Midsummer Blooms

Summer is quickly passing and the flowers will soon be past their prime. I took some shots to preserve their short lived beauty. This is the nature of perennials, vibrant and showy, but only for a few short weeks each summer. We wait all year for them to make their debut and I always hate to see them go. Til next year...

We're Hooked!

We took the kids to Eminence last week. We had a great time floating on the Jack's For river and seeing the sights. Who new Missouri was this pretty?! Alley Spring Mill and the Blue Spring were our favorites. We also rented a raft and floated the river. This was probably a better choice than a canoe for Mollie. I'm sure we would have dumped it more than once and that would not have gone over too well! We also floated in tubes which Mollie didn't love but did it. She's just not a water girl but is getting better. Jerry bought water blasters and he and the kids had a "blast" ambushing floaters on the river. It was the most fun when the floaters had their own weapons and were firing back! This is definitely a place we want to go back to and hopefully soon!

Floating the River



Fear The 4 Year Old!


Paybacks!

Water Blasting the Enemy


Blue Spring

Alley Spring Mill

Alley Spring Mill

Vacation Bible School

Mollie went to VBS last week. She loved it and so did I because they fed the kids dinner every night for 5 nights! NO COOKING for me! The last night they put on a cute little program. The preschoolers went first, singing a fun song, then the older kids. For the finale, all the classes sang a song together. Mollie was quite into the song her class sang, doing the hand motions and everything but when they did the finale she must have lost her "groove thing" because she just stood there smiling but not singing or doing anything! It was so funny. Maybe she was worn out from the preschooler song, which was quite active. It wore me out just watching!

Like a Fish in Water (NOT)

My fearless child started her second year of swim lessons last week. The child that that will do just about anything doesn't care to have her face in the water. The teacher has the class "blow bubbles" to encourage them to put their faces in the water. Mollie puts just her lips in. If she accidently gets her nose in she jumps out of the pool and runs to wipe her face off with the towel! Maybe a few more years in the beginner class and she'll warm up to the idea of putting her head under water!

First Show

We had our first show yesterday at Bates County. I decided not to show there this year and just take Meredith and another 4-H girl, Michela, that are showing a couple of my donkeys. Meredith is showing "Maggie" this year because last year while her
"Matilda" was here to get ready for the state fair she had a secret rendevous with my red jack and is now great with child! Michela is showing my "Cloud". I showed both of these last year and it will be interesting to see how they place this year. Maggie and Meredith took Grand Champion in halter and 1st in costume. It was a good experience for Michela with "Cloud" and they got a 1st place ribbon as well.

Corn, Corn and More Corn

Well our 5 days of "coon patrol" paid off and Mollie and I picked LOTS of corn. It took me hours to shuck, cut, boil and freeze but it left us with 33 pints for our freezer and several ears to eat fresh. Mollie was a big help, she filled the sacks with the picked corn and helped to take the silks off. It was a lot of work but we'll be glad we did it this winter!

Star Spangled Kids

I just had to get a picture of the kids on the 4th sitting on the "flag wagon". Quite appropriate.

Yellow The Amazing Firework Eating Dog!

We quickly found out this past week that we don't have just any ordinary yellow lab. No we have "Yellow the Amazing Firework Eating and Chasing Dog" He can eat burning snakes in a single bound. Annihilate smoke bombs with just the lap of his tongue. Leap tall buildings while chasing bottle rockets. Even devour burning firecrackers in a single gulp. You can witness his death defying act every 4th of July (if he survives this one!)

4th of July Highlights

We had a nice 4th of July. I canned my first picking of green beans (20 pints)and then went to my parents house. MawMaw disappeared outside with the kids so I went to investigate and found them all hitting (or attempting to) a badminton around. Aahh...the only sport I ever enjoyed or was remotely descent at! It had only been 20 years give or take a few since I had played but I couldn't resist joining in. Soon my sister, Marty, Jerry and my dad were out trying their hand as well. Honestly, we all were pretty much awful but we had fun. I'm sure anyone driving by thought it was strange to see all theses adults standing in a circle (we had no net) attempting to hit a badminton back and forth. We worked up quite a sweat and only had one injury (Marty bent back a toenail on a rock). This just may turn into a new yearly tradition! (Note: my sister won the award for "best form"!)