May - Part 2

Before we get to far into June I'll finish up May pictures. 

Mark asked me to level off one of our fields while he planted another. I agreed and he kept Anton and Allison and I took Elijah. I figured if I couldn't figure out what I was doing he could help me out. :) I don't run machinery very often, we have lots of good help for that and with me, comes a crew of kids. Anyway, we pulled into the field to a tractor I had never driven with the accelerator which I've never used. I assumed Mark would ride with me a little while until I got things figured out. Well I got a lesson that lasted one SHORT round and was told to call on the two-way if I had problems. Thankfully all went well and I'm happy to say auto-steer is my friend. :) 

I was just about finished leveling off when we got rain. It wasn't much but we had to call it quits for a little while. We ended up going mushroom hunting in our timber and actually found mushrooms for the first time in the 15 years we've farmed it! (We have a problem with trespassers stealing them.) We kicked out three groups last year and put up "keep out" signs this spring. So maybe it's helping. It's so frustrating to go out to your own timber just to find people you don't know already out there!

Ethan and Amelia working together frying our mushrooms.

We experimented frying in olive oil and coconut oil. We liked the coconut oil better, it just had a "lighter" flavor we liked better.

Amelia started piano lessons this winter and had her first recital Mid-May. She did a nice job.

We made it to another race in Winterset. This was a Lorretta Lynn  Area Qualifier (see here to learn more about this national race). The competition is strong and there were several out-of-state riders here for the weekend. Mark was racing when Eljah needed to head to the starting line. So Ethan did a great job helping him and the kind guy parked next to us also helped him out.  

The class Mark likes to ride in (+30 B/C) which was on Sunday so he had to race the 450 B with a bunch of teenagers. He did great keepin up with the young bucks! :)

As soon as Mark was done racing he had to help Elijah. A parent can stand near the track to help their kid if they fall or encourage them.

Elijah did very well he got 4th out of 9 racers. This finish was good enough to qualify for the Regional Race.  (We didn't enter him for it, we couldn't make the race in June, so we didn't pay the extra fee.)

Ethan wrecked hard  in the second lap of his first moto and hurt his upper leg. Thankfully no major injures but it's still sore a few weeks later. He was out for the rest of the day. :(

Elijah was our big winner for the day. (Amelia thinking she's funny photo bombing)

(A picture from Mark's phone.) This one is Ethan  hauling his 1980's 3-wheeler back from the coalmine. He told me he hit a bump. 

 Another random picture from Mark's phone. The old blue truck smoked like crazy when they started it, not sure why, I just thought it was a funny picture. 

Anton, Allison and I joined Eljiah's class at the park the last day of school. 

Elijah had a wonderful year at preschool. So blessed to have such great teachers and classmates!

Amelia ran at a local track meet to try to qualify for the state meet. She won the 100 meter and will run this Saturday in Marshalltown. 

If your my Facebook friend you may have seen this one. One morning we got up and didn't find Allison in bed. After looking around the house Amelia spotted her in the the living room under the laundry basket. It was pretty scary for a little bit, I'm not sure what she was thinking. :)

I happened to be in Pella the day they were digging tulips, so I borrowed my sister-laws spade a dug a bunch for my yard next year. These were still in full bloom so we enjoyed them all week!

I chaperoned the band trip to Adventure land the last week of school. I was in charge of 5 boys for the day. We had a great time and hit tons of rides! If only we didn't have to run from ride to ride. :)

They loved the log ride rode it several times. 

This was another ride they liked.

They played a song while we were up there. 

I sat out for this ride, way to high and scary!

Ethan has been going with Mark most days since school has been out. In this picture he is running the skid loader keeping dirt away from Mark as he digs a basement for his parents.  

May - Part 1

May's been a busy month for us, here's a few highlights.

Amelia is one of those crazy ones that loves to run. :) She enjoyed a track meet at school with the K-4th graders. She always has fun and does well.

I can't believe I'm old enough to have a kid in band! This year Ethan started playing the drums at school. He had the intent of quitting after his first year but has since changed his mind. He enjoyed marching band at Tulip Time and the trip to Adventureland. 

   

Ethan is playing snare drum. he's in the grey shirt.

It's hard to see but the kids decorated their instruments with glow sticks and bracelets for the "lighted" parade at Tulip Time. 

Look who else is participating in a Tulip Time parade! Congrats to Emily for getting Kurt to join you! I'm lucky to just get Mark to watch a parade with me. :)  

I let the kids plant the seeds. I gave them a short lesson on spacing but I think they pretty much ended up doing what they wanted. :) In this picture they're planting green beans. Since this was taken a few weeks ago the beans have come up, or at least part of them. For some reason the row they are planting here never grew. I thought maybe we forgot to plant it and I just covered up the trench with no seeds in it. But I guess we had bad seed or something. We're waiting on round 2 to pop through the ground.

Hard working kids!

Hard working Daddy! 

Ethan and I are having a little competition for growing strawberries. This is the planter box he built last year with grandpa. So far his are doing very well. 

We've added several trees to the yard this spring. Ethan helped me with the second group as part of a Cadet badge he's working on for next year. 

Happy Mothers Day!

Mark, Ethan and Elijah had a good start racing motocross this year. All three got first place in Cedar Rapids!

Elijah's trophy was huge, he's so proud of it. :)

I enjoyed going with Elijah's preschool class on a field trip to Russell Wildlife. As you can see Elijah is sooo excited to get his picture taken by a beaver. 

They are doing an activity acting like caterpillars if I remember correctly.

The pond was the best part. The kids loved looking for little creatures that were pulled up from the pond with a big net.

The chickens are no longer homeless! We still have to paint the shed but they are loving their new home. 

Those are some pretty big chickens roosting way up high!

Truck full of Van Den Broek's off to mushroom hunt.

Prairie burn at my parents house. 

Spring

Spring is finally showing up! Over the last few weeks we've started our spring activities even if the weather hasn't been ideal.  

Spring is the start of garage sale season! I love going to garage sales and with 5 kids it's a great way to save money on clothes, toys or whatever other treasures we can't do without. The picture above is part of the stuff I put on my own sale earlier this month. Several gals from church, that live in the country, decided to rent a building in town for a sale and clean house! I'll admit is was a little hard seeing all my baby stuff go. :( 

Speaking of babies we have lots! 18 total. In the end of February we saved several of our eggs and added a few more from my sister then had Ethan's friend incubate them for us. My hope was for 5 chicks. We ended up with 18! We also have six adult chickens running around. However you do the math, that's way to many chickens! :)  The picture above is of them hatching in the incubator. One chick still has a little egg on him.

They've lived in a Rubbermaid in our sun room for the past couple weeks. (They moved into their bigger box in the shop today)

Amelia picked the smallest little chick of the bunch, as her own. She's enjoyed cuddling it that past couple weeks.

Yikes! We need to teach Allison how to hold a chick nicely! 

That's better Allison!

Ethan and I are working on our strawberry competition for 4-H yet. I've planted 20 plants from Wal-Mart which haven't liked the cold weather. (I may be replanting if no sign of life happens in the next week or two.) Here Ethan is amending the soil in his bed with a little peat, sand and manure to keep it from turning into a brick this summer. 

  

Ang and I were super-pumped to break out our Christmas presents for the first time!

Amelia and Ethan canoed while Ang and I kayaked. I was hilarious listening to Ethan bark orders to Amelia. She's got some learning to do. :) 

After a fun evening kayaking we made it home around 9:00pm to find this! I sent Ethan to shut the chicken shed door and he ran back to tell me the chicken shed burned down. :(  It appears sparks from the burn barrel must have started it on fire. All was lost, except the chickens who were safe in another barn when we came home.

 We are putting them in pet carriers to keep them from being eaten by coons and opossums at night. :( We should have a nice new shed for them by the end of next week. 

Picking out 4-H projects is another spring activity around here. We decided to go with sheep for Ethan again this year. He snapped a picture with my phone on the way home. (Looking a little redneck, aren't we) :)

Amelia is doing a good job trying to make them feel welcome. 

I was our turn to lead a church service for the nursing home this month. Mark gave the message and Amelia did special music, playing a song she learned during piano lessons. 

After the visiting the nursing home we had some time to kill before church. So we feed the ducks at the cemetery across from church. Allison especially loved this and didn't want to leave. 

Ethan being brave and feeding the swans.

Mark and I celebrated our 15th anniversary! 

This was Ethan's first year to participate in the District V track meet. It's a track meet for the area Christian schools to compete in. I remember it as a kid, although I remember it being a lot warmer. :) Ethan was in 5 events, the running long jump, sack race, 100 meter dash, the 800 and 4 x 400. He did well and enjoyed everything except the 800, which I don't blame him. :)

Ethan and his cousin Gideon were on a team for the sack race. 

Racing the 100 meter dash. Ethan literally came up to the elbows of the kid next to him. :)

We have a problem with opossums and raccoon's. This morning as I reached into the garbage can that holds our cat food I found this nasty thing! It's the second time we've had this, Anton found the first one. :) Listen this little song which fits our situation well. :)

I ordered a few trees which came in the mail this week. As you can see I had some amazing help with this project. :)

When the hard part of digging the holes and planting  the trees was done, the helpers came around  to pound in the fertilizer sticks for me. :)