The Rest of August

*Edited to add a couple of pictures I found on Dan's phone from the Marble Moon Company!

Anthony kept waiting for Dominic and Joseph to come out, until he fell asleep.

One picking of melons!

Used the electric roaster to make stuffed peppers on the deck.

Look up high in the tree!

One afternoon during the second week of school, we got to go to a friend's pool.

The diving board was a hit.

Anthony had to strike his pose.

A plate of clouds one evening.

The same night.

At grandparents' house the last weekend in August.

The twins got some birthday gifts; hooray!

We finally made it to the Moon Marble Company, in nearby Bonner Springs.  As we got out of the car, the train came!

Heading inside.

We watched a craftsman hand -blow a glass marble, which was fascinating. The store was filled with not only marble and glass items, but also a ton of old-fashioned toys.

    Outside, you could draw on the walls. 

Dominic played with a toy from my childhood.

Family!

Dan and the boys walking back up from the pond.

Cousins!

The traditional Sunday late afternoon popcorn-making.

Miscellaneous May

One day, while Catherine and I were walking laps on our property, we found this little guy making his way down to the pond:

A tiny turtle!

After admiring it, Catherine carried it to the pond, where it quickly slid into the water.

After the end of studying The King of the Golden City, Catherine made this lovely cake:

She decorated it herself.

Luscious strawberries began to appear:

Their new location near the house helped greatly.

Oh, that looks yummy!

At the end of a semester of art class, we celebrated with doughnuts:

They were enjoying this immensely.

Anne and Catherine showed off their final art project.

We saw some cool storm clouds while driving one day:

We stopped on the side of the country road to take the picture.

All of the kids got to do Lego Club:

Anthony, Catherine, Joseph, and Dominic showed off their creations.

Anne

This was Anthony's first time participating and he was so proud to put his creation in the display case at the library!

We met friends at the playground one day:

It was a game of chase!

Full-speed ahead.

Dominic took a break with a friend.

We go to the playground and what do the boys do?  Climb trees!

Girl hug!

We had two little cousins over for a couple days:

They checked out the chickens.

They climbed the hay bales.

They went for a ride in the big, yellow wagon.

Courtesy of Anne and Anthony.

Balthaser and Anthony had a sword fight.

They did each other in.

One day, we used another set of Braum's Book Buddies rewards:

Ice cream is good, very, very good.

A Weird Summer, Weather-Wise

The second half of July and the first half of August were very rainy this year, which is very unusual, as normally that time of year is hot and dry, and all the vegetation turns brown.  At one point we had 5 inches of rain in 2 days!  The following pictures were taken on August 4th.  Everything looks so green!

On the plus side, we didn't have to water the garden.

On the minus side, most plants do not like to sit in water for very long.

As you can see, one side of our garden was more affected than the other.

To the kids, it was a puddle playground.

Especially Anthony.

Whee!

Splash!

It quickly turned...

...into a...

...biggest splash contest.

Dominic just might be the winner.

One of the problems during early August was that it was raining almost every day, so the garden did not have time to dry out in between.  Finally, I bit the bullet and went into the garden to get produce, mud or no mud.  These pics were from Aug. 8th.

Did I mention there was still standing water in the garden?

I was up to my ankles in watery mud.  I quickly ditched the boots and went barefoot, because I  just couldn't move in the boots without getting stuck.

Anthony thought it was great fun to "help" Mommy pick the garden in all the mud.