6.17.14 Ring a Rosie

One of the best things of having lots of siblings, as in Greg and I, is our younger siblings have taught our children some good traditions. My sisters were great at playing ring a round the Rosie with Anna, Harold, and Aliza. Every Sunday night during family home evening they would play Rosie's and London Bridge. The kids loved it!

Now fast forward about 10 years and we have another 2 year old who loves Rosie's. Livy sings the Rosie song, and her siblings I'm happy to report play the Rosie game with her. Even Millie is in on the action. So forgive the blurry shots it was action photography via cell phone.

Ring

Around

the Rosie's

All fall down. While they regained their balance Anna read a story.

Then they were off again with a different leader. Ringing around as Rosie's falling down and then jumping back up. Love that Millie is getting in on the action too and that the older kiddo's are willing to play.

6.16.14 Art Day

I have some super fun, creative, kind friends. A few months ago a friend and I were talking and somehow old sheets came up- cleaning or something. She mentioned how her kids had always wanted to do a splatter paint activity. I said 'here's the sheet take it and enjoy...' She rebutted that we should share the fun and do an art activity.

 As I've stated I've been trying to do some art projects with the kids this summer as they get little of that in common core driven school these days. So after many times rescheduling due to my crazy life we finally got together.

She was super prepared up to creative art music and had something for everyone. Note all the bodies painting. Millie really loves to paint anything and to taste the paint for quality purposes.

John is not crying just being a goon.

It was super fun. I find art to be very relaxing and freeing. I am a split personality that loves order, control, rules, and freedom and color and expression and feeling. Constant fighting in my head over which way to be. Oh well for this day that we finished with swimming the kids voted the art projects were the best part of the day. Thank you April!

The little girls were easily distracted. The friends had penned up their dog and Millie and Livy found that the paint brushes were great to poke at the dog. The dog was happy to not be forgotten and little girls aren't that strong so it was all good.

 

The finished masterpiece. Kind of fun to just be random for a while. And what better way to use an old sheet. 

Sorry it's grainy, it was a hot day and I just didn't want to leave the shade to go take a better picture. You get the idea.

 

7.15.14 Boating

All summer the kids have been waiting to get their chance to try their stuff behind the boat. Because of our untimely strep we missed the annual 4th of July Run. We finally got our chance last week.
While waiting for th boat to come back to shore the kids practiced their swimming. It's always fun to swim with papa who loves to play in the water.

Mark, Reed, and the little girls missed the first boat load of fun but the extra time swimming pushed Mark over the hump and the next time at the swimming pool he was able to swim back and forth the length of the pool to be a confident competent swimmer. Diving boards here he comes!! Yeah Mark!!!

Millie discovered burs. I think they were cockaburrs. She had to taste them, she didn't mind them in her mouth and would alternate between fingering them and tasting them.

After successful runs the kids were tired and satisfied. Thanks for a great night on the lake. All tubed nad Harold knee boarded with Kenny (a grown up friend of Uncle Kevin's) wake boarding and jumping over him... not exactly mother approved but Harold thought it was super cool.

6.11.14 Sweet things

Because this blog is for my children I had to add this post.

This is my bed. The one I happily share with my husband. We bought a big bed on the advice of our parents. The King size model. Two twin beds pushed together if you will. Yet even with all our space each morning I wake up on my edge of the bed with my sweet husband snuggled right next to me. I push his pillow over every night informing him he should sleep on his side. But as he comes to bed after I am zonked out he snuggles over and sleeps on the middle foam bumpers that encase our fancy dual air chambers. It makes me smile that he loves me enough to sacrifice his perfect sleep number to be close to me. It makes me smile that he still does it after 13 years of sleeping together, and it makes me peaceful to know his love for me.

It is my richest blessing on earth to be married to him. He is strong, kind, happy, non-complaining, and always busy. He wears me out and he carries me through. I am so thankful I am able to be his wife and so enjoy the cute little things that are just him. Thank God for marriage, and for that great man of mine.

6.10.14 Perserverance

after weeding tired and not feeling well again but she has become a true gardener not passing by weeds but pulling them out and continuing to pull till it's clean. She is a beautiful young lady who is my ace in the hole this summer. God surely blessed me with this child.

We love sweet corn. My brother has been a champion sweet corn grower spoiling us with unlimited supply from mid July to September. Delicious! However this year his farm plan changed and he is not supply grocery stores so he planted one planting and we are mourning. Because it is a much smaller plot he didn't do his usual farming and was ready to disc this under. WE heard and begged the opportunity to give a shot at cleaning it up.
Last year  it ws the potatoes the kids reclaimed this year it is this corn spot. They are learning to be tough and to see the bigger picture and the value of pulling the weeds, dealing with a problem when it is small versus when it is big and anchored. Mark did a great spiritual analogy of this and so I hear that they are getting it. YES!

It has required a lot of work, sweat, and patience. But they made headway

Note the weeds as tall as the corn and totally carpeting the growing space between rows. The bottom of this picture shows the pile of weeds they made after pulling them. WOW! Again a grandmother who is shaping this generation of kids into tough, strong, workers who know and see nothing is impossible.

Dead weeds and better corn! Thanks for the lesson and the work.

6.9.14 National Anthem

The kids were asked to join their classmates in singing the National Anthem at the Vale rodeo. They rehearsed a few times accapella auditioned and made it. They were scheduled for the opening night, family night and we were sort of excited. Some more than others.

They had to wait for the rodeo to start.

 It was the first hot day of the year and we were almost melting.
But they marched out to the front of the shoots and sang with gusto. I was a very proud mamma.  My reluctant boys even at least mouthed the words. Good times.
Then we enjoyed, or endured the next 2.5 hours of kiddos asking for pop, cotton candy, hamburger, fries, water, popcorn anything that cost money. It was nice to be with Greg and kind of my parents to come over and watch. I think we are good for rodeo experience for another 3-4 years.

Tired of sitting there was a sharp shooting exhibition going on. That was pretty cool the kids decided they want to learn to shoot from horseback. Probably not while they live here.

6.8.14 Pickup Parade Part 2

Pick Parade Link We made the local news as one of the lead stories. I was busy from before 8:30 a.m. till about 7:00 p.m. getting setup, registering participants, rounding up pickups, and then driving in the parade. It was LONG day. Not what I'm usually up to my angelic sister lovingly provided dinner for us and it was more than a tender mercy it was manna straight from heaven.

The last planning meeting the organizer suggested a lemonade stand. I offered up my children thinking of a fun book they had read this summer the Lemonade Wars. Small towns don't afford many opportunities for kids to make money selling things on the corner. I thought this would be a fun and perfect venue for them to learn a little selling and people skills. So I hurried to the store bought 24 cans of frozen lemonade 200 cups, 180 Popsicles and 8 cases of water. The next day after washing pickups we headed to the local ice dealer and bought 150 lbs of ice and headed home. Thank goodness we had bought a new freezer a few weeks ago we needed it. I sketched out posters and the kids painted them and we went to bed in preparation for the BIG day. I took John from the calve working party, and we headed to town to get set up. After some time registering and delivering supplies to the staging area for the parade we went to a friends and made lemonade and got as much water in ice as we could.

They too were answers to worried prayers as I didn't know how I would manage running kids, caring for little kids, and keeping an eye on kids. She had graciously volunteered to help and her kids sold for a few hours while I drove shuttle for getting pickups to Vale. I as even able to come home for half an hour and send out more texts, rest, and pickup the babysitting girls. They had been worried they would miss all the selling opportunity but the real selling started in the last hour and half while people were waiting and cooking like ants under a magnifying glass on that hot afternoon. They ended up with over $200.00 which we split amongst the kids. Not bad for a day. And more importantly they talked to strangers they helped adults carry water, get registered, ran errands, and were good smaller citizens.

The stand with our friends manning it

Johns picture en route to the pickup parade

My selfie waiting for my turn to go in the parade.

The last 40 minutes were the craziest from 4:45-5:20 people just rolled in, there had been a steady stream all day but that last hurrah is what pushed us over the top. It was pretty awesome to see that many people in Vale and that much community spirit. I don't think many pickups were from far away but were just pulled out of use for an hour or so to come make world news. Silly, safe, legal fun in a small town. I think we meaning Greg, his parents, my parents, siblings and some friends contributed 15 pickups to the effort. Many others brought down multiple pickups as well. We are the West we use our pickups daily and have them in assorted shapes, colors, conditions. All in all it was a once in a lifetime experience that was good.

Parading