Phil's graduation quilt

Phil is now a Mechanical Engineer graduate. In celebration of this wonderful event I let my creative juices flow and put together a 10 sided quilt as part of our gift to our most beloved son. Yes, each one of the wedges is 36°. It is something he has been asking for since Middle School and it took until this year to figure out the details of the construction. The fabric is from things I made for him over the years. Most was from his preschool years. Surprisingly, some was very recent. There were some saved fabrics I don't remember using. Oh, the memories of the last 24+ years.
The quilt measures 120" from side to side and fully covers his bed. It is backed with a dinosaur themed fleece. Take a double click on the pics and see if you remember Phil in any of the fabrics when he was 36" tall. The person holding the quilt is Larry.

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.