Chatter Boxes

John's employer provides a family fun day every year to our local amusement park.

This was the first year that Colin could ride the "big rides" with a parent.  He experienced a large range of emotions while riding the spinning dragon.  Excitement, joy, fear, glee, terror, and finally relief it was over.  After we got off he said,"mommy, I think that's a ride I'll do again when I'm much older.  Fair enough.

So off to the kiddie park we went.

Mommy And Colin on the carousel.   I love the ride.  I know it makes me sound like an old lady.  Don't care.

Sister Selfie

Indulging mommy on her favorite ride.

Four turns done four ways...All with flair!

We celebrated Colin's preschool graduation this past week.  He beamed from ear to ear the entire day.  He's thrilled to be a Kindergartener.

I wept for most of the ceremony.  I couldn't stop it.  Seeing your son in a graduation cap, (even one made out of construction paper) march down the center aisle while pomp and circumstances plays...I dare you to hold the tears back!

Plus...John wasn't sure he would be able to make it.  Work is busy and the ceremony was in the middle of the afternoon.  I was sad about it but tried to be supportive.  As I walked into the school alone I saw huge families walking in together.  Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents holding flowers and balloons, and presents.  "It's just a preschool graduation," I thought to myself.  I sulked a little and found a single seat near the front. Colin marched in, found me in the crowd, waved and pointed me out to the friends standing nearby.  The ceremony began with a song about fish.  Colin sang loud and did all the motions then stopped and pointed to the back of the room.

I turned to see what he was pointing at.  DADDY!!!  John made his way to a single seat behind me.  And I grabbed his hand tight so grateful he made it.  I told him I was so glad he was there and then wept harder.  I'm sure the people around us were thinking, "Geez lady,  it's just a preschool graduation!"

We are so thankful for our school district.  Both boys have thrived under their direction and love, love, love going to school.  I couldn't ask for more.

Congratulations Colin! You were an awesome preschooler and you'll make an even more awesome Kindergartner.

We love you and are so proud of all you are learning.

Colin's teacher - Miss Sarah

Colin is playing T-ball this summer.  Much to his Grandpa's dismay (who's a loyal Royals fan) Colin is playing for the Yankees.

Up to bat...trying for the pitch

Set and ready at short-stop

I'm sitting in a small office in a small town in Kansas, waiting for some lovely Amish girls to finish processing our chickens.

We started with 14 Cornish chicks and ended up with 10 chickens for the freezer.  A few succumbed to illness and one lost a battle with a local wild hawk (but he was tasty in our enchiladas).

We've been working on improvements to our coop over the last few weeks so our chicken adventure can continue with minimal harm to the chickens that remain.

Learning to Roost

That's better!

The egg layers are still in a crate but they've moved out to the barn instead of living in our dining room.

These will grow much slower but in a few months we'll have lots of yummy eggs.

Colin and I enjoyed an afternoon at the Movies a couple weeks ago.

While Seth was at a friend's birthday party, we went to see Bears.  We loved it (there are a couple fight scenes that may be a bit much for some little ones).

Colin looked forward to it for days and knew he wanted to bring his bears along.

He buckled them in for the drive.  Safety first!