cute car

brett and i were out walking and saw this little beauty on Merchant Street

the spirit reunion

"As a means to raise funds for the Foundation of Restoration for Ste Genevieve, the Foundation began hosting Spirit Reunions several times a year in the historic Memorial Cemetery. Volunteers, young and old, research the lives of persons buried in the cemetery and develop period appropriate clothing. The public is invited to the cemetery to learn about Missouri history through the personal stories of the area’s early inhabitants."

This is probably one of the most fun outings that we have ever been to. There were approx. 9 "spirits" present. Each spirit was standing by their gravestone, telling wonderful stories of their life. We went from grave to grave, the only light being the light of our lanterns. There are about 300 gravestones in this cemetary today, but church records show that there are between 3000-4000 people actually buried there, this doesn't include the mass grave from a steamboat wreck and all the slaves and indians. ....spooky

finn getting his lantern ready

a "spirit"

Autumn Plein Aire events for the Ste Genevieve Art Guild

Artists are invited to join the realms of the famous Regionalist Artists of the 1930's in documenting through their work the historic beauty of the Ste Genevieve area. Painters can also capture the natural beauty of the picturesque vineyards, fertile farmlands and the river bluffs and valley along the Mississippi River.Artists may paint one to seven days and the work must be created on location, following the European tradition of capturing the natural light and atmosphere of the outdoors.

This 2 week long event started off by presenting a workshop with artist, Thom Buttner. He is a master of cloudscapes. This workshop was then followed by a week of plein aire painting. All participating artists then entered their pieces into a plein aire competition. The friday before all of the festivities the art guild put together a show of the color work of Roscoe Misselhorn. He was part of the original art colony of Ste Gen in the 1930s.

the Plein Aire competition

preparing for the show

the Misselhorn show at the Mammy Shaw House

valle homecoming parade

fake smile

real smile

parade starting

grand marshal (ni's religion teacher)

Father Mosley and Mrs . Menard (the principal)

here niamh is with her friends (third girl from the left)

i like this picture

the 5th grade class

the tractors

a visit to the bolduc house

the kids and i walked over to the Bolduc House today after ni's volleyball game
they had an open house for the public...so it was free today

on our way to Bolduc
the kids stopped for a picture on the steps of the Felix Valle House



these are the houses across from the Bolduc on main street



Bolduc's back door/porch


sorry this is washed out
it is a full image of the back porch
i'm going to have to do some digging
but i have a photo of brett from when we were dating in 1994
he's standing in between these bushes
and i have a photo of our art club in high school all standing on the porch in 1990


the kitchen window

kids in the garden

ni loves all things small

cool fireplace

more hair

ni was brushing my hair yesterday as i was on the computer

she couldn't believe how long it was

so she had to snap some shots
i was actually pretty freaked out also

the boy gets a haircut...finally

so, i broke down and gave the boy a haircut
he hated getting it, but was very pleased with the results
he took one look in the mirror and said, "i look like thomas"
in finn's eyes, thomas is the coolest big kid ever
(i'll put a picture of them together at the end of this post)

looking very irish in this picture
some lunch after the haircut...
i had to put all of these pictures here because they are just too cute

here are thomas and finn together before we moved
thomas was our neighbor who is ni's age

a car show

on the fourth saturday of the month
folks here in ste gen get their classic cars together
at the local McDonald's parking lot

i was carrying finn up on my side so that he could look at the engines
he was looking around at each engine,
identifying all of the parts that he recognized
when we got to the orange nova that you see at the end of this row
he looked a little more intently, ....sighed
and said very affermatively, "yep, this is a chevy"
the owner who was sitting there laughed and said,
"this boy knows his cars!"




the kid needs a haircut, ...i know

the circus peanut

the circus peanut has had her debut photo shoot for my fine art paintings
yes, this is a long sock that we were putting her in
this is a peek into the "dressing up", i can't wait to do the paintings

here she is after the shoot sleeping on mommy's lap,
5 weeks old now
(you can see her just a few posts back at 10 days in the laundry basket)