North Carolina Transportation Museum-Henry.

Yesterday when I woke up, mama and papa had a big surprise! We were going to visit the train museum!

We packed our lunch and loaded up the van to head to Spencer, the home of the North Carolina Transportation Museum. The first item on the agenda- ride an old passenger train.

Mama and Juner were very exited for the big train ride. Maybe it's because scenes from the movie Leatherheads were filmed on this train. George Clooney and Jim from the Office? That's enough to make anyone smile.

Of course we think June is beautiful, but we're also aware that kids go trough awkward stages (mama's started at 7 and hasn't let up yet). We tried to figure out what was going on with June and we realized her hair is pretty much a disaster. But in an effort to encourage certain feminine aspects, mama and papa decided to let it grow for a while. So now they pull it back with hair clips. Mama thinks these are kind of fussy, but they get the job done.

We boarded the train and were pleased to see that we weren't the only kids dressed in costume. Juner wore my old conductor overalls and mama told me I could only ride the train if I wore my conductor hat.

As werode the train through the grounds, mama and Juner were very interested to hear about the historic buildings. Some were always here, others were purchased and moved to the site.

I was happy looking out the window at the little town of Spencer.

Soon, June got tired of paying attention and decided to play with papa for a while.

Mama waited until after she got this shot to remind me to keep my mouth off of things.

The town of Spencer was lucky enough to become a repair hub for the railroad because it lays exactly halfway between Atlanta and Washington DC.

Mama's favorite part of the whole complex was the motto on the workshop. An admirable logo for anyone, she says. She wants to get this picture blown up and hang it by the front door.

Another remarkable landmark is the largest operating roundtable in the United States. It turns train engines so that they can park in any of the 37 stalls in the Round house. It's like a big parking garage for trains.

We got to ride the turntable then head into the Round House. About 10 of the bays are still used to restore trains. The rest of the building houses some great exhibits. We didn't get see all of them in detail because by that time we were all overdue for naps.

But we did make it a point to spend time at this great model train exhibit. It's got everything, including a tunnel and a bridge.

We had a great time and papa says we can come back again.

Finally- Junebug.

It's been a quiet week here in Winston Salem.

My appetite has returned to normal- ravenous. And I continue to eat anything I can get my hands on. I got my first shot at pasta (remember we're starch-free here) and she was impressed at my ability to make a mess of it, and even love the canned tomatoes and broccoli that were part of the dish. Of course, Henry refused to eat anything that had different food touching.

We've always turned our noses up at magazines that have cute clever ways to make kids' food look like animals or smiley faces. Kids should eat food because they're lucky to have parents who feed them good food. (And then they usually launch into some long story about in their day and how rough they had it.) But tonight, mama was making bruschetta and offered Henry an onion with under the guise that it was a dinosaur tooth. And believe it or not, he actually ate it. That's about all he ate, but we still count it as a victory. He is getting better about trying one bite of food before declaring that he doesn't like it, which is also a small victory. Normally he announces 10 minutes before supper is served that he does not like what mama is making, even though he has no idea what it is. So it looks like mama may now have to take on the task of trying to make every meal cute and clever and somehow convince Henry that it is somehow made out of dinosaurs.

Since we cleaned out the toys, I've had to go searching for new ways to amuse myself (the remaining 97,000 toys just aren't enough). So I head to my favorite place, the kitchen drawers. I'm finally getting enough control of myself that I don't accidentally slam my fingers in the drawer every time I got it open.

I kept myself occupied for a good 40 minutes pulling out old CDs and clothes pins.

Mama felt like she'd been dressing my sensibly for far too long and deserved a little liberty. In celebration of the 60 degree day we had, she pulled out a summer dress to layer over my jeans. This one is courtesy of the vintage Becky Seibert collection and mama declard the look to be too cute.

Since I'm always wearing hair barrettes now, Henry wanted in on the action. So mama let him wear mine. Sure looks good.

On this particular night, mama let Henry stay up late and play Candy Land. Henry caught on pretty quickly although his main concern was sorting and perfectly stacking the cards in the discard pile. Mama didn't think he cared for it much until she overheard him explaining the rules in great detail to Mister Paul when he and Miss Susan came to visit.

Sowhen Henry stays up late to play games, so you think I just go to bed like a good girl? Absolutely not. At night, I don't want to go to sleep unless my Bubba is in the room with me. Mama and Papa have been trying to keep henry up a little later to play a game with little pieces or work on letters, but I have not been very cooperative. Normally, I just sit in my bed and cry until they bring him in. Then we both sit up for about an hour until we go to sleep. Henry reads his books (his new favorites are the little catalogs that come inside toys and show all the different wasys lincoln logs can be used). And while henry reads I stand in my bed and try my hardest to get his attention. He normally ignores me, but sometimes plays with my and shines his flashlight in my direction. Mama didn't realize how helpful our relationship was until this morning she found the step stool pulled up next to my bed. She didn't know that Henry retrieves my nuk an blankie when I drop them on the floor and turns on my music box when I can't sleep. That explains why there's never any crying when we're up so long.

I love being around my brother so much that I woke up at 4 am last night and spent 10 minutes yelling "Bub-bub-bub-a" to try to get him to wake up and play with me. when that didn't work, I switched to "Da-da-da-da." Papa didn't wake up either. No use in calling for mama. I already got what I wanted from her (my very early morning nursing) and she would only have come in and told me to go back to lseep if I had called for her. All business all the time.

Here's another video of my mad dancing skills. I really love my Intellitainer.

Henry also got into the music and his train showed off its best dance moves.

One more story from this week. One of the favorite thrifty things in the Turner house is to buy the dollar frosty coupon book from Wendy's at Halloween. That gives us at least three visits of mini frosties at than ten cents a pop. We used up our last coupons this week and when I was done mooching off papa's ice cream, I was still hungry for more. And unprompted, my wonderful big brother fed me the rest of his frosty. Now I don't know about you, but in our family, sharing your own ice cream is about the highest act of love you can bestow upon someone. (Mama actually saved hers until after bedtime so she didn't have to share it with anyone. That's how big a deal it is.) Mama and papa were pretty pleased with Buster for being so nice to his little sister.