Happy Birthday Larry!!

Larry has a Winter birthday that we celebrated with a cook out. I dragged the grill just out of the garage and started cooking the sausages from the butcher in Michgan and and the local grocer. Larry and Cassie went shopping for whatever side dishes caught his eye.
The grill is on the other side of the snowbank. The neighbor had her lawn ornaments tuned on in the background


Here is the birthday boy checking out the progress of the sausages. Yes, he does like his meat well done.
Phil baked the birthday cake. He found the recipe in a magazine and decided to try a chocolate caramel chocolate layer cake. It was so tender and rich that it fell apart in his refrigerator. He brought the cake in a large bowl. It was sooooo good.

The truck got stuck.

This is one of the snow falls just after Thanksgiving. The truck got stuck. Winter in Wisconsin.



Say good bye to the truck. It was having too many problems that come with being old and I traded it in. On the up side. Until this last Saturday it started and ran all Winter including the sub zero snap we had last week and the week before that.

Early Winter 2008

Winter arrived sometime before Thanksgiving. This is our yard during one of the snowfalls. It is another record making Winters.

This is the view from our upper porch as the Autumn progressed of some deciduous trees as they dropped their leaves.

Autumn Flowers: September 16, 2008

Blooms of Hosta, Coneflower, Wild Sunflower, Common Day lily and Japanese lanterns along with the seedheads of the spring blooming Columbine.
Tansy, Wild Sunflower, Day lily and something I bought as a background because the Holly Hocks were weeded out this Spring.
Japanese Lanterns and Wild Sunflowers.

4th of July parade spectators

Cassie, Kristine and Aunt Mary head down the street before the parade.



What would a 4th of July parade be without cub scouts and crumb snatchers collecting candy in the streets tossed by parade participants? It is always enough to keep a sugar buzz going into the next week.
Here is our contribution to the parade route. We fielded 20 feet of viewers.

4th of July parade Race Rockettes

My favorite part of the parade was the Race Rockettes. They are a senior precision drill team with none their equal.