Local firefighters save wilting plants

Unfortunately, the heat is once again taking a toll on the ferns and some hosta plants in our yard. 

Fortunately, two members of the local junior firefighters brigade showed up in the nick of time with their official baseball caps and a garden hose to spray water on the parched plants. 

Unfortunately, the firefighters were exhausted after doing their hard work. You can see it on their faces and in their body language.

Fortunately, just after this picture was taken, the boys enjoyed energy-restoring fruit snacks and Scooby Doo doggy bone graham crackers and were back to their usual level of spunk. Thanks, O and E!

Wonder Pets weekend

Annie, Miles, and Westy were here for part of the weekend, and again I didn't take pictures of things I should have!  Part of that is due to Westy's overwhelming fascination with anything small and electronic. He figured out how to view the pictures on my phone and my camera, which is fine, but some of the other buttons he pushed threatened to erase, delete, dial, and reconfigure various things. I shouldn't worry about any of that, as he likely knows how to restore functions as well! Anyway, Annie suggested I hide all of the small electronic devices in the house so Westy would get interested in something else, and that meant the camera was out of sight and therefore out of mind!

This was a Wonder Pets weekend, as far as photos go. Westy held up each of his three Wonder Pets Beanie Babies, saying "Cheese!" for each one to ensure a quality expression on their inanimate faces. Here we go:

Westy and Ming-Ming, the duck

Westy and Linny, the guinea pig

Westy and Tuck, the turtle

Not to be left out, 'Nina asked to be in a picture, too, so here she is:

In the interest of truth in journalism, I am required to report that 'Nina and the Wonder Pets appear larger as digital images than they actually are in person. Westy modestly stayed in the background while thrusting each of his cuddly pals as close to the camera lens as his little arm could reach.

On Saturday morning while Annie went to try on the bridesmaid dress she'll be wearing in Uncle Will's and Almost-Auntie Anne's wedding, we went to the Blue Park to play. Grandpappy/Lar/Dad and Miles checked out gopher holes on their way through the church yard. Some were so big we were afraid Westy might fall in!

Miles had fun magically changing the play equipment into an ice cream store, a house, a school, and even had us all protect ourselves underneath from the fantasy tornado that was fast approaching. The most fun, of course, were repeated fast trips through the tube slide, and landing on his tushie.

Thanks for the fun at the E and O Potts house this morning. I wish I had taken pictures to discover who ate the most doughnut holes (a.k.a. "balls"). I'm fairly sure it was someone under the age of 5!

This evening we had another black-out experience, sort of. E, E, H, and V called us on Skype, and we could hear them but not see them due to a cyber-gremlin. Hannah wanted to tell us all about her new school supplies for kindergarten. She got out her new backpack to show us, but of course we couldn't see it. Here's where a tech malfunction is trumped by another form of technology:  Elisabeth took a picture of the backpack with her camera and sent it to us within seconds. I held my phone up to our computer camera and Hannah could see that I had a picture of her great new BATGIRL backpack (What else would you expect from Hannah, a.k.a. "Bate-Chica"?!  Here it is....

Kindergarten... I can hardly believe it! I have to think about it for a bit...

In the black of night

Unfortunately I have no pictures to prove it, but I had lots of fun with Miles and Westy yesterday afternoon and evening on a visit to O-Town. Annie was interested in going to an Initial Outfitters party at Sara(h) the hairstylist's house, so I got to play with the boys while she checked out what she could have monogrammed. Flashback:  Our HGE theme for 2011 was Merry Monogram. Too bad the party wasn't held sooner, Annie!

While Annie was down the street finding things to put initials on, Miles and Westy took a bath, and then Miles and I baked chocolate chip cookies from dough Annie bought at Papa Murphy's. Westy passed the time climbing in and out of a mesh laundry basket, getting stuck at one point. Dang, I wish I had pictures!

When Annie got home, we ate warm chocolate chip cookies, read a story, and the boys went off to dreamland. I stayed and yakked a while before driving home.

I got home at 10:30, came in the house, and suddenly everything looked like this:

    

At first I though I'd lost my eyesight, but then Larry/Dad/Paco shared an expletive to comment on the situation. I didn't think there was much of a likelihood that both of us would go blind at exactly the same moment, so I took comfort in knowing it was just an electrical failure. However, there had been no wind and no storm, and there are no above-ground electrical wires to be snapped by falling tree limbs in St. Peter anymore, so there was no reason we could imagine for the darkness. My plan to watch Damages at 11:00 was put on hold, but I had hope that the able repair guys who work for the city would get right out there and fix whatever was broken. No such luck. 

Realizing  that we could be in the dark for a while, Larry located our two Coleman lanterns, and we each used one so we could read for a while.

When we switched off the lanterns, the snoring on Larry/Dad/Paco's side of the bed started up almost immediately. But it was too dark for me to sleep. No streetlights, no moon (I wonder where the moon gets plugged in? Hmmm...), nothing but the glow-in-the-dark numbers on the useless tv channel changer showed up in the bedroom. So I laid there, thinking about the ridiculousness of it being too dark to fall asleep.

At about 12:30 a.m. electricity was restored, and of course the fans, lights, computer, printer, flashing clocks, etc. all started up at once. We haven't heard yet what caused the black-out, but I'm glad it didn't last longer. I had visions of finding water dripping from the frijjer-frijjer and the garage freezer, and a sudden need to grill a couple dozen brats and several pounds of hamburger and invite the neighbors over for supper. I now know that our appliances will keep food cold and/or frozen for at least two hours!

All in a day's work

If you happened to see Angie's tweet and photo entitled "A great day when your jimmy johns order requires a box!", here's part 2 of that scenario...the Jimmy John's boys are making a delivery!

It's a hot one

The best way to prevent heat exhaustion in this prolonged hot spell is to be entertained by little squirts, like the four boy cousins who were around this weekend, and the two girl cousins who were present via Skype and texted photos. Here are some bits and pieces of the weekend...

Miles (and Westy, too) played in the sun room despite the uncomfortable heat. As you can see, Miles is the perfect "summer boy" with his tan, bare feet, and cool appearance. I, on the other hand, looked and felt as if I had spent the day in a sauna in the middle of the desert.

We played up at the Blue Park on Saturday morning. Here, Miles is leading Westy up the church hill. Both of them were interested in all the leaves that have fallen off the tree they are close to. Not a good sign when it's only mid-July.

Miles did some serious climbing, 

...while Westy kept the playground equipment on course 

by steering with great finesse.

Miles pumped his swing up high. Unlike his father, I didn't encourage him to jump out!

 Westy started a stick collection on the way back down the hill. 

He was very proud of the fine twigs he picked up.

Here's Miles, thinking, "Westy, Westy, Westy! What are you 

going to do with all those sticks?"

And here's Westy, squeaking out his plan! (For those of you who haven't heard Weston talk, he sounds like a squeaky little mouse...he's a boy of few words, but he makes each word count!)

It was hot out, but that didn't keep Westy from doing some yard work.

On Saturday afternoon, it was time to cool off in the water. It takes a picture like this one to remind me that Tanner was a lifeguard at the local pool when he was in high school. He's still got the swimming teacher touch, getting Miles to do a relaxing back float. I wonder if any of the girls who used to go ga-ga over the young and tan teenage Tanner were at the pool on Saturday with their own kids!

Annie and Angie with Westy, Owen, and Ethan.

Grandpa Dave stopped by to dangle his tootsies in the water 

and to see the boys.

We had a fun Skype session with E, E, H, and V on Friday evening, and sent some messages back and forth on Saturday. Elisabeth shared these pics of the chicas. Vivi looks happy--check out the big grin around her dooza!

Either Hannah is having a good laugh all by herself or she's reading to the other kids in English and they don't understand her because they're still in Spanish mode!

And here is the last picture, one that cracks me up. Miles took it just before the cousins parted company last night. He brought out the serious look of his subjects. It reminds me of Charlie's photo of E, O, and A on the mean streets of Henderson. I can almost hear gunslinger music.

If it looks to you like the living room walls and E and O's hair have a pinkish tint, they do. I inadvertently had my camera set on the "color swap" feature.

This morning Miles picked out doughnuts (donuts for those of you who prefer the easier spelling) for everyone. We had a doughnut fest at Ethan and Owen's house before the Grimmius bunch headed to Worthington to celebrate Great-Grandma Helen's 90th birthday. Happy Birthday, GG Helen!

Doughnut patrol makes a stop on Church Street

Gpappy/Dad and I were the fortunate recipients of a doughnut delivery this morning. Ethan and Owen, master doughnut delivery guys, stopped by this morning after a ride in their bike trailer.  I missed getting a photo of the trailer, but maybe it will appear on another blog (CP? APP?). While Angie did all the pedaling, the boys kept the doughnuts safe. 

Here they are, two happy delivery boys.

 

Take a look at Mr. Blue Eyes...

and Mr. Brown Eyes!

We all enjoyed doughnuts and a beverage of choice and had a fun visit. Thanks for the nice morning, and for the doughnuts!

Hot enough for you?

Happy 4th of July!  If you live in Minnesota and you haven't noticed, it's HOT. DANG HOT. That's why I'm at home in the air conditioning instead of at the big parade. According to weather.com, it's already 89 degrees (10:30 a.m.), feels like 96, and it's destined for 97 degrees that will feel like 105. What is this? Arizona??  

Apparently Minnesota is too hot for the extended Grimmius family. They're on their way to the Wisconsin Dells, where the heat index will only reach 100 today. I checked Chapel Hill and it's a few degrees warmer than here, but the heat index is the same. I guess we're all in the same boat, as it were.

I started my day with Ethan and Owen, who ate bananas for breakfast to get ready for their first big running race today. Charlie and/or Angie will have more to say about it, and they'll have better photos. I thought this pre-race shot showed the seriousness with which the boys approached their run. You'd think Charlie and Angie had asked them (especially Owen) to walk the plank!