Flowers in the Meadow

This is the farmers field. Most years he plants it with corn, but this year he planted a silage mix. It grass is quite feathery and lovely and dotted with many wildflowers. I used to know the names of many wildflowers, but like so many things, if you do not practice, you lose it. I will share the pictures anyway, I hope you enjoy our walk through the meadow.

Staying Cool

As I have mentioned before, our pool liner failed this winter and is needing to be replaced. The pool company is taking a very long time to accomplish this and we have had some very hot and humid weather.

Solution, staying cool in the brook. Across the road and through the farmers field, is a very nice brook. There is one area a bends and the water is deeper and wider and it makes a very enjoyable pool to stay cool and have some fun.

You think he is having fun?

Hannah practices her swimming
Dan smooching on big sister
Gabe spends a lot of time searching for treasure and creatures. There are quite a few crayfish and small minnows. He also saw a turtle under the edge of the bank. So many things to see and explore.

Even Gracie the dog has a good time

Bessie's Recital-6/8

Bessie had her year end piano recital on Sunday the 6th. She was pretty disappointed that Brian couldn't be there as he was away on a trip and Noona and Papa were also busy (actually Noona was in the hospital). Despite this, she did a great job. She played two pieces this year, one a solo and one a duet with Victoria, a fellow student.

We celebrated after with dinner at McDonald's, always a kid favorite.

Bessie with her teacher Polly (on left) and Victoria

What's Blooming in the Garden

It has been cloudy and showery over the last few days, but no real rain until last night. We finally got a good steady all night rain, complete with some thunder and lightening.

You could almost feel the garden taking in all that wonderful moisture.

Mr. Potato head

Our family loves Mr. Potato Head. What a wonderful old toy. It creates so much fun and uses so much imagination.

We have many of the add-on sets...party spud, dr. spud, pirate spud...you get the picture. It is so fun to find something new. I was eying the new "Tater of the Lost Ark" set, complete with whip and Fedora, at Toys 'R Us.

I'm not sure who enjoys them more, the adults or the kids.

Yearly Testing

Each year for our annual homeschool evaluation, I administer the Stanford Achievement Test to the kids. This year Bessie and Gabe took it. The little girls are not ready to take this type of test yet, so we do a written review for them.

The kids have always done very well. Gabe's test was a jump up this year. He is taking the one for those kids entering 4th-6th grade. He was a bit disturbed that he didn't know some of the material until I explained that he was just entering 4th grade and the test goes up to 6th.

Bessie finished today. Gabe has a few sections left to go.

Bessie has some schoolwork left to finish up for her high school credits, and I will most likely continue some language arts and math with the little girls throughout the summer, but our testing time marks the end of our regular school year. Our slower paced, lazy summer days have begun.

Concentrating on those tests

Gone Flat!

On our way to the church the other day, the van started shaking like mad. At first I thought it might be the transmission as I lost power very quickly. It soon dawned on me that it might be a tire. I pulled over and sure enough, rear tire, flat as a pancake. I just love moments like this, van full of kids, middle of the day, Brian is away and we are on one of the many roads around here with little or no traffic.

Oh well, good thing I'm pretty handy with tools and that sort of thing and don't mind getting my hands dirty.

It took about 10 minutes, but the tire was changed and we were back on the road again. Make note to keep a pair of work gloves in the van.

That is a lot of van to lift with the jack

I'm afraid this tire is ruined
All set and ready to go

Old-Fashioned Kids

The MOPS group at our church holds a semi-annual antique photo fundraiser. We picked the pictures out this week. I like how they came out.

Moose on the Loose

Here is my latest cross-stitch block for my charity stitching group.

The pattern comes from a Stoney Creek book called Cabin Classic.

I can't wait to see what Deb, our quilt maker, comes up with using these blocks. She makes each quilt so special and unique.

New Swingset/Play Structure-Step #1

Brian started working on what will be a large swingset and play structure. We have plans for swings, a fort, slide, climbing wall of some type and a rope bridge. This will take us a few summers to complete, but it has been started.

The first step was a new swinging beam. Our old swingset wasn't large enough to accommodate all the kids and rather small for the bigger kids to climb on. The play sets you can buy that would be what we wanted are very expensive, so we started planning to build one of our own. We are using existing trees on the property as the base for the new structure.

Brian bought the heaviest hardware, so this should serve us well for many years.

It took both of us working with the come-alongs to get it up into the trees. Brian wanted it with plenty of height for a good swing. He used threaded rod through the trees to secure the beam. It is very rugged.

The kids tested them out and declared the new swings most excellent.