Baseball pictures

Funky Dresser

There's a new store in town, The Painted Porch, that upcycles furniture and other knick knacks. That's where I found this gem. I love it! Mom, can't wait to take you there!

Bunny Hole

Travis investigated some loose grass in our backyard yesterday. A mother bunny must have dug a hole and made a nest for her 5 or more baby bunnies. They are quite cute and helpless, hairless, blind and squirming on top of each other. We will continue to check on them but the kids now want a pet bunny. Hopefully, this home won't be too tramatic for them.

Madison day trip with Jarmans

My friend, Annette, lost one of the keys to her Volvo wagon and was nervous having just one. In order to get another, she had to go to the closest Volvo dealership, in Madison, to have one made. So, we made a day trip of it on Friday and took the kids to the Henry Vilas Zoo. I think all would say it was worth the drive.

Flowers, flowers, everywhere

Two bouquets of lilies from daycare families combined in a beautiful pottery vase from Jacqui for my birthday! Vase by generous earth pottery-a new store downtown I think will be wonderful and dangerous to check out!


Flowers collected while canoeing last Saturday.


Beautiful hydrangeas Wendi brought over.


Kya usually leaves at least one or two flowers in the bathroom to "make it smell better after someone poops." (Although, I think we'd need a lot more but that is beside the point.)


Flowers have never been a source of such love and joy but I feel nostalgic when Kya or Adeline gives me a flower and I bring it in the house, how someday I'll wish for all of these flowers (or weeds) to be given with such excitement and sincerety-little reminders scattered all over the house of little precious lives and so much love.

The guest bed

A lovely summer day

Kayaking on the Black River with the Smiths


Grandma, Kya, Therin and Grandpa




Playing on the sandbar


Therin and Grandpa


Always with flowers in hand


Group shot by Therin


Lovin' the wind in her hair


And the night culminated with a neighborhood cookout/potluck and a very late bedtime (= naps tomorrow)!
Standing: Kya, Charlotte, Kyra
Jack holding Hank, Therin and Louie


We are blessed in so many ways!

Face painting at home

Not as good as Tappy's but not bad either. Therin filled in Kya's butterfly which I think looks better than the one I did for Adeline. A family hobby?

Rewards for hard work

In the last 24 hours, we've.....
Travis and the neighbor, Chuck, hauled the last of the piano out of the house
Set up the guest bed in the study
Hauled the piano to the dump
Cut down a tree
Thinned the lilacs
Hauled a load of branches to the city compost
The Yoders came and replaced and wrapped all of the windows on the front porch
and so tonight we celebrated a hard days work by going to Rudy's, an old fashioned drive in restaurant, and there happened to be free face painting. More days like these please.




Therin, Colin Miller, Kya and Kate


Charlotte and Kya


Face painting by Tappy's Face Painting 608-781-5339

Turning 30

So many friends said how great all my other friends are! I was so proud and happy! I'm ready to turn 30 again! Put it on the calendar for next year ladies!

At Mannys

Left side: Monica, Alisha, Celine, Chelle, Liz
Right side: Erin, Wendi, Jen, Annette, Polly, Natalie
Missing: Becky (behind the camera-shockingly your pics were WAY better than mine!) Thank you!!

Nat, Polly, Annette and I


Standing: Alisha, myself and Becky
Sitting: Wendi and Erin


Celine, Chelle, Liz and I


Liz and I


Wendi and the white chocolate macadamia nut cake with strawberry filling that she made me. Delicious! How could it not be with 7 sticks of butter?


Celine and I


Alisha and I


Mo and I


Thank you all for coming!

Fun Family Photos

Apples for Jam Honey Cake

I was SO psyched to try this recipe when I FINALLY got the cookbook (SouleMama has featured it at least once)! And I had the perfect occasions to make it for: my birthday and Kya's last day of summer school class on authors. Tomorrow I signed up for the snack and the featured book/author for the day will be Herald and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson-fitting for a honey cake decorated with purple violets and sprinkles. Yum!

Craisin and white chocolate biscotti

If I pack on a few pounds in the coming months, this biscotti will be to blame. Maybe it was better that I didn't have the recipe before because it is so flippin' good!

Outdoor "church" with Dad

A little messier than Moms....(And I guess you could say Kya was "baptized" and almost drowned in a river as well.)

Bad Manners Dinner

So, tonight at dinner as I was telling Therin not to talk with his mouth open (as he was stuffing more food into an already full mouth) and then moved on to make farting noises with his armpit, I thought maybe we should have a "bad manners" dinner every once in a while where the kids can get it out of their system. Only, I said this thought out loud and the kids thought it was a good idea, A REALLY GOOD IDEA. They thought we should start immediately and started to conjure up ideas for this future dinner where they could drink beverages with straws from their nose, eat cabbage (so they can fart more), eat cherries so they can squash and throw them, etc. etc. so, we'll see but I don't think pictures would do a dinner like this justice, maybe we'll have to get some video for that one. Until then, here's to better manners while eating. Cheers!

First days of June

So, I got out the Ahava mud that my sister Julie brought back from Israel on Monday while the kids were running through the sprinkler. Well, that plan backfired. I was helping rub it on the girls and then Adeline started gagging (I couldn't smell anything) so I was quickly working to get it off just as soon as we'd gotten it on. I still have a lot left, maybe I'll have better luck with boys!



Always lots of pretending here...in this pic, Kya and Adeline (also known as Liana and Alexa), were obviously captured and even taped their mouths shut. Now, if I did this when they weren't getting along, what sort of trouble would I be in?



Sent upstairs after school for being ridiculous (obviously still tired from a busy weekend) and this is how I found him:



We've been walking the neighbor's dog, Lily. Kathy recently had surgery on her foot.