420

Well, it's been a while since I've been to Woodman's. The last time I was here was sometime in the fall around 4AM when some lady asked me for money while I was getting gas.

Funny when you haven't been somewhere in about 6 months, and they have moved everything around.

First time moving the lawn this year. Pretty sure I am the last person in the neighborhood to mow. 

When I picked him up, he wanted to stay in the car. Sometimes I just go with it. We stayed in the car for about a half hour. He wanted to be in the driver's seat, so I helped him understand what all the buttons do, like blinkers, windshield wipers, hazards, the radio.

In going through the glovebox, I saw the receipt that indicated we were at Mt. Rushmore exactly 4 years ago.

At night, he wanted to make a guitar, so we found a way. A couple paper towel tubes and an empty box of macadamia nuts. We then tied up three strings of yarn and he was a strumming.

419

Well, I'm thinking tomorrow will be the last day of the daily blog. If it isn't tomorrow, then I'm not sure when the last date would be. Tomorrow is two weeks after my 2nd Pfizer shot, so while not a milestone to go crazy, it really marks the end of the journey from Day 1 to vaccinated as well as I can be (420 days).

With that, we have some photos from today.

I had a quick Dr. appt this morning. On the way back, I drove past the office. If all goes to plan, I'll be back here two months from today.

In the morning, he had fun trying to write Mommy's name. I think he did a great job.

After we were done with the chalkboard, we went to Cross Plains to the new playground. We spent a lot of time on the zipline again. 

Here he is in his "humble home."

While driving around today, we saw a bunch of UW graduates walking around in their gowns. What a bummer to have your last 1.5 years of school being the COVID year.

We finished up our bead necklaces tonight. That took at least a week from start to finish.

Here is the selfie...

 

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Even though it is barely breaking 60 degrees, the days are quite nice and sunny lately.

I was told to take a picture of this baby mallard and post it to the blog.

I've had a good week of getting little things fixed around the house. The last thing I want is for it to be June and still having an outside water faucet vacuum cap leaking or a weedy yard.

My new challenge is to sand the deck and get it all nice again by next Wednesday. I borrowed by friend Tom's belt sander.

I got about a quarter of the way done. I'll do more on Friday.

Here is a finished up piece of jewelry from the polymer clay that we made last week.

It is the time of year to blow dandelions again. We did this last year....so we'll do it again.

Finally, a treat and a helmet again. 

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Our assignment for Kindermusik is to make a city. It was free of instructions, so this is what we came up with. We used one of those big lawn bags as the base, and then taped on the "black forest" and then colored in some roads and then put up a big tower.

 We went outside again to use the big wheel. Still no interest in the pedals.

We did however go to the Yellow Playground. He liked this swing a lot.

After we were done with this, a family with three young boys showed up. The one kid (4-year old) just ran and ran, so Kai and I make a game of trying to catch him. It was fun.

In the evening, we went to mail some postcards. The post office is closed on the outside, so we found a nearby drop box.

There is a new Hawaiian restaurant downtown. We just saw it today. They have very limited hours. I think they just opened today.

Found some lilacs.

416

Quick blog post for today.

It was his special day at preschool. We didn't get any photos yet. Sometimes they send them out a day late. He did say that he got asked a few questions. One person asked the color of our house...then he asked..."outside or inside?" They wanted to know inside...to which he answered, "green, gold and blue." Then someone asked the color of the outside of the house. Of course the answer is "brown." 

With that, it rained a bit after I picked him up, so we played with the "Black Forest" inside the house before dinner. The gorilla is "Gorilla Mayor Monkey." I'm not sure how he got that name.

In trying to get excited to be outside to ride bikes, we are practicing putting on our helmet...so we put them on while eating cupcakes.

I'm hopeful to convince him to go to the Cross Plains playground tomorrow.

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Today is the pre-Mother's Day celebration at the Anderson Japanese Gardens.

Since our yard needs a little inspiration, we are trying to get some grass to fill in some bare spots. We water a bit every day to get the grass growing.

As you can tell, the weather was warm. Lots of people in Rockford at the gardens. Most of these pictures are not mine. 

Then a hat was dropped in the water...oops. Before they could rush over and tell me no one was allowed in the water....I had the hat!

After the gardens, we went to Sinnissippi Park (one Sinnissippi, two Sinnissippi, three...) for our lunch.

There was a little chipmunk that ran into this hole.

The memories of the Bavarian Beast and the Black Forest remain strong. This is his re-creation of the Black Forest.

The weather will cool down for the next few days, so I'm happy we could get out and see three separate gardens this weekend (Friday - Allen Centennial, Saturday - Olbrich, Sunday - Anderson Japanese). 

We are thinking that next weekend we can try to see as many waterfalls as possible. We already have some ideas.

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There are just going to be a lot of photos today. 

First off, it was quite windy today, so we ate at home and went up to the hill to visit the yellow tulips. The bunnies have been eating a few of these. I'm happy they left some for us.

 We had our last outdoor Kindermusik today. It's been fun seeing all the different families backyards.

What I've noticed this year is how colorful the spring leaves are on trees. Here is the hill at Enchanted Valley with all the colorful buds.

While he was sleeping, we completed the birdhouse windchimes.

In the evening, we went to Olbrich Gardens. It is nice since you can get into the gardens until 5PM....but you just need to get there before 5, then you can stay there as long as you need to.....and it is free.

It was also warm today.

He took my camera again...

The last time we were at Olbrich was February 20, 2021. It was all snowy then. I like to try to re-create photos from that time.

Today...

February 20...

Today...

February 20...

And then just more photos that I took. It was really a nice time as the afternoon became closer to the evening as it cooled down and less people were around.