When is 54 3?

When sledding down a hill is involved of course! We met up with Grandma Caren, Grampsey Johnny, Uncle JD, Aunt Katie, Aubrey, Jon, and Blake (some friends of ours) to sledding yesterday afternoon. I am fairly certain the adults had more fun than the kids (in fact, Bits and Aubrey spent more time on the playground with Grandma than on the sleds!) Enough words though, time for PICTURES!!!

(if you look closely enough at the pictures you might even see *me* in there...*gasp*)

                                      

Also, yesterday was a day of birthdays in our family, Uncle Bobby turned 50 and fabulous, Aunt Becky hit 29 *wink* and Uncle Dave had a birthday as well! Happy belated birthday everyone!!

The Fruits of Our Labor

After months of watering, weeding, fertilizing, chasing bunnies, and praying we *finally* have something to show for our hard work...
A few gorgeous little tomatoes...going to taste so good with fresh basil and olive oil, don't you think???


After thinking we'd never even get any blossoms, we have been rewarded with baby green beans; it took all I had in me to NOT pick them and eat them tonight :)



AND, literally, the products of my labor...(okay, I only labored with *one* of them, but I have been watering, feeding, and praying for them, surely that counts for something, right?!)

a picture is worth a thousand words...

Friday...Friday...Friday

Geo was off today, so we thought we might invite his mom out for a picnic and a hike in the woods. We had a blast; we tried out a "new" forest preserve, one with a cool bridge over the Kishwaukee river. We had a *great* afternoon! Thanks for coming out Grandma Dyan!

Post 100!!

That's right, this is the 100th post in Witkowski Family Happenings.


In trying to write something amazing and fantastic I've come up with some ideas that have ultimately been scraped:
-The top 100 things about the Witkowski family that you may not have known
-100 cute things Gabe and SarahAnne do on a daily basis
-100 of the Witkowski's favorite things
-A 100 word essay extolling the virtues of the ever so humble Witkowski family
-100 100 calorie recipes that we like to eat

and so on and so forth...I think you can see why they've been scrapped. He he.

Instead, I'll leave you with a few pictures from our visit to Garfield Farms, an 1800's style farm a few miles from here. It's all original buildings/equipment and the kids had a BLAST. They have oxen, geese, chickens, ducks, turkeys, hogs, and sheep. Some of the species they have were very very endangered. For example, they have five geese and that represented 1% of the total population of these particular geese in the entire world. When have you ever seen 1% of the total population of anything? You probably haven't. The chickens we saw were also 1% of the total population of the world (though they are making a comeback because of a partnership between Garfield Farms and the Museum of Science and Industry) It was an amazing learning experience for ALL of us, we learned how laundry was done in 1840 (I came home and kissed my washing machine) Gabriel dipped candles, and we learned a lot about how hard farming was hundreds of years ago...it makes you very thankful for what you have.

And on that note...I'm so thankful I have such an amazing, beautiful, wonderful family. We have smart, funny, sweet, and caring children and a good strong marriage...which makes for a great family!

Gabe and Dad checking out the barn


Dipping candles (he later said "I didn't like that Mom")


Duke, one of the 'show' oxen; SarahAnne was enthralled and would have stayed all day. At one point she put her hand through the gate and stroked his nose; she would have climbed in if we would have let her.


Watching the Oxen "show"


Enjoying being in an open space with lots of fresh air

In Full Swing!

It's *one* day before the summer equinox and Mother Nature finally got a clue :) We went out and bought the kiddos (and our garden) a sprinkler...it was nearly 90 degrees with the humidity today and the sprinkler was a big hit!

Uh oh

Well once again, I've fallen behind with posting *blushes* We were offline for about a week and a half and are dealing with a temperamental computer that doesn't like to come back on when it's shut off, so it's been a bit of a challenge as of late to get on and actually post.

George has left the electrical department and is now only running the plumbing department at his store; which is fine because our bathroom floor needs to be ripped out and replaced and he'll have to do some plumbing work to make that happen ;) he he. He had a week off and we spent the week relaxing and enjoying the kiddos together.

I am *officially* a college student again. I will be starting my classes a few days after Gabriel starts school in August. I am taking "An Introduction to Special Education", "Marriage and Family" (a sociology class that looks incredibly interesting) and "Journalism and Democracy" which is right up my alley. I'm excited to get back "on the horse" so to speak.

Gabriel is a little fire cracker, to say the least. He has been loving this warm weather. He had his first playdate the other day with a little boy his age. They jumped on the trampoline, wrestled, and got incredibly muddy. I'm told this is normal for boys his age ;)

SarahAnne is a non stop talking machine (at least around those she is comfortable with) She is SO expressive with her face, she wiggles her eyebrows, crosses her arms in front of her, and my personal favorite, is when she furrows her brow, gets a very serious look on her face and says "hmmmm" when thinking about answering a question. Her new favorite word is "actually" and she says it whenever she thinks it might be appropriate. Goofy girl.


And now for a few pictures...



He totally posed for this one, he said "Hey mom, take my picture like this" What a ham!