~Relish~

We finally opened a jar of relish we made last summer. YUM! I love a huge slice of tomato on my burger... but... we were skipping the tomato for HUGE spoonfuls of relish.

I am bummed that I didn't make any this year:-(

~Nathan Update & Funnies~

Nathan is doing very well! He had his check up this morning and his lungs are clear. I need to be watching him for asthma. He is too young to officially check but seems to have the symptoms. He was such a cute little guy at the hospital. He handled everything so well!
Kiersten did a great job hanging out for 12 hours in the hospital with me. There was plenty of room for a stroller and little bed for her. She had a rough half hour in there somewhere but she pulled through!


Nathan said something so funny I thought I'd share...

Nathan comes out of his room in the morning half dressed. "Mom, what should I wear on my underwear... Pants? or Shorts?"

I love what kids say!

~The Festival~

I had planned to take the boys to a local festival on Friday. Nathan woke up not feeling well but I thought he would snap out of it. We had some fun and I learned a lot! I took most of our picnic lunch and bought some hot dogs, funnel cake and honey sticks!I learned how they make sauerkraut. Did you know it takes 3 months of cabbage and salt just sitting in a crock!?!??!

My favorite part was the glass blowing...


Just amazing! Did you know they can't just let the glass cool. It has to stay heated for awhile and cool very slowly or it will shatter. It also looked orange when it came out of the furnace but it was really green glass.

I enjoyed the paper making too! I am not sure of the years but at this time period (I believe Civil War era) they used fabric to make paper. Wood wasn't used yet! He used a screen to scoop the pulp, flip it onto felt and squeeze out the water. When he took it out, the fabric pulp stuck together! Then he hung it to let it dry.

I didn't get a picture but someone was also painting an oil cloth rug. I got into an interesting conversation with her! The real oil cloths were made from ship sales that ripped. They were covered with linseed oil to make them last longer as a sail.

Something else I don't have a photo of is spinning wool. Did you ever rub wool between your hands??!?! It has lanolin in it. Natural oils! The guy I was talking to about it said that after he works with wool all day, his hands are so oily that he can't open a door... see, I told you I learned a lot!
I loved watching this guy paint. He blacked out glass and painted in the picture. He hung wrinkled foil behind the picture to make it reflect light. They were beautiful!

Of course, there was a blacksmith. I missed him because someone needed to go to the bathroom. The older boys really enjoyed him too.

Do you see this boy peddling the lathe for the craftsman?!?!?
Eric made a rope!


It was an exhausting day for me... I don't normally do these things without Gregg. I thought the older boys would be able to help. They did, but it wasn't the same as Gregg:-)

Anyway, little did I know that Nathan had pneumonia and would be admitted into the hospital that night. Thank you for your prayers... Nathan is now home... fully medicated. Yesterday was a bit of a juggling act, but God always provides.

~Little Sickie~

I have some posts to do on the fun things we did this week but I'm a little out of sorts at the moment. We put Nathan to bed on Thursday night with a little bit of a stuffy nose. He woke up Friday feeling worse but we had fun plans so I just took him thinking he would be ok. Well, he wasn't ok. Gregg took him to the ER around midnight. They were not home at 3... they were not home at 5... so I called. He was admitted for 1 - 3 days with pneumonia. Kiersten and I will be with him for about 12 hours today while Gregg and the boys are racing. Gregg will take over tonight.

We have never gone through this before... it will be an interesting juggling act!

Nathan looks and sounds much better this morning! He has an IV and is on oxygen. He did really well with getting his blood taken too. Right now, he is watching Veggie Tales:-)

~Another Beautiful Day for a Bike Ride~

There was no racing today because of the holiday weekend! We enjoyed breakfast with some out of town family at a favorite restaurant. Then, Gregg and I were anxious to get back to the bike trail so we loaded everyone up and took off!




We parked at the same place we did last week and went the other way on the trail. It was very different! The first thing we saw was a train going overhead!

Part of the trail was through the woods and it looked like fall with the leaves down. I loved the sound of them crunching under the tires!

The next part of the trail actually went down a road, across a bridge, and kind of circled back around. It was on this bridge that I noticed Eric's tire was really flat! He had a pretty long nail in it. We felt bad for him but were honestly thankful that it wasn't somebody else. We could strap his bike to the trailer and keep going. If it was someone else, we would have had to turn around. Poor Gregg had the three youngest ones and the bike to pull.

More nice paths!


We went under some highways and back behind some houses and apartment buildings. Not at scenic as the trail was in the other direction, but still fun!



Another bridge to go over a major road. We often see this trail when we are heading out to the mall. It was neat being here!

We were glad to get back to some tree covered trails! We found this nice LONG bench and stopped to have our picnic lunch. The down side of this trail was the lack of bathrooms... the boys all found a place... as boys always do:0)

We did do a little exploring before we turned around to head back. I felt bad for Gregg and all the weight he was carrying. The trail had a bunch of little steep hills to climb. It also had thick stones that were hard to bike through. I volunteered to pull the trailer on the way back. I only had two Little's and was thankful for a few of the times Gregg was able to push me up the hill:0) Unfortunately one of the times he let go of the trailer and he and Eric fell over. No one was hurt. Eric was just a little scared.

Kiersten did great today! She fell asleep when Eric was with her and played with Nathan on the way back. I love that Nathan sings while we are biking. He was singing all kinds of Bible songs on the trail. On the way home he started singing "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" Haha! What a silly little man! We did mange to go a little further this time... 14.26 miles today!!!

~Cake and the Last of the Birthday~

We let Kiersten enjoy some of her cake!

We also let her open the gifts from us. We got her that cute little yellow retro chair! She loves climbing up in it! We are also going to start a pearl necklace for her. We would like to buy one pearl for every birthday until she gets married.

Jared and Aaron earn points at their Kings Kids class at church on Wednesday nights. They both used their points to buy Kiersten a birthday gift. They loved being able to get something for her on their own... and we loved seeing their giving hearts! Eric and Nathan also had some gifts to give. They had gotten some toys at McDonalds that were just not acceptable for our home. They traded them in on girl toys to give to Kiersten. They all had fun wrapping their treasures up and Kiersten had fun ripping everything apart!

~Birthday Garden Party~

It was really hot outside but I think everything went well anyway. I had everything cooked, cleaned and set up in time for a shower and a nap before everyone arrived!!!

I got some mums to help decorate.

I made gift bags for all the girls.

They all got some iced animal crackers, chocolate covered raisins, a princess comb and some handcrafted berets. I also gave them each a pair of butterfly wings.

I printed out a butterfly outline on colored card stock and they glued on foam shapes while they were waiting for everyone to arrive.

I didn't get a photo of the food table but we had sausage and meatball sandwiches with coleslaw and carrot salad. I also served pretzels and chips. We have a lot of leftovers!

I made three different kids of cakes with three different kids of icing. One big cake sounded too boring so I made six butterflies:0) I didn't get a piece yet... I'm going for an orange cake with chocolate icing as soon as I get the chance!

Kiersten was very happy and even did well "visiting" with others. She loved the sausage. I didn't give her a piece of cake yet (not enough time!) but she managed to grab some icing. We will let her eat cake tonight when we give her our gifts.

She did well opening gifts too!

I bought some paper lanterns to hang on a light string because it would get too dark before the party was over. I love how they look! I'll be looking for opportunities to use them again!