Happy 7th Birthday Prince Cheeks

Where did those cheeks go?

October 2007

 

Amtrak to Roselle and back

Heard anytime from Miss E: Wha'cha doin, Oma? How ya doin, Oma?

Apr 9 Tyrone-Pgh

• Learned how to play Uno

Ap 10 Pgh to Chi

Ap 11 Naperville Children's Museum
Ap 12 Lego Land at Woodfield

Ap 13 Morton Arboretum Children's Garden

Ap 13 Chi to Pgh

• Heard after lights out from Miss E:  Oma's naked.  The train is wiggly. Mommy has boogies.

Ap 14 Pgh to Tyrone

Happy 4th Birthday

Prince Cheeks

Happy 3rd Birthday Prince Cheeks

Oma and Opa

The NJ Hardwicks visited from Fri to Monday. We had plenty of Oma and Opa time.  Saturday evening we watched the "thunderworks" from the Toy Shed bench up the valley.
Sunday we did the real thing at Penn State, marred only by horrendous parking.
Paul and David hauled some big rocks from around the Barony to a staging area for landscapers.

4 Generations

Four generations spent a wonderful afternoon together.  Prince Cheeks helped Aunt Holly read a book about Library rules.  He served me a "6" pretzel, that is a broken pretzel shaped like a 6.  He recognized that turned around it could also be a 9. The Western Prince and The Princess entertained us with their smiles.

 early 90s cousin's wedding

Every few years we have a 4 generation photo-op.  It's not to be missed.

 1982 September, Sohren Germany

Oma's visit with Prince Cheeks and his Princess

It took a week to fill me up with hugs and kisses but only a minute out of the driveway to become empty again.  We went to the Nature Center and picked up sweet gum balls to pitch at trees.  We did Whole Foods art class and made a fish with sparkles out of a paper plate.  Library story hour was a do it yourself kind this time but we found a fun book called Call Me Gorgeous about an animal that has frog eyes, flamingo neck, chameleon tail and dalmatian spots, among other bits.  We had dinner at Ikea and watched the planes land at Newark.  Jennifer and I cashed in our Mothers' Day treats (mani/pedi) at the salon beside the train station. We played with Josh and picked Dad up at the train station; he had popcorn.  Friday was date night; Jonathan, Elise and I had pizza while J/D went to dinner and a movie.  Saturday was Garden Club; we made lavender smell bags.
One night while waiting for dinner, Jonathan sat on the white chair in the den while I stretched out on the floor.  He read me a story about dinosaurs just like the librarians do:  he read it then turned the book so I could see the pictures.  Dinosaurs are his passion now and he knows many by name.  Somehow the ones we pressed out of special clay on my last visit had their heads popped off.  They were the scary ones.

Reading The Swallows of Kabul  Yasmina Khadra not on the Kindle!

Happy 7th Anniversary

Oma and Prince Cheeks went on a date around Maplewood so that Lady Terra and her consort could too.  The lollipop and toy stores were closed but the cookie store had beautiful duck cookies.  Prince Cheeks had one for dinner.  That's what Omas are for. 

Prince Cheeks' Garden

Here is the garden that Prince Cheeks and Opa planted.  The garden is fenced to keep the chickens out. Inside the fence Opa put some plastic mesh for the peas to grow up on.  We only planted half as much lettuce compared to the peas.  The lettuce is slower to sprout; the peas are 3-4 inches high already.

email to the Princes

Dear Prince Cheeks and Western Prince,
Buddy had to sit and think today. He was on the deck and couldn’t stand seeing the chickens. He barked, growled, and tried to jump through the bars. He’s been very good recently and we though he was learning, but I guess he forgot. Opa made him sit and think. His teacher says that’s a good way to help him learn that chickens are our friends and not for him to eat.

Prince Cheeks' visit

We tested the play loft, even without railings:  the trains work very well on the wide open space and the knee-wall provides a wonderful fox-hole diversion, even without the doors. The sun warmed the window seat nicely.  Since today is the first day of spring and we were sitting on the window seat at noon, we have a good idea that the sun will not shine in too strongly in the summer.

Opa and Jonathan (in the Kubuta Orange Chicken hat) move a few rocks with the big tractor.

We played with puzzles, looked for fossils in the meadow, collected chicken eggs, and Jonathan slept in the foxhole (Oma's closet) with his bear-in-the-woods sleeping bag.

24 feet at the Barony

Our 6th Christmas here was as wonderful as the rest of them.  Lady Ariel, her Count, The Western Prince and her Loyal Pooch made the very long drive from Chicago. They left a half a day earlier than planned to get ahead of 10" snow and blizzard conditions. The pregnant Lady Terra, her Count and Prince Cheeks ...
We rented North Run Cottage for the 2 legged visitors.  It's a lovely home just our side of Black Moshannon Park, about 9 minutes from The Barony.  Besides the outdoor hot tub (which no one used) and the TVs on each floor (which they did use), the kitchen was fully stocked as was the fire wood.  The beds were flat and the showers were hot.  What more could the Ladies ask for?
Christmas Day is Prince Cheek's 900th day and The Western Prince's 200th day.  I love it when numbers work out like that. It does something for my dyscalculia.

Mushrooms

With all the rain we've been having we have some wonderful mushrooms around. The plugs that we so painstakingly drilled and pounded into fresh oak logs have fruited. We should have picked the 4 mushrooms yesterday because now they have bugs and aren't very appetizing.
Blackberries are beautiful this year also. Some are the size of my thumbnail and very sweet. Prince Cheeks learned to pick them: one for the bucket, 4 for me. Gambol still enjoys them too; he has earned his master picker badge although he still doesn't share.

Earth, Wind and Fire

The Onion may have reported the worst autumn ever, but the leaves here are beautiful. Leaf peeper tourists and homebodies alike are loving the colors this year.
Prince Cheeks and I went out on the deck to watch the chickens and saw the fire in the wind. The sun and clouds aligned just right to light the morning sky.