she threw out the training wheels yesterday and has the girls in neighborhood cheering her on. very positive experience for her.

the kids had a messy blast yesterday at jeanie's compound roasting marshmallows with chocolate syrup toping.

we had the topings to make smores but i know my kids and their patience.

maggie picked out this dress yesterday all on her own. she's very proud this morning to wear it.

for this beetle, his life is beautiful; to harken back to yesterday's photos. for us, well, that is another story. there wlll be a bit less beauty on our front lawn.

late last night we noticed that our favorite tree in front of the house was the site of a japanese beetle all you can eat buffet.

sadly, i have learned today that there is not much that i can do at this stage to save the tree. the leaves are chewed from the very top to the bottommost branches.

evidently,controlling japanese beetles goes hand in hand with a lawn care plan. might be time to get one of those to thwart the next seasonal onslaught of their pretty but destructive offspring.

japanese beetles, i hate you.

Barb celebrated her birthday yesterday with a family cookout and letting go to eat chocolate cake by hand.

from lunch yesterday, maggie was in no mood to smile. elliot, however, was a bit of a prankster.

This is the tag from the Longaberger basket that Betsy picked up yesterday.

She paid nowhere near this price for the basket and is hoping that this one turns out to be a great score.

I still can't believe people collect baskets but these Longaberger ones people seem to love.

Will keep you updated.

For those of you following yesterday's live photo blogging of the auction, this post is for you.

It was so cold in the machine shed where the auction was held yesterday that I couldn't type anymore on my phones little keypad.

For those of you wondering what a machine shed is, it is a corrugated sheet metal building most usually white held up by two-by-fours where farmers park the implements.

Betsy's items above are 5 Dept. 56 villiage items and one Longaberger basket. I know nothing of this stuff.

All of these should double or triple Betsy's investment in them and add a couple bucks to the grocery/life funds.

Betsy recovered from yesterday's turkey debacle with this award winning (in my book), succulent beast.

Special thanks to Costco for the day after Thanksgiving turkey sale. Too bad Betsy couldn't sell these on eBay.

Back on the train heading for the event.

Hoping for some sizzle today . . . no big 'wow' pitches yesterday.

My favorite part of the day was lunch with Chris Brogan and Schlomo Rabinowitz. Thanks to both of them for the great conversation and not kicking my ads for ordering the lamb burger, the only burger on the menu, but an instance where a giant beer can should have fallen from the sky and crushed me.

Betsy was rocking this out yesterday morning to pledge her allegiance to the new nerd lifestyle that she leads.

And like myself she is coming to grips with.