T-riffic T-ball!

Brennen was way excited for his first T-ball practice! He did a great job paying attention and hitting off the 't'. The second practice was rained out, but we will make that up this week. Seriously, 5-year-olds paired up to play catch . . . hilarious!! The "game" should be highly entertaining :)

Well, hello there summer!

Strawberry shortcake--freshly picked strawberries provided by our very own garden. Mmmmm!

Pretty Flowers, Hot Days, and a Mo-hawk

Our red roses did some amazing growing, literally overnight. I don't like when people (usually on television) say "literally" because very rarely do they get the meaning correct and it drives me bonkers, but we had nothing but a green plant one day, and this stunning array of roses the next!

Around the corner our olden-days property marker row of peonies was in full bloom!

Of course, the fragrant flowers didn't last long in this heat . . .

But my little brother found a way to cope with the summer swelter, it's a Co-Hawk :)

If I'd have known you were coming, I'd have baked a cake . . .

The old "micro-bake" song was dancing through my head as Caelan baked her first cake . . . solo! She used a box mix (thanks Aunt C!) and read through the instructions, got out her ingredients, cracked the eggs, added the vanilla, even pulled out the electric mixer (which took some coaching after a decent amount of splatter--she thought you held the beaters sideways, rather than pointing them down into the bowl :) I turned on the oven and did the doneness check, but other than that, she was our little baking girl and it was very tasty!

Australia

So, in the final week of school, the girls had an opportunity to learn about Australia. Having been there for the Olympics, Buck has since missed the meat pies and pavlova. I've tried to make both, one more successfully than the other. In the girls' curriculum, there was a new recipe for meat pies and here is the result! I think my old recipe will win out in the future, but this was quite a sight when it came out of the oven!

Making Memories on Memorial Day

Excited were we when Buck's work schedule offered an unexpected Sunday/Monday combination of time off . . . when a co-worker switched him Tuesday for Wednesday, hello 3-day weekend (like most normal people :) It seemed the perfect opportunity to meet up with extended family and spend Memorial Day the way I used to as a little girl--with my grandma, at the cemetary where generations of family members are resting, watching the gun salute and listening to Taps. Of course this time, I had my own little girls and boys, and they were so prepared for the blanks firing off into the extraordinarily strong winds of the morning, that they sat with their hands over their ears quite nearly the entire time :)

After some treats at the church, we returned to my Aunt C's new home, which for all intensive purposes, I've dubbed "The Narnia House." Every time you opened a door, there was another door. Every cupboard hid a crawl space or cavernous storage area. Great house for hide-and-seek, great house to accidentally find yourself in a whole new world :)

For our kids it was a bit of a wonderland, there were frogs to catch in the backyard (which backs up to my grandma's backyard--so really there were TWO houses to play in), cousins around every corner, and so much good food! I helped with a sliver extraction on my little second cousin. Buck went shooting with the boys (the grown up boys plus my little brothers :) And did I mention the food? :)

We came back Monday night, chased all the way by storms. We lost a pole from our luggage carrier somewhere in the countryside, found a very cute and tasty place for dinner (hooray, we never know where to stop in this town and we ALWAYS need to!), and knocked out a week's worth of stuff on Tuesday alone. Three grocery stores, one furniture store (window shopping), one home improvement store (dreaming), Culvers for dinner, lawn mowing, fridge cleaning, bathroom scouring, the second of three full days of laundry . . . whew! I'm tired just typing it :)

We were thankful for the hospitality, the time spent with family, and the sharing of memories. Love you family!

Cousins & Frogs!

We all fall down! 

3 boys watching Cars under a Cars blanket :) 

 ADORABLE--cutie pie cousin, in his little red shoes :)

Brennen found this nice colorful toad . . . 

Just as I was taking a random shot of the three kids, the toad sprang out of Brennen's hands and kissed him on the chin! Amazingly enough, Brennen caught him midair, before Mr. Toad escaped :)