I thought I ordered the extra large zuccini

We harvested some vegetables from our garden the other day.
One of them was this giant zucchini. The plant is huge and covered in many flowers but the only zucchini produced was this.
As I had read(way too late)my Jamie Oliver cookbook I found out that the zucchini should be harvested when no longer than five inches in length. When they become larger they get flavorless,pulpy and stringy.

I guess grandma can make bread with it.

The rest of the garden is out of control with foliage but not a lot of fruit or vegetables. The vegetables we have harvested are pure perfection in flavor.

This is dedicated to the ones I love

Mimi, Terry and I had the extreme pleasure of spending several days with our dear friends on Torch Lake.

Dan, has spent his summers on this lake for most of his life and Julie has joined him for the duration of their marriage.

The cottage is fabulous. It has the classic sound of the squeaky screen door and a glorious screened porch for lake watching, napping, puzzle doing, reading...

There are scores of wonderful photos of Dan's family and their summer memories. The photos span about 100 years.

We slept in a huge room that at some time probably served as sleeping quarters for a half dozen children.

We relaxed, played Uno and dominoes, swam in the lake , and watched movies on the wall with Dan's movie projector.

It was one of the most truly relaxing few days I have had in a long time.
This time, Daddy was on vacation with us, not just an 8 by 10 glossy.
Thank you Dears for a wonderful time.

The third photo was shot by Terry. In an attempt to find a deck of Uno cards, Aunt Julie went to the prerequisite, cottage board game closet and found a box full of these great vintage playing cards from Airline companies of yesteryear. Every passenger would receive a deck to while away their time on the flight. Do they even give us food now?

Down on the Farm

Mimi and Annabel and their friend Robbie started farm camp today. I whisked Mimi home from Torch Lake yesterday afternoon and she was whisked away by a big yellow bus early this morning.

A small local farm has a day camp where kids care for animals, churn butter, make candles and swim in a tiny lake.
The unique thing about this camp is that the kids pretty much decide everything they want to do when they want to do it. This concept is very strange to the typical HW kid who has every minute of their spare time mapped out for them.

I am thrilled about the camp,I am just missing my girls.
Mimi is gone from 8:00 until 4:30.

I washed all of my windows today. I suppose I must tackle finding a job.Yikes.

On the road again

Mimi and I are headed out on the road again. We are heading to Saugatuck and then to Torch Lake.

Our dear jiejie is headed back to Wisconsin. I am hoping that the road trip will soften the blow of jieJie's departure. We will see.

I will be posting on my Tumblr. The photos are lousy(from my camera phone), but "Every Picture Tells A Story.... Don't It?"
mimiandjiejie.tumblr.com

Aunt Cindy and the girly sleepover

Mimi had the extreme pleasure of having a sleepover at her Aunt Cindy's.Mimi's cousin Gabrielle was also along for the festivities.

These girls dined out for lunch, had manicures,went shopping for clothes, went to a county fair and went swimming in the nearby lake.

I am exhausted just writing about it.

Thank you Aunt Cindy for being so glamorous and hospitable.
I included a photo of our hard working Uncle Greg. I gave Mimi my camera to photo log her trip and Uncle Greg made it into her photo journal.
He isn't a girl but a very important part of girlie sleep over.

Patty Strikes Again

We celebrated the " Fourth" in true HW fashion. We schlepped ourselves to a near corner and watched our annual parade.

Patty, is a regular with the local peace group, and she was asked to walk in the parade.

As I have written before, Patty is almost 76. She has spent her share of jail time for social justice, a more peaceful world and environmental causes.

I used to tell people that my mom and dad collectively have spent more time in jail than Manson... but for good things.

We had experienced a heat wave and poor Patty had to walk a rather long parade route with her hands suspending the wings of a giant dove, a peace sign and a little bottle of water. What a champion she was. We were all so proud to see that she hasn't lost her devotion to making a change in the world.
The rest of the day involved, eating, badminton and the requisite fireworks.

We also celebrate our "Gotcha" day on this day.

Mimi was placed in our hands, in China ,on July fifth, but here in the USA
it was the fourth. We had a lovely tiny Mimi cake with sparklers and a crowd to celebrate.

Ode to a tooth fairy

Mimi lost her first tooth.
we were expecting it, in fact, we were hoping it would happen in Disney World. Our thought process was that Tinkerbell would be the fairy in that case.


The tooth came out by Mimi's own hand. She is one tough tootsie.

The event began with her eating an apple to speed the tooth removal process. When she saw blood on the apple, she took a tissue and reached in and pulled that tooth right out herself.
She then sped it to a tiny espresso cup of water where she carried it for proper adoration throughout the house and surrounding territories.


She also decided to keep her tooth so she set about to write the tooth fairy a letter asking for it to be left behind.

As she prepared for bed, she decided to sleep with JieJie in Jiej's room and put the tooth under her pillow as proof of her loss. This tooth is so damn tiny, I had to place it in a sandwich bag to protect it.

She then decided to sleep fully clothed, so that the tooth fairy didn't see her normal nigh time garb of underpants.

There was a bit of stress about the logistics of the tooth fairy being in your room and reaching under your pillow while you sleep.

Suffice it to say, neither Mimi, nor Jie Jie slept well.

Mimi has another tooth that is loose, she is already plotting its removal.

Food Glorioius Food

Another fabulous quality of Walt Disney World is the food. There are all kinds of foods, gourmet level and Mcdonald's level.

One thing for sure is that we ate, and ate.

The girls were on a birthday trip and everyone in the kingdom knew it, so they received candle lit cupcakes everywhere they went and whole dining rooms would serenade them with "Happy Birthday".

The third evening we ran into major rain so we decided to go to the Cinderella character dinner at the Grand Floridian. The characters joining us were Cinderella, the evil Stepmother and sisters and Prince Charming.

Missy and I were starving so we dug into the all you can eat dinner.The buffet included paella,coq au vin and roast beef. The girls ate their fill of macaroni and cheese broccoli and pizza.

We were satiated. The ending of the meal was yet more candle lit cupcakes.

The girls took off with my camera and video taped their own little version of what went on that evening.

Walt Disney World Day 3

Day three on our vacation was full of heat, activity and wonderfully timed surprises.

It was decided again,by six year old vote to go to the Magic Kingdom. We rented the girls strollers because the heat was so overwhelming we couldn't seem to move fast enough through the park.

The girls were armed with ice filled fans and their lanyards for pin trading.
They decided at the front of the park to pick out some Minnie Mouse finery to compliment their sweaty little heads.

We watched the live show in front of the castle, breezed through their favorite rides in Fantasy Land(thanks Mike) and then cruised into Frontierland where we ran into Jessy and Woody from the"Toy Story" trilogy.

The line was stretched for what seemed to be a mile. The girls were willing and able to wait in this amazing line to see some favorite characters, Missy and I were not as willing and barely able.

These characters are in some incredible Wild West gear and they had a Disney employee available to coordinate visitors and probably catch them when they pass out from heat exhaustion.

Now I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but, I do have a Disney complaint about these character meet and greets, Adults.

There were tiny kids from all over the world standing in this line with parents anxiously trying to keep them hydrated and cooled off. One mom grabbed an available hand towel and poured ice water over it, draped it alternately over her withering children's heads.


Now I love Disney as much as the next person, but the line was probably 60% adults waiting to meet these characters.

I was thinking inside of my sceptical little mind, why are these adults waiting a half an hour in line to actually stand with a couple of 20 year old kids in costumes that will be doing tequila shots at Pleasure Island later this evening?

I think that the little ones should go first and the fantasy seeking adults should have the common sense to stand aside. After all, Disney is for children. I love it and I feel like a child when I am there but I am not purposely blocking a child from seeing Goofy march in a parade. Enough preaching from me for now.

That afternoon we arrived back at the hotel to find sand buckets filled with chocolate dipped Mickey rice crispy treats,munchies and assorted candies, one for each girl(great touch).

For more photos and adventures follow my tumblr at www.mimiandjiejie.tumblr.com

Walt Disney World Day 2

We rose early and it was unanimous that the girls wanted to go back to the Magic Kingdom.

Michael met us at the hotel for breakfast. He came loaded down with two backpacks full of pins to trade, autograph books and pens. The girls were elated and jumping out of their skin. We grabbed the first available boat to the MK.

This day it was as hot as an oven so our stay in the kingdom was limited.

We visited princesses,fairies and mice, Mimi and Annabel rode their first tiny roller coaster and we pretty much conquered Fantasy land, thanks to Michael and his Disney magic.

We returned to our hotel for lunch and an afternoon swim and then back to a very air conditioned room for a little siesta.
For more photos of day 2 check out mimiandjiejie.tumblr.com

Walt Disney World lift off

We were whisked away to the airport by our precious Manuela.

The girls were packed to the gills and filled with excitement.
Missy and I were also filled with excitement and gathering every bit of strength we had to squire 2 six year old girls loaded down with luggage through a mobbed airport and security(checking bags is for babies).
We then discovered that when our flight was delayed our seats were jumbled.
Missy ran interference in the aisle searching for a lucky passenger who would switch from their aisle seat to a very tight middle seat.

As the plane took off, Mimi began to sob. A very nice and patient woman gave up her seat and we were on our way.

Due to my amount of photos, I have posted more updates on my tumblr, mimiandjiejie.tumblr.com

Happy Mimi Day

Mary Margaret Yu Bao Sipes
Originally uploaded by juliagulia8339

Five years ago we became a family.
This was the first picture we received of Miss Mimi.
Time has flown by so quickly.