what we say / what kids hear

there was alot of talk of "Mississippi" throughout the course of our trip. the people we were house-sitting for were going to Mississippi, and we also saw the Mississippi River. one day, after returning from a grocery trip to town, i was talking with Levi and he asked, "did you go to Mrs. Sippy's house?"

i laughed hard.

picasa slideshow of our trip

fishing flip-flop

in my last post i stated that levi was not all that interested in fishing... but that was before the boat! sunday afternoon, he and kevin (our neighbor) spent hours fishing from the rowboat, and levi caught 6 bluegill! on our way home last night, he asked matt, "daddy, can we go fishing tomorrow?" miriam was preferring to stay on shore and catch frogs.

dogs, bats, and fish

we are currently spending a long weekend in western/central illinois, house-sitting and dog-sitting with our neighbors at a rural 30 acre property. yesterday we did some historical sight-seeing in a nearby town, mark twain's boyhood home. we toured a cave which twain references in his tom sawyer story. it was cool... except for the BATS! (note to self: caves=bats.) i saw a couple flitting above us when we first entered, and our tour guide was like, "oh, don't worry, they know where they're going... they keep to themselves... they don't like light and noise." then later, after one flew directly at my face, he added, "oh yeah, they like to dive-bomb us sometimes." thanks for that!

there is a pond here on the property and our neighbor has been teaching miriam and levi to fish. levi gets bored with it quickly but miriam loves it. she is our little naturalist.

walking dance party

not sure how much i will be able to blog over the next few days, so thought i'd leave you with some quality entertainment in the meantime. this is taken from a "French Idol" audition, and i think it's awesome. my personal favorite part is when he throws in a little Usher (any other Usher fans out there...willing to admit it, that is?) perhaps if you enjoy this one, i'll share a flute beat-boxer next week. (or you can look up his rendition of "Super Mario Brothers" on YouTube.) :)

sos/18,19

this summer we celebrated our second annual levi and miriam days. since all of our kids have winter birthdays, when it is harder to come up with special things to do, we decided last year to begin a new tradition of each of the kids having a special day with daddy sometime during the summer. they talk about it and look forward to it all year long. the constants for the past two years have included an overnight campout in the backyard and a trip to craig's cruisers to ride the go-carts. we also try to include something special according to what each of them love. if you know us or have been reading this blog for long, you know that miriam's passion is animals (esp. dogs and horses) and levi's is cars and trucks. a friend of a friend hooked us up with some horseback riding for miriam, and levi got to attend a huge car show. but i think their favorite thing about their special days is the one-on-one time with their dad.

sos/17

a few weeks ago, grandma & grandpa D were up visiting for a couple of days. now that i think about it, i am finding it a bit odd that i have no pictures of them, yet i have a picture of this heron taken while they were here. hmmm... it was nice, though, to have them give me a bit of a break from the kiddos, and i know the kids loved having them here. one afternoon, i got out alone with my camera and saw this guy flying over zeeland, so i followed him. low and behold, he made his landing right in the pond behind matt's work, and i was able to sneak up on him and get a quick photo.