear his uniform (he's in a Catholic school - he loves the viking on it), and he happily got dressed. Breakfast usually consists of at least two courses but today he ate just one pumpkin muffin and was ready to go. From the time he woke up, he was completely ready to go in twenty minutes!


Happy PreK kid. Of course, he is already in love with his teacher. She is a first year teacher, pretty with long hair - Rudy's weakness when it comes to women!

The first week of school is half days so Dad and I picked Rudy up and we went to Friendly's for lunch. Dad told Rudy he will take him out to lunch every year for his first day of school.

After lunch, we ran to the library. We were only inside for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a helicopter sitting in the field across the parking lot. The propellers were spinning, so we went over to look.

It seemed like it had landed to pick someone up (maybe a joy ride because it definitely wasn't an emergency of any kind. We watched the pilot get back in the helicopter. He waved at us...

... and then the helicopter took off.

It flew right over our heads and sped off into the sky. It was very cool to see.

So it was a successful first day of school - Rudy had a lot to tell us, and he seems excited to go back tomorrow. What more could we ask for?

A Gorgeous Day and an Itchy Evening

For the last day of our Labor Day weekend, the weather was sunny and warm, so we decided to head to a local park. Here is Rudy wearing my sweater and saying he is ready to go.

We had lunch at a table outside of the nature center and were able to watch the hummingbirds fly around the tree and feeder. They look so different when they are in flight and when they are still!

The dudes enjoying lunch.

Hummingbirds are very territorial and there were three of them flying around the feeder, so they were constantly chasing each other off.

As we started walking on the boardwalk trail, we mentioned to Rudy that we had been here over a year ago. He asked if it was when he was a baby and we told him no, he was about three. Somehow that segued right into, "Aunt Renee didn't have a baby and now she does. how did the baby get in her belly?" Paul and I both got quiet - I think we were both hoping it would be one of Rudy's ramblings where he just keeps going, but it wasn't. We stumbled through a horrible answer and as we looked at each other to figure out how and what to say, I saw this caterpillar and pointed it out. One little boy distracted - and no more questions on that topic! Now we just have to prepare our answer for next time!

The trail was gorgeous.

The dudes on the trail were handsome.

From the recent storms, there were some damaged trees - this one was blocking the path.

Rudy figures out how to get past it.

And arrives safely on the other side.

A sign that another tree had been blocking the path.

Looking for signs of life - we really didn't see any wildlife other than the caterpillar.

A beautiful cedar swamp area; lots of these skinny trees had also fallen down.

A strange knot in a tree - we were trying to figure out what might live in it!

One of the maps showed that the path circled around and we could choose which way to go. We definitely picked the longer way that left the boardwalk and was really a walk in the woods. Here is another tree that had fallen.

Rudy discovered he could climb up the hill and see the remains of a building.

As we got to the halfway mark (about 2 miles at this point), we were at the edge of a river. The dudes took some time to toss some rocks and look for fish.

This was called the Artesian Well. I don't really know what it is, but there was running water and an old structure that looked cool.

I was trying to take a picture of Rudy and he wanted us to put our hand in the water (after he told us how cold it was), so I told him if he'd let me take a picture, we'd touch the water. This is the picture I got - and the water was cold - I'm not sure it was a fair trade off!

Right after this the batteries in my camera died, but the walk back was uneventful and exhausting. We figured that we walked about 4 miles total. Rudy did great; he was just a little tired at the end of the walk, but he didn't complain too much.

As we walked back, Rudy told us his back hurt. We kept looking at it, but didn't see any scratched or bruises. Once we got home, Paul took Rudy, very tired and cranky at this point, up for a bath. He started looking again at Rudy's back and noticed some little marks. As we looked closer, we noticed they were bugs. Somehow, he must have walked through a tick patch; he had probably 30 or so tiny, tiny ticks on him. Paul and I were able to get many of them off, with Rudy being particularly uncooperative, but there were still 10 or more we couldn't get. Paul gave him a bath, hoping maybe they would be easier to remove. They weren't. So, we called the pediatrician and when the nurse returned our call, she suggested everything we had already tried.

The next step was to head to Urgent Care. By this point, Paul and I had been checking ourselves and each other and were both feeling itchy, but we never did find any on us. At Urgent Care (after dealing with insurance issues - don't get us started on that!), Rudy was seen by a doctor who didn't seem to know much about ticks; he said he would have the MA's come in and try to 'scrape' them off. They came in with betadine and the first two ticks came right off - they must not have been embedded because none of the others were that easy. They had to get tweezers and pull each of them off. Rudy was such a trooper - he whined a little, and I do believe it pinched him some, but I think most of the whining was for dramatic flair, and maybe some extra attention! No other treatment was needed after that so we finally headed home - Paul and I even more itchy now. We never did find ticks anywhere else but on Rudy, so somehow he must have walked through a nest of them.
What a fun (ie exhausting) end to a great weekend.