Recent Randoms

Summer is happening over here.  It's been a busy week...nothing major, just every day fun.  Here are some random photos from the past few days.

Our little maple tree, fondly known as "Maple Tree Lounge" by our kids, features two hillbilly rope swings this year.  These swings are, hands down, the most popular outdoor toys our girls have.   Bennett and Ainsley swing on them every chance they get.

It's been a tad rainy.  Dad helped the girls construct some boats to float down the gutter last weekend.  Here is Ainsley's milk jug boat.

Bennett had more of a Tom Sawyer raft.  She built a dam to try to stop the flow and increase water depth.

It worked pretty well! 

Thanks to the rain, we had some puzzle time.  Ainsley is a puzzle pro.  I highly recommend the 300-piece puzzle for families of young school-aged kids.  It's just challenging enough to be fun but not frustrating.  And if a couple of people work on it, you can have it done in an afternoon.

And this is a really random one.  We road tripped to the "big city" earlier this week, just for fun on Dad's day off.  We passed a local ice cream joint and saw this giant South Dakota tour bus.  Standing outside of it were the Mount Rushmore presidents.  All we could figure is they must tour to promote South Dakota tourism.  It was hilarious to see all the adults standing right in front of them, taking their picture as if they were actually at Mount Rushmore or something.  I was not quite so fanatic...I took this picture from our car window as we drove by.

Memorial Day Highlights and A Chicken Named America

Memorial Day weekend was a little bit rainy.  Just a little.  Oh well.  We still managed to have a wonderful holiday weekend.  A few highlights...We had ice cream on Friday and again on Saturday.  We built boats to float down the gutter of our street.  We played games and did puzzles.  We watched a movie.  We went to church, ate some BBQ, caught a great sale at Menards and saw baby kitties.  We went to our friend's house for a breakfast party, we saw some flood damage, we saw both sets of grandparents and a few cousins.  I know I am leaving something out...oh yeah...there was a bit of drama to be had.  

We spent a short time at some friends' house Memorial Day afternoon, letting our kids play while we looked at their new (to us) chickens.  The chickens are great.  One of the chickens is named America.  Great name for a chicken.  Anyway, while we were there, two neighbor dogs came visiting while the chickens happened to be out of the coop for the kids to see and play with.  Dogs and chickens are not a good combo.  Panic and dismay erupted from the children.  The dogs were chasing the chickens.  The children were screaming.  The chickens were running and clucking.  The parents were...I don't know what we were doing.  It all happened so fast.  I was standing there saying nothing but thinking "We are about to see chickens die before our very eyes."  One of the dogs was unstoppable.  And sure enough, he grabbed America, who seems to be the favorite chicken of the family, by the tail feathers.  Picture this...clucking chicken running while clutched in dog's mouth who is also running, being chased by a handful of screaming children and one dad.  Oh, the irony of a chicken named AMERICA being killed on Memorial Day in front of innocent eyes.  Dreadful.  Fortunately, our friend (the dad chasing the kids and the dog and the chicken) was able to catch the dog and release America just moments before what was sure to be her death.  It was quite the ordeal.  I am thankful for the positive outcome.  Had things gone differently, America would have died on Memorial Day, which is tragic and symbolic and ironic and horrific.  We hope your day was eventful and fun and lacking in the type of drama outlined above.

Let Summer Begin!

School is out!  Let summer begin!

Here is Ainsley with her terrific teacher!  At the end of the school day her teacher and several students were crying.  It has been a very bittersweet end of the year for this group.  Ainsley was blessed with probably the best class a kid could ask for this year...such sweet, caring, well-behaved, excited to learn kids and an outstanding educator.  We are so thankful!

Bennett also had her best year yet!  Here she is with her teacher...who was an absolute perfect match for her personality and an amazing instructor.  Bennett also had really great classmates this year!  Again, we are very grateful!

After school got out, we headed out for ice cream with friends to celebrate.  This is a crazy crew right here!  Over the past year we have been able to spend more and more time with these families and we love the relationship we are growing with them!  We hope to hang with them a lot this summer!

On our first official summer night, Ainsley suggested an impromptu fishing trip to a family farm pond.  What an outstanding idea!  The fish were biting!   I am typically pretty boastful about my fish catching skills.  Quite often I catch the first fish, the biggest fish and sometimes the only fish!  Once again...here I am with the first fish and the biggest fish, thank you very much! 

The first catch of the night.  Poor sucker went after a cheap fake worm.  In fact, we caught all of our fish with fake worms last night.   

Everyone in our family caught at least one fish, which has never happened before.   Here is Bennett with her prize.  After an hour of waiting and about 30 seconds after she muttered, "Man, I suck at fishing," she reeled this fella in!  Nice job, Bennett!

Ainsley also caught a beauty!  She enjoyed touching the fish quite a bit!

Ainsley also released her fish for the very first time!  She is braver than me!  

And again...touching a fish.  We caught this guy on his neck-type area instead of his mouth.  Weird.  Here's to many more fishing trips and lots of summer fun to come!