July Jumble

In early July, two friends from different areas of the country came to town in the same time period, so a bunch of us got together at another friend's house to visit while all of our kids played together.

Sheila, Tonya, Julie, Me, Karen, and Myle.

Also early in July, Dan's brother, Al, and some of his kids came over one evening to fish in our pond.  Al brought their kayak along and he took the kids out one at a time paddling around the pond. There are fish in our pond, in fact several different kinds. 

No one fell in!

Catherine with a fish she caught.

While the other kids were at Totus Tuus,  I took Anthony to the dentist for his first ever cleaning and checkup.  He did a great job, but unfortunately they found two little cavities.  They worked him in later in the week and boy, was he a little trooper.  He held still, opened his mouth when asked, and gave them no trouble whatsoever.  I couldn't believe how well he did!  He didn't even fuss when they put in the numbing medication!

Anthony at his first dentist visit.

 After the numbness in his mouth wore off, I took Anthony to Dairy Queen for lunch.  He deserved it!

We shared chicken strips and fries.

He got his own pop!

And an ice cream sundae!

 We started getting lots of eggs in July, of course the chickens were getting bigger.  At this point the kids loved to pick up the hens and carry them around. 

Dominic with unnamed hen.

Anne, with Goldy, aka Flipper.

Now you can see why the kids say we have so many pets!

At the end of July, we happened to go to the library when the firefighters were there with their firetruck.  The fireman below let the kids climb up into the firetruck, then he took them all around the sides and the back to show them where they store everything.  They enjoyed their tour very much.

Checking out the hoses.

Where the ladder is stored.

The Jaws of Life.  He let the kids try to pick it up.  They couldn't.

A Wedding In July

One of my dear friends got married in July in Wichita, so we all attended on a late Friday afternoon.  It was a lovely wedding at the Cathedral.  Afterward, we waited for the newly married couple outside the front of the church.

Get those bubbles going!

My Joseph.

Here they come!

The wedding reception was held at Eberly Farm, on the west side of Wichita.  What a fun place for a reception!  They have a great outdoor multi-level terrace, a trail going around a pond through lots of tall trees, with animals to see and pet, and some fun play areas.  This was the end of July, but we were in weird weather mode in Kansas, so it was actually cool enough to be outside.

The kids sat down long enough to eat some great food with their friends.  And drink pop!

Look at this cool slide.  Up at the top was a really long tube slide built into the hill.

Boys immediately just had to climb the big rocks. 

Look at me, Mom!

My lovely friend, Michelle, and her new husband, Philip.

A tower of cupcakes!

The kids sure had a fun time at the reception.  (Can't say as much for their clothes!)  As for us, it was nice to catch up with old friends. 

July Garden Was Loaded

Towards the end of July, I was picking buckets and buckets of cucumbers, so what else was there to do but make pickles?

Bread and Butter Pickles

Dill Pickle Spears

Dill Pickle Relish

Then the corn started coming.

The kids mostly liked to shuck the corn.

Especially Anthony.  He really liked finding worms and tried to collect them.

Into the pot of boiling water they go.

Oh, yum!

A portion of the many ears of corn that got blanched in preparation for the freezer.

Next part was cutting corn off the ears.

Quart bags ready for the freezer.   This was a little more than half of what we ended up putting in the freezer.

Anthony by the garden in late July.

View of the rest of it.  We were getting plenty of rain at this point, but not yet flooding.

Speaking of loads of cucumbers, guess what this bread is?  Yep, cucumber bread!  That was a new one for me.  The difference with making it is that you have to let the peeled, seeded, and shredded cucumber drain for at least 30 minutes before you mix it in with the rest of the ingredients.  It was tasty!  I froze some of the shredded and drained cucumber as an experiment, so I'll have to see how that works later.

When you have tons of cukes, you'll try about anything to use them up!

Our first watermelon was very large and heavy - about 28 pounds!

Totus Tuus

Catherine, Dominic, Anne, and Joseph were all able to go to the Totus Tuus day camp for a week in the middle of July at our church.  The three big kids loved it.  Joseph was in the youngest class and it was all new to him, with long days, so he did not enjoy it as much.  He also had a bit of trouble with another kid picking on him, which I did not find out about until the last day, so that made him reluctant as well.  However, I was able to get that resolved and he really enjoyed the last afternoon - the famous water fight time!

Anthony and I pulled up to see all of the kids engaged in a giant water fight.

Catherine was aiming at me.  She knew better than to actually shoot me with water, though!

Then the fire truck let loose with the giant hose.

Everyone got soaked.  Anne is in the middle of the picture.

There's Joseph, loving the spray.

How could you not get excited by that?

Joseph happily showed off his water gun.

He let Anthony squirt him.

Joseph will definitely remember the water fight!

Even Anne got soaking wet.

The fire truck hose made a big puddle, guess who was out in the middle of it?  Yep, Catherine and Dominic.

Look at those grins.  They had a great time!

Anne and her cousin, Olivia enjoyed popsicles after the water fun.

Boys and Pictures

This is from when I attempted to take a nice picture of all of the kids on the Fourth of July.  What is it with boys and taking pictures?  Notice the girls are smiling nicely in all of the pictures.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.