A few of my favorite things

Oprah has her favorite things, and so do I. Here are a few from the last week of September.

Brothers enjoying a fall day in Mark and Christine's personal pumpkin patch

Different brothers discovering a mysterious key...

The same brothers draw-drawing together

  Cousins concentrating on parking cars in the parking garage

Different cousins having a snack together

 

 Two brothers, a four-legged cousin, and a grandpa on a sunny September morning waiting for the Oktoberfest parade to start (yes, Oktoberfest in September!).

Three boys waiting in anticipation for marching bands and candy

 

The smallest boy, Westy, sporting "the Richfield look" while 

sitting on Grandpappy's shoulders at the parade

Four cousins eating lunch together after the parade

(Take special note of the Spring Valley Bakery cinnamon bread!)

Brothers winding clocks with Grandpappy on a Sunday morning

Sisters decked out for Halloween, having a fun weekend 

celebrating Vivi's 2nd birthday with Granmarge

Time to move on to October!

Vivian is 2 today!

Happy Birthday to the littlest girl cousin! 

Lots of love, hugs, and kisses to Vivi!

HB2U ESPD!

Happy Birthday, Elisabeth! 

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with your birthday, but I couldn't resist!

Happy Birthday to Larry/Paco/Gpappy/Dad!

As you can see by his smiling face, Dad/Gpappy is happy to know that at least one set of his grandchildren (and by default, their parents) care enough about him to acknowledge his birthday. Thank goodness, or he'd be moping all day!

Happy Birthday to you, Larry!

Bye-bye French lilac bush

Dad/Larry/Paco did some more plant removal yesterday, this time the French lilac bush planted directly under our bedroom windows. I can't say I'm sad to see it go. It had lovely little lilacs that bloomed in May that gave off a stale perfume smell. It was more tolerable than the feedlot smell that wafts this way on occasion, but not by much. In its place Larry/Paco/Dad is going to plant a Royal Purple Smokebush, which is more maroon than purple. I hope it will grow in that spot. It is fragrance free, much to my delight.

I was doing something inside the house when Paco/Larry/Dad got out the pruning shears. He called to me to come out with the camera so I could document his work. Document his work? For insurance purposes if he pruned something he shouldn't have? For an article he was writing for a gardening magazine? Nope. He thought a record of his work would be a good idea in case I wanted to blog about it. I'm not saying I wanted to blog about it, or that I didn't want to blog about it, but there is only so much a person wants to read (or write) about yard work.

Not quite cool enough for the Working Man's Jacket yet, Annie, but it was perfect sweatshirt weather.

If this series of pictures gives you the impression that Larry/Paco/Dad did all the work and I sat idly by, well... that's exactly right!  (Okay, I helped with some of the clean up. I don't want to be thought of as lazier than I truly am.)

On another note, I picked Ethan and Owen up at Miss Gayle's after daycare today so Angie could get a haircut in Mankato. Angie treated us to Jimmy John's sandwiches for supper, then the little guys took a bath before going home. Here they are in their new pj's, looking cute. 

Something was really funny here... 

The boys were trying to look stern. Good luck with that!

I hope all the cousins are sound asleep and dreaming about puppies, kitties, squirrels, robots, or whatever brings happy thoughts! Smooches all around!

Happy Birthday to Tanner!

I found this picture on my phone several weeks ago. It's a self-portrait, and apparently Tanner planted it so I'd have it for an occasion like this one...

Happy Birthday to you, Tanner!

Mundane yard work

Not much to report today. We've been doing bits and pieces of yard work, and wishing for rain. Everything is so soooooo dry!  Larry/Dad/Grandpappy cut down the three sad bushes by the shed this afternoon, and dug out the roots. In the spring we'll plant some ornamental grasses back there and tidy it up. 

Bushes out; roots waiting to be removed.

 Loading up the car for a trip to the brush pile.

Thanks for taking care of this today, Larry!

PS You may be able to see the cable that is lying on top of the soil in the area where the bushes were removed. I didn't remember this, but Larry/Dad reminded me that after the tornado in 1998, MediaCom ran new cable from the box in the alley up to the house. I do remember that they made a mess around the yard with their randomly laid trench. Apparently, they ran the cable under the area where the bushes were planted instead of around it, and didn't  actually put it INTO the ground. The cable was lying there yesterday, under the black weed control fabric. We dropped our service with MediaCom years ago, so I'm contemplating getting the garden shears out later and cutting off whatever isn't buried!