A girl and her dog. Elliott has decided that Sugar is her dog. She has moved from barely tolerating her existence to loving her whole-heartedly and physically. It's a good thing that Sug is used to kids and doesn't seem to mind all of the attention. We do still pay attention and make sure that she's not too overzealous. While Sugar doesn't mind, not all dogs would care for her four year old brand of affection.
We had a couple of very nice visits with Perry and Deb when they were in town for Floris's back surgery. It was great to have them over for leisurely visits, to be able to cook for them, walk them around our town, and play Uno and Old Maid. We all enjoyed it!
We celebrated Janesville Days this weekend. They had fireworks at the school on Friday night. It was nice to be able to walk up, put our blanket and cooler down, enjoy the show, and then walk home. Both girls stayed awake for this show!! Saturday was the chance for the kids to gather enough candy to get them through to Halloween - or should I say, the parade. My friend Elly and her sons Drew and Derek joined us, and our friends Joe and Danielle and their son Asher. Elliott seems to have a way with the boys. At the WHC picnic, she and Derek had the most fun going down the slide and racing their cars. As you can see from the pictures, Elliott and Asher are also good friends. They play together quite well, and Asher doesn't seem to mind following Elliott's lead. We ended our Janesville Days involvement by attending the open air church service on Main Street. The kids got up and sang their Vacation Bible School songs for us, and we got to meet the parents of the little girl that will be joining Olivia's class this fall.



The girls went to a tea with Grandma Diane at her church. They both enjoy getting dressed up.
Chris had his knee scoped last week. Not how he had planned on spending RAGBRAI week, but he wasn't going to be able to ride his bike with the way his knee had been feeling. Once he switched from the prescription pain killer to ibuprofen, he was in pretty good shape. He has his follow-up appointment tomorrow and is itching to get back to work.
I picked up dinosour dig kits for the girls at the hospital gift shop. They get to use the tools to dig and brush the block to uncover dinosaur bones. After they have uncovered the bones, they will be able to put the models together. They also attended Vacation Bible School during the week of Chris's surgery. That was nice for them to have some structured activity during the otherwise unusual week. We went to the Phelps Youth Pavilion in Waterloo one afternoon to give Chris some peace and quiet. The girls loved it - they had so many neat hands on activities. I especially enjoyed milking the cow!! Olivia's favorite activity was virtual painting - you touched the "paint brush" to the colored paint can that you wanted to use, and then moved the brush in the air to paint your picture that was projected on to the wall. When you were done, you were able to print your creation. Elliott loved the "hoops" as she called them. They were openings by the stairs that kids could climb into, drop down a level, scamper over to the next drop down opening, scamper over to the next and so on, to the bottom, instead of using the stairs.



Olivia and I finished the first Harry Potter book last week. We were all ready to start on the second book when I realized that we have 2 copies of the first book, and a copy of the 3rd book - but no copy of the second book. They went to the library to get the 2nd one on Friday. We talked about whether we should read the 2nd one together. We did enjoy reading together and talking about it, but it does take quite a while to get through it. I gave O the choice of whether she wanted to continue together or move along on her own. She decided to move along on her own. She finished the second book today!!! AND started on the third book!!! The girl is a reader and she loves the books and the characters.

I feel like this was a somewhat disjointed out of order post, but I guess that's what I get for waiting two weeks to post. I keep remembering more that I want to say, but I think I'm starting to ramble - so I'll save more for another night.