WI trip #1...

Over the course of two months we are making 3 trips to WI/MI.  I have no idea what we are thinking, but I am pretty sure I will end up in the mental hospital in Jamestown by the end of September.

We have 3 weddings to attend in September.  One in WI, one in MI, and one in ND.  I just can't see not attending one of them because all three of the ladies that are getting married are dear to me.

Here we are just 4 miles from home (haven't even hit the blacktop roads yet) and everyone is ready and excited to visit WI.

Our first stop was in Dickinson to visit Grandpa Stanley.  He was already eating breakfast by the time we stopped at 7am. 

Wow, do the little old ladies at the nursing home love little girls!!!  We had to walk into the dining room and the whole room turned quiet to see who the lucky person was that was getting so many little visitors.  After we stopped at Stanley's table the ladies all began chattering.  I think he was the local superstar that day. 

My great-grandpa sure is funny! ~Miss L

Somewhere in ND/MN Wes taught the girls that the only way they could talk to us was if they called on the "phone."

Here everyone is trying to talk to me at once!  Which really isn't out of the norm.  I bought them each a $1 colored calculator from wallyworld which immediately became their phones!

I packed each girl a backpack with a few new things and a few of their favorite things for the trip to keep them busy.  They had crayons in a ziplock bag, a notepad, small coloring book, 2 books, a write and erase (dry marker) educational book, barbie, littlest pet shop animal and a look and find.

I made these look and finds with emtpy pop bottles filled with barley.  I was too cheap to go buy rice so we used what was in the grain bin.  Then I search the house over a couple days and started throwing little things I found into plastic bags to sort later.

In the end I super glued the cover on so they couldn't open it.

Here are some of the things I put in the bottle:

Colored toothpick

craft pom pom

googly eye

craft gems of various shapes and colors

colored noodles

a piece of corn

tiny pieces of toys that I don't let them play with (these came with toy sets: littlest pet shops, my little pony etc.)  I have bags of these kinds of toys

hair clips

beads

sea shell

nuts and bolts

nails

as a bonus there were some dead grasshopper parts in there too!

I've left these look and finds in the Burb since we got back and they continue to play with them everytime they are in there.