Back to School

Well, believe it or not we just finished our second week of school. The summer flew by and we are into the full swing of school complete with homework, meetings, pep band, meetings, work days, football, meetings, and soccer. Did I mention meetings? Actually, I haven't had that many, it just seems like it because I had a couple last week along with a homemaking meeting at church one night. Connor seems to like Kindergarten and Cade was excited to get back to preschool and daycare. Poor Caylee is by herself at Linda's again, but she really doesn't seem to mind too much. Christopher is in 8th grade and having a good year so far. We also had our first home football game last night and Christopher got to play his guitar a couple of times. He was awesome!! If I ever get a good camera, I will video him and put a clip up. He played Welcome To The Jungle by Guns-N-Roses, and another kid named Chris played the drum set. They did a really good job! The first JH football game is in a couple of weeks in Deerfield, KS so I will hopefully have some pictures to post then.

Fun Valley

These 100+ days are making me long for the cool mountain air at Fun Valley! I didn't get many pictures this trip. Believe it or not, we were going to pick up a new camera on vacation; but, we couldn't find what we wanted. Oh well. Most of the pictures are of us taking the kids to the guaranteed catch fishing pond. Oggie, Christopher, and I took them, but we kept getting rained out before Caylee could get one caught. Dad and mom wanted to make sure that they all got a couple of fish, so we went back. The three little ones were thrilled with their catches!! Caylee and Cade played with their fish until they were dead. Little princess doesn't mind playing with the "gross" things like fish, frogs, and bugs---hmmm, wonder where she gets that? ;o) Two of my most favorite pictures from the fishing pond were the one with Christopher helping Connor fish, and the one were Caylee's getting her fish out of the bucket while Cade proudly holds his fish up for the picture. We also had to get a picture of the kids on a giant rock. That picture is kind of becoming a yearly thing for us. Missi got me started on that. But it's a really cool idea; I do love seeing how much they have grown from previous years through comparison of the pictures. Ah, how I wish we were camping in the cool mountain air! Oh well, we'll have to settle for being comfortable at home. :o)

Feeding the Ducks

One of Connor's catches

Cade proud of his fish.

Caylee's fish

Fishing made us hungry for ice cream from the Snack Shack.

Another one!

I LOVE this picture of Christopher helping Connor fish!!

Polka Dot Cookie Bars

These are probably my most favorite homemade cookies! They're from Taste of Home, and they are sooooo good, especially with a tall glass of ice cold milk!

Polka-Dot Cookie Bars Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package (10 to 12 ounces) vanilla or white chips,

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extract. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Set aside 1/4 cup vanilla chips; stir remaining chips into batter.
• Spread in a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Sprinkle with reserved chips. Bake at 375° for 18-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Yield: 4 dozen.

The Funny Things Kids Say

Oh, Caylee . . . She was just in my bathroom (you know it's gonna be a good story, since this is the room that she gets into trouble the most), and obviously in my deodorant. She comes out of the bathroom with both of her arms stretched way up to the sky saying, "Mom, look at my pills". I just chuckled and said, "Honey, those aren't pills; those are pits" as she smiled and repeated "pits". I love the little laughs that life and kids brings each and every day. ;o)

A Day at the Zoo

The other day, we decided we were going to pick up Colton and go to the Garden City Zoo. It was so incredibly hot, but we still had a really good time! When we got to GC, we picked up Happy Meals first, and then headed to the zoo to have a picnic. Then we braved the heat to see the animals. The kids all had a lot of fun! What a fun day for cousins. (By the way, getting them to pose long enough for a picture--nearly impossible! That's okay, they were excited.)

Today's Happenings

Probably the biggest news for me today was that Caylee wore undies all day instead of a diaper. I just kept taking her to the bathroom throughout the day, and she even told me that she had to got a couple of times. The funny thing about all of this is...she wouldn't wear her princess panties. Nope, instead she wanted to wear Cade's undies with SpongeBob, Toys Story, and Wonder Pets on them. They do look more comfortable. Plus, sissy has some chunky thighs, and I think her little panties cut into her legs. Cade's are just far more comfortable---hey, whatever works!

It has been pretty darn hot lately, so the kids and I have been staying indoors until evening when it cools down. Some days they get pretty bored, so today we did something a little different. First, we got out the stamps and stamp pads. Then we got out the paints. I had some little wooden things that I wanted to paint, and I found some wooden cars and bird houses for the kids to paint. They had a pretty good time, and it was something different.

Okay, yes Cade is trying to moon the camera; but, also notice Caylee's blue lips from opening bottles of paint, along with her/Cade's Toy Story undies.

Again with the mooning attempt.

The work on our roof continues. I never thought I would get so excited for a new roof. I chose the color. It's Mocha Brown, which is a dark brown. I really like it! It sure beats the old light brown shingles. Next for our house is all new windows. Then, finally stucco (I have no idea how you spell that!).

I'm also trying to come up with a new, shorter hairstyle. My hair is long enough to donate without having to go too short (donations have to be at least 10 inches). These are two of the styles and lengths that I'm looking at. I'm also probably going back to some sort of blonde. I do love my hair dark, but it grows so darn fast that it's a pain to keep colored. The picture directly below on Kristen C. is really cute, but it's pretty darn short. I'm leaning more towards the cut on Jennifer Anniston. What do you all think?

4th of July

Our fourth was pretty mellow this year. Kary and his family were in Holly during the afternoon, so I took the kids in to see them. Of course, we had to take the water guns and have a water fight! Then we went home and had our own little 4th this year. Since we couldn't shoot off the big fireworks like we usually do, we just decided to have our own little celebration. We grilled some cheddar brats, hooked up the chocolate fountain, and spent time outside with some little things like smoke bombs, pops, sparklers, and so on. It wasn't the usual big event that I like to host, but it was still really nice.

Cade's Birthday

For Cade's 4th birthday, he wanted a Toy Story 3 theme. So, I was a little lazy on the cake this time. I made a double layer chocolate with the cow print to match Jessie and Woody's western cow prints. The top cake was a double layer white cake with blue skies and white puffy clouds. I bought little figurines to put on the cake. The funny thing was that Caylee tried to eat the head off of one of them--obviously the items on the cake are usually edible and she knows that.

In the picture above, we were singing Happy Birthday. It was the cutest thing, because he was singing too!

Look at that precious face!

Lots of Legos and money, what's better than that?

Pinata time!

Water fight with the new water guns. Connor got one for his birthday, so of course Cade got one for his birthday too.

But....momma bought the two oldest boys a couple of water guns to join in on the fight. :o)

Thanks to everyone for the gifts. Happy birthday Cade--we love you!