Live from Tormville!

Sunday Date

Greg and I went down to The Henry Ford yesterday - kidless. So strange. We had been wanting to see the Titanic Exhibit, so we did that (enjoyed it - fun to actually be able to read all the information without the kids. We'd been to the same exhibit years ago when it was in Chicago and recognized some parts, but took in a lot more this time and more had been added. We're glad we saw it again). There are no photographs allowed within the Titanic Exhibit, so I don't have any pictures of that - but we did take a walk through the village afterwards - despite the heat - so I snapped a few along the way. 

We tried to visit the buildings that we don't always see. I have no recollection of ever being in this building, but Greg says we've seen it. I say that I must have been outside tending to the baby or something. 

There were also several other buildings that we've missed through the years, but that have placement within range of the custard stand, so we're pretty sure that we've missed them for the kids pulling on our arms. It's interesting to go without the kids. 

It was a good date. 

-----------

As for today and this week....

• My sister and two boys are pulling into town about dinnertime
• I was caught thinking just a couple days ago that I've managed to go a long time without having to go to the chiropractor, but I screwed something up then on Saturday. Greg thinks it was the heavy kayaking, I think it was the furniture I moved to get my desk in order. My chiropractor is closing his local office, so I'll have to find time to drive down to Southfield sometime before Thursday. I should do it today, because it's hindering my progress.
• Three more sleeps until I see my kids!!
• Wedding this week! 
• My desk is falling into place nicely. In August I'll start selling whatever doesn't fit. 
• I still have one pile on the living room floor, and that'll have to stay there for a bit. My sister's boys are bigger, so I don't need to worry about diggers. 
• Doesn't look like a good forecast this week for ballooning. My sister is going to be bummed - she was hoping she could join me on an adventure. 
• I'm hoping the rainy week will bump up the teenager's hours this summer. The landscapers have taken a hit with this heat. We haven't mowed our lawn in over a month. 
• Still don't know if my husband is going to Canada this week. He is. He isn't. He is. He isn't. 
• That's all I've got. 
• be good!
• Happy Monday! 

Civil War Remembrance * Greenfield Village 2012

We spent our Memorial Day at Greenfield Village. I woke up the kids at 9am (Tuesday morning is going to hit us like a brick wall) with a goal to head down for a few hours before it got too hot. Because it was so hot, I packed light. I only brought my fixed 50mm 1.4, and a small water bottle for each of us - no lunch/snacks. We weren't planning to stay real long. 

(To see all my posts from The Henry Ford - click this link, and there are pages, including several Memorial Days. Be sure to click the hard to see green arrow at the bottom of the page) 

We got there 20 minutes after opening, and it was already too hot. This is Mark, just a few minutes in. Time for the summer buzz.  And the fur that he is sitting in?  Horse fur. True story. The mane was still on it and everything. 

Santa Claus told us so. (That really is Santa Claus) 

We always enjoy listening to the Dodworth Saxhorn Band.  

Mark was amazed with how small the tent was. He was wondering if he could fit in it. 

We've seen this How I Got Over Presentation at the Susquehanna Plantation a few times, and it's always wonderful.

Past noon now, the kids had to go to the bathroom - my least favorite part of the day when going single parent style. Someone clued my little boys in that the image of the woman on the bathrooms is NOT a superhero, so now they insist they must go in the real men's john. 

There are no family bathrooms within the village. Who is with me that this is the hardest part of going someplace/traveling/doing anything without two adults of opposite sex. Seriously - *shudder*. Anyway - the last two times we've gone we've used the bathrooms in the way back near where the carousel USED to be. I can keep the door open and play my protector role well. 

Anyway - that taken care of, we then decided we were going to stay longer than a couple of hours and that we needed to eat. I would normally have packed a lunch, and it killed my frugal self that I didn't - but we called it a treat and ate at A Taste of History. I told the young kids tales of how we used to do that more often when Allan was an only child. 

This horse wanted to eat me. 

Our meal done, and timed just right to make it to the 2:00 Cavalry Demonstration in Walnut Grove. 

The blond horse didn't like the shooting, and once she started rearing - the other two started as well. 

At 3:00 a siren sounded, and the whole entire Village observed a moment of silence for those who have served, and for those who have sacrificed their lives for our country. It was very moving to have the whole village go quiet like that. I totally cried. 

Following the moment of silence, it was the Artillary Firing Demonstration - we stayed for a few rounds of canon firings. One of the horse riders taught us a trick - if you hold your mouth wide open when they fire, your ears won't pop. Nifty. 

Still timing things perfectly - we made it to the Camp Chase Fifes and Drums for their 3:30 performance as we were making our way back to the parking lot. 

While it was hot, we were glad we went. Saturday or Sunday just didn't work for us this year. Out of the parking lot, Mark fell sound asleep by the time we got back on 96. I was nervous that I'd have to carry my 52 pound baby into the house at George's where we went for supper on the grill - but as soon as we pulled in the driveway he woke up with "I have to go pee!!!" 

It was a good full day.  We settled in at home about four hours ahead of Greg and Allan. On Tuesday I'll be doing muddy laundry and another dentist run. 

Tuesday morning is going to hit like a brick wall....

The "Spring" Technique Tuesday Blog Hop

Good Monday Morning! 

If you've been by my blog before, you know that Mondays are my absolute favorite - and NOT, as my kids like to accuse - because they are going off to school. Like I said last week, that's just a bonus. 

Monday's to me are a fresh start, a clean slate, a new beginning. Very much like spring when everything is blooming and the seasonal attractions begin opening again...which brings me to the subject of this month's blog hop. 

Our guidelines for this hop were to think spring. I know a lot of people when they think of spring thing of soft pastel colors and flowers, but not me. (between you and me, pastels and I don't get along) I think of getting outside and getting out to many of our favorite places. Yesterday we took a hike at the Nature Center, but a couple weeks ago - on April 14th - we headed down to Greenfield Village for opening day. That I put these pictures on a layout already is a testimony to my Project Life project, but that's a story for another day. 

For this layout, since I'm not pastel driven, I went with my yellows and reds, along with my April Showers by Ali Edwards stamp set. This set is fun to use because it has such a great mix of stamps that'll fill all the little needs on a layout - the border, the embellishment, the title. My original plan had been to mix two stamp sets, but once I got started I realized I really didn't need to - this one did it all. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Leave a comment for a chance to be the lucky winner who will win the Fly stamp set. 

Make sure to take the time to be inspired by the rest of the Stamping Techs and see how they interpreted this months' spring challenge!

Tobi

Ashley

Charlene

Linda

Sharyn <---- you are here

Teri

Tanis

Daniela

Kris

Laura

Jaclyn

The winner will be announced on the Technique Tuesday blog on May 3rd. 

Happy Monday!

Greenfield Village * Opening Day

The nature hike we were supposed to go on this morning was canceled. 
Hubby was working, the teenager sleeping.
The little boys were running around the in-home circle full speed ahead, with the dog at their heels getting ready to start barking and herding.

The day looked to be much nicer than forecasted so we ate a quick lunch and headed down to Greenfield Village for opening day. I'm so glad we did. It was a beautiful day. 

I'm always glad to see that Bob still works the loom/weaving building. We like Bob. 

We strolled around the village for about 2-1/2 hours and capped it off with our first of the season Custard Cone. The one who should have gotten it in a dish insisted on a cone.  (I can really see the Tormanen in this profile shot)

The other two got theirs in cups.  I got the cone - something I don't usually get, but hey - it was opening day. Besides - according to my new Fitbit, I've walked 14,682 steps today and still have a few calories left on my daily budget. 

Worth it. 

 

We packed a lunch

We packed a lunch today and headed straight out to The Henry Ford from church. So for those of you who saw me chewing on my leftover Gus's Blackened Chicken salad while my husband was putting our life savings into the gas tank at Speedway ($3.85/gallon. Really???) that would be why. 

And has anyone given Speedway a heads up that their Sunday business is going to drop off drastically in a month plus?  (We're in the process of relocating our church - so our Sunday morning tank filling will be moving west) (heeee*)

These are the types of things I lose sleep over. 

I highly recommend the membership to The Henry Ford. We've had ours off and on for years. I'll guess 8 years or so all told.  Two visits in a year and it totally pays for itself - and I like that we can then just bop in for a couple hours and check out a new exhibits without feeling like we have to see the whole museum in one visit. 

I, of course, tend to favor the village - so I'm getting anxious for that to open (they close for winter)

Today though - our goal was to check out the new Driving America exhibit. 

It was pretty cool - the kids enjoyed seeing all the different cars from way back. I got a chuckle out of the old car seats (my battery was dying - didn't get a shot) and the flow of it all was nice. 

This shot makes me smile because Brian always stands like that, with one leg crossed over the other and a hand in his pocket. Totally him. The right hand is usually gesturing in exclamation about whatever subject he might be yammering on about.  This morning it was about how he had a dream that he was drowning in the Artic Sea, so his fingers were fluttering upwards. 

They also added these cool interactive touchscreens that were loaded with information, but what our kids liked most was driving the old car. They had to crank it up, work the clutch, and stop for cows and dodge potholes and get to the finish line in x amount of time.  The only thing here was that it was almost too high for our very tall five year old (that's the almost 7 yr old in the photo) so I was wishing they had a little stool or something for him.  His view was definitely distorted. 

They had another one where you could learn to talk like a trucker on the CB (cleanly) which Wendy had fun with. 

The diner is also open for real dining now which smells really good and made the kids bellies ache after their peanut butter sandwich lunch - but the burgers were not 15 cents. Greg snuck over to check the prices when the kids were distracted elsewhere and said the least expensive thing that he could see to get was $7.  $7 x the 5 of us that went (#6 had to work this afternoon so didn't come) = peanut butter sandwiches and bananas from the cooler.  It'll fall under one of those things to do when just one kid is along.  Lucky little one kid. 

This lucky little one kid thought I was taking his picture - so I couldn't resist. 

Brian practiced his wrenching skills at the Texaco station while his mother warned him - 'don't you dare get grease on your church pants"  

From there we asked the kids if they wanted to move onto trains or planes and they chose the planes. We saw the trains the last two trips, so that made sense. 

Wendy made a new friend. 

Sitting next to us here was a young 20-something guy who had been walking around the museum taking pictures of himself next to different exhibits with his ipad. It ran through my head that it would have been fun to follow him and see how many pictures we could sneak into before he noticed. 

This is the way my brain works. I abstained. 

The kids love the make a plane portion. There are fold by fold directions on how to make a variety of planes, and I tried my hand at making the sabertooth, but I failed miserably.  I got lost somewhere between steps 10 and 11.  

Mark was declared the winner because his plane got stuck in the roof netting. 

31 Day Photo Challenge: Favorite Color

Funny: I had written in my notebook that today's assignment was yellow - so I was caught off-guard when I went through my Google Reader when we got home and was seeing all different colors.  Then I realized I had written yellow because yellow is MY favorite color.  This is how my brain works. 

We then drove home and momma took her Sunday afternoon nap. 

Only 5 more hours until Monday!!!

 

 

We spent my birthday at The Henry Ford

okay - here it is. My birthday - the long version.  We spent the afternoon at The Henry Ford.   (And we renewed our membership - so you'll be seeing more pictures throughout the next year)

First off - I really miss the fact that the Village hasn't opened during the days in December during this year and last. They are still open for Holiday Nights, but not during the day - totally due to the economy. (and Holiday Nights cost above the membership, and with two adults and four kids - in this economy, we can't afford that) It was the one time that *I* insisted we head down to Dearborn. I loved walking the Village in December, and we often went on the weekend of my birthday. 

Come on economy, pick back up. My tradition is sad. 

But the museum is fun. Santa is there and they have this lovely train set up each Christmas that's all sorts of white and Christmasy and lit up and it's gorgeous and I couldn't wait to show the boys. (seen in this post)

But it wasn't there this year. I asked. Apparently the mice got it while it was in storage. 

We also didn't see Santa. We planned to - but the line was an hour and a half long. He's coming to Mark's school next week - we'll see him then. 

We did, however, enjoy listening to this guy reading The Polar Express on one of the trains. Mark was all sorts of Whoa!!  

From left to right - Allan brought clothes to change into after church, but forgot a change of shoes - so he's got pretty spiffy shoes on for the casual duds he's wearing. He was also approached by someone who saw his unicycle shirt and invited him to come and check out the Redford Township Unicycle Club when they start meeting again in January.  I thought maybe they had disbanded because they never answered the email I sent them back in May - but this lady assured me that they are most definitely up and running and would love to have Allan come out and see what they are about.  Neato. 

Wendy also forgot shoes to change into and had such a bad blister by the end of our few hours that I had to go bandaid hunting for her. 

Greg brought pants that aren't supposed to be seen out of his garage. Even Uncle George commented on them. 

Brian brought shoes to change into but chose to keep his church clothes on. 

Mark keeps it simple like his mother. 

The mother tends to lag behind the gang. By choice. We just wore the same thing all day long from top to bottom.

They had a sweet Wizard of Oz exhibit that was fun for the adults and the kids - lots to see and do in that room. Even fun for those who have never seen the Wizard of Oz.  *grin* 

And they had one of these things too that the boys were able to climb into. I thought it was new, but the boys say they've been in it before. My husband sometimes took the kids down to the museum when I wasn't able to. The beauty of the membership.

After the museum we came back home and appreciated and enjoyed the soup I had put going in the crockpot in the morning. 

Then there was singing and birthday ice cream after my delicious two hour nap. 

It was a good day. 

----

As for today?

A mailbox chock full of goodies - thank you!
A trip to the barber shop for Markie
A drop off of a special order golf ball to the Heart of Michigan shop in town
Stood in line at the post office to mail three other orders. The line was long but moved very quickly.

And tonight Brian is going on a fire station tour - and I think I'll stay home and finish writing Christmas cards. 

It's a good day. 

 

 

why, hello there

Happy Monday!! 

(a more detailed report of our yesterday coming later when I slow my Monday pace) 

be good!

An afternoon at Greenfield Village

 

I needed this day.
I've been trying to get down to Greenfield Village for the past three months. Our annual pass doesn't do us a whole lot of good if we can't even get there.  The whole one car thing  made everything difficult. While normally we'd go on a Sunday - because I didn't have a car all week long, our Sundays had to be spent doing other things.

Which stunk.

So, with the vehicle back (we got it back twice this week - and are bringing it in one more time on Monday. Don't ask) and our Sunday's back - combined with the fact that this is the first year the village will be closed in December (I asked a worker and they said yes - it is strictly an economy based decision)  with the exception of Holiday Nights (which costs, even for members, and this family of six can't afford it) (darn Jeep) and also with the fact that three of my kids started sniffling this week and I played the part of the complete germaphobe and kept them home from Sunday School because THEY CAN NOT GET SICK before my brother's wedding - put all that together and we spent an extremely relaxing day at the Village.

Someone said - How can you put relaxing and village in the same sentence????

But it was. 

I think it had a lot to do with the fact that the place was so empty. I'm apparently very relaxed in empty places. 

 Walking through, one could easily assume even that the buildings were empty, but they were all active. We have our favorites, and we try to visit a new place each time.  I love the pottery building.  There was another lady in here painting, but my picture of her didn't turn out.  I asked her, however - how long she's worked there, explaining that I have more than a few pictures of her in my albums.  She said she's been there 19 years.  They become familiar.  

And this guy - oh, I wanted him to give us a personal tour of the whole village.  I didn't recognize him - but boy, was he a wealth of information and entertaining besides.  The kids all skipped out of there saying, He was the Best!

The glass blowing house is always a family favorite.  He's making an ornament holder - it was very cool to see it made. 

All four of our kids came.  And they even behaved.  I think they liked the whole 'the place was empty' factor as well.  

They also enjoyed that there were no lines for the carousel and that we actually said yes, they could go!

I was a little regretting that I didn't have the kids dress for their pictures - but I didn't want to add any stress to the day.  I just needed to relax.  I still need to take three of their photos though. *stress*

completely empty. 
Thomas the Tank weekend would be so much more fun if it was like this.

Allan has a couple of photography assignments this week - so he was busy capturing some images.

 We really got hungry after stopping at this farm.  They always eat food that is grown or raised right there at the village....although in today's case they did have some halibut which they said would have been purchased.  They were also eating mutton from the Firestone Farm.  We were really hungry after leaving there. 

We made our way along sidewalks covered in goose poop (I've never seen it like this before - it was VERY HARD to traverse) back to the van.

And ate our cheese and makkara (lunch meat) sandwiches while pretending it was a mutton and roast dinner with potatoes and carrots.  That farm did a number on our stomachs.

We then went and tracked goose poop all over the museum. 

That's the Fisher Building - and now my boys all want Lego's for Christmas.

We made planes

 

and threw them.

Sat in the other airplane
Lit up the lights
Walked though the George Washington Carver exhibit

 
Emotionally scarred little girls who we've never met

And then the kids got completely out of hand so we left.
And got pizza on the way home

A much needed relaxing day.

Now tomorrow things start to get really crazy........

 

 

The Henry Ford, Part II

Good Morning!
Now the rest of the photos. I had to shut down the computer, kick a few things out of the recycling bin and do a bit of formatting to get things running smooth. Computers, we love them and they make us pull our hair out.

But back to our yesterday. We had originally planned to go to The Henry Ford on Memorial Day, but then a family event came up and the forecast said thunderstorms anyway, so then we thought perhaps today after church, which is what we normally do.

Because what we really should have done last night is gone to a wedding, but for the life of me I couldn't find out the time of it.  I tried. I heard 5:00 just as much as I heard 6:00.  And then I read that the village was open until 9 last night.  They are normally only open until 5. 

 

I was sold.

These are the thoughts that ran through my head when I read they were open until 9:  Thinner crowds, less heat, more relaxing, and that magic light hour for taking pictures.  It was a no brainer.  We got there right at 5, and we parked closer than we ever have.

Which was in time to catch some tactical maneuvers in Walnut Grove. We followed the troops down.

And got ready for the smell and sound of gunfire.

*booooommmmm*

 

And the ground shook.

One of the funniest moments here was during the narration (which we heard much better this year than ever before - or wait, maybe it's those tubes in my ears....) and he was talking about the battle and how they would engage each other. Wendy's nose wrinkled up and her brow furrowed and she asked in all seriousness, WHY would you want to be engaged to the enemy????? 

Why indeed.

The demonstration over, we walked around the park for a bit. What hadn't dawned on me is that all the buildings would be closed after 5.  So I missed peeking into the farmhouse and some of my favorite buildings, but that's okay. I'll enjoy those the next visit.

We did stop and get some custard cones. Our mode of operation is to let the kids pick either cones or carousel, we rarely do both on the same visit.  I called home just after this and asked Allan if he was wishing that he had come with us.  He (14) said, I'm only missing the custard cones. Of course I informed him that we had just finished that part of the day.  Because that's the kind of mom that I am.

*happy sigh*
It was an evening well spent.

 

 

membership renewal

I think we're meant to be lifetime members of The Henry Ford.  We took last year off when we did the zoo instead - and we missed it constantly. This year we're members. again.  I think it's our fifth year.  We really do enjoy it.  It's a good thing. We went today to enjoy the Civil War Remembrance.  If you go, don't forget your coupon. Great deal.

I'll just share a few of my pictures tonight. My computer is giving me fits, and I'm a bit tired - a long full day.  I'll share the rest and the ramblings tomorrow.  I couldn't resist a teaser though...

*happy sigh*
Until tomorrow.....