Learning to Talk (and a Little About Bugs)

Warm sunny weather late in the year means lots and lots and LOTS of boxelder bugs on our house and even a few in our house (though not nearly as many as I remember being at my grandparents' house on the farm when I was little). Given the abundance, Elise has taken notice and shows absolutely no fear. In fact, yesterday evening she was ecstatic about the one crawling all over her arm. I have to admit that I'm thankful for the two bug-loving children in our house (Wesley isn't quite as keen as the other two) because it means I don't have to touch the bugs.

Because we see them a lot, we also talk about them a lot. Including Elise, who has an absolutely adorable way of talking about the ugly black and orange creepy crawlies. (The quality isn't great since I took this video with my iPhone and the sun was in the background, but you'll get the idea). Enjoy.

4th of July?

Am I really posting pictures from the 4th of July? Yep. Do I have more recent pictures I'd like to share? Yep. Am I particular about the order in which pictures appear on my blog? Yep. So now you know why you're seeing pictures from the 4th of July in October. I'll share the rest of the summer and fall eventually. Right now, you get the 4th of July.

Weird science experiment?

No, no, no. A root beer float!

The boys' first root beer floats.

They

were

a hit.

Elise couldn't understand why you'd put pop on perfectly good ice cream.

A delicious chocolate brownie (so discretely stuffed in her mouth here) goes much better with ice cream.

With brownies & ice cream everyone is happy.

What do root beer floats have to do with the 4th of July? Nothing really except that we had them that weekend when we were up at the cabin doing our other 4th of July things. Things like playing in the water, playing on the beach, going for buggy rides, swinging and basically just having a fantastic time.