friesenfam.net | Friesen family blog

August 5, 2008
by janette
3 Comments

janesville days parade

Ahh…the janesville days parade. Now, we’ve been impressed with our small town’s celebration since we started attending. The fireworks are amazing…and we watch them from very near where they shoot them off. This year we were smart and took ear plugs…which not only help with the loudness of the fireworks, but also with blocking out the comments of those around you who may have had too much to drink by 9:30.

Ellie loves the parade…although this year she thought she was going to be in it…see the post “everybody loves a parade”…and that she’d get to throw stuff at people again. After explaining that she was going to pick up candy this time, she was excited…and off we went.

waiting for the start with grandpa.

The fire trucks petrified the poor girl and she stood frozen on the side of the street by her daddy. After they finally cleared out, she got more into the swing of the parade.

I had to include a photo of her sharing candy with the lady sitting next to me…it was a sweet gesture…this lady liked tootsie rolls, and so Ellie gave her the biggest one she found.

I think Ellie thought waving the flag furiously was the best part!

These fans crack me up –

Enjoying the spoils of her efforts…one green frootie at a time!

August 4, 2008
by janette
1 Comment

an afternoon at the airport

Ellie has a fascination with airplanes. Whenever we hear one in the van, we all have to search for it until we find it and then watch it until we can’t see it anymore.

We have a friend who works at the waterloo airport and we’d been trying to get together to tour the airport since before we had Evan. We finally made it on the 22nd. It was a big week for us, first the retaining wall…then the airport…and more excitement to come in future posts about the end of the week!

Ellie, reading her favorite magazine while waiting for Tim to return to the airport and for the tour to begin.

The start of the tour…riding the luggage cart with Molly while waiting for mom to finish feeding baby Evan.

Flying the helicopter. I’m not sure Molly was enjoying the “flight”. She exited the helicopter, crying, seconds after this picture was taken.

Climbing aboard an airplane.

Flying again!

She loved her field trip to the airport…Thanks Tim for the tour…and thanks Becky, Molly, and Elsa for going with us!

August 3, 2008
by janette
2 Comments

Hooray for project completion!

The battle with the retaining wall started the day we moved in to our house. Nathan swears that the bowing had gotten worse in the last 6 years, and I’m sure he’s right (don’t tell him i said that), but i just chose not to see it getting worse…or our driveway slanting in that direction.

We had decided last fall that we should replace the old retaining wall, made from deck planking, with a more sturdy stone one, but didn’t get on it in time to have it done before winter…so, all winter we held our breath, hoping that the weight of the sometimes massive snowfalls wouldn’t collapse it into our neighbors lawn.

This spring the battle heated up again. First, we called the city of janesville to see if there was anything we needed to do before we started in on the project. We got placed on the city council agenda and Nathan went to one meeting where they decided it would be okay to replace if the bremer county planning and zoning office approved it. Ellie and I drove the permit application (although we didn’t actually need a permit, they make you fill one out anyway) to the courthouse in waverly on the day before the flood hit…good timing right…and then proceeded to wait forever, because of the flooding, to have anything done with it. Eventually, after numerous phone calls to check on the progress of our application, Nathan learned we were approved.

We called Bear Creek Landscaping out of waterloo on Monday, July 21 and were told they would be here on Wednesday morning, the 23rd, and be done by Thursday the 24th. I laughed. I didn’t think that was a possibility.

Imagine my surprise when they drove in at 9 am on Tuesday and were finished by wednesday at noon. I love contractors who do what they say they are going to do. These guys worked, and worked fast…and I must admit, there isn’t too much wrong with 8 or so college guys working in the hot sun sans shirts for a day and a half. Hooray for maternity leave entertainment!

The retaining wall before…

The retaining wall after…

Now, all of these plants are gone…we’ll replace them someday with something or other…we just don’t know what yet. We’re just still elated that we won’t walk out someday to find our garage lying in our neighbors lawn.

August 2, 2008
by janette
2 Comments

a future in rock and roll

For her first Christmas, Ellie was given a pair of drumsticks by one of my cousins who is a drummer. He wanted to get her off to a good start. She loved banging on anything and everything with them…until we took them away…well, we didn’t actually take them away – we just relocated them to the basement and played with them down there. We were concerned she’d start banging on things that she wasn’t supposed to upstairs.

A few weeks ago, we saw my aunt (the mother of the drummer), and she gave us this drum. I guess my cousin was going to throw it out and then they thought it would be the perfect companion to the drumsticks. They were right! She’s a natural. I see a bright future ahead…

July 22, 2008
by janette
2 Comments

everyone loves a parade

This past weekend, Ellie and i were in the Waverly Heritage Days parade. It was the first parade she’s ever been in and was thrilled at the idea that she got to throw stuff at people. And this is what she’ll tell you about the parade too…”I throw stuff at people” – obviously the highlight of her day was the fact that she got to break the rules for an hour or so of her saturday.

I’m not so sure the kids sitting on the float with us were as thrilled as she was…considering this was her first parade, when I told her to pick up a toy to throw to the people, she promptly picked one up and threw it at the little girl sitting next to her. Sorry, Emily…once we got her straighted out, she did okay – except for that one gummy pizza sitting in the middle of Bremer Avenue…oops…I’m sure that left a nice, sticky mess on the tire of the first person to run it over. I’m hoping the celophane wrapper did its job and held it all in!

The theme of our float was “Your peeps are at your library”, and we were to dress in hip hop fashion. Ellie must be more hip hop than her mama, because it was easier to dress her for this than dressing myself.

You be the judge…I think she looked pretty good…(thanks for the photo stacey!)