Old McDonald

The girls had me read (rather, sing) "Old McDonald Had a Farm" over and over while they were here.  There's just something special about that book!

So, of course we had to go to the zoo and look at the farm animals there!

Cows are ushi (oo-shee) in Japanese and make the sound moh-moh.

I asked Tenley if she liked the pigs.  She shook her head "no".  

In Japanese, a pig is a buta (boo-tah) and it makes the sound "buu-buu" (boo-boo).

I think her favorite was the sheep.

Hitsuji (hee tsu jee)  in Japanese, they make a mee-mee (meh) sound

Pengin (pen-geen) or jinchou

I don't know how to describe the sound in English or Japanese.

Some kind of rattley squawk.

Our obligatory penguin picture did not turn out.

A giraffe is a kirin.

I've never read a book that describes the sound a giraffe makes.  But it DOES make sounds.  Did you know?  

The train costs extra, but it was worth it we thought.

An elephant is a zou-san and makes a paoon sound.

A delightful day!

And here is Old McDonald in Japanese!

Sukiyaki dinner

 My parents often made sukiyaki for us and for friends.  

Dinner for Jim and Shirley who love all kinds of cuisine from around the world!

For our family, Uncle Harry, Aunt Wava and cousin Kay Sue. Look at my brother sporting a "fro"!  Popular back in the day.

And the rest of the Geiger clan and pastor Tschetter's family.

The Quiet Place Singers were treated to it.

She even prepared it for church groups totalling over 100 people!!   Not sure how she did that!

On Saturday evening, our son Josh and grandson Eli were on their way home from Colorado.

They had asked Mindy if they could stop by in Colorado to see her and the babies.  Well, she was at our house, so they stopped here for the night.  I asked Josh what he would want for dinner.  "Sukiyaki!"   

We call Josh the "baby whisperer".

Tenley loved him when she was a baby.  As a toddler, she is pretty leary!  She feels that way about any man, pretty much.  Jason says it needs to stay that way! She hit her leg against something and she glared at Josh as if it were his fault!

I wish the rest of the family could have been here too!  We will have to do sukiyaki again come Christmas when we hopefully are all together again!

Choo-choo!

When the children come to play, toys are strewn across the living room floor!

I don't mind in the least!

This tee-pee was one our children had when they were little.

And I kept many of my kids' toys too.

Jason face-timed the children from the airport.

He also left them little sweet notes about how he'd miss them.

When I was planning meals for the week, I planned for us to eat at the Bread Basket Friday evening for their German buffet.  I didn't realize that Jason was leaving for California Friday morning.  I was thinking Saturday morning. 

We went anyway because who doesn't love a good Swiss-German meal!?  Bierocks, varenika (or vareniki, varenike, varenyky depending which Mennonite group you come from) with ham gravy, zweiback...  Jason especially loves bierocks so I got some frozen ones for them to take back with them to Colorado.

We live in a train town.  My husband had heard a couple of years ago that about 28 trains passed through town each day!!  You are lucky if you don't get stopped by a train when you are needing to get across the tracks for an appointment somewhere!!  

The train was going by so we walked across the parking lot to see it.  

"Tenley, chuga-chuga choo-choo!"

The loud train whistle scared Tenley, but we encouraged her to wave.

Meanwhile, Tenley's ice-cream was melting as she watched 

the very, very long train slowly chug by.

The current train station was built in 1929-30.  It is the 3rd depot in the location.  It used to have a Harvey House restaurant in the olden days.  

Here is a picture taken several years ago (2013) of our other grandchildren at the train station.

And this is me and my brothers.  We rode the train twice a week to boarding school and back in Japan.

Aburatsu train station

I actually love riding trains!  And for our anniversary, we are going to be riding on the Abilene dinner train!

Did you ever sing this song?

Kids come visit!

What a joy to have our daughter and her family come to our home for about a week!  Our children all live out of state and it is just such sweet joy when we can see them!

Kaia was so happy to see her Papa when he came home from work!

We celebrated Tenley's 2nd birthday since we were not able to go to Colorado for that special day.  Tenley helped me decorate her cake.

The "2" plastic candle holder lit into many colours when you push a button on the bottom.  (The extra candle was for my birthday which also was in June.)

We gave Tenley the Busy Book I sewed for her.

It is a book that both girls have enjoyed!

The next day, I took Tenley on a walk around the pond.

I pointed out the playground that they are building.

Maybe next time they come to Kansas, it will be ready for her to play on!

It's so cute to see Tenley wave at the geese.

Kaia's lunch time facial expressions

After lunch, Mindy and Jason took Tenley to the YMCA.  What fun she had!  I stayed home while Kaia took her nap.  

They stopped at Walmart to pick up a bike helmet.

Checking the corn field.  The recent rains have really helped them grow!

When Al got off work, he had Jason help him cut off a branch that was hanging loose.  Thank you, Jason!!

Helping Papa take the branch to the burn pile.

We grilled burgers for supper and ate out on the deck.  Hard to believe it has been so nice this July so far.  Heat is coming, but we were enjoying the high 70s and low 80s.  Unusual for Kansas in July!

"Grandchildren are the pride and joy of old age..."  

                                        Proverbs 17:6 ESV