Slushies Anyone ?

our 4 monkeys + my 2 nieces

Have I mentioned that our air conditioning in our van has been broken all summer ? We had it looked at and it will cost a pretty penny to get fixed so we have been trying to tough it out. With most days averaging 90+ degrees we have been running up a tab at the local Speedways on our travels:) We have consumed every variation of slushie flavor imaginable and always making sure to cash in on those Speedy Rewards before we leave ! This has been "THE SUMMER OF THE SLUSHIE " !

Happy Birthday !

Happy birthday to my youngest & oldest ! Zane turned 13 on Monday and officially made me the mom of a teenager. Vania turned 4 today & I can't believe that it has been a little over 2 years since we first met her on our parent trip to Haiti. They are both growing too fast & making me feel OLD ! We love you guys :) XOXOXO

Mommy's Angels ?

Due to the oppressive heat this week we opted to stay home today in the nice cool air conditioning. As I was finishing dishes this morning I turned around to these to "bad guys " as Vania put it. Just moments before they were dressed as King & princess. Angels to demons in minutes. Why am I not surprised ?:)

Notice Vania's beads sticking out of her scary veil :)

Welcome ToThe Jungle

I have a little Guns N Roses playing in my head every time I head out to our little garden.The continuing sequence of hot humid summer days & then heavy rain has amounted to ginormous growth in the garden . Plus, I think we were a little over ambitious in our planting for such a small bed.

We've had cucumbers, strawberries, broccoli and cherry tomatoes pop up in the last few weeks. My favorite so far has been the lettuce & cucumbers ! Although the cucumber plant keeps trying to choke the other plants out & definitely needs something to crawl up on.

This fall I think we will build one, if not two more beds for next spring. I've really liked the raised bed. It is easy to plant, keep watered and very little weeds. We just need to work on space for each individual plant :)

And can you believe that we have not seen one praying mantis ?! We probably released at least 20 of them out there, if not more.

These made a nice salad with some of our lettuce.

A little crowded ! Our huge broccoli plant is in the middle.

Falling Behind

I've been meaning to sit down & catch up on things about a million times but somehow I always get distracted :) So I'm about a week behind but here goes.....

We had a pretty fun & busy 4th of July weekend. Saturday we went to Grandma Brenda's for a cook out. After we were all stuffed with good food Grandpa Glen had a fun time trying to light 6 sparklers at once so my sister in law & I could get pictures of the cousins together. It was a chaotic mess of scurrying and "directing " ( I think Julie has the video to prove it ) . The kids had a blast. Then we loaded the kids up to try to make it back to our side of town for fireworks. To our dismay , the spot we had intended to park at for the fireworks was closed off which left us no option but parking behind the Chinese restaurant next door to catch the remaining fireworks. Although we found it humorous, the kids were not happy. But no worries we ended up catching a full fireworks show later on in the weekend.

Sunday we started the day with church at a new location just a mile from our house. How awesome is that ? Maybe God is just helping out with getting us there on time. Actually the last location was a school. We had passed out flyers to the local community the weekend before & low & behold the city called the school & said effective immediately we were no longer able to meet there because the school was not zoned for religious gatherings. Coincidence ? I think not. But the Lord provides. The school district that was letting us use their building graciously opened up another building for us the following Sunday. It has been a smooth transition with a potential for lots of growth.
We ended the day with a trip to the YMCA . We had talked about joining for many years but hesitated because of finances & leaving all the friends we had made at the city pool over the years. But we took the leap and with summer finally FEELING like summer we have enjoyed many days cooling off at the pool and enjoying something new. What is also cool is that we have seen many people we know from around our community which makes the transition a little easier.
On Monday the 4th we started the day with " Messy Science Day " at COSI. And yes, it was messy. The kids enjoyed buckets of slime, huge bubble making, nitrogen bubble explosions, sidewalk chalk dinosaur drawings, rockets & flubber. The slime was the biggest hit & hard to get all 4 of them to stay out of long enough to rinse off & head to the car for the next destination.... Grandma Lonnie's.
So... off to Grandma Lonnie's next. Lots of good food , friends , family & fireworks. Who could ask for more ?


Oh ,& Family picture time. I'm not sure what was harder that weekend . Getting 6 kids with 6 sparklers to line up for a picture or getting everyone to smile for our family picture. Oh well, I'll take what I can get :)

And last but not least Adam celebrated his 37th birthday July 7th. Happy birthday to my wonderful husband & better half !!! We love you !

Summer Fun !

The Other White Meat

This week we went and visited the Slate Run Historical Farm. Originally it was supposed to be a picnic with our home school co -op but we arrived late and never did see any familiar faces. So, we decided to make the best of it and at least take a break from being in the HOT non-air conditioned van and stretch our legs.

First we visited the horses in the barns. After petting the friendly horses everyone is requesting a horse for their birthday :) DREAM ON !

Then we visited the pigs. The kids kept filling buckets of water up and flinging them into pig pen to cool the pigs off. Which was entertaining & STINKY for awhile. Then after Vania had literally threw 2 buckets with the water into the pig pens.The first I was able to recover by scaling the pig pen and reaching down to the pick it up hoping the big pig would keep his distance. After the second bucket landed in a pig pen we decided to move on.

The coolest animal we got to see was a bull calf who was only 5 days old. He was curled up in the back of the pen and as calm as could be. One of the workers flung open the gate and asked if the kids would like to go in a and pet him. Of course they jumped at the chance !" Don't get too attached "said the farmer. "Why ?" asked the kids. " Because, eventually he will be ground beef " he said. At this point i was glad we were not vegetarians. We had had this discussion before with the kids because we do have some vegetarians in the family so they didn't freak out at his comment. But I'm also not sure if it was really necessary to remind little kids of the fate of the cute little calf they were petting.

As we were leaving I noticed what appeared to be wool from a sheep hanging over the edge of a table. " Look, there's wool from the sheep we just saw earlier " I said to the kids. "NO, that's not wool " said the farmer. "That's the skin from the sheep we just ate the other night ." Again, really Farmer Joe !?

Anyway, I'm glad we got to do & see some new things even though the picnic didn't work out. Better luck next week :)