Canoeing Adventure

Finally we did it. After waiting through a summer of lots of rain followed by lots of heat, beautiful weather has arrived, and so did Uncle B. and Aunt J. for the weekend. We finally got the canoe out on the river! This was the girls' first time in the canoe on water with a current. Ainsley was pumped. Bennett was terrified. The trip went perfectly though, and we cannot wait to get out there again SOON! Kudos to Chappy for working so hard on the logistics end of this excursion. It was such a great time!

Little Laughs

Children are so entertaining. The girls always have us chuckling, and here are a few photos that make me smile. The beloved "Big Blankie" still goes nearly everywhere with Ainsley. I looked into the back seat on the way to church and saw this. Big Blankie is not only a comfort item. It is also a light blocker when you want to see the screen of your Littlest Pet Shop gaming device just a little bit better.

I walked into Ainsley's room this morning and saw this fun scene on her bed. Yellow Baby a.k.a. Rose riding a unicorn. She's a bit hunched over. Maybe her comfort pillow roll is bad for her posture.

When I strolled into Bennett's room I found a little wooden posable figure, dressed in homemade clothes made of flannel scraps and pantyhose pieces. Nice. She also has a tiny baby wearing a crocheted dress in her little basket on her arm. What a sweet little mother and daughter. And the Holy Bible is at their feet. Wise woman.

Bennett has a little faceless sock doll with a rope bracelet sewn to her head for braids. She plays with this doll ALL the time, and today I found "Dolly" lounging in a hammock under a blanket made of a fabric scrap. So relaxing!

The Pros and Cons of Luxury Living

We are house sitting for my parents this week. And while they only live a couple of miles from our house out in the country, we feel like we are on vacation. Every year we jump at the chance to house sit because to us, dwelling at their house is luxury living. The high life has its pros and cons though, and they are as follows. A considerable amount of payment is a big pro. With a long paved lane, an and large cement driveway pad, the girls love the vast space for bike riding and scootering without the fear of traffic. I love not being paranoid about them riding around as well!

A con of luxury living is the fact that it takes place in the country, thus there are gravel roads, thus it is dusty. Our vehicles are filthy. People could write messages to us all over them.

A pro/con to luxury living is the care taking of the beloved (sort of) and elderly german shepherd. The girls and I value her companionship. She is a very nice dog. Grant has learned to tolerate her without complaining or spewing nasty remarks. I rather enjoy her presence....aside from the masses of hair. This friendly beast is shedding like crazy, and I couul do without that. I don't know how my mom can stand it. At least she's outside or in the laundry room all the time.

Something we love about LL (luxury living) is riding the Gator around the yard! I wonder how many miles are on this thing...an alarming number, I'm sure!

A large perk to LL is the swimming pool! It's not a gigantic pool, but it's bigger than our baby pool at home, and the girls love it. Grandpa and Grandma are tossing around the idea of getting a really big pool next year. To that idea, I say "yes, please" and go ahead and book our reservations to house sit again. We want to try some synchronized swimming the next time we stay.

A retro pro of LL is moped riding. The Honda Passports are the sweetest rides of all time. This is an adult sport only. So far it's been too blazing hot to ride, but some night this week we'll be buzzing around on the masses of pavement and the masses of lawn.

The mammoth television with Dish Network is a huge pro, since all we have at home is an old 29" tv with no network/cable service and no antenna. HGTV is so much better than gray fuzz, you know?

The most horrible and gigantic con of LL is PICKING MY MOM'S BEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. I hate this task as much now as I did as a kid, and while I am trying to be thankful for God's gift of healthy provision, there is nothing that can make bean picking a good thing. The only worse task I can think of...well there are two...cleaning up puke or detassling corn. Those two things might be a touch worse.

Uncle Chuck is letting us use his Wii for a few days. This is a really fun pro, as we have no gaming systems at home. The only con will be listening to Bennett complain about how horribly her arm muscles hurt from too much sword fighting.

And a final pro/con is the plethera of tasty foods that my mom has that we do not. She loads up her candy jar before we house sit, and there are a variety of other unhealthy food options. This is a con because we do not need to eat these things. But we do get to enjoy fresh beans (did I mention that picking them is terrible?), tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini and such from the garden. Hopefully those veggies zero out the Milky Way Minis and the Raisinettes. I'm sure they must.

A Couple of Friday Randoms

Here are a couple of randoms from the past 24 hours. Exciting news! Bennett has acquired another 12-week, rubber fetus! Thank you, Pro-Life booth at the fair. You know what two rubber fetuses means? That's right! Double the creepiness to be seen at our house. I'm sure "the twins" will soon be photographed in some type of bizarre scene.

Oh, little Ainsley. She has a summer cold, which means a summer afternoon nap is much needed today. I went up to check on her during nap, assuming she was sleeping in her bed. Nope. She had apparently decided that it would be best if she slept on my bed and boxed herself in with pillows, a tissue box and a laundry basket for her afternoon rest. Whatever works, girl!

No Ribbons For You! Mom Is Majorly in the Doghouse!

The wee ones have been working so very long and so very hard on art projects for our county fair, we began yesterday. They had hopes and dreams of entering them into the junior arts exhibit, getting ribbons and seeing their art on public display. I, too, was eagerly anticipating this beloved event. Then it all came crashing down when I sickly realized I made a reading error in the fairbook. I thought the book stated that we were to enter items at 1:00 on Tuesday the 19th of July. The actual show BEGINS today, Tuesday the 19th of July at 1:00. Items were to be entered last night or earlier this morning. We sadly missed the boat, and I AM REALLY UPSET WITH MYSELF RIGHT NOW! Poor Ainsley was crying. Bennett and Cousin M. are disappointed by holding themselves together. They have all said they forgive me, but I am sad for them. Here is the art they made. At least it can get some public display on this blog. Sorry, girlies. No ribbons for you. Ainsley's water color painting. It would have been in class P.S. # 10B, just so you know!

Ainsley's tissue art...

Ainsley's colored pencil drawing.

Ainsley's jewelry. Man, this just makes me sick, missing this art show! Ugh!

Ainsley's scrap paper cutting...

Ainsley's magic marker drawing...

And on to Bennett. Here is her crayon/pencil drawing. Category B #3c is just not the same without this piece!

Bennett's marker drawing...

Bennett's last-minute, whipped together bookmark...

And her prized piece, the recycled item, category B#35d or maybe B#39, the cardboard and duct tape Dell laptop, complete with CD-ROM drive and mouse. Oh, girls, you did a fine job. If I could award you virtual ribbons I would. If I could enter your things in the neighboring county fair, which is next week, I would! We aren't residents of that county though, so it's a no go. Sometimes a mother just drops the ball, and for this dropped ball, I am terribly sad and sorry. Only 364 days until next summer's exhibit! Bummer.

Hanging With Uncle B and Aunt J

Here are some photos from our visit to Uncle B and Aunt J's house! Uncle B is famous for his award-winning breakfasts. Here is Ainsley with her fancy shmancy pancake and some tasty bacon! We also got to enjoy some outstanding, homemade breakfast burritos!

We all wanted to ride together in one vehicle over the weekend visit, and Nebraska law helped us out with this. Apparently, if you are over 18 you can legally ride in the very back cargo compartment of small SUV's. SWEET! Aunt J and I took turns riding back there. Fun times!

On Saturday morning we hit the downtown farmer's market. The girls stopped to pose with a cool piece of art. After I took the picture we noticed a sign that said no one should climb on the art and that the area was monitored by video surveillance. Bennett, the rule follower, was officially in a bit of a panic. Good news! We've been back from our visit for a couple of weeks now, and she has not received any tickets or notice of her arrest...yet.

We listened to some great music while at the farmer's market. The thing that impressed us most about this little band was the drummer. You'll notice he is visiting with a man in a black t-shirt while he plays the percussion on this song. He was jabbering away to that guy the entire time the group was performing. It was amazing! Quite the multitasker!

We saw many cool things while we visited. Among them, Aunt J's delightful garden gnomes. She has many, and these three were some of our favorites.

Uncle B and Aunt J have a super cool outdoor barbecue area. Here are the girls helping Uncle B light the fire for our outdoor grilling experience.

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. The girls looking concerned as Uncle B tries to justify the size of his charcoal fire to them. So funny!

It's a long story, but we just HAD to try some Funyuns while we were visiting. The verdict...slightly good but mostly gross!

Another cool thing we saw during our visit...Uncle B and Aunt J's compost pile! Bennett was especially impressed.

We got to enjoy some smores when be barbecued. Here's Bennett with hers. How appropriate that she was wearing her Abe Lincoln camping t-shirt, "Four Smores and Seven Wienies Ago."

While on the getaway, we also made a stop at the Henry Doorly Zoo. We went on a Sunday morning just after a rain and amazingly WE WERE LIKE THE ONLY PEOPLE THERE! Seriously. There was us and about seven others there for the first couple of hours. It was WONDERFUL.

We dined out and also went for gelato at eCreamery. Delish!

Finally, among the many things we enjoyed seeing over the holiday weekend visit, were the inflatables. Apparently there is some unwritten rule that having a huge inflatable will help you sell more fireworks in Nebraska. We saw several of them. Here is a gorilla...

....and a dinosaur...

...and a very patriotic bald eagle. Totally awesome! We had a super fun time visiting a super fun aunt and uncle!

World Fashion Sketching

Tonight I sat down with Bennett to do some artistry. She was drawing a picture for a contest at the library: Draw yourself wearing clothing from another part of the world. Here she is in her Mongolian garb. I, personally, am a big fan of the sword!
Aaaaannnnnd, here you have my drawing of myself wearing clothing from Finland. Hideous? Yes. Before I was a mom, I often imagined what it would be like to parent. I would read. I would hug. I would pretend play with my sweet children. Attempting to draw myself wearing clothing from Finland wasn't on the list. Ah, but sometimes the surpise tasks of parenting are the best for a laugh! Bennett has not asked me to draw anymore....I will take the hint!

Where Does He Come Up With This Stuff???

One thing I love about Dad is that he says crazy things. This morning was a perfect example, as he played a little game with the girls at breakfast. I have no clue what connection took place in his brain that would link blocking children with the USSR, but whatever. It was fun to watch!

Omahilarious Video

We took a trip to visit Uncle B. and Aunt J. in Omaha for the Fourth Of July weekend. I have tons of great photos for a highlight post, but in the meantime, I give you one of many fun videos we took over the weekend. Uncle B and Aunt J. have a sweet outdoor barbecue area and they made us some delicious dinner on it. This video is of Uncle B. attempting to chop some firewood for dinner...with what seems to be a very dull ax. We thoroughly enjoyed the episode ourselves. It was HILARIOUS! I would even call it Omahilarious, given our location. Never a dull moment with the fantastic Uncle B!

Near-Death Experience

Oopsy. Scroll to the bottom and read this post from the bottom up. This is a poor quality photo, but I wanted to show you the insanity of the fireworks. All of the light you see is the intense fireworks glow. Notice how Uncle B. and Dad are shielding their eyes. And I don't know if Aunt J. was laughing or crying...maybe both!

Here is Dad with a piece of the fireworks fallout that we kept. All during the fireworks display debris was falling on us...ash and chunks of fireworks casing, some still on fire. It was slightly alarming. Dad's face says it all.

We are visiting Uncle B. and Aunt J. for this Independence Day weekend, and we are in the midst of a GREAT time! We kicked the weekend off with fireworks at a park with live music and about 50,000 other people. It was crazy. Uncle B. told us the fireworks would be intense. That is an understatement. Let's just say that we were sitting so close and the fireworks were so face-melting, that I would say that we basically had a near-death experience!