Landscaping at 112

Here are the new shrubs and plants at Mom & Don's house, they all look really nice. They got the front steps in yesterday too.

Grace Kinney, entrepreneur

While I was shopping this morning, Grace played outside with Grandma and Don. They were working on planting flowers and shrubs, it looks so nice! When I pulled in the driveway, I saw Grace sitting at a little folding table with signs on it waving $4 in the air and screeching "Mommy, mommy, I made four dollars selling my bracelets!!" in her high pitched, ear piercing voice. She was so excited! She made bracelets by twisting pipe cleaners together, and sold them for 25 cents a piece. She actually made $4! A carload of teenage girls bought some, and the old guy down the street bought 2 :).

Her first business venture!

Putting bracelets on poor Donny. He is a good sport, that's for sure!

This is how I found Grace today....

We were getting ready to go to the pool, so she was waiting outside with her swimsuit on, laying on Rich's car listening to her CD player. And singing at the top of her little lungs. I can just see the teenage years now!

Lucy's haircut...

This is for Tyler and Matt. We finally got ragamuffin Lucy clipped at PetSmart, she was looking like a miniature sheepdog. She looks cute now, although the groomer said we should take her to puppy classes because she doesn't know who's boss. Apparently she bit the groomer a couple of times when she was working on her face and legs. The groomer says she thinks she's in charge, that's why she's biting. Yeah lady, welcome to my world of 4 kids and 2 dogs who think they are the boss. Can I enroll Grace in these classes as well??

Work day...

Rich has the weekend off and we spent the day working on outside projects. I painted the front door Burgundy Red, and Rich and Don put in a new entry door on the garage. They also took the small deck off the back patio, and reinstalled the steps. It makes the cement much more usable for us with our big patio table. Here are some preliminary pics of the garage door...I painted it Burgundy Red also, but it looks much redder in the picture than the front door does, even though they are the same color. We haven't installed the doorknob yet, and they still have some trimwork to finish.

And the front door:

The backyard sans deck:

And Don's work in progress...the front landscaping. He added mulch to the front circle today:

Disguise day at VBS

Today was disguise day at vacation bible school...the theme is Spy something or other so the kids were to wear a costume. Grace wore her apron and oven mitt with a Krispy Kreme hat and went as a baker. Eli wore a Home Depot painters cap and apron and had a paint brush and went as a painter. He would only wear it for a photo op in front of Grandma's house though, and we struggled to get that :)! They looked cute!

Fishing!

Tonight Rich and I took Ben and Grace fishing at Hawkeye Pond. It was such a nice evening, perfect weather! We met Ben's friend Jeff and his parents up there and sat and visited and fished! Grace and I caught about 6 little bluegills, and Ben and Jeff probably caught about 8 or 10 each. Rich won the award for catching the only bass, and also for catching the smallest fish.

We had a lot of fun, and Grace was very good at reeling in the fishing pole. Ben even caught the back of her shorts once.

And look at all the baby ducks this mama had! I didn't count, but I think there were about 10 or 12!

Eli and Grace

Eli and Joel are down visiting us from Moorhead, and Grace is in Eli heaven! She loves having him back, they play so well together. They played in the sprinkler on Saturday, it was HOT!

And today they were playing with boxes. Yes, they have a house full of toys, but they were playing with the cardboard boxes that Grandma got them (thanks for those, by the way :) ).

Oh, and Heidi, I promise I tried to get him to take his socks off before he put his sandals on, but he insisted on wearing the socks. I really tried :)!

Vacation Bible School

Here are Grace and Eli with Grandma the first day of bible school. We are having such a good time with Eli! Grandma is the nurse at VBS again this year, so she's been going with the kids. Fun!

What happens when the kids get ahold of the camera...

I noticed these on the camera tonight...it appears that Grace decided to try out her photography skills on her brother.

And here is Grace helping me with supper tonight...doesn't she look big?

YAY!

Sprinkler fun...

It's that time of year again, time for playing in the sprinkler! When I first turned it on Lucy started barking at it, but then she played in it with Grace :). She was a wet rat-dog, she looked so pathetic!

And another flower post....sorry! The peonies on the south side of the house are blooming, they are so pretty and smell SO good!

Road Trip to Moorhead!

Thanks Heidi and Joel for a fun weekend! Grandma Cathy and I took the kids up to Moorhead to meet Grandpa Jim and drop off Tyler and Matt. They'll spend a few weeks over at Grandpa's. It was so good to see Heidi and Joel's cool house and spend time with those sweet boys. Heidi cooked us some yummy food (even worried about supper when she wasn't there!), we went to the mall & Super Duper Wal-Mart and the kids played and played and played. Thanks again for the hospitality guys. And a big thank you to Aunt Linda....we stopped through Minneapolis and she made us lunch both Friday AND Sunday, how nice! We really enjoyed ourselves and Ben's still talking about dusting off the Spanish arrowheads (yes Joel, we saw arrowheads from SPAIN!).

Here are a few pics from our weekend:

Linda's beautiful lilacs

Crazy Noah in Matt's big shoes:


Cousin pileup in the playroom:

And a picture of Noah taken by Grace:

Love you guys!