Yes, Titanic is coming to Dearborn, well actually its coming to The Henry Ford Museum.

James was under the weather the past few days and we took him to the doctors just to make sure everything was ok. The doctor said it was nothing to worry about and gave him some cough medicine. On the way home we stopped at Henry Ford so James could see the setup for Titanic. The exhibit does not open until March 31st and is really supposed to be spectacular, however they do not allow pictures so we are not sure how much we will be able to post here.

James posed for a couple pictures in the lobby then we went into the museum and took a couple pictures where the exhibit was being built. They also will have the Titanic movie in 3D and several documentaries going on in April so it looks like April will be Titanic month, and why not, it was 100 years ago this month that Titanic began its maiden voyage which ended in disaster.

Continue reading “Getting Ready For Titanic 2012” →

It is so nice to escape the cold weather of Michigan in January and head to the more “calmer” temperature of Nashville. It was so nice out that we stopped at Phillips Toy Mart to pick up some outdoor game that James could play while we were visiting Grandpa and enjoying this moderate temperature (we have to figure that it may be months before James will be able to play outside in Michigan with the possible exception of building snowmen or snow forts).

James got to climb up and be the conductor for the train while visiting the store. We found several things for him to play with outside (there is a wide open field outside of where Grandpa is staying that is ideal for this) and ended up with a light up frisbee like saucer that we ended up tossing to each other. Grandpa was able to go outside but whether or not he could see the light up frisbee flying through the air I can’t say for sure.

Thanks for having the right toy at the right time Phillips

Continue reading “Nashville Phillips Toy Mart 2012” →

We never officially planned this trip, but it was in the back of our minds for the last month. Due to James school having a longer than usual Christmas break we decided that if we got halfway decent weather we would make a quick break down to Tennessee to visit Mary’s dad. Problem is, the weather would have to be halfway decent for four states and three days. Luck must have been with us because all three days were perfect and Friday it hit the mid sixties in Nashville. The schedule was drive ten hours the first day, then visit Mary’s dad in the evening, spend the second day with Mary’s dad, then return the third day after visiting in the morning. The trip went exactly as planned and a great time was had by all including James.

In addition we stopped in to visit our cousin Lynn who is actually in the same facility on the same floor. Quite a coincidence having a member from each side of the family in the same facility that is 10 hours away from Michigan. Lynn agreed to let me take her picture so Peg could see what she looks like (she hasn’t seen Lynn since they were kids).

Continue reading “Nashville Visit To Grandpa 2012” →

Being from Michigan we have many tourist locations up North, but many close for the winter season so on our drive down to Nashville we thought that Dinosaur World (a place James loves to stop at) would be closed but possibly the souvenir store would be open. When we got there we found out that the whole thing was open including the outside tour. We knew that Friday was going to be a super day in January with the highs in the sixties so we told James that if he was good we would also stop on the way back and go on the outside tour. Needless to say James was pretty good on the trip (he usually is) and it gave us a little break on the way home to take advantage of a gorgeous January day in Kentucky. When we arrived we were the only ones in the entire park so James had the entire Dinosaur world to himself for the day.

Continue reading “Dinosaur World Kentucky 2012” →

James was invited to Johnathans Birthday Party which was held at the Zap, sort of an inside carnival with huge inflatables, bumper car rides, laser tag, and plenty of games. James had a blast with his friends who he has not seen since school let out before Christmas.

James favorite game was the “Smelly Feet” game where you shoot a stream of water at smelly feet and if you do it right, the shower comes on at the end. You also receive tickets when you play the games that you can redeem for prizes at the end. 50 tickets get you a sucker. If you get hundreds of thousands of tickets you can get a Wii game so I am betting they hand out more suckers than Wii’s.

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James welcomes in the New Year

How quickly the year went by this year. James has been counting down for Christmas since, well, last Christmas and finally it came. James certainly was not disappointed as Santa, Relatives, and Friends really went all out for James (and a big thanks to you all). Mary made lots of fudge this year and everyone enjoyed it, although the calories were a little high but what the heck, its Christmas.

Again, we watched our “Traditional” Holiday movies – Dead End, Holiday Inn, The Ghosts who stole Christmas, and the Post Modern Promethius.

This year James does not have to go back to school until January 9th so its a good thing he has lots to do during this time. He will be attending a Birthday party after Jan 1 for his friend Jonathon and we are all looking forward to that.

Continue reading “Christmas 2011” →

James worked hard on Dads cake and placed a candle in the center. James is becoming a pretty good cook as he has had a cooking class at school. Things like spreading icing on a cake must have been taught there because he did a pretty good job with Dads cake.

Dad always complains that his birthday is so close to December that he does not get a fair shake on gifts and people would say “this is your birthday AND Christmas gift” when he was a child. Because of that most of Dads gifts are give November 1st which is the day after Halloween when Mom (and James if he is not in school that day) go out and get a bunch of Halloween stuff at discounted rates.

Yes its true, no one was more stunned than us, but it appears James turned it up at school and really did well this marking period, making the Honor roll and getting several awards including an award for improvement in reading. His behavior has been much better as well, although in a recent parent/teacher meeting the teachers said James gets a little anxious the last half hour of school and if he causes them trouble thats usually the time.

We are all proud of James and when we got the news from school took James out to Walmart and bought him a video game he had wanted (we were going to get it for him for Christmas anyhow). Hopefully he can continue winning awards at school and making his family proud.

All the Halloween decorations are put away and the Christmas stuff is out and will be put on during the Thanksgiving holiday. We took some pictures of the Living Room returned to normal (with Mary posing as Frankenstein in one of the pictures). Taking down the scene setters was pretty easy, as long as it was on a standard dry wall or plaster wall surface. If it got into caulk (for instance around a door) it was more difficult to remove. It was also very difficult to remove from the basement which has concrete covered by Dry-Loc. Fortunately we did not have much in the basement. The scene setters when removed took up almost no space, so if you want a great Halloween look but do not want to spend much cash or store much away I would suggest going to Halloween City or Spirit Halloween and picking up a roll of scene setters.

Speaking of saving money Mary came home with an animated tombstone Saturday while I was taking down decorations. The cost – $2. Mary keeps her eye opened for things like this after Halloween and it has served us well the last couple years. Even if the prop is broken, odds are its an easy repair like this tombstone was.

Continue reading “The People Under The Stairs – Halloween Cleanup 2011” →