Ben and Mr. Squirrel

Found this picture of  Ben eating a blue sucker.. We are at Gay Mills, Wisconsin visiting the apple orchard and buying apples.. It was a great day and we had a fun day..Ben is with his Dad this week=end camping with Jo Gram his other Grandma.. I talked with her today and she said that she got Ben to practice making his letters.. Upper Case and Lower Case..  Then they went for a bicycle ride on the trail.. He loves to do that.. Hope he has a good day at school tomorrow.. 

Look at this squirrel stretching to get to the grape jelly... I'll bet his lips are going to be purple..and his paws sticky sticky sticky.. I'm sure he will groom himself later.

 Look at this fatso~! Now he is draping over my bird feeder gobbling up the black oil sunflower seeds.. I always say if you feed the birds be ready to feed the squirrels.. They are such hogs..

 I opened the window and yelled "HEY".. He went to the tree and then he kept a watch on where he had been.  

Then we had a stare down to see who would leave first.. I stood my ground and looked him eye to eye and he watched me waiting for me to leave ... I finally left and decided to see what he would do next.. Yep you guess right he was back to the grape jelly.. 
Had a great day today.. Went to church and cleaned out my Sunday School room . There was a lot to throw away.  It looks so much better..  My friend Holly is helping me teach... She does one month and I'll do the next one.. We have 3rd graders to 5th..  Came home and watched the Ryders Cup Golf Tournament.  Was so proud of Zach Johnson the pro golfer from Iowa.. He did a great job even thou U.S.A. lost and Europe won..
      Time for the Amazing Race on TV and then do my Bible Study for Tuesday . Have a great Sunday evening.. ta ta for now from Iowa:)

Fall has arrived~!

 Crisp morning of 46 and the sun is shining so brightly. The Green Ash Tree is bright yellow this year.. The leaves on the trees have never been so colorful as they are this year.  I just love fall with the air so clean, no humidity and ending the day with it being so warm.  It could stay this way until next March.. I know I'm living in the wrong state.   But I do like all the seasons that we get to have here in Iowa.. I really do like the snow which I hear this winter according to the Farmers Almanac we won't be seeing much snow.. It worries me a bit as the Mississippi River is shrinking and the creek behind our property is not flowing anymore.. This creek always has water in it regardless how dry it has been. We are in a severe drought here in our area and I was hoping for lots of snow to replace what we lost this summer.. Now I hope our well holds up and it doesn't dry up.. That won't be nice..

Took this picture of Mr. Squirrel hanging upside down on the bird feeder. He found the bowl of grape jelly the Orioles had and they left and the hummingbirds left and now I guess he thinks it's his turn.. Sorry the picture is not closer, took it with my phone..  I only have 1 squirrel and he gets fed well. Today I'm going out to the corn field and gather corn and put it in a big plastic tub and store in my garage.. That way I'll have it for this winter and Mr. Squirrel won't go hungry.

Ben decided to climb trees again and he is getting to be quite a climber.  He needs a tree house like his Mom had when she was his age.. She pretty much lived in the trees to read books, do her homework, play with her dolls..
Yesterday Ben came home from school and said he got in trouble.. He called his teacher stupid and told some girl she was a fart.. Boys and their language..He doesn't like to do the lower case alphabet and refused to do his work at school.. So his teacher wrote in big letters..HOMEWORK on the top of the page.. So he called her stupid.. When I brought him here I tried working with him and he just broke down and cried. I had made oatmeal raisin cookies and told him we needed a cookie and milk break.. and gave me some time to talk with him and get.the primary paper that I had bought that has the dotted lines to divide the upper case and the lower case letters.  I gave him a sheet and I took one.. I had him watch how I was making the letters, and told him to  make the same letter on his page. We went one letter at a time.. It worked and we got his HOMEWORK all done..  I think he was just having a hard time knowing how to make those letters and putting them in order.. Later I got out some computer paper and showed him how to put tempera paint in the middle of the folded paper and then smash it together.. I was showing him what symmetrical was and he was so excited to see what the design would be when the paper was unfolded.. I told him we would let it dry and the next time he comes we can take scissors and markers and make something out of what we might see  in the design..  He said the one looked like a 3 eyed monster.. I have colored paper and we can glue our designs onto the paper after we cut them out and use markers to draw on them.. Should be fun on Monday after school.. I pick him up at daycare pretty much everyday after he is dropped off after school and bring him to my house so I can play with him until one of his parents comes pick him up at 5 or 5:30.  We always have a good time when he is here and I like it because I get to see him once a day.. Wish my other grandchildren lived close to me so we could have more time to be together..I'm sure their parents would like that too..  Have a great Saturday ~ ta ta for now from Iowa:)

The Last Hummingbird of the year

 Ben loves this monkey playground equipment.  My kids (4) used to play on this ~ when they went to elementary school. It has been moved to a little town South of where we live.. Whittier, Iowa.. It is now at the Community Building in Whittier.. He loves to climb on this and pretend he is Spider Man.

This is the last HURRAH of fall~!  This little guy has been here all summer and he was drinking up the sugar water a lot for the last 5 days.. More so than all summer. He must be getting filled up to fly south.  I think hummingbirds are so sweet, even thou they territorial and they dive bomb at each other fighting for the feeder.. I have 3 feeders out and one jelly feeder which they really went for a lot.. I had 5 hummers this summer and now I have none.. they have all gone south.

I think he is posing for me.. WOW what a little bird and so entertaining.

Look at the fiqure 8 movement.. the tail all spread out and his landing gear up ready to land on the feeder. 
Hummingbirds are a wonderful bird to have in your yard..
Thanks Be To God~! 

Planting Tulips~~!

Ben was here at my house on Saturday and I had bought tulip bulbs to plant.. He was so excited.. He went to the shed and got the shovel and I got the garden hose and the bone meal.  He helped dig the holes. It was pretty hard digging as we are in a drought.. We managed to get 12 holes dug and Ben put them into the hole after I added the bone meal. Then we added water as the package suggested.. He loved it~! 

Here he is being so silly.. He is hugging the shovel..and telling me "I Love This Shovel"..
Silly boy~!

Ben the water boy.. We had a great time outside and we put small sticks as markers to mark the spot where the bulbs are planted. It will be fun this Spring when we see sprouts springing up  and the tulips bloom.  They are going to be pink.. I love pink tulips..












 

We came inside ~ washed out hands and ate supper and then we got his newest lego's out that his Mom had bought .  He love lego's.. He was very happy with his boat , it even had a shark.. We had a great day and his Mom came and picked him up and took him home..  Kisses and Hugs~!
Have a Great Sunday....ta ta for now from Iowa:)

Blowing bubbles and Baby Kitties~!

It was such a nice day , I picked up Ben early from Day Care and brought him to my house.  We went outside and he had fun blowing bubbles.. The wind was just right that the bubbles went into the air and floated really high.. He laughed and thought that was so fun.. HE made some really big bubbles. I love how his lips are blowing on that small hole of the bubble maker.

 We went over to my friends house, Caroll to look at her baby kitties.. Here is Ben holding the MaMa.. kitty.. MaMa Kitty had 10 kitties and they are all in a big basket in Caroll's garage..

 He is holding one of the kitties and is being so careful.. He liked the grey one and wanted to take him home. I said, "Rocco your dog doesn't like cats and that would not be a good idea".. He said "O.K".. then he asked Caroll if he could come over and visit them as they grew up.. He loves cats.. He has a cat that lives at his Dad's house .  His cat is a large yellow cat named GoGo. It used to be named Jacob, but he has a good friend named Jacob and changed the cats name..

He said if he had this cat for his own he would name it Blacky.... He was so proud to be able to hold these kitties.
He said this kitty was a Halloween Kitty.

Yesterday afternoon after we got home he was going to help me feed the birds.. I was in the garage getting a bucket of Black Oil Sunflower Seed.. I came out of the garage and was able to see that a Huge Black Walnut fell out of the tree where Ben was standing.   It landed right on his right shoulder.. He was so surprised.. He said "GranAnnie something or someone just dropped this big green ball out of this tree and it hit me on the shoulder.."  He was rubbing his shoulder and said it hurt really bad.. I told him that the squirrels have been collecting food for winter and that it was probably a squirrel that had that big walnut in his mouth and couldn't hold it anymore and dropped it .  I told him he was just in the right spot to be hit with that walnut.. He said lets get a ladder I'm going up there and swat that squirrel... I just laughed and told him how fast squirrels were and we would not be able to get near him..  I walked over to where the walnut tree is and showed him all the walnuts on the ground and all the ones that were hanging in the tree.. Ben said " Well, lets not stand here, you well get hit with a lot of them"..  So we went into the house and played Old Maid.. He loves to play cards..
Have a great day~! Ta Ta For Now ~ from Iowa:)

Glorious Morning ~! Thanks be to God~!

      I took a picture of the Sedum last night while the sun was setting.. I just love the lovely pink that these Sedum's are in my garden.  

I have a wooden barrel that I have these flowers in and I think they are so lovely.  I gave them some vitamins this summer and I think it helped along with watering them regularly since we had little rain.. I gave them three of my Vitamins that I use..Once a year I give my houseplants my vitamins that I take and they just love it~!  They get so green and healthy looking.

I saw this one in my garden this morning. I forgot that I even planted this one.. Course I don't remember what kind of plant it is ,,,anyone help me? I just thought what a beautiful flower this plant has..:)

I love this plant.. It starts blooming in the Spring and it is still blooming... It's really quite pretty.  I'm sure I well have to be careful because it will spread..Wonder who would like part of this plant..?
It's Sunday and another beautiful fall day.. Church was wonderful and I loved the praise singing....
Have a tiggeriffic day~!  ta ta for now from Iowa:)

Hiss ~Hiss~ Honk ~ Honk~!~!

 These pictures are a little dark.. They are pictures of four geese.. Every Thursday evening I go to the neighbors house to meet with some ladies that like to sew. They bring all kind of projects and work on them while we are there.. It's a great evening of sharing , laughing and fellowship.. Sharon who has this sewing group at her house has lots of animals.. Geese, Turkeys, Guinnea's, horses, cows and lots of cats and 3 big dogs.
I'm working on a rug (locker hooking rug).  Sometimes I knit .  Sharon serves tea and usually makes something really delicious.. So far I just love her lemon cake.. Yum Yum~!
When I left last Thursday evening ~ these 4 geese were laying on the dogs pillows on Sharon's porch..  I just laughed because the dogs were trying to go to bed for the night and the geese wouldn't give up the pillows.. I got out my phone and started taking pictures.. Didn't take them long to get up off their pillows and start hissing and honking at me.. I went in and got the girls and told them they needed to come out and take a look..  It was fun to watch them.. Sharon has them all named and she was talking to them.. Ha Ha..~!

This morning the sun is coming up brightly and you can see the shadows of the hummingbirds fighting over the bowl of grape jelly I have set out for the Orioles. Boy they are just swarming all around above that bowl.. I have 3 hummers this year. I didn't know they liked grape jelly.  Won't be long and the Orioles will be migrating along with these hummers.   It's fun this morning to watch them try and get to the bowl that has the jelly.
Going to be a easy Saturday today.. Have to get a few groceries and then the rest of the day is to do whatever I want. Was busy this week volunteering at the school with the 2nd graders. 3 days this week.  They are so much fun to help with their spelling and math. Plus I get to go down the hall and peek into Ben's Kindergarden class and see how he is doing. I can see him but he can't see me.. He was coloring retangles and squares when I saw him last..
Have a great day~! ta ta for now from Iowa:)

Sunday I went to Tracie's house to play with Ben. We went outside, his favorite thing to do.. He decided to climb some trees. Oh such fun he had with getting into these trees and going from branch to branch.. We tried out 5 different trees.. I have so many pictures to show I decided to show just one.  He is such a strong boy that he had no problem going higher into the tree until he saw this huge black bug that was at least 2 inches long.. He got excited and started coming down the tree and then MUSH  he stomped onto the bug with his foot.. The bug didn't have a chance.. It was fun watching him in these trees. His mom when she was younger would climb the huge pine trees we have on the farm.. I told him he needed a tree house.  He said "Call Uncle Rich ~ he has a good one at his house".. Maybe he can build me one.. I said "Good Idea"...

Here is Ben riding his bike after the tree climbing.. He was tuckered out so we went inside to have a bite to eat..

Ben came over last night and Grandpa Dee Dee and Ben was playing a game on my Kindle Fire.. Where's my water?.. He loves to play this game.. I just had to laugh, both boys have their mouths open.. When Ben and Dave are working on something they have to focus on~ their tongues wag back and forth across their lips.. Don't  see Dave's tongue but I can see Ben's..

Every Tuesday and Friday I go to Springville School and volunteer in the 2nd grade class..The teacher since school started has had a butterfly project for science..The caterpillars arrived the first week of school in August. She put Malva in the bottom of these little cups  for the caterpillars food and placed the cap on top.. Then the observation started.. The kids learned the life cycle of these Painted Lady butterflies.  On the 7th of Sept. all the butterflies came out of their chrysalis and were flying around the butterfly tent house.

It was so fun to see the kids all excited  seeing their butterfly flying around. They had them all named..
On Tuesday , Sept. 11 I helped the teacher take the butterfly's tent house outside.. It was the big day for them to be set free.. I took a picture of two of the children's drawings that they had drawn in their books.. (not allowed to publish their pictures) I thought  their drawings were so good.. So I asked them if I could take a picture of their drawings and ta da here they are.. So glad they said Yes.. Have to be careful now a days.. There are 21 children in this class.  I really enjoy volunteering at the school and I just love 2nd graders..They are still eager to learn and they are so sweet.
Today was a beautiful sunshiny day..Tomorrow is going to rain ~ we need rain~!~!  Have a great day and ta ta for now from Iowa~!

Apple's Galore~!

Yesterday Dave , Tracie my daughter and grandson Ben and I went to Gays Mills, Wisconsin to the apple orchards.. There were a lot of orchards to see. I was surprised to see that the apple trees are not very big.. But they were loaded.with lots of apples.
     We stopped at this one market and went inside. Ben was so excited.  We looked around and then decided we needed a cart to put our apples into so we could buy them.  There was this one area where we could sample all the types of apples that were on sale. Ben liked the Honey Crisp apple the best. Of course they were the most expensive.. But Tracie and I shared the cost and bought one bag.. He has his arm around the bag of apples we bought..

After we bought our apples we went outside and saw this display of  swings made out of rubber tires.. There were tractors and horses.. Ben liked the tractor the best.  A little girl came by with her family and they were swinging and their tractors collided.. They thought this was so fun. So they had a tractor collision each time they went back and forth.. with their swinging.
There were a lot of people there today beings it was a really nice day.. I don't think it got up to 70 today.The last week-end of Sept. will be their Apple Festival. I can't imagine being there at that time.  Lots of traffic and lots of long lines to buy your apples..

There was an area where they had huge pumpkin patches and along side the edge of the patches were these pumpkin people.. Ben thought this one was pretty funny.  He said "It's a bad guy".. look he stole the money."  So of course we had to get a picture.

He loves to roll down the hills . He must of rolled down this hill at least 20 times.. Sometimes he would get up and be so dizzy.. He would laugh and laugh and go right back up and do it again.. Made me dizzy just watching him..

Here we are in the car going home.. Within 15 minutes he was asleep.. I just love to see sleeping children.. They look so sweet. I love Ben's blond hair. It"s so white.. We had a great day and Ben had a 2 hour nap.. I asked him if he wanted to go to the Apple Orchard tomorrow and he said "GranAnnie it's too far to ride in the car".. "Not tomorrow maybe another day"..
Have a great day~!  ta ta for now from Iowa:)

Ben at Old Theshers Reunion

I know it's Wednesday and I still want to show some of the things we did at Old Theshers Reunion.
IT was a fun filled day from the beginning to the end..

After we were at the shoot-um up gunslingers show we visited the jail.. Of course you have to get a picture. Ben thought it was so cool to be in the jail with his Mom.  I love 5 year olds. They are so naive and gets a thrill out of the silliest things.. I started keeping a journal of all our adventures and now all the funny things he says.. Last night we passed by Subway Restaurant and he said "Subway has 6 letters ".  Then he tells Dave and I that 2 +2 = 4 and 4+4 = 8.. So he is getting aware of numbers which doesn't surprise me.  I think putting projects together with Lego's has helped a lot.. He has most of the City Legos and puts them together in a short time.. Last night we worked on the Police Dog Van and he had it put all together in less than an hour..  I think Lego's are such a great thing to put together..I even enjoy putting them together myself..

You can hardly see him sitting on top of this caboose he is so small.. He loved riding on this big steam train.
It was a good time to ride around the outer circle of the grounds and Ben said this was is favorite part of the show..

EXCEPT for finding a Popgun in Museum B  this was the best.

HE was one excited boy.. Every boy and some girls I suppose wants one of these.. He had such a great time with shooting it at the show.. See the purple rabbits foot around his neck?  When we were at pioneer village he had to buy one for himself and one for me.. He smelled it and he said "GranAnnie this smells like cow poop~!".. The people around us just laughed.. He was right they did smell bad.  When we got home I sprayed them with Frebreeze.. that helped..  When leaving Pioneer Village we rode on my favorite Trolley Car.. They bought it from Australia.. Ben thought it was scary at first because he was riding on the outside and he hung on tight to the pole.. He looked down at the ground and he said 'That ground is going fast".. We had a great time while at the O.T. Reunion...Ben said he wants to come back next year.

Have a great Wednesday and ta ta for now from Iowa~!

Old Threshers Reunion 2012 in Mt. Pleasant Iowa.

Went to Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa with Ben , his Mom, Tracie Pa Pa Dee and of course me.   It was a sunny day and ready for the excitement of the show...We first went to the North Village where they had a shoot em out with gunslingers.. Ben was afraid they were going to shoot him.. I told him that the bullets were fake and it was just a act.. Like being in a play.. The guns were loud and Ben had a great time watching them.. They gave away money afterwards and he was able to get one.. Just one because all the other kids were grabbing up as much as they could.. He said those kids are grabbers.. It was fun to watch~! 

After watching the shoot em up show Tracie and Ben stood behind The Golden Sipper  sign and put their heads into the cut out circles and I told them to say "Cheese".. Whoever started that saying?  It was fun to watch Ben stand on the barrell that was behind the sign and he loved it~!  We had attented this Reunion since 1976.  It has gotten bigger and better. We have many great memories of going almost every year.

Ben wasn't sure about riding on the carrosel on this horse.. He said he thought he was going to fall off.. He said GranAnnie ~ did you look under the carosel and see how it is run?  There is a belt that goes from the center of the carrosel and attaches itself to a gas engine on the side..There's a lever that the man pulls and makes the carrosel stop and start.. Only Ben would notice how it works. After he got started the ride got better and he smiled and waved..

We had a great long day and I'll post more pictures tomorrow.. Everyone who lives in the area should go and visit the Old Threshers Reunion.. IT's one of the largest Steam Engine Shows in the U.S.   There is so much to see and do you can't see it all in one day.

Ben just called me and said "GranAnnie when are you coming over?"  I said I'm coming Ben.. for another adventure .  So Have a great Labor Day`!  Ta Ta For Now ~! from Iowa....

Lots of excitement at my house...

Ben has started Kindergarten now and he is so excited.. He loves going all day to school now and is doing  really good..  There are 31 in the Kindergarden class and they are divided up into 2 classes.  I volunteer at his school and I'm helping  the 2nd graders in Mrs. Wittenburg's class.. this is my second year helping her.. Mrs. Wittenburg is a wonderful you lady and a great teacher.. She is 52. She went to school with my oldest son.  

I go twice a week to help her and she is so grateful that I come and help her out.. It's so rewarding .              

This is 11 out of 17 Quail that come to my feeder every morning and they come back in the evening.. Last fall the neighbor bought 50 of these little guys and let them loose.. I was so happy that 17 of the little babies that were born this Spring came to my 40 acres to live.. My husband, Dave and I call them "The Kids".. They are so sweet .  When they get older their song will be 'Bob White".. I can hardly wait.  It's been fun to watch them come twice a day.

I woke up this morning and looked out into the yard..What a surprise ~!  Two baby fawns..They were eating the grass from our yard.. It's so dry here and the corn is dying because we haven't had rain for so long.. 

Thanks to the hurricane Isacc we are going to get some rain tomorrow.Yeah..Won't help the crops at all but it will put moisture back into the earth.. This two fawn's stayed in the yard for about an hour . They were chasing each other and having a great time running all over the yard.. 

I know I haven't been writing since March and I'm sorry for that because I feel I have missed so much.  So hopefully I will continue with writing in my blog and start reading all my favorite blogs once again.

Not sure if I like this new look on the blog site.. Guess I need to watch the video to fiqure out how do things again..  Have a great Labor Day Week=end.. ta ta for now from Iowa~!~!