Paige is running thru the Garden...

The staff of Toledo Botanical Gardens regularly record short segments for Channel 13 ABC in Toledo called "What's growing in the Garden". When Paige went to the Botanicals Mr. Matt let told her she was on TV. Wow, if you're three that's pretty heady stuff. So here is Paige's television debut. She watched herself at least thirty times on Friday. She'll appear in the top left corner about 1 minute 27 seconds into the footage. Enjoy!

Holidays at the Manor House

The Manor House at Wildwood Preserve has one week a year that it's decorated for the Holidays. For those of you new to the area it's the first full week in December, Sunday to Sunday. I can't remember a time when I haven't gone. It's especially impressive since it's decorated by local groups, clubs and sometimes families. Our friends at the Garden Forum did a beautiful job on the enclosed porch this year. The turtles were a big hit with the Rapplings.Kate always tries to guess how the kitchen will be decorated before we see it each year. This year's theme was Gingerbread. Lots of felt cookie cut outs. Miss Paige loved the candy canes and lollipops sticking out of the tree.The room that is always tied for favorite is the upstairs bath. Santa was busy napping in the tub. Of course this was the room that Paige started to go under the roping to play in. The reindeer were to cute to resist.

Sydney loved the trains. Her grandpa would be so very proud. There was a little lever car pushed by Santa and an Elf that she watched with great interest. She loves that her Aunt Laura has a train around her tree. Now she's thinking we should have a train around our tree too. I would love to see that cats chase that. Of course Kate was messing around in the background as usual.
Paige wants this tree. Chili peppers everywhere. It of course looks more amazing without the flash. Sorry snapping pictures on the fly. This is the very end of the house on the way up the back steps Kate wanted a Rappling photo on the steps but her siblings were done for the day. So another tradition over for the year it must be Christmastime.

Trucks, Elves and Solos

Saturday involved a lot of errands. Not much photography though. I took Sydney, Kate and Paige over to the craft bazaar at Stranahan Elementary. Sydney bought a present for the last two people on her list...herself and her dad. We also bought a wooden semi truck with two cars loaded on the back for their cousin Logan's birthday. I love wooden toys. I've been buying handmade tic tac toe sets wood with marbles from this same amazing man for seven years. My girls have never been much for the whole car thing. Exception if it's a car mentioned in the Twilight Saga and then Kate's interested. So it was fun to have an excuse to finally buy a car or in my case a truck and two cars. The girls spent the afternoon at the birthday party while John and I stayed home to work on the house. We then went to our Ward(congregation) Christmas party. First we picked up Miss Esther and went on to church. Fun for all. The talent show was fun with two hilarious numbers courtesy of John and Christina Regan as elves and the Simons family as the people who ate to much for Christmas. Kate and I played a piano duet of Silent Night... then she also played a violin solo. That child has musical skills. Esther was thrilled she thought everything was wonderful and complimented Kate on her musical talents. It's fun seeing the world through Esther's eyes. She is so happy and joyful a blessing to have around. Wonderful job Marie and Reanna. The Christmas party definitely brought the spirit into my holiday season.

Look mom it's hoing...

Paige can't say her S words. Just not happening... so we have quirrels, hop(for stop), and ho(for snow). So when we walked out of church last night(Kate and her friends were busy making beautiful super tiny blankets for NICU babies) Paige started scampering around singing "It's hoing, it's hoing. Mom why's it hoing? Can I play in the ho?" All the way home we had ho related conversation. Makes me giggle that one. Really I am working with her on pronuciation. I remember speech therapy in elementary for the same problem. Although if your name starts with an S you really should be able to say it. I digress.Home we went at 25 miles per hour. When we arrived home safe and sound I bundled them up and sent them outside. Okay so most kids are in bed at nine and not outside building a snowman, excuse me a snowgirl. I love snow. I couldn't let them miss it. I knew the rain was coming right behind so out they went. Lots of fun. Paige kept trying to take apart the snowgirl, she wanted to eat the carrot. I made the hot chocolate...Laura I must really drive over and steal my Cocomotion back. Here's the evidence.Acorns for eyes, carrot nose, cranberries for her mouth and buttons, greenery arms and a hat, scarf, glove combo that all the other snowgirls will envy. Good times for the Rapplings.

Heralding the Holidays

The Toledo Botanical Gardnes are all lit up for the Heralding the Holidays. Staff and volunteers have been busy decorating and lighting. So if you have a few minutes stop by for a visit this weekend. Peter Navarre cabin in the Pioneer Garden.

Love the uplighting...went out after dark in the rain to grab a couple of shots. While there it started sleeting...in Rappling world it started "slowing", so some drops of ice are present on the first photo. Come out and have fun this weekend!

Mr. Joe

This is Mr. Joe. He works at "the Botanicals" and Paige loves him. My littlest is very particular about the people she loves. She's always said hi, making sure to find him whenever we are there. I found myself a little teary eyed when she ran up to Joe arms out to be picked up. Paige then proceeded to hug him as tightly as she could. Mr. Joe's face was full of happiness. They definitely have a mutual admiration society going. I took this photo a few days later. How sweet is this?

Paige's perspective...

So I've taught Paige how to use the camera. It's better to have taught her how to use it than sneak and break it. I try to supervise but she's quick, tricky, but actually careful with the camera. We were decorating the gardens today. With greenery, bittersweet, birch branches whatever Mr. Matt and the rest of the staff could find. The Americorp workers are a lot of fun so you'll see peeks of them and Miss Mary, my wintertime partner in crime, in Paige's photos.Later we got to meet more of the staff of Mr. Rooter Plumbing. Ryan the plumbing boss came out. He spent hours here...on my roof and digging around. The major discovery was that the main line was blocked for a good 15 feet, almost the entire length of pipe to my septic tank. Next is a photo of how to properly climb a roof. Not how I climbed the roof in January to check out the same drain vent. That experiment ended in my sliding down and almost off the roof. Mail man thought the spectacle was hilarious. John, who had just had major lung surgery, just shook his head and tried to talk me down. Me not doing roofs again....ever! Mr. Ryan cleaned everything out up to the break in the line and told me my sink should have drained.
Nope, still had three days of standing water in the sink was getting gross. Yes we had drained out what we could by hand. Plumber to the rescue he opened up the U trap to drain the water. All was well until the water that was in the outgoing pipe, you know the one that goes into the wall and under the house, decided to perform a reverse tidal wave. Mr. Ryan caught most of it in the bucket but in a freak accident(which happen around here all the time!) the bucket toppled onto his lap. Oh poor man. He was soaked. Needless to say the water shouldn't have come back out the way it did. So he started to snake the line. He couldn't find any obstructions while reeling back in the line it twisted around his hand placing an large metal splinter in his ring finger. He didn't say anything until he was done. I am always ready for emergency medical procedures. I did balk when he asked to use Tilex on his wound, which is bleach just so you know. We went outside to use the faucet. I was armed with bleach, alcohol, towels and hydrogen peroxide. He was worried about using my towels to clean off his hands. Really? I was wondering how I would make it up to the poor injured and very wet man. After refusing the Strawberry Shortcake bandaid, sorry we're all out of manly band aids right now. He applied new plastic gloves and crawled under my house. Turns out the entire line from the sink to the main line was filled with sludge and needed to be replaced. So Mr. Ryan went home and out came Mr. Nick to replace the line. When he was finished I rejoiced in the fact that my sink was finally empty. So very thankful for plumbing that works. Okay it's not really working but I am allowed to was my dishes.