Our new addition...

...to the yard.  Christmas came to our house early this year in the form of a beautiful Eastern Redbud.  We picked him out last week, after much searching and disappointment from various Ann Arbor area tree hot spots, at Fraleigh's Nursery and they brought him home to us this morning and planted him in the back yard by the butterfly garden.  We are all very excited to welcome him to our terrain, but Calvin especially is absorbed in his presence.  Yesterday we stopped by the nursery to finalize the delivery details and to take some pictures, and during our grocery stop on the way home Calvin told everyone who would listen about his new tree and its yellow leaves (his grasp of language  is such a joy, and I mean that without a single ounce of sarcasm).  His jubilation at the arrival of the "planting men" this morning was equally as uncontainable and we spent the entire half hour outside in the barely above freezing weather watching them dig a whole, mix in dirt and mulch, and plant our new addition; our beautiful new tree.  Thank you Gram and Grandpa!  And kudos to Fraleigh's, where everyone was knowledgeable and helpful.

Who ordered the heat on Labor Day?

If you know us at all then you've probably noticed that we didn't visit the zoo as often this summer as in previous years.   Instead, the majority of our summer weekends and other free days were taken up with house  and garden care, both old and new, and we just didn't get out to visit our animals as often as we would have liked.  We are trying to make up for it now, though, and on Labor Day we took Gram and Grandpa to visit our favorite animals–the  ones at the Detroit Zoo.  I'd like to say that by waiting until later in the season we were able to enjoy cooler weather and more active animals, but alas, Labor Day this year ranked right up there with some of the hotest summer weather we had experienced, and we found ourselves seeking escape from the ninety degree heat in the air conditioned polar waters tunnel.  All the same, we had a really good time; the tiger was up and about, the snow  monkeys were surprisingly active, the seals were a big hit while we took our short polar air break, and even the aardvark put on a good show.   Ever the opportunist, Calvin took advantage of having so many doting wagon pullers by stretching out, leaning back, and enjoying the sights at his leisure from behind his cool dude shades.  Oh if only they offered that service for all visitors.  For more pictures, visit the September 2008 album.

Fireworks, grilling, and mud wrestling

What do you do with a three day holiday weekend if not scads of back breaking yard work?  Or maybe that's just us, but it has definitely become a trend this year at our house.  Memorial Day weekend saw us ripping sod and moving bushes, and the Fourth of July weekend found us digging a massive mud pit in our backyard.  A massive mud pit, you ask?  Well, what started out as a not so dry creek routing the downspout and sump pump water in the direction of the drain in our back yard quickly went from a two day project to what I can only assume is going be at least a two week project when we decided to add an 8x16 (that's feet, not inches) rain garden at the foot of said not so dry creek.  It's a well meaning effort, meant to lessen our contribution to the polluted rain runoff in our waterways while beautifying our backyard view, but the process can only be described as dirty and exhausting - removing sod, digging down eight inches, building up a berm, hauling rocks, hauling compost, sand, and dirt, all while the sump pump continues to send water in our muddy direction - and the project is as yet unfinished.  Now that the three day weekend is drawing to a close... we are definitely ready for next weekend to be here.

Of course, we did get in our fair share of partying, grilling, and great company this weekend, too, which are probably the more common Fourth of July activities across the board.  We partied Friday night with our family, Calvin's second cousin Iris and her family, a frog pool, a golf set, a T-ball set, some great grilling, and strawberry shortcake.  That was so much fun that we repeated the celebrations on Saturday with our family, our friend, Patty and her family, more water fun, more great grilling (smoking, actually), and more strawberry shortcake.  And we topped both nights off with sparklers and fireworks, which Calvin found to be "banging banging eek banging banging" fun.  Now if only we could manage at least one three day festive weekend every month...

More pictures in the July 2008 album.

Happy Fourth of July!

We hope you all had a safe and festive Fourth of July!

At our house we learned that, although Calvin is deathly afraid of the siren on the firetruck, he has absolutely no concerns about fireworks and the noises they make.  More on that note later.

A day behind

Happy Fathers' Day!

 

Yes, we know we are a day late, but what with the dance recital and spending an afternoon on house improvements (for the house  we have on the market), we christened today Fathers' Day Observed and spent the morning at our favorite zoo.    It has been a highly unusual year for us, the early part of the spring having been filled with the move, and this was actually our first 2008 Detroit Zoo trip.  We have become very attached to that zoo, having spent so much time there over the years, and feel, in some ways, like it is home for us, so it was a wonderful feeling to return and visit our animals.   It's a lot more fun, too, now that Calvin is older.  He knows the names of all the animals, even if he doesn't always get them right (no, the Guanaco is not a llama), and according to him they all have an accompanying sound (ever heard a kangaroo?  They apparently say "boing boing").  We were even fortunate enough to be visited by a  swimming polar bear while in the underwater tunnel, an occasion that left Calvin straddling the line between fear and curiosity.  He was brave enough, though, to reach up and touch that big, black polar bear foot, something not every two year old can lay claim to having done.  We should also give mention to the aardvark, who was not only awake, but busily digging holes wherever the ground was undisturbed.  He was Calvin's favorite sighting of the day, and likely ours, too, since we've never seen him do anything but sleep (a pastime we have come to respect more and more over the last two years).

Zoo pictures are in the June 2008, too album.