When we came home from Wisconsin we saw that this tree- the tallest one in the picture- had dropped a huge branch across the yard of our neighbor's house (the whitish one). Fortunately it missed their house and their car. These neighbors have become newer friends- they have a little girl Clara's age and a baby boy.
Unfortunately, the tree (a Hackberry) had to come down. The branch it had lost was really a whole tree in and of itself and it had lost a similarly large branch maybe 6 years ago. There was a lot of rot on the inside of the trunk, and it just wasn't stable anymore. We spent quite a bit of our day watching the men take it down.
The kids were momentarily distracted by this katydid.
Here you can see the interest in the katydid, Clara's need for ear protection, and some of the huge pieces of the first branch that had come down.
It was fascinating to watch, but a very sad tree to lose. It has left quite a bare spot. This was the second tree lost in that section of the neighborhood this summer. Also interesting - I guess Hackberry is a very dense wood- so these guys were working very very hard on a hot hot day. The wood chipper couldn't handle the larger pieces, but that was kind of cool because it gave us a chance to go investigate the tree from the inside.
In other news, Franklin had his 7th birthday. We had a small party and Sharon and Rhiannon made these amazing cupcakes. The 'dog treats' were also for humans.
This was Franklin's cake. The carrots were Henry's idea. Franklin's favorite part was the peanut butter.
It's been so nice to have Sharon and the girls back home!
Helena and the kids came to celebrate as well. Look how big Norbert is getting! Sorry I don't have a better photo of him.
If you look closely you can see the big plate of assorted wieners I grilled up for the occasion. It was delicious!
Henry tried, earnestly, to figure out how he could catch a fish with a bucket. Later Mom got him a net, but that wasn't much more successful.
We made one quick stop downtown before heading home. We had to buy the new cousin (Liz and Van's baby-on-the-way) a Hawkeye onesie. I had the kids pose in front of the Old Capitol for a few pictures.
Henry was a little more enthused than Clara. She's still trying to figure out where she's going to apply.
Finally, before leaving town, Mom talked Rob into cutting open a coconut for the kids to enjoy. She had just bought it at the Co-op earlier in the week and hadn't thought about the whole opening-it-up thing. Rob was very enthused about the whole endeavor.
I think here he's saying "would you just let me do it?" and Mom's saying "I'm the Coconut Queen!" Maybe you had to be there.
The kids were pretty interested!
Here's Rob pouring out the coconut water while Carrie gives me the "what's with these two?" look.
Rob also enjoyed some special time with a giant fly. This is right before he tried to suck it up with the shop-vac.
When we went inside Eleanor drew a coconut face for me on her doodle pad, and then proceeded to make the same face herself.
