Aww

Grace read her big brother Tyler a book the other night. He's a really good brother and his sister adores him!
And in other news, Grace decided to give me a makeover yesterday. She did my hair and makeup. Don't I look pretty?

Yard work

The kids and I have been out working in the yard this weekend taking advantage of the beautiful weather! Tyler and Matt got rid of the giant pile of sticks behind the playhouse, and I got rid of all the junk behind the garage. Tyler mowed the lawn and it's looking pretty good! We still have a lot of stuff to do in the back, though. About 1/3 of the back is creeping charlie, so Rich will try to spray that and plant some grass seed. I can't wait to plant flowers!
The boys decided to play some bball tonight....the 2 old guys about died :). Notice that Rich was wearing that fedora while playing bball.

Good day to be a duck

It rained from Friday evening through Monday evening. Yuk. Our yard was a lake, and our basement was dampish. The sun has finally come out today, yay! The great thing about the rain is that all the leaves and plants and flowers are out now....and if you squint your eyes and use your imagination you can pretend you are in Ireland, everything is SO green!

Winter, 2 days of Spring, and straight to summer

It's called living in Iowa :). Monday was in the 40's and rainy. It got nicer through the week, in the 60's and 70's. And today it was 85. From the furnace to the central air in 4 days! Yes, I am a huge wimp and turned the a/c on this afternoon....by 4:00 we all had sweat running down our backs. Yesterday I looked out back and saw this:Grace had spread out a beach towel and put on her swimsuit. She said "I'm getting a suntan". Lucy decided to lay out beside her :). Lucy got a clip yesterday, but she still looks like a homely orphan dog. With an underbite.

Grace and Ben had fun looking for rocks in the rock pile. They've started a collection.
We had some storms roll through this evening. No warnings for us, but we got some thunder and a nice rain. Some mammatus clouds before the storm:

Grace and Ava

Not much excitement going on around here lately, we've been pretty boring. The weather has been GREAT though...today was 72 and the next 2 days are supposed to be 80. When there's nothing new to report, I usually go out and take pics of Grace and Ava since they are the most willing of the picture subjects :). And they're pretty cute too!

Ow!

Matt wiped out when he was running in PE today...they were running outside on the sidewalk and he fell and scraped up his knee. OUCH!

Honey Creek Resort

Ben and Tyler in the hot tub:

A fedora wearing pirate :) :

Grace by the gigantic beautiful fireplace:

Looking at the Fox Snake:

Rich going up for the block:

We all went down to Southern Iowa to the Honey Creek Resort yesterday to spend the night in the BEAUTIFUL new lodge. They have an indoor water park so the kids swam swam swam! It wasn't any deeper than 3 feet anywhere, so Grace could go all over the pool by herself. They had a blast...there was a big slide, a lazy river, a basketball hoop, lily pads, and a pirate ship for the smaller kids. The lodge is right on the edge of Lake Rathbun, so it's nestled down in the middle of nowhere Iowa, but it was just gorgeous. It is all built in the Craftsman style, which is right up my alley. I was wondering if they would miss the headboard, dresser and lamp in our room, because they were really cool! It's a pretty new place, so a lot of the trails and paths are still under construction, along with some awesome little cabins..it will be really nice when it's all finished. We all want to give a big shout out to Grandma Cathy for sending us....THANKS Grandma!