Reunion with the Whites

Vintage Earrings

Kya has expressed interest in getting her ears pierced for her birthday but she is loving these vintage clip ons the neighbor gave us in the meantime.

Victory!

Finally, someone around here who can beat Travis at something!

Snapshots

Kya's Cooking Club

I hosted Cooking Club on Thursday last week and signed Kya up for a cooking class at the Coop on Saturday, "Flower Fairy Festival." So now she thinks she's in a cooking club too. She asked me, "Will cooking club always meet here?" We made Magical Fruit Wands, Pixie Pinwheels, Fairy Garden Cottages, and Fairy Fluff and Pixie Dust Cake. Kya was interviewed by one of the La Crosse Tribune reporters so maybe we'll see her in the paper next week.



Where did she learn to pose like this? She's wore the wings to church this morning-shocker!!

Alive and Loved

So I packed a picnic of cherries, pesto potatos and green beans, bread, almonds, a Cliff bar and water and biked to Farmer's Market with the kids tonight. I knew Patchouli was playing at market but I really fell in love with this song as my daughter and some other girls were spinning and tumbling around while they played. Then I looked to my right while in the corner of the park my son and about 5 of his friends and couple young boys I don't know had organized a game of soccer. (Thankfully, I threw in the ball at the last minute.) We were all alive and loved and loving and living life. Travis is busy trying to keep people alive. "Alive and Loved." What a great title for a song! WAY better live but here is what the song sounds like:



SouleMama recently featured homemade laundry soap on her blog and then another friend in the Cities had made it too but she had a hard time finding washing soda. Thankfully, we have an awesome Coop that stocks such things, so tonight after the kiddos were in bed, I made some laundry soap. If I like it, you might be getting a jar of your own for Christmas instead of baked goods! =)

Recipe here:
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2010/05/on-the-laundry-line.html



First green bean harvest=very successful! Bring on the green bean recipes!

4th of July

Therin spent a long time working on this chalking: 4th fo Jule.



A nap before the fireworks.





Gavin, Kya, Therin and Nolan





Grandpa Doc and Granny



LeAnne, Tom, Travis and I



Some serious 4th of July spirit from Uncle Don, Tom and Travis.




Despite my warnings to my mother about how much Therin does not enjoy performing for a crowd, he enthusiastically agreed to be the Hodag for the pontoon parade. My mother got quite a chuckle about how statuesque her grandson was and how accurate I was in my prediction. She was hoping he'd growl and such but did not make so much as a peep.

Just another summer day

The bunnies: every day I look forward to checking on them and seeing how much they've grown. And they've done a lot of growing and changing in the 5 days they've been alive! I am sad that we're going to be gone this weekend and hoping that they're not big enough to hop away until Monday. How boring the yard will seem for a while once they've left.



Today we released the paint turtle we took from the marsh last Friday. It had been living in our swimming pool (I'm not looking forward to cleaning that out.) I think he was very happy to return to a much bigger pond. He tried very hard to escape on the ride back to the marsh. The kids and I walked through the marsh after letting him go and saw all sorts of "wild nature" as Kya says; flowers (she shockingly listed first when telling Dad), herons, eagles, ducks, etc. And after wondering through the marsh, we headed to my friend, Wendi's, where the kids swam in her pool and shot rocket water guns for the rest of the afternoon. Dad made it home at 5 (whoa!) and the kids played soccer with him while I got dinner ready (This has been a very popular activity since the World Cup has been on.) Dad is reading a chapter of Ginger Pye to the kids now while they drift off to sleep (Yes, asleep before 7.) and I'm sure he will return to finishing the twine ball lights he's making for the front porch (pictures to post later). Resting up for a fun, active weekend!