S'mores

our days of using the fire pit are beginning to get numbered. As the labor day weekend draws near and back to school soon follows we will have limited days to enjoy the fun of a fire before it simply becomes too cold to venture out.

A birthday wish

Happy Birthday Beckie!

Today is her birthday.
She is amazing.
She is strong.
She has a great sense of humor.
She is fair, and trusting.
She makes me laugh.
She is a gift.
Watching her grow and celebrate 22 birthdays has simply been the most amazing journey for me. I truly am blessed to be her mom.
Happy Birthday Beckie you are amazing!

shhhhhh......

Do you hear that? "What?" you might wonder... the quiet in my house.
As of today there are no "big" kids in my house they have returned to college. The only sound
you hear is the sigh as my house settles into it's pre-summer size.
Of course the 5 little people in my house are doing an excellent job of distracting me from the fact that
Beckie, Josh, and Cassandra have all headed to college...and one could say that my house really wouldn't qualify as
"quiet" with 5 little ones running amuck....
I will miss them, I have been spoiled this summer with all the extra hands helping out, but I'm also excited to see what next they do.
Beckie is beginning her last year of college, (how did that happen?) while Cassandra begins her first. Josh is midway thru and each time I see anyone of them I am simply amazed at who they are, and what they are doing with their life. Little people are fun, but getting to watch your big people grow into amazing adults is pretty cool too.

(yes Josh looks crabby I fear he will never willingly volunteer for a picture, I tend to be a bothersome pest whenever I have a camera in hand)

some people....

are just so stinkin' talented...it's enough to make a grown person cry.
 The theme of this birthday is "Pirates" so the invite comes as a message in a bottle...too cool huh?
Trust me this is only the tip of the iceburg, once we arrive we will be immersed into a complete Pirate atmosphere. This mom is simply unbelievable! and she's really nice too! Sigh I want to hate her, (that would be the unfit, inept, happy to remember to order the cake mom side) but I can't she simply is a beautiful person, someone I am lucky to know. Last year's birthday theme was Knights, and Princess' think Renaissance festival. It was amazing. Did you know you could joust using swim noodles and trikes? It is possible. From the games to decor to food it is an amazing way to spend an afternoon, an event that manages to defy traditional little peoples birthday parties in that it is as much fun for the adults as it is the kids.

waiting....

for the butterfly to hatch. Betty brought this cocoon over a few days ago, it has been the most watched thing in our house (even more than the tv) of late. Amazing how something so simply can hold their attention for so long. As of today it still hasn't done anything but hang there. I of course am not one of the members of this family who has been watching and watching, and watching some more, that would require patience :)

puddle jumpers...

the kids put their mud boots to fun use yesterday as they splashed and waded thru many of the puddles dotting our landscape after the rains of the past few days. It rained again last night and this morning dawned cloudy and drippy.

more pictures of the flooding

this would be my view looking north

and this was my view to the west, those are apples floating in the water

if you look close you can see the water is to the top of the drain, I have never seen that before

this is a different view of the area in the top picutre. As you can see it did stop raining for awhile.

Rain

We go from no rain, none! to this...these are the scenes from today after an all day rainfall yesterday and a continuance today. I have one way to get to my home today, (usually there are four) the remaining are all under water, a lot of water! I have a lake in my backyard once again :) and I have water in my basement, sigh, that I didn't miss. as I post this it is still raining....

It's official...

This morning Cassandra headed to college.
I have been muttering for weeks that it was "time" Time for her to go, (she developed a few annoying traits this summer and at times it seemed she was determined to make me crazy.) So many had cautioned me that the hardest is the last one to leave, and yet all kidding aside, I was really ok with this. (I wonder if it is due in part to her simply not being so terrible far away.)
She loves the school, it was her first choice.
She was excited to go. Well there were a few tears last night as she said good bye to friends.
She is ready.
Check in began at 10am this morning, she started to pack (not the van, her stuff) at 7am. Sigh, this child would never do something ahead of time ever! (it's that driving her mom crazy thing) van was loaded at 8:58 just in time for our 9am departure. So far so good (yeah there might be a bit of sarcasm there.

did I mention it was raining...it was.
at times quite hard, pouring one could say. Still raining/pouring when we arrived, only to discover the person in charge of
checking in wasn't there yet. So we waited (that waiting thing is going to become a bit of habit throughout the day) Once she could check in it was discovered that there was no room key for her. refer to waiting reference above. Eventually we were directed to the location of her key and then waited some more. After a bit ( a long bit actually) we found the person with the key and proceeded to start unpacking the van. Once everything was in her room, my sister commented that it certainly was roomy, the room held a bit of an echo. I would imagine that once all her roommates arrive it will lose that echo. After unpacking we headed to Target for those last minute/forgotten items, and then a stop at Scheels to pick up her soccer gear and then back to campus. Cassandra was quite relieved to discover that one of her roommates had also arrived, easing that whole spending the night in a new place alone dilemma. When I talked to her later she sounded excited and was talking non stop, (for those who know Cassandra you know how chatty she is) I took that as a great sign.
I know she is going to do well, I'm proud of who she is and what she has overcome and accomplished. I'm rather excited to see what next she does...she is ready.

moving in and getting settled

This was the crew that helped Cassandra move to college this morning.
Yes even Rosie carried(dragged) a bag or two down the hallway.

I imagine she was relieved when I left, that tendency of mine to put everything in it's place,
neat and orderly was driving her bonkers.

Cassandra had to stay on campus for a meeting but we found her a few more things while shopping so we dropped
it off before we headed out of town. Notice it did stop raining, just in time for us to head home.

Road work...

We awoke this morning at 6:30 to the sound of the city crew resurfacing the road in front of our home. Naturally the girls wanted to "see" so rather than fight the inevitable we got up and headed outside to watch this fascinating process. (that could be uttered with a bit of sarcasm since the last thing I would find fascinating at this time of the morning would be big trucks and smelly oil) We sat in the opening of the garage wrapped in blankets and watched all the assorted trucks and equipment put a new surface on our road. Totally exciting stuff if you are a two year old and a three year old. After the cold got to us (well me actually) we moved it indoors where the girls continued to watch out the window at the show being played at this wonderful (insane) hour. Of course a must have for any viewing pleasure is milk and goldfish crackers. Life is good!

Diggin' Dino's

  

Diggin' Dino's pics

more diggin' dinos photo's