Be honest: does this look like the face of a devious individual to you?
I haven’t posted about Meg in awhile, at least, not directly. She’s not quite two-and-a-half yet, but we’re already dealing with the wheels inside her head turning.
You know, the wheels trying to streamroll you…
Maybe a month ago, give or take, we noticed Meg starting to stall quite a bit. Stalling before bedtime, stalling to get her clothes on to go to school, stalling to come inside, and so on. This isn’t just a “ooooo, something shiny!” kind of distraction: this is an intentional, and deliberate attempt to slow down the inevitable. She knows what’s coming and uses her cuteness to delay just about anything we need to do. She’s gotten quite good at this as well, working it in so you hardly notice you’re allowing her to stall you into another song, or another story, or another cracker, or another drink of milk.
Furthermore, and more recently, she’s begun “negotiating.” This one is a bit more rudimentary, I think, where she doesn’t really get the finer points of haggling, but you can tell she’s thinking it through. Especially before bed, when she asks for “3 books,” specifically, knowing that “3” is more than “2,” let alone “1,” so if she asks for more, she’s more likely to get what she asks, or at least an extra book beyond the one we usually read her. The same thing goes for songs, as we sometimes sing to (or with) her before bed. We’ll say “one more song,” we’ll sing it, and then she’ll ask for another, specific, song.
She’s also been known to ask for “moneys for ma ewefan-t” [elephant], a mechanical bank that makes an elephant noise when you add a coin to it. “Three moneys!,” she’ll say. So yes, I’m already having to bribe my child. Thankfully, at this point, she doesn’t really know the difference between a penny and a quarter…
When any of these things don’t work, however, she’s begun throwing fits, though now, it’s a little easier to stop them (to a degree…it’s never “easy”…). Meg doesn’t cry, per se, but she definitely yells. Loudly. Now, I end up having to count to five and threaten a time out…and right around “four,” she stops.
So yeah, my nearly 2.5-year-old is “gaming the system.” I guess I wasn’t expecting such things until she was at least three, if not four.
In some ways, of course, it’s nice to see this in a kid her age. She’s learning to challenge authority, to question things, to problem solve, to “get around The System.” At its core, it’s simple adaptation: where you learn you don’t have to simply accept what’s happening in front of you and you can attempt to change it, or at least influence it.
I guess I just didn’t expect it in a nearly 2.5-year-old.
She could teach some adults out there a thing or two about adaptation. 🙂
We lived in St. Louis for 5 years and never actually went to The Muny, an amphitheater at Forest Park known for its stage productions during the summer. Thus, for Father’s Day this year, “Meg” got us all tickets to go see “Aladdin,” a musical based on the 1992 Disney movie.
Let’s all allow “1992” to sink in for a moment…
Regardless, this was going to be the first time we’d ever tried keeping Meg up far past her bedtime. We tested the waters a bit on the 4th of July, getting her to bed around 9:30, and that seemed to be pretty close to the limit. Muny productions typically start at 8:15 pm (weather permitting), so we knew we wouldn’t be able to finish the whole thing, but we thought it’d be a nice family outing, and something else to test Meg’s reaction to large crowds and big events. All told, she did a pretty great job.
"More cheese crackers, Mama?"
We ate at a Mexican restaurant before going to Forest Park to walk around a bit. The stroller ride helped keep Meg entertained (who opted to not take a nap that day, mind you…) while we waited to go into the amphitheater. By the time 7:45 rolled around, we were heading in, found our seats, and Brooke opened up some snacks for Meg. The weather started out pretty hot, right around 90 F, but a front moved in north of St. Louis that dropped the temp to 80 F in about 10 min. By the time the show started, it was surprisingly comfortable!
The show itself was “alright.” Perhaps it’s my affection for the 1992 movie, but the changes that had to be made to the story in order to make it work on a stage weren’t the ones I’d have gone with. The primary offender was the replacement of Abu (the monkey) with three “friends” of Aladdin, who served as narrators, to some degree, and also comic relief. They, and the Genie, had “updated” some jokes for the 21st century, making some of the dialog a bit more topical, but many of them were less amusing for me than they intended. By the time we left, I felt like we’d hardly even seen the character of Aladdin, and seen far more of the “friends” and of Jasmine (who did a remarkable job, sounding very much like the character from the movie). The Genie, also, was not Robin Williams, and to me, tried a bit too hard to not differentiate himself from the example set 20 years ago. He did alright, but again, I’m just used to the Genie I grew up with.
This production also added songs to the show. Some of these songs, supposedly, were originally intended for the movie, but were then dropped. A few of them, though, seemed like they didn’t fit all that well (which is maybe why they weren’t in the movie in the first place). The musical performances were good, overall, but again, there was probably a reason some of those were dropped 20 years ago. I could have gone with less music, personally.
Meg was getting pretty tired (and louder…), so we left at Intermission. Appropriately, Intermission was set at the point in the story when the Genie turns Aladdin into a prince, so we got through a good chunk of the story. Daddy got to carry Meg out, sleeping, on his shoulder, and we had her home and in bed just before 10:00. She did a good job!
All in all, I think we all had a good time. It was a good family outing for us, despite the late-ish starting time!
The guy in back was running really, really fast...
The midwest is still going through something of a drought, and while the weather has certainly improved since having 10 consecutive days over 100 F, we still haven’t gotten much rain.
That said, the garden and chickens have mostly survived. With regards to the garden, the peas stopped producing about a month ago. I think we ended up with more peas than we got in Iowa last year, but not by too much. We’ve been getting green beans for the past few weeks as well, likely getting somewhere between 10 and 12 pints-worth (Brooke has canned 8 pints thus far). There are still more coming on, but we can already tell we won’t get anywhere near the (proportional) amount we got last year in Iowa. Same goes for the tomatoes. You can see in the picture above that the plants on the left are considerably smaller than those on the right. The right-hand ones seem to be a “cherry tomato” variety, as they’re pretty small, but still taste pretty decent. The ones on the left are the romas, the variety Brooke prefers using for canning. Sadly, while we’ve got some on there, it sure doesn’t seem like we’ll get all that many.
Aside from beans and tomatoes, we’ve still got a good number of green peppers coming on, as well as some squash and cucumbers. Brooke’s having to water the garden somewhat often just to keep things alive, and we’ve got a good deal of weeding to take care of sometime. I guess, considering the weather this summer, we’re pleased with the amount of stuff we’ve gotten, but it’s still a difficult shift from last year’s bounty.
The chickens aren’t laying eggs yet, which is quite disappointing, though not terribly surprising. Last year, the surviving chicken didn’t start laying eggs until right around now, but it’s also worth noting that chickens generally don’t like laying eggs in crazy hot weather. I’m checking every morning to see if they’ve started laying, as the weather has cooled a little bit, but no dice yet. Believe you me, I’m ready for some fresh eggs!
They’re nice and fat now, though, and they enjoy running around our yard. We probably still need to clip their wings again, but aside from one (brief) escape attempt from the large, white chicken, they’ve been pretty content to stay in our yard. The extreme heat has kept them in shady spots, though, so they tend to stay put.
Regardless, it’s a far cry from last year’s haul, but we’re making do!
I remember when my Mom turned 30. Kristen and I were out playing in the back yard and we saw all our aunts, uncles and cousins from the Plochberger side of the family driving up and quietly moving toward the house to surprise her. Infamously, Kristen, not understanding what was going on, rushed to head inside to tell Mom that everyone had showed up. I had to stop her before getting inside and, as she was 4 at the time, it wasn’t too hard for me to catch her. The Plochberger side of the family has traditionally been very good at donning black clothes, putting up signs saying “Over The Hill,” and making a remarkably big deal of family members turning 30, largely under my late Aunt Sara’s guidance.
Now, it’s 23 years later and it’s my turn. Now that I think about it, we haven’t had a 30th birthday in the family for quite awhile (Mom was the youngest in the family with brothers and sisters far into high school at the time she was born, so we had cousins turning 30 before I was even 10) and, as I live in St. Louis and they all live a few hours away, we won’t be celebrating like that. Heck, practically no one I know celebrates 30 anymore like that, as people live to be much older now and 30 is almost like any other birthday. Even 40, to some degree, is a non-issue.
It seems like, in the past 20 years, 30 became the new 50.
Makes me wonder, in another 20 years, if 50 will be the new 70…before I even get there…
In any case, it will be weird to say that I’m in my 30s, but in the end, I don’t see it as a huge shift. There was obviously a time that I did, but now that I’m here, it doesn’t really mean much. The only thing that sticks out in my mind is the fact that I’m now 30 and am still, technically, “in training” for my career, though this is commonplace in the field and to be expected. It’s also a bit different in that I remember my Mom’s 30th birthday (and so does Kristen), but Meg won’t remember mine. Again, a sign of the times when the average age of getting married and having kids is getting later and later.
Other than that, it’s just another year with two new digits to write, rather than just one. And that’s fine by me!
It is rather disappointing to have this day fall in the middle of the week, though, as it makes celebrating a bit more difficult. Brooke, Meg and I will go to the Bottleworks tonight, methinks, which is always a good time, so far as I’m concerned. This past weekend, my family came to town to help celebrate (that, and Father’s Day, of course), and that was a great time. In the end, it’s still more fun than last year, as we’re closer to friends and family here in St. Louis, and it’s a birthday that feels at least a little more meaningful than 29.
Regardless, I’m ready to hit this particular milestone. At the very least, I don’t have to say I’m in my 20s anymore and can try to act like an adult. 😉
As I was born in 1982, I don’t remember anything about it. Thus, I thought it prudent to see what else happened that year, aside from my birth. Apparently, quite a few things went down, as Wikipedia is helpful in pointing out. The Wikipedia post mostly involves world events, if you’re curious, but I picked out a few of the more interesting ones to highlight here. At least, more interesting to my generation.
Since moving back, Brooke and I have wanted to hit the wealth of new micro breweries that have sprung up in the St. Louis area in the past 2 years, most of which while were were in Iowa (figures…). As our schedules tend to get busy rapidly, we hadn’t actually done this yet, but in my infinite wisdom, I suggested that a birthday-related excursion to hit some of the better-known breweries would be nice! Thus, we recruited my Mom to stay at home with Meg while Dad kindly drove Brooke, Kristen, Jake and I to some “hoppin'” locations (see what I did there?) around the city.
The first stop (pictured above) was Six Row Brewing Company, just off of Forest Park Avenue close to Saint Louis University. Generally speaking, I liked their beers quite a bit. They also have more of a menu than the other breweries we went to, with sandwiches, soups and pizzas available. After the sampler, I had a pint of their Centennial Rye, a beer that was quite a bit lighter than other ryes I’ve had in the past. Quite tasty! Overall, they had a strong mix of hoppy beers, wheaty beers, and others that can satisfy a wide variety of beer tastes.
Two samplers at Urban Chestnut.
Next, we made our way to Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, which is only a mile or less away from Six Row. Brooke and I had actually been there before, but being so close to Six Row, I figured we’d be remiss not to check them out again. Brooke really, really liked their Pilgrim 7 beer back in December, but we didn’t appear to get that one in our sampler. Overall, I think I preferred this mix of beers to the last one Brooke and I tried, as it had a bit more variety in the beer styles. In December, I seem to remember everything having more of a “heavy” character, which is fine for winter, but not so good for summer. However, there were a few refreshing varieties in these samplers and was probably the favored brewery of Jake and Kristen. Personally, as it is the namesake of the brewery, I thought all the beers were a bit too “nutty,” but you can get over it. Of their beers, their “Old Tjikko” Spruce Ale was probably the most interesting. Everyone else smelled a very heavy “tree” character, but I didn’t get much of that until I tasted it, and even then, I didn’t think it was that noticeable. Apparently, my sense of smell is pretty terrible. They had another one, “Thrales,” that isn’t listed on their website, but was a pretty spectacular (and alcoholic) Russian Imperial Stout. It was shockingly smooth. For something approaching 9%, it had a great flavor and was surprisingly easy to drink. Worth a look!
The sampler at 4 Hands Brewing Company.
4 Hands Brewing Company was next on the list. This one’s within walking distance (a bit far, but doable) of our old place in Soulard, so it’s pretty close to Busch Stadium. Unlike the other breweries, 4 Hands doesn’t have a huge beer list available as they just launched at the end of December. This was probably Kristen’s least favorite brewery because just about all the beers had a noticeable hop character…which, of course, is good so far as I’m concerned. 🙂
This is the first location where Dad had any beer, as well, so it’s probably a good thing he waited this long, as he tends to like hoppy beers, too. I thought their Single-Speed Session, a Blonde Ale, was good, but Dad and I both got their Divided Sky Rye IPA. Big and hoppy. Mmmm… Brooke had their Saison in Columbia last weekend at another bar, and it was still good here. Sadly, while their website mentions a “Pyrus” saison for Fall and Winter that they didn’t have anymore of. It’s made with “pear juice, whole white pepper corns, and the zest of fresh oranges,” so it definitely piqued her interest. We’ll need to go back later in the year, I expect.
Four beers from The Civil Life.
Last, but not least, we went to The Civil Life Brewing Company, which is in an odd location about a mile or two from our house. They also had sandwiches available, had a “back room” where some poetry reading was going on, and a nice upstairs seating area to get you away from the bar if you want to. They were probably the most “industrial” of the locations, though from the outside, it looks pretty boring. The beers were good, though to be honest, by the time you’re on your fourth stop of tasting all those previous beers, the flavors all start to run together a bit. Also, I don’t really remember much about these four, and looking at their website, I’m not remembering much about which ones we actually got. I just asked the bartender which four were their “best,” and I remember them being very good, but again, I can’t recall what they were. If I had to guess, I’d say we had the American Pale, the Rye Pale, the British Bitter and the American Brown, but I could be wrong.
We need to go back there, though. The beers pictured were 8 oz and were $2.50 each, so you can’t really argue with the pricing. Especially for people like Brooke that may not want a whole pint of one beer style, it makes it pretty easy to get a good sampling without over-doing it.
A big thanks go to Mom and Dad for helping facilitate our little beer excursion! I definitely had a lot of fun! Next time we do this, we’ll probably keep it down to two breweries on a single trip, as four is, perhaps, a bit too much if you’re really wanting to appreciate the distinctions in beer varieties.
I spent enough time talking about our experience(s) in the Dominican Republic, but I thought it would be useful to briefly discuss the country itself. Generally speaking, all the people we met were very friendly and were very helpful. Few spoke much English, though the host at the front desk of the main lobby spoke at least 5 languages to some degree. There were a few instances when we would be shopping around the resort and the shop keeper wouldn’t understand much of what we were saying, but we made do.
There were quite a few Europeans at the resort. Definitely a few Americans, but it appeared that the vast majority of other tourists were from Europe (also reflected by the number of topless women walking around on the public beach close to our hotel). It seemed like many of the Europeans were from Spain, though some were French, a few Germans, some we thought were Dutch. Overall, a good “smattering” of many Western European countries taking in the Caribbean air.
We were curious about the work force at the resort. Specifically, the hostess at our buffet off the lobby, where we typically got breakfast, also worked at the French restaurant we went to Tuesday night. Bear in mind that she was there when we rolled in for breakfast, and she was also there that night when we got dinner at 9:00. And there are practically no towns near the resort for all these people to live in. So where did they all come from?!
We asked two people, one a bartender at our lobby and the other, a guy who set people up with scuba trips near our pool (“Frannie,” as he was affectionately called by Rachel and Mallory. Short for “Francisco”). The bartender said he comes to stay in an apartment near the resort, where many other workers live for much of the time, and he’s there for 24 days straight before going home for 6 days once a month after about an 8 hour drive home. Frannie, on the other hand, lives about an hour away and takes maybe 2 days off per month. So generally speaking, if you work at the resort, you’re there a lot.
As I said, there aren’t many towns near the resort itself. We drove through one town between the airport and the resort, but we only saw a few gas stations, a few small eateries and buildings, yet no houses or apartment complexes to speak of. Certainly not enough housing to account for the hundreds of workers at our resort, let alone the others in the area.
The buggy ride is really where we really saw the impoverished conditions of the rural population. There were shacks we passed with an adult or two sitting under a tree outside, and a few kids running up to our buddy train to give us “high fives” as we passed by. The kids actually had some decent clothes on, but compared to their living conditions, that doesn’t say much. There were a few run down buildings we passed that had satellite dishes, however, so it’s hard to determine exactly what resources they have. At the “plantation” stop during the ride, we were told that the average wage in the area (if not the country) is about $100 per month. He pointed across the road to a single-room rural school building, where the uniforms to attend there cost $65, obviously cutting in to that meager wage. I can’t be sure how accurate the young man was who was describing this all to us, however. He may have just been trying to sell some products in support of the school. In any case, the people we saw in rural areas of the Dominican Republic didn’t seem to be living by standards anywhere close to what we do here.
I should note that, during that buggy ride, we were accosted a few times by sales people trying to get you to stop by their table or shop to buy some things from them. Obviously, they knew where the buggies tended to bring tourists, so they set up specifically to prey upon them. We were warned about it by the folks running the buggy service, but as it’s public land, there wasn’t anything they could do. I’m sure this kind of thing is true of just about any country you go to, though.
The last thing I found interesting was the road system. We were driving for a little over 30 min between the airport and the resort and a good deal of that trip was on 4-lane divided highway. However, in many cases, we saw unfinished roads running alongside ours, or unfinished buildings with people selling things from the bottom floor while rebar stuck out at the top. We would go through roundabouts that only had two roads connected. Overall, it just seemed like they were either A). primed for expansion to send roads to additional towns and resorts, or B). they ran out of money and will continue their projects when more comes in. Either way, the driving experience had an “unfinished” feel to it.
Regardless, it seemed like a nice country, one I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more of someday. The capital, Santo Domingo, especially seems like it would be an interesting city to visit, with lots of sights and history to experience.
That’s it! Can’t think of anything else to write on the subject. Surely I wrote enough by now. 🙂
Picking up where we left off, Tuesday morning involved an excursion to the Dominican Republic countryside so we could drive buggies (or “boogies,” if you follow their spelling). We rented 3 buggies (two people per car) and drove in a single-file line down dirt roads and along a beach. We visited a few different locations, including the aforementioned beach, a “plantation” where coffee, cocoa and tobacco are harvested, then a cave that was supposedly filmed as part of “Jurassic Park.” It was rather difficult to determine whether the “plantation” was actually functional, or whether it was an outpost in the middle of nowhere set up to show tourists how coffee and cocoa are made, and cigars rolled. In any case, it was somewhat instructional and proved to be entertaining. Overall, the buggy ride was a nice diversion from an otherwise beach-centric vacation.
Tuesday afternoon, we returned to the beach, though I think we were a bit more relaxed than the day before. Brooke and I took the opportunity to remain in the shade for most of the time, giving our (limited) sun burns a rest before hitting it hard the next day. We did, however, make an attempt at renting some kayaks to try and make our way out into the ocean where there was a partially submerged ship used mostly for scuba excursions (I think). The girls were able to make it out there, but my kayak was very, very uncomfortable, so I couldn’t quite make the trip.
(…and before you think me a weakling, bear in mind that Brooke and I switched kayaks at one point and she had problems as well…it wasn’t just me!! Brooke and I were both sore for the next few days from that kayak trip…stoopid kayak…)
That night, we ate at the buffet close to our hotel where we normally just ate breakfast. This allowed us a bit more flexibility with how we spent our evening, so we were able to eat a bit earlier and then enjoy some “family time” that night playing cards and hanging out, getting a little more relaxation in.
Wednesday was our last full day in the Dominican Republic, so we generally stayed close to the beach. Nothing too interesting to report from that day, though “the kids” sent Mark and Diana to the spa for a few hours in the afternoon, something I think they enjoyed.
After a long day out in the sun, we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant which, in my opinion, was the best meal we had the entire time down there. It was a “teppanyaki“-style restaurant, where the food is cooked in front of a group of patrons and you choose what you want to eat. Needless to say, I was pretty full after eating just about every meat imaginable, as well as a healthy portion of rice and soup.
The next morning, we all said our “goodbyes” to the country in our separate ways: some walking on the beach, some getting up early to read, some swimming in the pool. We checked out late-morning and headed back to the airport, where we waited for a 3:00 pm flight (thankfully, there was a Wendy’s). The flight back was mostly uneventful, aside from some turbulence. Frontier was kind enough to provide 25 channels of cable TV once we crossed into US airspace, so that was a big plus. We were on the ground by 7:00 pm and, somehow, made it through Customs in about 15 min, which shocked me to a sufficient degree.
All in all, it was a memorable, great vacation! Thanks again to Mark and Diana for taking us all along with them, and to my parents for watching Meg and Edie while we were out of the country. And Stu for taking care of the chickens and Sam. Can’t forget that. 🙂
In recent years, Brooke’s family has been hitting up tropical vacations. Up until now, we haven’t gone along, but this year, as Rachel turned 21 and I am turning 30 in a few (short) weeks, they kindly took all of us on a Caribbean vacation to Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic!
We left Meg and Edie with my parents for the week and got up to hit an early morning flight to the DR on Sunday, putting us there in early afternoon. That way, we had a good “half day” available to orient ourselves and check out the pool and beach before dinner. We stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Ambar, which is one of four hotels in the “Bahia Principe” family of all-inclusive resorts in Punta Cana. Each hotel is situated next to one another, and each one has its own selection of restaurants, pools, and so on. To some degree, visitors to each hotel can visit each other’s restaurants and attractions, but the Ambar hotel, specifically, is “adults only,” so while we could visit all the other restaurants, the visitors to the other hotels couldn’t visit ours. It definitely helped keep our general environment quiet and relaxing.
Sunday was the only day we spent any significant time by the pool (pictured above), as it tended to be pretty hot with all that concrete abound. Our rooms were on the bottom floor in a building right next to the pool, and just beyond the pool lies the beach, so we really couldn’t get much closer to our primary destination!
The hotel was pretty nice, overall, with a stocked mini bar, bathrooms with Jacuzzi tubs and walk-in showers, and cable TV with a total of three English-language channels (CBS, NBC and ABC). If you want to watch Mythbusters dubbed in Spanish, they’ve got you covered.
My primary hiccup with the whole excursion, of course, was a lack of free Wifi except in the main lobby area. Granted, I know we were down there to “relax,” but with one of the biggest electronics and gaming conferences going on all week, my RSS readers were collecting 600+ articles for me to wade through by the end of the day. The Wifi they provided, however, was pretty quick and not the job done. Just a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things!
At least they were kind enough to bring me a cocktail while I skimmed metric tons of articles, eh? 😉
Before continuing, I should mention the general “structure” of our days. We’d all get up and go to the main lobby area, which was connected to an all-purpose buffet that switched out their selections for each meal. We always ate breakfast there, but usually ate lunch at a beach-side buffet that didn’t care so much about “dress codes.” After spending our days at the beach, we’d usually clean up before dinner and meet at the lobby again for a cocktail or two (and some free Wifi). Then, it’d be dinner time, shopping/walking/cards, then sleep time.
Anyway, Sunday encompassed some time spent at the pool, taking in our surroundings. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner that night around 9:00, so by the time we were done there, we were mostly ready for bed. There were more than a few restaurants available for eating, and sometimes multiple in each style. Many seemed to required reservations, even though there weren’t very many people eating by the time we got there. I think some restaurants were more lax on that requirement than others…
Monday was a “beach day,” so we didn’t do all that much, aside from get some swimming, tanning and reading done. For the record, I finished Catching Fire and started another book, Losing My Religion, so yes, indeed, I did read books while on vacation. After a long day on the beach, we hit up a French restaurant, where I had lobster for the first time (good!). It’s the kind of thing I didn’t really feel right having in the Midwest (as we don’t really get fresh lobster here…), so I was anxious to have some while in the Caribbean. Again, this was a late-night dinner reservation, so we didn’t do much afterwards.
That’s probably enough for now. More to come in a few days!
"How can I sneak some of this into the house...hmmmm..."
Though we don’t have the massive yard we had up in Iowa (and all the mowing to go with it…), we do have some space with which we can toy around. While a chicken coop and a garden of some sort are still in the plans, for now, we’ve got some back yard toys for Meg.
Last summer, she was content to play with a bucket of water, splashing about for hours on end. Now that she can move around more, Meg very much enjoys going down the street to our neighborhood park to go down slides and use the swings. Her daycare has a pretty nice playground area as well, so it’s nice that we’ve got the space in our yard to facilitate something along those lines. On nights when it’s nice out and we want to BBQ, it’s even better, as she can entertain herself in the sandbox, rather than having me hold her while trying to flip burgers.
Regardless, Meg got a swingset from her “Mimi” and “Poppy,” a sandbox from her “Aunt Dadum,” a tricycle from her “Aunt Mal,” and a small slide from us for her birthday last weekend. Now that the weather’s been so excellent, she can go out and enjoy them!
"Would you like to use the slide, Chicks?"
Personally, my goal at this point is to have so much of the yard taken up by playground equipment and farm implements that I won’t have any mowing to complete when the time comes. 🙂
