Baker and Beetles...

This is a moment to put in our history books...well at least our family history books! Here our maiden has gone from needing my help to not needing me at all...it was a bit strange and I didn't really know what to do...I found myself wandering around the kitchen...but she was reading the directions, and following them...She even let her little brother "help" frost the cake....

See little man's finger...yep he's a helping...

She picked these raspberries to decorate her cake with - it was so wonderful to see her blossom in this area...amazing!

Buddies and Beetles...
Here is a great picture of our "cow"boy and little man...."cow" boy had found a large beetle and gave it to little man - squeals of delight and laughter could be heard...our oldest son is a wonderful young man and takes the time to enjoy his little brother - I'm so thankful for that!

Sheared like a sheep...

So the story goes like so...my older son told me that he could do a really good job cutting his hair! He kept pestering me about it...for several days! I thought hmmmmm I could use this "over confident" moment to teach him something, so I let him cut his own hair...the result was very funny! He came out sheepishly to show me his "very good" job...he had forgotten the fact that he would not be able to cut the back of his head...and well it produced a uneven mess...I should have taken a picture but instead got out the clippers and this is what I was able to do...almost a baldy for the rest of summer.

This whole "close" shave thing must have inspired my husband as he felt the need to shave his "goe-t" ( I have no idea how to spell that). We are all hoping that it grows back fast as it has been close to five years since he's had a clean shaven face and I rather like the goe-t look...and the children are having a really hard time taking him serious as he has such thin lips and doesn't look very intense without the goe-t...we've had a few moments of break-out laughter!

Good thing I didn't get inspired eh!

Do you recognize them?

Why it is Daniel Boone and his trusted friend Mingo.

We have been watching the Daniel Boone DVD series for about a month now. Our friends lent us the videos and we are loving them.

We highly recommend them - they are great for young men and do not have any "stuff" in them.

Enjoy!

Always Learning...Today it was a Bald Hornet lesson

Science doesn't stop just because we've closed the books for a few months. These nasty things have been taking up residence in our berry patch. We thought we got rid of the the two huge nests but alas today we discovered they were rebuilding....

Just look at the queen. She is twice as big as big as the sentry, who was guarding the build site. My husband had his bee attire on and sniped the newly constructed nest to put into the bag. We will be adding the nest, the sentry and the queen to our insect collection - what a great find for this science collection!

Happy Fourth of July 2009

Cowboy here thought it was magnificent that he was able to pilot the boat by himself. He was even allowed to take his siblings, one at a time, out for a private boat ride - great fun.

Fourth of July has become our favorite holiday, but this year was a bitter-sweet celebration. Bitter for the fact that our dear, dear friends, whom we have spent the past seven(I think) fourth of July's with, were moved out of state and there was no way to get together for this year's celebration. They are family and very dear to our hearts and we missed them so very much...missed the laughter...squeals of delight from all the children...missed the good food...missed the good company...missed the Godly fellowship that went on every Fourth of July! I gave this one up to the Lord and am asking Him to make it happen for next year.

Now to the sweetness of the celebration...my husband went out the day before to get us hot dogs(can I just say yuk and barf...rats on a stick is what I call them) but that wasn't the sweet part. He also came home with life jackets and a four man, blow up boat with paddles. We had so much fun at the lake on that boat.

Afterwards a dear friend, whose family was across the mountains working on a project, came bearing foods and gifts to celebrate the 4th with us. We enjoyed her company so much...she's a gem of a lady and so enjoyable to be around.

How was your Fourth of July? If you are wondering why we had the lake to ourselves...it's because we get there early - we left our house at 8:00 to arrive at the lake by 9:00. We had the lake to ourselves for most of the morning. It didn't start getting really busy until about 2:00 or so...very nice

.Ka-Boom...look at those grins...this is definitely the favored holiday in our house!

A Knight and A Princess

Sweet Isn't It...

A Morning To Remember...

We decided to go strawberry picking this morning. On our way we had an errand to do. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity. What fun we had eating fresh donuts with our fresh milk we brought along. The seagulls came so close to us hoping for a bit of a treat. We saw two bald eagles across the bay - they were beautiful!

After breakfast at the bay we headed to the strawberry picking patch...but the u-pick was closed. We were disappointed but still purchased three flats of berries to make jam and freeze...and of course to snack on.

All that sugar makes for a wonderful nap. I love sleeping pictures - they are so sweet and innocent.

Since we did not get to pick berries...my little buttons decided to pick from our own berry patch.

Sweet Little Birds...

Aren't they funny looking! They remind us of clowns with big wide grins painted on.

This nest has been with us since we painted our house a few years ago. Every year we get the pleasure of watching the parents feed and clean the nest and the little birdies chirp chirp chirp - It is the most wonderful thing about the beginning of summer!