Gardening

Today was a work day in our garden. We had previously planted potatoes, beans, corn, lettuce, and onions and all of that is coming up great. Unfortunately, the weeds had come up great too. Not only in the rows that we had planted, but in the other part of the garden where we were going to finish planting. That part looked like the lawn! So, I spent hours getting reacquainted with the tiller. After 3 hours of tilling we were finally ready to finish planting. The girls finished the weeding between the plants that we had planted while I started to plant the cucumbers, tomatoes, pepper, squash, carrots, and watermelon. My two youngest decided to "water" the plants I had planted. This turned into a big play time with the hose followed up by huge mud pies and them being covered in mud from head to toe. Unfortunately I was to busy to find my camera and take their pics. At least they enjoyed the garden work. :) My oldest was miserable due to her allergies acting up and also she does not really enjoy gardening. She still is a good helper though. She was a trooper today, especially with her nasty allergies making her miserable. So we finished the planting, fertilizing, roping off the garden and now we are all tired and ready for bed. My son was spending the night at a friends house so he got out of the work for now. He will make up for it when the weeding resumes. :) Now all our work is done and the garden looks good. Now if only we can keep those pesky deer out of it this year we will be doing something. Now I am off to bed. Goodnight!

Full Weekend

This past weekend was filled with gymnastics/dance, baseball, fishing, swimming, and church activities. It seemed like we went from one activity to another and I can tell you that I am glad that these activities are wrapping up. My 7yr old had her final dance/gymnastics class on Friday and has her recital this week. She will miss her classes as she has really enjoyed learning how to do cartwheels, flips, and various dances. Here she is posing for me as she also had pictures done this Friday. This is her outfit that she will wear to her recital this week. It is her favorite as it glows in the dark!


Then it was on to baseball first thing Saturday morning. The team did well and I was even able to take a few pictures of my little ball player. He plays 3rd base and we were sitting right by the base so I was able to click one of him at his post. He was warming up in between innings and was getting ready to throw the ball to one of his teammates.



Then I was able to catch him while he was up to bat. He was able to get a nice hit and made it on base while another teammate made it home. YEAH! He sure does love this game. He is always going outside and throwing around the ball and getting us to play baseball with him. He even bought his little sister a glove out of his own money so she could play catch with him. :)


When we got back home my son wanted to go fishing so we hunted up some worms and walked down to the river so he could throw his line in for a big catch. Unfortunately, he was not able to catch any fish, but in his defense I believe his sisters did not help as they were throwing rocks and walking about in the river scaring all the fish.


On the way back home my 3yr old decided to stop and talk to all the cows alongside the road. Notice their rapt attention. I think her mooing was entertaining for them. She was happy that they paid attention to her and kept talking about all the funny bossy cows the whole way home and kept mooing to show that she could indeed talk to them. Who knew she was fluent in cow!


On Sunday we missed a pool birthday party due to an activity we had at church so I agreed to take them all to the river for some swimming. The water was cold but that did not stop us from jumping in and tubing down the river. After a while my 3yr old got cold so her and I sat up on the bank wrapped in towels enjoying the beautiful scenery and watching her brother and sister play around in the water. I snapped this picture. I love how she looks in it. Look at that beautiful smile!!


Below you can see her sister unsuspectingly floating in her tube down the river to her brother who was pretending to be a super hero on a video game. He was doing all these karate moves in the water and splashing it at the evil villains. What his sister did not know is that she was coming closer and closer to his fierce water attack. Needless to say she did not really enjoy his splashing of water continuously at her. He then made her one of the "good guys" and decided I was one of the evil villains and they came after me. I could not defend myself well as I was to busy laughing at all his crazy faces he was making while doing his "cool" Karate moves. He could really throw that water far!

So that was our busy weekend. This week we started our Homeschool testing and so far it is going really well. We only have another week of school before our official start of summer and the kids cannot wait to do something fun to celebrate. I cannot wait for my hubby to come home. I tried to get him to come next week but that was too short a notice to give. I am ready to have some real home time with him as the last time was way to short and way to busy! So...hurry home hon! We miss you!

Rainy days

It has been raining here today. I love listening to the rain on the tin roof, smelling the clean smell of the air...it is nice to have a rainy day after a few nice sunny ones! The children were outside playing when it started so they decided to stay out and enjoy the rain. There is something magical about playing in the rain. I think it has something to do with the excitement of feeling the drops falling on your face while you dance around vicariously with your head raised to the sky, arms out while you twirl about shouting at the rain. At least this what happens at our house. :) Bathing suits were donned (which is a first because normally my little ones just strip down and run around, we can get away with that as we live in the middle of nowhere), and they proceeded to race around the yard and dash under the eaves to feel the stream of water tumbling off the roof. I thought about throwing our a bar of soap but grabbed my camera instead. ;) My youngest decided to try to catch the rain on her tongue.



Then the girls grabbed the umbrella and danced around while twirling it above their heads. It was then that I had visions of Mary Poppins pop into my head. They looked so cute together under that big ole umbrella! Do you see the smiles on those faces?


My son did not dance, he rode his bike. We just fixed his bike as it had a flat tire and I finally got the tube to replace the old one. Now that is all he wants to do is ride his bike, rain or shine.

Then they decided they were wet enough and came back into the house to dry off. Now the girls are playing with their baby dolls pretending to be mama's and my son is playing with his transfer truck making deliveries just like his dad! He thinks his dad has the coolest job in the world. Something about those big trucks fascinates him. Whenever we go somewhere on the highway he will call our each make of the transfer trucks we pass or that pass us. There goes a Freightliner, there is a Peterbuilt, etc. Nothing makes his day than when he gets to ride along in the big truck with his dad!

When they came in my daughter brought me this.
A beautiful flower from a beautiful girl!

From cold to HOT

We went to my son's baseball game the other night and it was COLD. Notice the warm jacket my little one is wearing in the following picture. This jacket was bought by my hubby for my oldest when she was little. It has been passed down through all my children. It is a well made coat to last through all the wear and tear. Notice the funny face she is making. She saw me taking pictures and wanted me to take one of her so she made this face for me. She is such a ham!
It was a L O N G game. Started at 7:00 and ended at 9:30. They lost by one point and it was the first game they have lost. They made 5 runs in the last inning and almost pulled ahead. It was a great game and very exciting, but my 7yr old did NOT have that opinion as you can tell in the pic. below.

Then the weather switched up and became HOT the following days. So hot that we decided to take a walk down to the river to splash around, collect some rocks and cool off. My 3yr old decided to take a self-inking stamp to her face, (thanks sis for the stamps in the Easter baskets!) Notice how she used them on her face, arms, and legs.

So we walked down to the river and my son made a boat out of a branch and some leaves for sails and found some string for the anchor and tied a rock to it. He is very imaginative. That entertained him for a while sailing his boat. My other two just splashed around. The school bus pulled up and let my oldest off (benefits of living in a rural community) and she then got into the water and had a water fight with my son. I thought she would be mad to walk home instead of riding the bus, but she said that when the bus driver saw us and asked her if she wanted to get off there that it was my daughter that said yes. Go figure. Never can tell what these teenagers are thinking. On another day she would be whiny and grumpy about walking home. Ya just never know. I enjoyed our time together and getting to hear about her day and all her friends. I am glad she still likes to talk to me about her day. I enjoy hearing about it. Now onto the pics of our day.

Here they are involved in their big water fight.

Below is my 3yr old sailing around on the river. Mind you this is a mountain river and for most people it would be way to cold for them to even enter let alone play in. :)

Below is my son and the boat he built. He just picked up whatever he found lying around and made this. He had such fun with it.


Below is a great pic of my 7yr old. She is so beautiful and I love that face! I could just eat her up!!

Busy busy weeks

I hope every mom had a wonderful mothers day! Flowers and gifts of colored stones were in abundance at my house. I loved every bit of it and enjoyed spending the day at the zoo with the kids. We have had some busy weeks here as of late but hopefully it will slow down once school is out. Until then we will be enjoying baseball games, recitals, concerts, and all the other fun stuff that the ending school year brings. Speaking of baseball, I finally took my camera to the ball park and took some pics of my son. He is hitting so well! He plays 3rd base and his team is undefeated. I really just enjoy watching him play and enjoy watching the team working together and supporting each other.

Here he is up to bat. I still get anxious when he is up there. He is such a champ though. He has a good eye and usually makes a hit while up at bat. Unless he gets too anxious, then things get a little more harried.

And here he is again hitting the ball while up to bat. I really need a new camera. This does not zoom in well, it comes in blurry.


This past weekend we went downstate to celebrate a cousins birthday. It was nice weather, not too hot and the breeze made it feel just right. It was at a lake so the kids all enjoyed canoe rides and swimming in the lake. I personally thought the water a bit on the chilly side, but the kids enjoyed it. Here is everyone getting ready to enjoy the birthday cake.

The only downfall was my oldest has severe pine allergies and the lake was surrounded by pine trees and she was miserable by the end of the party. She is still recovering from our visit.

The next day was Mothers Day and we visited the zoo. The kids all had a blast. The weather was so nice and the animals were all out. Here are some pictures from our visit. Here they are looking at the elephants.




Here is my 7yr old riding a statue elephant with her cousin.


Here is my son pretending to hold this snake. It is a sculpture of numerous reptiles crawling on it. It almost looks real doesn't it? I especially like the look on his face.

Here is my pretty little girl whom I was so lucky to be able to hold hands with for most of our visit. I enjoyed holding her little hand in mine while we walked around and talked about all the different animals, trees, and sculptures we saw along the way. I love enjoying time like this together.




Here she is again with her cousin in the background. We were in the outdoor bird area where they have egg sculptures in which the kids can climb on. Do you see the look on her face? It is so funny!

This is my youngest at the end of the trip. She was wiped out! Her brother took turns pushing the stroller and I cannot believe he was not like this by the end of the day.

We had a fun filled weekend to end our hectic week. We are looking forward to a much slower week this week. Although I do wish my hubby could come back home. His trip home was shortened due to lack of drivers for his fleet. He is good at his job and they miss him when he is absent from the force. :) We basically were able to get his appointments finished and then he was back on the road. It was a rushed home time that is for sure. Maybe next time it will be a more relaxing time.