after a long day

when all the work is done for the day, and we have had the last lath,

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Then we pull out the trunks and play dress up

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The favorite mother and the glow worm even like to get gussyed up

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then the silly sisters sail away

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and the glow worm sings....

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its a long trip alone,

What a singing glow worm sings

While coloring with a variety of colors the glow worm will suddenly burst into song with gusto singing, “There’s so many colors in the rainbow. There’s so many colors in the…rainbow (because she can’t remember the rest of the words). There’s so many colors in the rainbow…” and on she sings indefinitely, but as happy as a lark with her crayons.
(the real song goes, “There’s so many colors in the rainbow! There’s so many colors in the morning sun! There’s so many colors in the flower’s and I see every one!”)

And while eating a peanut butter sandwich she sings, “peanut, peanut butter, stinks to my nose.” And after swiping her nose with her peanut buttery finger she continues, “peanut peanut butter, stinks to my cheek” and on she goes until her whole little face is as sticky as her song.
(The real song goes, “Peanut peanut butter, sticks to your nose like no other. Peanut peanut butter, sticks to your nose. But Jesus sticks with you, even closer still. He’s closer than a brother, he’s closer than peanut butter.”)

And we credit it all to the favorite singing family, who was kind enough to teach us these songs while the mosquitoes sang harmony.

Gone Camping

We got a rather late start as usual for our camping trip. We forgot our food, but we managed to survive on the candy bars we found along the way. Our late start pushed us behind sunset so we stopped at GG’s house for some brownies before trudging on. Also, we forgot all but one flash light, and the clouds made it difficult for the stars to shine thoroughly. But we had a glow worm along and a heroic, attractive, one eyed mutt of dauntless courage….unless it rains, then he gets rather put out like a tiny flame.

After hiking indefinitely, we arrived at our camp site at around ten pm. The site was littered with all sorts of obstacles that were in need of being removed. The youngest child was set to work at pre tenting the site, mostly because she was the first to arrive at the site in the dark. By the time the middle child tumbled down the hill with the glow worm, the youngest child had unrolled the tent on a relatively flat surface while I watched. The glow worm proved herself a worthy camper by holding the one flashlight on the tent and out of the silly sisters eyes.

The tent was a worthy tent, a fact we were not sure about before we set it up for the second time. The first time we set it up was in an Amish field with the help of many little hands. This time, in the dark, went just as smoothly as the little glow managed to appear to be everywhere at once and accomplished the feat of being five little angles. According to the youngest child, you just throw the tent up into the air and it self assembles…the middle child will assure everyone that she put it together before the youngest child threw it up in the air. The favorite mother had showed a strong aversion to any stakes being pounded into the ground, and there was a large scarcity of trees around, so we had to improvise a little.

All our extra clothes and other useless items were left at home, but we did have sleeping bags, teddy bears and books along to make our bedtime as painless as possible. The sleeping bags were placed conveniently on the floor of the tent and the youngest child refrained from putting the bugs I know she carry’s in her pocket into the sleeping bags of the others. She does at times show great strength in self denial.

As everyone settled into their beds, and after the oldest child had kissed everyone good night, the glow worm called for a story, and the eloquent middle child made up a complex story of a none talking horse that left the glow worm and the youngest child wide eyed and beyond all hope of ever sleeping again in this lifetime. But camping is camping, and no one wants to be the last one awake, and so a race to be the first one asleep was held. The glow worm, after being alarmed by all the strange noises generally inspired by camping, was the winner of the sleep race.

And as the middle child and the youngest child tossed and turned on the hard ground, they wished it hadn’t been quite so flat a site,

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they wished it wasn’t quite so smooth

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they wished everything wasn't so easy

They wished their camp site was outside.

But they awoke the next morning to the sound of rain and for the first time they were very greatful to be in a nice dry tent in the favorite mothers house.

A special thanks to the one eyed mutt for contributing to this story

The handsome ransom

This breaking news is fresh off the press:

The awsomely handsome one eyed mutt is being held for ransom by the crazy sisters!

According to our source (whom we deem somewhat reliable for a one eyed mutt), he was not dognaped, nor has he gone missing. But somehow, in the last week he has arrived in the clutches of the crazy sisters who now refuse to release him without certain demands being met.

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According to our source, his conditon is horrifing.
He is at their complete mercy…they drag him on long walks where he is not allowed to chase birds, but he himself gets chased frequently by the crazy sisters who insist there's a button to push on his tail...

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....they connive him into precarious kayaks, where he is forced to sit still or reap the consequences....he gets nothing to eat but scrapes and mac and cheese....

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He's forced to play out side amidst unimagineable horrors, while the wolves frolic in the field. AND HE HAS TO SLEEP WITH OUT HIS PILLOW!!!!

These perhaps would not be so bad alone, but to top it all off, the crazy sisters can't seem to refrain from making him play dress up with them

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and this humiliating abuse will go on until the handsome ransom is paid in full.

Professional stripper: Canceled

Thats right, the middle child no longer wants to be a professional stripper when she grows up and gets a real job. Aparently, she wasn't having a whole lot of fun stripping the paint off the windows one day last week...and she announced her decision over lunch to the entire family.

If our memories serve us right, her exact words were: "I don't like stripping."

And the youngest child quite naturally took it a step farther and crossed "Professional Stripper" off the resumee.

Happy quarter of a century youngest child

Happy Birthday youngest child!

Happy Birthday youngest child!

Happy Birthday youngest child!

Happy Birthday youngest child!

Have a great day!

Love your favorite family

The favorite brother’s brothers,

On their way home from Idaho, the silly sisters crashed at the favorite Brainerd grandparents house for a much needed rest. While they were there the favorite brother stopped by for a progress report on his building plans. The favorite Brainerd grandpa wondered how the favorite brother would get his house built before winter set in.

The favorite brother responded to such concern with great confidence and complete sincerity, “Oh, my brothers are going to help me.”

the long recovery

This was not at the state fair.

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This was down in the Valley of Texas a few days before Easter. But it's memories like this that prolong our recovery.

And we fear we are still unfit for our friends.

Our State Fair is the best State Fair

Thank you to everyone who has stopped to see us...esspecially to the favorite singing family who some how managed to connect sunday and tuesyday in a freakish way. And to everyone who has stopped, thank you, and yes we did infact see you pointing and laughing.

Six days down, and only six to go! Oh boy! How shall we ever bear such joy? And yes we do mean bear.

Pardon us if we forget wether it's day or night...or if it's actually today instead of yesterday...its okay though, we have a plan...


we'll sleep when its over.

Wild raspberries

How much a wild raspberry is enjoyed depends on how much a person looks at it before its tossed into the mouth. The faster it enters the mouth after leaving the plant the greater the enjoyment. But a slight hesitation in the toss may ruin the entire experience. For at a slight glance little white dots are visible…possibly the eggs of the bug you just blew off. On closer inspection a little tiny little white worm may greet you with an imploring plea for its little life…and the life of the only food it has to grow on.

Stink bugs and wild fruit flies are easily brushed off and promptly forgotten, and even the eggs can be tolerated as long as they brush off easily, but a worm found is as good as a berry thrown…and its very difficult to stop the thought from coming…how many worms have we eaten this year in our berry patch without us even knowing?

On assignment

On their way to Idaho for vacation

the silly sisters stopped at the Grand Canyon in North Dakota

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As usual, the picture does not do it justice...or the silly sisters for that matter

And then there was Lolo Pass

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This is the youngest child gawking at one of the views...or rather, she's gawking at the tourists gawking at the view.

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This is the middle child laughing at the awkward looking camera person.

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After they had over come being distracted by the sights and sounds(horns?) the silly sisters finally arrived in Idaho

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Here the grins and gigglers are standing at the top of the little mountain they climbed after fly fishing in a happy little lake. Okay, so they didn't have to climb very high, and they didn't make it to the top; but hey, no one ever has to know that.

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Tune in next time for pictures of the silly sisters doing a photo shoot with May and Phil.

pictures of our bugs

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The cricket and the glow worm.

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And our little lady bug

And here's all our bugs getting along famously in our bug net

Hope everyone enjoyed seeing our bugs as much as we did!

to post or not to post

Thats just silly!

Of course we're not going to post today. We have way to many cabins to clean and fluff and stuff. We'd have to be made of time to post on a day as busy as this one...or maybe we just got up super early after going to bed horribly late...but at any rate, we're not going to post to day!








So there!

Happy August Day!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, today is the wonderful first day of August, and as such we are determined to have a fabulous day!!! A beautiful day! A spectacular day! A completly unforgetable day! A...a...perfect day! A great day! A nice day! A good day. A fine day. A...a...um...a....well, at any rate, we are determined to have a day of it.








Hey, at the very least, we've already smiled once...even the lady bug!

early in the morning

Eloquence doesn't always abound at the happy place, nor does everything always go right.

Sometimes the middle child accidentally barrels into a cabin with the tractor...and sometimes, early in the morning, the youngest child can be heard encouraging the one eyed mutt to, "Go poop one eye. Go poop!" and then with some frusteration she'll growl in a low stern voice, "Go poop NOW!"

Tales of Two Sillies

Here's what you need to do today...if you get nothing else done, do this. Go to your book store and ask for Tales of Two Sillies, we would post a picture of it, but we're having trouble.

Oh, you could also go to here and then type in Tales of Two Sillies in the search box to see the cover...

Stand back now and watch the professionals….

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This is, apparently, the silly sisters demonstrating their standing out of the way skills.

They were remarkably good at it too.

You know what they say, "Many hands make..."

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Everything much more confusing

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The youngest child didn't actually lean on this pile of dirt all day. There was a different pile closer to the hole that she leaned on with a shovel.

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The middle child did in fact sit in this tractor all day...and no it didn't stay in one spot.

This isn't what the silly sisters were doing last week, this is what they did the week before, they were playing in the mud last week...

Remember...

Remeber the time the middle child got stuck in the culvert?

Newsys 5th annual Cattail party

The newsy staff on assignment:

Catching fish for the cattail party...and yes it was enough for the crowd of 19.

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Here are the cattail partiers...or at least the ones that were bound by blood to run around franticly with the silly sisters before the party.

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Here's the glow worm and little cricket going for a motorcycle ride.

oh, and a sneaky picture of some french doors.

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The cattail party was a sight to behold. It really was. Imagine 19 people in 19 yellow T-shirts running around like bumble bees.

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And we can still see them running around...