Field Day

Today Stephanie and I took Tanek to the Stephen Foster Memorial for their old timers day. He was able to put a design in leather and see a lot of things that they did many years ago.

They hammered a design in a small piece of leather and she showed them the difference between stamped designs and designs that are hammered in and the different kinds of leathers.

We watched as they made old fashioned lye soap and then we each bought a bar.

With the help of this lady he learned about the different kind of fish found in Florida and what they are called. Then he was able to try to cast a fishing line.

Pretty hard

We toured the museum. We got to hear the bells in the bell tower ring. They had some beautiful antique piano's in here.

Tanek got to help churn butter and then got a cracker with the butter on it. We also watched as they made pear butter. It is like apple butter. We also got some mayhaw jelly to remind papa of his "olden days".

We walked around the park and it really is beautiful. We walked down to the Suwanee River to look at it.

The grounds are really very pretty

After we were through at Stephen Foster Memorial we went into the big town of White Springs.

This is where his other grandma works. She is the city clerk. This is actually a very nice little town. Reminds you of some you see in the movies. Tanek got to see the police car, the fire truck and the dump truck.. He was most impressed with the dump truck since he wants to be a builder when he grows up . He didn't really want to get in the police car at first.

Mommy & Tanek in the firetruck

Watching the firetruck

Tanek & mimi

And as always....on the way home after a very eventful day a short nap

Home Improvements

This is a view of our pool area "before" we decided to put in a pool enclosure. It will be very nice when finished I am sure. However, getting to that point from this point is a total mess. I am trying to be very patient but that word has never really been connected to me in any way. I wasn't going to post any pictures until we were completely finished but my daughter in law Heather wanted to see the process and since it won't be finished for sometime I decided to post them so you could see what we have to go to get from beginning to end. See the new grass that we planted this past Spring. It was doing quite well. I also re did the walk way to the left just last Spring.

This picture was taken in July when the family was here.

These pictures were taken today. They have the footers dug and will be ready for inspection. Then they will grind all the old cool deck off of the deck and re -do all of that. That they tell me will be a very "BIG" mess. And I thought we already had a big mess. You can also see where they are extending the deck and it will be much bigger and give us more room.

They removed the front of the screen porch and it will be supported and then will be open to the pool and will make for a very large open screened in pool area. It really will be very nice. The nicest thing is we will keep out leaves, bugs, snakes and all the things you really don't want to swim with, but are likely to find in your pool.

We had hoped to have it all finished before Thanksgiving, but that isn't going to happen, but maybe by Christmas. With the nice weather we have throughout the fall and winter we will be able to enjoy it when it is finished even though we won't be swimming. I am sure looking forward to it. It will be like one great big outside room. In the meantime, I will concentrate on the front yard getting it ready for Christmas and try not to dwell on the mess of the backyard. Will keep you postd with new improvements as they happen.

Happy Fall Festival!

This evening we went to the fall festival at First Baptist in Keystone. They did a good job having booths for the kids to play games and get candy. Tanek was dressed as a construction worker. This fits him more than any other costume he could wear. He is at heart a construction worker. He LOVES anything to do with big machinery, tools or anything to do with it. He was so cute.

Tanek and mommy Here he is with his buddy Aiden. "To infinity and beyond". Aiden is his buddy and such a cute and sweet little boy. They all had a good time.

Getting some encouragement from daddy

Love that sweet face

He made a hole in one

Now this was a big hit. The object was to go into the hay wagon and find candy in the hay. What do you think 3 little boys would do in the hay? Yep, the most fun was playing in the hay and throwing it at each other. They did find some candy too!

Is that papa peeking over the haywagon?

Yep, there is candy in here. Lots of fun.

It's a John Deere

Today while the concrete contractors were digging for the footers to put up our pool enclosure Gary was using the neighbors John Deere to move the dirt to the back field. Tanek loved being able to ride on it with his Papa.

He is all smiles. He loves big machines.It isn't a bull dozer, but a tractor will do for now.

Tanek loves to talk about when he was a builder. He says he used to be a builder when he was big and now he is just being a little boy but when he gets grown he will be a builder again. He said today he was also going to build pools when he becomes a builder again. I was letting him see how hard they had to work and asked him if he was sure he wanted to work that hard and he said he did.

I took some pictures of all the work they are doing, but I am going to wait until the whole job is done because right now everything looks awful and a big mess. It is always a bigger mess to redo something I think than it is to just build it from scratch. I will be so glad to get the job done and everything cleaned back up.

Such fun times spent helping Papa

Pumpkin Patch

Today Stephanie and I took Tanek to the Pumpkin patch at the Methodist church in Keystone.
Every year they put out a pumpkin patch and you can take pictures and buy some pumpkins if you want. Tanek picked out 3 little pumpkins. One for him, mommy and daddy. He liked the little ones because he could hold them in his hands. With temperatures in the 90's this week it certainly didn't feel like fall. Last year we were in jackets at the pumpkin patch.

There were pumpkins of all sizes and colors and shapes.

These just fit in his hands nicely

These are the ones I want mommy

It is so cute

Sitting by his new friend Mr. Scarecrow

I have made my choice and I will take these 3 home please

A fun tme at the pumpkin patch