First Day of School

Ethan and Amelia started school last week!

Ethan began 2nd grade and really wasn't looking forward to going back. I asked him what he would do with all his time if he didn't go to school. His response "Work with Dad." Which was know surprise. :) I know that once harvest starts he will REALLY complain about being in school instead of the combine.

Amelia started preschool on Thursday and was super excited to begin! She loves that her cousin Johnathon is in her class! For the first day parents went with their child to learn how the kids' day would go. I enjoyed watching her explore the classroom with Johnathon. From what I saw they will have a great time this year!

End of Summer Events

The State Fair and Dekalb Supper are the two events that mark an end to our summer. Mark and I have worked at the State Fair for the past 3 years and haven't had a chance to take the kids along. This year we tried part of a day. We enjoyed Little Hand's on the Farm, some animals, a bunch of food and buildings full of stuff and a few pieces of equipment. While our day wasn't a total flop I wouldn't have called our day "nonstop fun". :) Let's just say Anton wasn't a fan of the heat or stroller.

Our first stop was the Marine's pull-up bar. Mark enjoys things like this and won a nice Marine shirt for the amount of pull ups he was able to do!

Next stop was Little Hand's on the Farm. The kids' favorite part of the fair.

Can you tell Anton isn't overly excited about the fair? :)

Elijah loved the tractors or "ta-tee's" as he calls them.

This picture was from the Dekalb Supper. Elijah stuck close to Grandpa that evening, even while he was speaking. I found out later that he had to be rescued after climbing up a piece of equipment with the big kids. He was pretty scared and thought he'd stay safe with Grandpa, who saved him, for awhile!

Elijah and his cousin Ezra enjoying some lemonade!

Summer Fun

Summer has gone so fast! It's hard to believe school is just around the corner! Here are a few random pictures from last week.

We were mean and tricked Ethan into letting Mark look at his loose tooth. Mark then yanked it out. :) Don't feel too bad for him, the tooth was flapping in the wind and didn't even bleed when Mark pulled it. :) Ethan was pretty excited about it.

Anton turned 6 months old!

He is sitting up so well!

Anton isn't far behind Elijah - size wise.

Mark and I braved the Pella Pool with all 4 kids this week. We went there at 4:30 so the crowd was clearing out. We had lots of fun and I can't wait to go back next year!

Ethan was just tall enough to go on the slides by himself, which he LOVED. This picture is of the lifeguard pulling him to the edge after coming down the slide. We also enjoyed the lazy river, until Ethan stopped traffic that is. If you've been to the pool you know that they have waterfalls that pour water over you as you go under them. Ethan thought it would be fun to hang on the edge under the waterfall, which was fine until Amelia and my double tube got stuck under the waterfall too. Poor Amelia could hardly stay on the tube and I couldn't see anything because of the water. I gave Ethan's tube a shove to help out Amelia's situation. Poor Ethan must have fell off his tube and was unable to get back on it in the current. Long story short, as I came from under the water I saw Ethan being lifted on his tube by a "girl" lifeguard. He was NOT pleased with me and rolled his eyes and gave me "the evil eye" the rest of the way around the river. Guess he wasn't very excited about having to be "saved". :)

Mark made this dump box out of his old honey wagon frame and a dump box he bought from my uncle. He painted it and got it looking pretty good. Here he is using it for the first time.

July Happenings

I had several pictures from last month that I wanted to share. July was a very busy month and August looks to be the same if not a little worse, especially since school is starting!

First, my sister got engaged on the 4th of July! Ang and Dan plan to get married on November 13 and she will be moving to central Missouri near his family. Dan farms and has a commercial lawn care business near Booneville/Columbia.

We had a fun time at Amelia's 5th birthday party! She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop cake, and enjoyed helping me decorate it!

The kids were wet a fair amount this summer both on the slip 'n slide and running in the rain. :) The picture above: Ethan and Cody decided they weren't going fast enough down the slip 'n slide so I let add a little dish soap. This certainly helped their situation!

Each of our kids has something special that we look forward to doing around the time of their birthday. Amelia's birthday is sweetcorn time. This picture is of her and her uncle Alex cleaning off some corn silks.

With all the rain this summer Mark has had a never ending job of keeping up his motocross track. One evening while digging something for it the earth gave way and he was stuck. Thankfully his brother Kurt was nice enough to come over and pull him out with the bulldozer. :)