Family Fun

I love when our family spends time together -with the husband. He is often so busy providing for our family that it ends up just being the kids and I. When he's along for the day, it's pretty much perfect!
He surprised us and took the day to play. We went to a local fall festival. The weather was perfect, the kids were great and we had a ball!

Bug, Baby, Bubby and I took a ride on this lopsided creation. That was quite a ride! I was very thankful for the chains that held us on. My ribs, however, were not. Next time, I'll skip that one.



They offered "Learn to Drive a Tractor" stations. My kids drive them alone all the time at home, but Leeny and Bubby had to drive them over and over again.

An old steam tractor. Bubby's favorite. He just HAD to have his picture taken on it.



My little scrawny kid tractor pulling in her flip-flops. The man next to me said that he felt sorry for the girls in the flip-flops. Little did he know that when they were done pulling, he'd be eating his words. Don't give my kids a video game and expect much but pedal pulls, no problem!

This is my little ox. She has more strength in that body (especially her thighs) than any kid I know. Not only did she win 1st place, beating all the boys, she was also the ONLY kid to get a full pull. The 2nd place winner was more than 15 feet behind her. And she was in her flip-flops too.

Best vantage point there. The kids love when daddy goes with us. He's lots of fun!

Proud little ladies.




Proof that I was there. Train ride. So often I'm the one snapping pictures, that there are none of me. I hate having my picture taken, but don't mind a few so the kids will know I really was there.

My pride and joys. I love these kids! They bring me so much joy, teach me so much about love, and show me how to enjoy life.

Half Century of Progress 2011

Every other year, there is a Half Century of Progress Show. We've been to all but one. It's a farm show that features equipment from days gone by. The Husband looks forward to this for 2 years. So we all go and end up having a great time.
In 2009 it was cold (think 50's in Aug.) and wet and this year it was 90's and bone dry.

The show is held at an old air force base in Illinois. The grounds and runways are huge! The show takes up almost all of it and there are thousands of people. The picture above gives you a glimpse of how far away everything is.

Because of the distances, the Husband built this beauty. You really can't walk the whole place. Most people bring golf carts, but not us. He says it's a tractor show, so we'll be driving tractors. It really affords us a lot more room than a golf cart would. We get lots of comments from people about our "playpen".

The kids and I love riding around on it. We have room for all of us, the cooler and all the other junk we pack around. And the old bus seats are pretty comfortable. The shade was MUCH appreciated this year! The Husband loves to raise us up as high as it will go and then drop us. The kids laugh like hyenas and I just glare at him.

Because of the Baby, he added sides to our contraption, thus making it look like a playpen. I can't even begin to tell you how much nicer that was! I didn't have to worry about anybody falling (or jumping) off. I could keep her contained and she still had room to play with toys or stand up and move around.

Some friends joined us this year and I'm sure will be attending with us in 2013. They don't have kids yet, so we were kind and shared. ;)

This was the feature this year. I don't really understand what was so great about it. But everybody went nuts over it. The guy pictured is who made it. There is a different feature every show. I thought the years past were better. Perhaps it's because I could see what was great about them. For example, in 2005 they featured a 60-bottom plow being pulled by 3 steam engines, in 2007 they had 134 horses pulling a plow and in 2009, the feature was Big Bud. Those were just more impressive to me, but the Husband was very excited to see the Kinze.

I know this will sound strange. I could sit and watch tractors plow for hours. Really!! I love the sound and other than clothes that have dried on the line, fresh turned dirt is my favorite smell. Farming is in my blood.

I can't help but look at this old equipment and wonder about it's past. What's its story? Who were the people who owned this equipment? What was their life like - did they struggle to make it? Were there kids eager to drive it and help on the farm? Was it taken care of? Did it get passed from one generation to another like a treasured heirloom, sold or found rusting in some one's fence row?

My mind just races thinking about times gone by and what the farmers would think of farming today. The equipment is HUGE now! The farms are HUGE too. Was life better then than now? I know it was harder physically. But maybe it was better.

Anyway, the show is over. The tractors and implements have all been taken home. I know the Husband is already looking forward to the Half Century of Progress Show in 2013.

Happy Birthday Leeny!

Leeny turned 7 on May 25th. Better late than never. Right?

In our family you get to have a friend party on your 7th and 10th birthdays. It was her turn. She was SO excited.


Leeny chose to have a swimming party. She invited her closest friends and their families. Home school families tend to have many children. I think we had around 30 kids plus adults.

Spaghetti is her favorite so we filled a 16-quart roaster full, had some veggies and dip and that was supper. The adults ate while the kids swam. It was great!

I couln't catch many shots of the kids in the pool. But here is one of Leeny in the hot-tub. They were like fish!

She loved opening her gifts and was delighted with each. This was made for her by one of her best buds. She sat it in a place of honor on her shelf at home.

She received so many nice presents and had so much fun. We found it very funny at the number of guns she got - water, Nerf, etc. Leeny is most definitely a tom-boy.

She said later how special she felt that all those people came to her party.

Happy Birthday Leeny! You are a delight! You fill our home with wonder, excitement and laughter. We are so thankful for you!

The World Through Her Lens

Bug received a camera a couple of years ago. She has taken lots of pictures. Since I was downloading pictures from my camera, I decided to see what she had. Whoa! She had about 500! I pulled a handful or two of my favorites and thought I'd share. It's fun to see the world through her eyes.

Leeny and her baby, Kaelyn.


Taking pictures of each other. Bubby with a loose tooth.

New baby chicks. See the black one under the leaf.

Bug snapped me taking a picture of Bubby.

Bath time.

A focus of many of her pics - The Baby.

Love, love, love that face!

Sisters and friends

Poor Dot-Polk. Her favorite chicken. Our Tom turkey tried to do the "chicken dance" on Dot-Polk's back. She never recovered and Bug lost a favorite. Poor girl. Bug still hates Tom turkey.

Bug put the Baby to sleep while outside. You should have seen the sand in that kids' hair when she woke.

My beautiful butterfly.

This is the Bug's tractor. I think they were getting it ready for the parade. Yes, I know it's purple. That is how we told his dad that Bug was to be a girl - we needed a pink or purple tractor. The husband has this ready before she turned 1.

Flooding early this summer

After weeks of no rain, I would love to have just a bit of this. My gardens are withering in this heat and dryness.

Memaw J, Leeny, K and the Baby

Good pics, Bug!

Family

More old pictures from cleaning off my camera.

The Baby calls this her "giddy-up"

Bug decorating some Valentine's Day cookies.

Leeny too.


Big Brother. Notice the gate. We weren't done with our construction project and Baby wouldn't stay out of it. She HATED that gate!

Tea Party?

Look at these cowgirls. Bug, Leeny and niece K had fun dancing for us.

Learning to color.

Bubby teaching Grandma L how to play Mancala.

I'm hoping Leeny develops some fashion sense!

Great -Papa K, Papa T, adopted Papa R and The Husband relaxing.

Nothing much spectacular but lots of fun just hanging out together and celebrating family.

Science Center

Wow! These pictures seem sooo old already. I decided to clean off my camera and apparently it had been longer than I realized.

The kids and I took a trip to the St. Louis Science Center clear back in February. We just had to see the Grossology exhibit before it was gone. It was worth it!

Bubby and Leeny learning what causes us to "toss our cookies." The sounds were incredibly real and I found myself nearly gagging.


The 3 big kids watching a quick video on the grosser parts of the human body.


The Baby greatly enjoyed crawling through the bowels.

Sliding through the bowels was even more fun!

Bug learned what causes snot.

Bubby was kind of grossed out reading more than he ever wanted to know about human waste.

Leeny tried out her skills as a surgeon on a life size Operation game.

Bubby and Leeny shooting boogers at targets. Although the exhibit addressed disgusting aspects of the body, it was lots of fun, we learned a lot, and had fun laughing together.

A more refined activity - building robots with Lego's and programming them. Here they were getting their instructions.

All the excitement wore out Baby. She had a nice nap while the kids built robots.

We took a quick trip through the engineering section and the kids built an arch. It was pretty hard getting #6 in there. Of course they had more fun knocking it over.



A favorite at the Science Center is The Discovery Room. It's an area just for younger kids and full of hands-on learning. It is always a race to see who gets to the wheelchair first.

While we have these at home, Bubby spent nearly the whole hour building with Marble Works. I guess it was more fun here because they have a LOT more than we have.


I was surprised how long the girls spent playing at the water table. They've never had much interest in it before. Both were deeply engrossed in their learning (oops, I mean play).

What a great way to learn Science. Hands on Learning is the best!