Bug is 7!

Bug turned 7 last week. How that happened, I do not know. I do know that we headed to Milwaukee early Saturday morning to see Grandma. Here's Bug, catching up on her reading in the van. The pillow was an Xmas gift from one of my internet mommy friends when Bug was 1 1/2. It is now called the "nose-rubbing pillow".

Waiting patiently to dig in and see what's there!

Yay! Magnext are our current favorite thing.

Of course, one must have a little Captain Underpants to read...

According to Bug, the gift from me and her dad was the best....my old (not that old) digital camera. Bug has been asking for one for over a year.

Bug, making a favorite face.

Here are a few of the photos that Bug has taken with her camera:

Bug's dad promised her that he'd make pancakes on the morning of her birthday. Here are a couple of them that she especially liked.

Bug's favorite electric guitar: the Fender "Rory Gallagher" Strat.

Purrl has decided that the dollhouse is a good place to sit while watching the squirrels.

After showing her new camera to Grandma, of course Bug had to take a picture of her!

Slim Goodbody!

Bug and I went to see Slim Goodbody's Bodyology show yesterday. Wow...it was so much fun! I figured that I would be able to tolerate it, as I knew that Bug would enjoy it, but this guy was so good, that I thoroughly enjoyed the show. He posed for a photo with Bug after the show. We're planning to go again, next year.








We got a call a few days ago that our friend from Japan was in the states and wanted to visit. It was a short, but nice, visit. We went out to eat, then he took Bug shopping for a birthday present...She was overjoyed to get Eve and Wall-e, as you can see in the photo below. THANK YOU, TAKESHI!!!

Nature drawings.

While on our hike last weekend, Bug did some drawing in her nature journal. I took pictures of each drawing and of the real thing that she was looking at.

I was the first one to spot the reindeer head on this tree...but it was Bug who, in her drawing, decided just exactly which reindeer it was.

Bug spotted this log and was quite excited. It's not often that you run across a jackal log, you know.

This was just a hole in the bottom of a tree....but there was much discussion as to what might live in there.

Go take a hike!

We had beautiful weather here this past weekend. On Saturday, we decided to go for a hike. Here's what we were rewarded with when we got to the top.

We found a really cool area of sandstone. Bug thought that this hole was pretty cool.

Bug's dad decided to walk across this fallen tree.

Bug had other ideas for getting across.

Music.

We made a trip to Red Wing recently to visit with some friends. We also went down to the train station to hear some other friends play. Here's Bug's dad sitting in with Patchouli.

Here's Bug trying out a very cool electric guitar. (maybe even as cool as her own...)

At the park with friends.

Recently, some friends visited from out of town. We went to Bug's favorite playground. Much fun was had, even though it was a bit chilly.

SOCCER!

Bug had her first soccer game last Saturday. Her team, the Lightning Bolts, won the game. The score was 2-1. Here she is before the game with some friends who live just down the street from us. They were quite excited.


Hard to see, but Bug is in the middle, towards the right. The one that's NOT running towards the ball. This is what happens at practice. (along with sitting on the ground, digging in the dirt and playing with the grass) I must say that she did do pretty well at the game and spent most of the time running after the ball.
There she is...in the middle. Not another kid from this game in sights. LOL.

Wall-e, new bike and Easter...

Bug and her dad were busy, building last night. They came up with wall-e. Bug took this picture.



Here's a side-view. She's a bit excited.
And another front-view.

We've been looking at new bikes, but hadn't gotten one yet. The weather was so nice on Saturday, that we decided to get one. Bug is quite pleased. One crash so far...scraped herself pretty good and bruised her ribs a bit.

Of course there were "tie-dyed" eggs at our house.

Here is Bug on Easter morning, wondering where the bunny may have hidden her basket.

Ah....success!

Saving Stan.

When I got home from knitting on Tuesday night, Bug's dad signaled to me to follow them. Bug was ready to use the time machine again. (http://thebugslife.blogspot.com/2009/03/time-travel.html )

While I was out, they had the stereo on. It was on shuffle, so they were listening to all kinds of things. Just before I got home, she heard 2 voices that she recognized and yelled "it's a concert!" They had to run back to the living room to listen to Garnet & Stan Rogers sing "Northwest Passage". Bug first heard Stan a few years ago. It was during her "is he alive or dead?" phase. When she found out that he had died, she was very sad. Her dad quickly grabbed one of Garnet's CDs and put it on saying "this is his brother, and he is not dead". Thus started her love of Garnet Rogers.

Back to Tuesday night: As I got home, Bug hopped into the time machine. Off they went, in search of an airplane....one that was on fire. Her mission: save Stan. It was so incredibly sweet/sad to witness. She was so excited when she "saved" him.

Have I mentioned that we love this kid?

Silly things.

This one's blurry...but it makes me laugh. Bug was eating some dry cereal and decided that it made good monster teeth.

Here she is with her new fish hat. She gets annoyed with me when I call her "Fish Head" while she's wearing it.

Time travel.

Yesterday, Bug & her dad made a time machine. Bug took care of writing on the side of it. Bug and her dad worked together on the controls. They can go forward or back in time, up to 10,000 years. They added a multiplier, in case they need to go further. They can also dial in an exact number of days.

Here's Bug, getting ready to take off. I forgot to get a shot of the back, with the license plate. It's pretty cool, too.

Yesterday they went to Ancient China, then to Greece to fight the Minotaur. They were back in time for lunch.

New hats.

I just wanted to share a couple of tiny hats that I gave away recently. This little helmet hat JUST fit my friend's new baby. I spotted this pink on pink skull & crossbones hat that I had made a while back. I knew that it needed to go on this head. I think she likes it!

Visits with friends and family.

We spent 5 days visiting family and friends in and around Milwaukee. Here is Bug with her cousin Sandy. They hadn't seen each other in about 2 years. We had much fun.

Some sillyness was involved...

They are DEFINITELY related!

We drove up to Sheboygan one day to see the Garnet Rogers show at the Paradigm Cafe. Always a good time.

Bug wanted a photo of them BOTH making silly faces. Garnet wasn't up for that, it seems...

Here is Bug with her song requests. It reads:

Garnet, I would like to

hear the songs:

Summer lightning

and oh how happy.

He opened the show with "Oh How Happy" and finished the first set with "Summer Lightning". Bug was happy.