~Rails to Trails~

One of my favorite outdoor activities is a good long bike ride!  Gregg called me one morning from work and said he was coming home early to take everyone on a bike ride.  Then he said something about being sorry he was messing up my day☺

Half of me doesn't like my schedule messed with... half of me loves the adventure. 

Adventure won out.  

It was a beautiful day!  I got the kids to quickly finish the "most important" subjects and started packing a lunch.  We parked at a different spot this time.

Kiersten does a great job plodding along!

The older boys ride ahead.  We occasionally we see all their bikes by the side of the trail.  Adventure is out there!  Some trail off the trail called to them.  It normally has something to do with water.

When they finally came back to the trail they were telling me the different things they were able to find... and how many times Nathan fell in the creek!  Anyway, they were describing some strange seed.  Jared knows his mama... he brought a seed back for me♥  Creation just amazes me!

We enjoyed our day out!

Of course, we were all starving when we got back!  We decided to try a new place to eat.  Friends told us about this diner in Lititz.  A great place!  Huge portions and really good food.  We tried burgers, clam strips, crab cakes, cheese steaks, chicken dinner and chicken fingers.  They have a big menu! We can't wait to go back! 

~Some Guy Tractor Kinda Thing~

Gregg had taken a Friday in October off work to go to a race.  The trouble was, it was supposed to rain.  In the midst of changing plans, friends invited us to a steam engine/tractor pull event.

It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Kiersten and I took some time off from looking at all the tractors to sit on a bench people watch :-)

The kids enjoyed looking around. We even got our first try of chocolate covered bacon.  I wasn't impressed.

The event was smaller than we thought, but it worked out nice. I left early to attend a ladies dinner and the teens in the group left a little later to attend teen night at church.  Everyone else stayed until the rain came.

~Cow Appreciation Day~

I always look forward to Cow Appreciation Day!  This year I was able to meet up with a friend and her two girls!  

I normally dress everyone in black and put white spots on them.  This year, I found cow print table cloths at the grocery store for one dollar!  I used one table cloths for Kiersten, Nathan, and Eric.  I cut the table cloths in half for the rest of us.  I also printed out cow faces.  It is so difficult putting ears on the boys (no hair to bobby pin it too and they don't want to wear a headband ☺).  It was nice to not have a nose taped to my nose this year!  I will keep the table clothes to use again next year!

Other friends of ours went for breakfast... I think I'd like to do that next year... I've never had a Chick fil A breakfast before!

Kiersten and her friend Abigail

I think half our church stopped at one Chick fil A or another Friday.  We are one crazy herd! haha!

~First Swim~

May 13... a beautifully sunny day and the kids want to swim.  

Um... guys, do you know it is only 70 degrees in the pool!??!?!?!

 

They were not in for too long, but they loved it!

Saturday! Oh how I enjoy a Saturday at home when the weather is beautiful!  This was back in April.   One of the first nice nights for a campfire.

~Roller Skating~

Our church has hosted a roller skating night every year and we have never gone.  I grew up roller skating once a month and really enjoyed it, but with little ones it was never something that made it into our schedule... until this year.

Jordan asked to go and I told him I'd drive him over.  I was planning on crocheting and chatting.  Every few hours throughout the day another child asked if they could go along... I ended up taking all six kids with me, and they had a great time!  I think Jordan is the only one that had ever skated before.

Aren't they the cutest little skates!

Kiersten was hesitant at first, but did a great job!  I took a few laps on my own and made her sit out... she wasn't very happy with me!

This was Eric face every time I saw him! haha!

 I was afraid Aaron would give up, but he did really well too!

Eric was thankful for the handrails! 

He never stopped for long 

Jordan looked like he has been skating all his life!

All of my kids were slow and steady.  Many of the other kids were crashing all over the place.  I love how different personalities come out at these activities!  Jared was very cautious but did very well.  It didn't take him long to keep up with the pack!

Nathan started out really slow but I was amazed at how quickly he got comfortable.  I helped him around the rink once and it was exhausting.  He depended on me too much.  I think it was a good thing that I needed to help Kiersten.  It made him do it on his own.

There were no special skates but we did have a few crazy trains going around!

It was a really nice evening and my kids all can't wait to do it again!

~Fun Times~

Last week was crazy busy... and, well... so was this week.  It is always nice to sit and look back at photos and think of the fun we had.  It is so easy to forget the fun times when you are up to your eyeballs in work!

Here are a few fun pictures from the last two weeks.

Jordan has been having technical issues with his car.  He was running it at home to check something and his siblings enjoyed rides.

I was playing memory with Kiersten and Nathan.  Little kids have a hard time keeping the memory tiles in nice orderly rows.  It makes it so much harder to play when they are everywhere!  River is to a game like a cat is to fabric.  It wasn't long before she laid down right in the middle.

Kiersten found the boy's guitar.

Nathan found the Lincoln Logs.

Eric found some paint cans and made a really cool sword and shield with some wood and cardboard.

Aaron found himself in a patch of poison ivy.  He doesn't get it as bad as Jared (thankfully!) but he was rather uncomfortable.  He and River were resting.

I only took one of these photos.  I love that the kids pick up the camera to record memories!  Of course, there are about 37 Lincoln Log photos to edit or delete and several other "what IS that photo!" photos☺

~Farm Day~

My big boys were supposed to be gone on Tuesday, but the rain changed their plans... and mine.  I wanted to take my younger kids to the Family Farm Days.  I decided to just take everyone on Wednesday.

The boys have been playing around with a movie making program and I decided to give it a try!  What do you think!?!?!!?

~Play Date~

Christina is a sweet friend with three little guys the same ages as my three youngest.  She is really great about taking my younger kids from time to time when I need help... and our kids actually get along really well.  Three of our kids have birthday within a month of each other so we got together for an "Everybodies Birthday Party."  It was nothing really grand... we are both busy mama's remember.  We met for bowling and then went back to her house for some sugary treats.

 Our youngest treasures...

I wasn't going to mention it, but... I played two games with my big guys.  I won both games :-)  I don't normally bowl over a 90... whoohooo!

~Date Night~

 My handsome date last night...

I try to take the boys out for a dinner date around their birthday... some years I totally forget.  They are getting old enough to remind me now!  I don't think it is that they like my company... but they like choosing where to go and what to eat... a real treat as eating out is very minimal around here! (besides Chinese, Hoss's, and pizza)

Jared wanted an Elk burger from Fudruckers... I had a buffalo burger... YUM!

We went sneaker shopping for him while we were out and then stopped for chocolate milk shakes on the way home:-)

I just love my job!

~The Month of May~

Wow, a whole month has just slipped through my hands!  I spent half the month running like crazy to catch up with everyone and the other half of the month sleeping... exhaustion was a big battle for me this month!

We techically finished school.  Our days are in but all three older boys are still working on math.  Evaluations are done and I just need to hand in our papers!  I haven't started the objectives for next year but that is a fairly easy job.

The boys raced quarter midgets twice... one week was rained out and one week was a holiday so we didn't race.

Jordan and Aaron managed a win in their classes.  Nathan and Kiersten quickly got reacquainted with all the fun play spots.  I have taken on the job as treasurer this year... it was a lot to get set up, but from here on out it should be fun.

One weekend, my Aunt, Uncle and 2 Cousins were visiting from out of state.  We enjoyed Sunday dinner with most of my dad's family.  We took some family photos, cousin photos, grandchildren photos... and on and on.  Kiersten was done by the time we got to great grandchildren photos... so we improvised...

Gregg found this cute little house for Kiersten to play in outside.  She and Nathan have spent many hours playing pretend here and I am able to get a few things accomplished knowing they won't wonder too far.

Kiersten managed to get 5 stitches in her chin. We were grocery shopping and she fell.  I didn't realized the flat floor could give such a deep cut!  Gregg came and finished shopping with the rest of the family while I took Kiersten to the ER.  She handled it all fairly well.  The stitches are out now but I'm certain she will have a nice sized scar.

Jordan raced three times this month.  Two of the weeks he raced the younger ones didn't and one week we were racing quarter midgets all afternoon and micro sprints at night... a very long day!  Nathan and Kiersten both won a frisbee signed by the winner of one of the races.  Jordan made it to lap 22 (out of 25) one of the weeks!  I was so excited for him!  He was flagged off for being too many laps down.  The next week he really looked like he was keeping up and even passing... until the fuel line came off...sigh. The last week the steering broke.  He is getting discouraged with this car having problems and is looking forward to racing the bigger car after his birthday... hoping he doesn't have as many issues.



 We have been outside a lot this month.  We had a huge pile of sticks to burn... and reduced that pile to 1/3 the size!  I've been slowing working on my flower beds.  I don't think I'll even get to the veggies this year.  We have moved and fenced our chickens to make it nicer for them to be outside but not able to bother our neighbors!

I was outside watching the kids play when I heard commotion in the trash can... I was almost afraid to look but found this young robin in there!  Poor guy was learning to fly and landed right in the wrong place!  I tipped the can over and he went on his merry way!

I am trying to do one fun thing every week with the kids again this summer.  I took them to Sheetz one day for lunch... 3 hot dogs for a dollar and free fountain drinks.  We cleaned the church one week and afterwards I took them to our local farmers market for lunch.  The rest of the month was too crazy busy for anything else!

I didn't do any major crafting project this month... I did manage to order two photo books.  I had an album ready from my trip to Wyoming and an album from the boys racing year last year.  Two free books became available and I was so excited to just pay shipping!  It pays to be ready and wait for deals like that!

I did enjoy a very nice evening out with the ladies at church.  One of the ladies opened her home for a very nice tea time.

I'm hoping June is more relaxing! I've got some quiet handwork projects to do and some sewing projects on my list.  I can't wait to fit a book in the mix!