He Snagged My Camera. Again.

Transferring the photos from the camera to the computer, this is what I found.

A mini self-portrait photo session.

He cracks me up.

Old Dog, New Trick.

Tonight I froze green beans. I've canned beans for years but I really prefer them frozen when we cannot have them fresh. So when my Office Manager gave me a "mess" of green beans, I thought I would give it a try. Lisa over at "Happy Little Family" has a great tutorial if you want to give it a whirl - It's easy!


I picked up a basil plant today in the hopes that the store would also have fresh mozzarella to go with my newly-ripe tomatoes, but no such luck. Anyone got a good pesto recipe??

Bea came out of the bathroom tonight with...well, these.

Wrigley Field

Saturday found me in Chicago, with one of my favorite people at Wrigley Field for a Cubs game!

The seats were fantastic,

The company fabulous,


The weather perfect,

and the Cubs won!

GO CUBS GO!

Milestones...

Ten (yes, TEN) years ago, I was 30 hours into a true "Labor of Love".

It was worth it.

Happy Birthday Elle!

He's Getting Ready!

He thinks about it...

Leans in to it...

And then realizes he doesn't know what to do!

I'm sure he'll figure it out...sooner rather than later!

Fair Week

It's late, and I'm tired, but wanted to share our busy week...


Getting the feeder beef ready.



Showing her feeder beef. The calf did not place well, but she did a Fabulous job, and we are very proud of her! She also showed him in the "Showmanship Class", Rookie division, and won! She did not want to be in showmanship, but Ryan and I signed her up. It's an educational program girl. You need to learn something!


Her dairy calf. First place!

Helping her friend show Pygmy goats...too cute!

Showing her nanny goat. She did not place well, but it was a good experience, and she learned so much. We now know what animal projects she really enjoyed...thank goodness those goats were not one of them!

Foods, 6 cookies placed on a paper plate...

Arts & Crafts, her first basket. She's good, but I don't think she liked it as much as I do.

Her sewing project, the bag at the top. A big THANK YOU to Nana for helping with that one. If I didn't think sewing was so important, we'd drop it in a heartbeat. The 3 million times I had to take out the same seam was painful.

Rides. Oh my. They rode one night, from five to 10 pm. Bea loved this little gator roller coaster. She even put her hands up!

They were sitting on opposite sides of the car, until I cam up to snap a photo and Will slid over. She is upset. She wanted to ride the "octopus". But Will did not want to go with her. Made him sick!

Cleaning out the bedding from her calf.

Going to the car...phew!

Summer Fun!

My two albino babies cooling off in the HOT summer shade!

After burning them both, I am very liberal with the sunscreen.... they had so much on this day, they were water repellent!

6am sucks.

Wow.

Our life is so busy this week...and and last week.

Yesterday was the "Official" fair day kick off. Last week we had pre-fair judging on Tuesday and Wednesday. We were running around getting the 4-H projects finished, to judging, and because my office is in charge of the 4-H portion of the fair, I was involved in getting everyone else's projects finished and to judging!

Today Elle is showing her feeder calf, and dairy calf. 8 am and 7 pm. Ryan was up and gone by 5:30~ I'm sure we'll learn a lot this week, but man, I cannot wait until it is over!

Other crazy stuff happening:

William came home!
Quick trip to Shipshewana to spend time with my sister in law & mom
Friends over for homemade ice cream
Finished a little sewing project
Ryan started the back fill around the house
Picked a million green beans


Does it seem like life is so much busier than when you were a kid? I don't remember my Mom being this busy....

It's Friday...Got Plans?

Last week our family enjoyed the pizza over at the Hawkins Family Farm . Jeff, Kathy, Zach & Sarah treated us to an "invitation only" (sounds exclusive doesn't it?) dinner of their pizza, some fresh vegetables from the garden, and a delicious array of desserts, (the lemon cake was Divine) and beverages that compliment pizza the best, beer.

Several of the guest took turns putting the pizza together...

fresh basil, mozzarella and parmesan...

Jeff loaded the pizzas into the outdoor brick oven with his assistant.

Make you feel like you are in Italy?

Pretty sure the small group of 30 shared 25 pizzas.

They even have entertainment for the kids. pun intended.

Check out their website, and give it a whirl. It's Fabulous!

we missed you Kira!

A Man and his Machine

The wheat is (finally) ready.

Ryan loves driving his combine...

The kids love riding in the combine...

And they all love having pictures...


...in the combine.

House Update 2

This week, the masonry guys set up the forms,



Poured the walls, dug the sunk pump hole and whatever else they needed to do to the basement floor...



And on Friday, someone ( yes, someone. The glory of having the contractor take care of the boring stuff!) came and sprayed the sealer on the basement. They did a great job. So great, that the over-spray that landed on Jack and I is still on us. And we've showered. Multiple times.

It's coming along!

If it looks like it sticks out of the ground a fair bit, it does. It seems we have a high water table on the construction site. And seeing how I did not like water in my old basement, we decided to stay above the water in this house. We then decided to have 8 foot basement walls instead of 9, and the contractor assures me that it will look fine in the end...

I'm Not a Teacher

This morning I am surveying the damage. Of Elle's 4-H projects.

What have I learned through this process??

If you hate to rip out your own sewing, be sure you'll hate to rip out someone else more.

And teaching a know-it-all makes for a lot taking out and taking out and taking out. I think there is blood on that basket.

I am sooo sorry mom.

She's A Ham

We found a little Red Raspberry patch at the "Summer House". Saturday the girls picked like 10, and today Bea and I picked about a cup. As I was planning what to do with them, this little snipe is scarfing them down. There are exactly 6 left.


When I asked her to smile for the picture, she said: "NO". "I want to do this".

Ok, then. Little hula girl.