7 Quick Takes Friday (vol 8)

-1-

Our garden continues to produce.  I'm thinking the snap peas (above) are almost done, probably because I should have staked them.  The green beans are loaded!

-2-

Ben may be too cute for his own good. 

This is him eagerly anticipating his bath. 

-3-

L has started to really "mother" her brother.  She likes to hold him, give him his bottle, and quiet him when he cries with "sssshh"s.  It's really sweet.  It makes her feel like she's helping (which she often is!) and because he adores his big sister he loves the attention.

-4-

Okay, this is just a cute picture of my kids playing together in the nursery. 

-5-

Earlier this week we went to the Niabi Zoo near the Quad Cities.  The kids and I went with Travis' mom, sister, aunt, cousin, and grandma.  Ben was the only male in the bunch and he did a good time holding his own.  The day was hot, and there were few benches and air conditioned buildings, but it was a lot of fun and everything was very reasonably priced. 

-6-

Old Settlers Days are here, folks, the quintessential small town fair.  There's rides, games, live entertainment and most importantly, fair food.  The best part for me was the St. Mary's food tent's homemade pies.  And they really are homemade.  Every day a bunch of Catholic women make pie crusts from scratch, fill them with rhubarb, apples, peaches, and other fruits, bake 'em, and then sell them for $2 a slice.  Delicious.

The best part for my daughter was riding on the race track ride, over and over again.

-7-

Update on the upstairs renovation: 

Trav has finished building the closets in the 3 bedrooms.  He has also run wire to them all.  The installation is next to go in, then the walls and ceilings.  (!!!!)

I am super excited about the size of my new walk-in closet.

I'm also excited about this back door being gone, along with the rickety stairs and deck.

Oh yeah, it'll be nice to be rid of the toilet and shower stall, too.