Old Radtke toys

Things seem to last forever in the Radtke house. Take, for instance, these old toys. Three of the big orange trucks were Paul’s when he was a kid; the rest were Marks’.



This wagon was Kristen’s. Marley loved her “wagon rides” for a long time, and now Mason is having fun with it.





Tonight Paul was mowing the lawn and so I got out Kristen’s old lawnmower for him to play with. It has been re-built with a piece of wood taped to the handle, but it serves the purpose.







I could go on and on with old Radtke “things”, but that’s for another day and another blog!

Mason at Prims

This is Mark’s final exam week, so we have had Mason more than usual. Tonight I took him to Prims. This is the second time that I have taken him; the first time was more or less a disaster. He wanted me to hold him almost the whole night. This time he really got into it, playing with the kids and toys. The only problem was at the end of the class. We had over 20 kids and they always get kind of wild right before the parents come. So, between the kids running around and all the parents coming, he kept saying “huggie” which means “I’m nervous, pick me up.” Ha Ha!

Feeding the horses

Across the street, behind Good Carl's house, is a farm where they board horses. Our neighbors are so nice; they said that any time we want to see the horses we could go through their yard. Tonight we took Mason, and a bag of carrots, to see them.

It took a few minutes to get the horses' attention, but eventually they came.



Isn’t this picture funny with the carrot sticking out of his mouth?



Mason loves feeding the horses, and I love watching him with them!

Celebrations

Today we celebrated Paul’s birthday and Mother’s Day. Janelle’s mom came and we had a cookout at our house.

After church, while I was getting ready for dinner, Marley was outside picking dandelions and violets. She made a crown for the queen of the day, and a scepter for the king. She has quite an imagination. She, herself, wore a band of dandelion stems and violets.



Before the birthday and Mother’s Day celebration Marley had everyone write their names on a piece of paper and then picked names; Stacia was the queen, and Mark was the king.







Stacia and I have a nice little agreement. When dinner is at my house she brings desserts, and vice versa. She didn’t know it was Paul’s birthday until that morning, so we used the slices of pound cake that she brought for his birthday cake. Marley lit the candle and we turned off the lights. She brought in the slice of cake from the kitchen and we all sang happy birthday. In this picture, the only one I took, Paul's hand is in front of his piece of cake, so you can only see part of the candle sticking up.



We had quite the time getting a picture of the mothers and kids today. Mason isn’t always cooperative with picture taking, so this is the best that we could do.



It was a fun day spent with family. I’m so thankful for all of them.

Retirement Party

Today we went to a retirement party for our good friend Dave. It was supposed to be a surprise, and it was, but the biggest surprise was that their daughter who lives in Minnesota flew home for the party. Not even her mother knew about that.



It was a fun party, celebrating a great guy.

Afterwards, we stopped at Dot's for a little while and brought her some hanging plants for her garden, and then went for a little ride. This picture was taken at the end of Silkey Rd. in Granby, CT. It was such a beautiful view with Springfield in the background that I just had to take a picture. It came out pretty good seeing that it was taken through the windshield!

Friday night

Friday night supper at Grandma's house.

Richard Scarry's Car and Trucks and Things that Go

Mark and Kristen had this book when they were little. One day when Marley was about Mason's age, we put her in her crib upstairs to take a nap. To our surprise, when we went up to get her, she had ripped the book into little pieces! Paul tried taping it but gave up, there were too many pieces. Luckly we were able to find another one on the Internet.

Mason has just lately taken a liking to this book too. It's fun to watch Mark look at it with Mason, because Mark says he remembers it so well.

Stars 2

Tonight was Awards Night for Girls Ministries at church. This is Marley's Stars 2 class (Marley is third from left).

Osama bin Laden - deceased

A victory for the USA. Story here.

Clementine smiles

Marley had her friend Robin come over for Sunday dinner today. When I saw their silly clementine smiles, I just had to take a picture!