Solar Panels and Fun with Emily

Terry has been busy creating a contraption that will raise the solar panels on our RV roof and put them down by pushing a toggle switch. The problem has been that it has rained and we have had some strong winds. Several times he found that he needed another bolt or part and had to drive 100 miles round trip to Des Moines to get them.

My eleven-year-old granddaughter, Emily spent a couple of days with me. We went to the Tulip Tea Room in Pella where she got to look at a whole box of tea bags to choose her tea. She says she is a tomboy but she liked the girly luncheon too.

My daughter, Karol, decided to give her niece the flute she played in high school band. Emily practiced on it most of the two days she was with me.

Mom fell on Thursday so Dad asked me to stay with mom while he went fishing with Terry on Friday, May 29. Emily won most of the games of Skipbo that we played with Mom.

Yes, the fishing was successful. Terry caught bass while dad caught blue gills.

Hoven Work Day

The sky was dark and the forecast was rain on Tuesday, May 26, when we went to my Mom and Dad Hoven's house for a workday. They had a roof over a porch or patio area that leaked. My husband, brothers, brothers-in-law, a nephew and my niece climbed the roof to tear it up and rebuild it with 2 x 4's, OSB board, and rolled roofing. My sisters and I cleaned indoors and prepared sloppy joes, baked beans, potato salad and fruit salad for lunch. Clara also brought a rhubarb cake and I brought my leftover Birthday Cake. The repair work was finished five minutes before a cloudburst of rain fell on us.

Family Celebrations

Nathan stayed overnight at grandpa and grandma’s RV on Sunday. I took him the next day to Hoven’s Haven where my brother Jim raises elk. Nathan got to sit on the tractor, went on a 4-wheel drive ride with my brother, and even got into the bullpen with Jim.

On Tuesday, May 12, my granddaughter Kari and I gave a surprise party for my daughter Karol’s fortieth birthday. Karol is holding a friend’s baby. Her son, Ryan and daughter Kari are in this picture with Karol’s friend Jessie in the background. Kari made the cake and set it ablaze with more than forty candles.

Mother's Day

It was a beautiful day on Mother’s Day. My daughter Karol grilled hamburgers for the children we have in Iowa. Pictured are Karol, me, Mark and Richard.

Nathan and Mercedes colored in the Canyonlands book that I bought while Emily looked on. Grandson’s Matt and Joshua are taller than grandma.

On the evening of Mother’s Day, I went to see my mother in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Pictured are myself, my mother Agnes Hoven and my grandson, Nathan.

Pella Tulip Time- part three

I was putting up my blog when a storm hit Iowa yesterday. The internet was slow and interrupted often. I erased part of the writing and sent it out without finishing it. Here is the last part of the Tulip Time blog.

Dutch food is for sale including chocolates, sausages, cheese and vegetables.

The youngest child dressed in a Dutch costume, who is three weeks old, was carried by her father. Even Sinter Klaus came to see the children. Dutch shoes called “klompen” come in all sizes and some even hold small children.

There are thousands of tulips in bloom in Pella. When I looked at my pictures, I found that I had not taken a single picture of the flowers.

Pella Tulip Parade

I have been asked to make the photos smaller so when the reader double clicks on the lower left corner of the photos to enlarge them, they aren’t so big that you can’t see the whole picture. Please tell me how you like this method.

The parade in Pella on May 9 included the usual bands and floats. Hundreds of Pella people dressed in the styles of the 12 provinces as of the 1850’s. (The Dutch settled in Pella in 1847.) Dutch children marched down the street.

Pellas Tulip Time

I sat on bleachers in front of the Tulip Torem, which is a replica of the wooden torem or tower that was made for Queen Julianna when she came to Pella during the WWII time period. This year, Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa was Thursday thru Saturday, May 7-9,2009.

Pre-parade activities included the introduction of the Pella’s new Tulip Queen and her court, and a style show of different Dutch costumes.

The Dutch are the only people that I know who scrub the streets before the parade starts.
Hundreds of Pellans participate in this exercise. All you need is a Dutch costume. The city has huge tubs of water (that look like horse troughs). I don’t know who provides the brooms and pails for them to use. It’s a hoot. Small boys love to splash water on other boys. The Pella people like to teach their children that the Dutch are very clean and how to do it but some little cleaners just sit down on the job.