a summer blast

so i guess i am doing most of summer is one huge post. here it is minus our trip to colorado which will get it's own glory.

celebrating daphne's 2nd birthday

the last day of school-tomato plants for the teachers

the kids got to go stay with nana and papa for a week after they were done with school and bobby and i still had to work. ben was sad to miss all the fun-but got to do some riding around when we went to retrieve the siblings :)

the summer of road trips continues with a trip to st. louis to see wonderful friends 

celebrating father's day!

the father's day photo shoot-complete with balloons (this was round 2-as the 1st ended up with ben stepping into an ant pile)

soccer tournament

a new basketball team for grant-

fun with the garden

the 4th of july parade-sitting outside of lakeview village with grandma

baseball season

nana and papa stopped by for dinner and ben suggested they play his new favorite game 'pitch' and 'hit ball'

 another evening with fun dinner guests

 finally hung the swing that nana gave the kids for christmas. pure enjoyment.

 another finally. getting siting put up on the addition of the house.

 evening with cousins.

 the fair!

evenings in the meadow after the hay has been cut

one more trip to oklahoma before the end of summer. 

there are many more which i will just keep adding to this mega post :)

to the creek

the beauty of this farm just keeps giving us amazing moments-like our picnic yesterday watching the kids explore the creek.

the first watermelon

i often feel like feeding these kids is my biggest job. i work so i can buy loads of food for them to consume. watermelons will be my friend this summer. ben is already great at carrying around a piece and taking bites as he walks around outside.

 it continues to be a great time watching the girls play on the same team.

and if you eat watermelon you must hose off-that is half the fun.

spring so far-and more easter

we have a new puppy-gerald (as in fitzgerald). our family friend who lives nearby was needing homes for an unplanned litter of puppies. the kids went over to see them when they were about a week old. they couldn't stop talking about getting a puppy-so onto another adventure at the farm. he is a total mix of a dog-and full of energy. the kids take turns taking care of food/water/walking and so far it is working out fine. 

 spring brings lots of sports-soccer, baseball, basketball and track. the girls are playing on the same soccer team this year which has been a welcomed consolidation.

 we have tomatoes ready to go into the ground-but haven't had the time to get that ground ready for them...

 grant wanted to continue with basketball-so his piper coach and bobby created a team of kids that can practice twice and week and enter different leagues for games.

 anneliese's kindergarten year is coming to a close-she got to play a monkey in their class music program. she continues to be a very feisty ball of energy, competitive but still likes to cuddle/wrestle :)

 zach and lexie spent the night after the egg hunt party. we all went to bob and lillian's church service and then headed over to beth's for a yummy lunch and another egg hunt. a full and family filled day!

 egg dying came a few days later-i set all the stuff outside so they could decorate eggs after school. they had fun coloring on the warm eggs and then experimenting with more or less vinegar in the dyes.

easter egg hunt in reverse

the easter egg hunt found a perfect day. a little windy-but sunny and warm. the kids took to the token system very well-getting to exchange them for little toys (thank you to my nephew zach who manned the 'store') 

we moved the searching to the meadow this year-and had fun watching kids run in the greenness. we celebrated ben's birthday as well-he was thrilled with some new tractor toys to push and ride on. 

my system uploaded the collages in reverse order and i am not feeling up to rearranging. 

 these two fuzzy heads will be 2 next week!

 the walk back from the hunt

 family :)