Just keep swimming...

We jumped straight into our busiest week of the summer... swimming lessons and bible school in the same week!  It was great fun... or something.  

Emmy got to start lessons this year.  She did great!

 Poor little Cadence does not like to be left behind.  The first time I took her in her clothes.... bad idea. She was so. so. mad. Screamed for pretty much the whole lesson because she wanted to get in the pool too. 

 So I asked and they said it would be fine if she splashed in the kiddie pool during lessons.... the rest of the week went much better.
Bob taught Bible School so he took the older girls with him in the evening and Cadence and I got to spend some quiet evenings at home.  
On the last day of lessons for the week they get to jump off the diving board.  Cecily doesn't hesitate.

 Emmy's a little bit less adventurous.  The lifeguard pretty much handed them down to the water.

 Just like the big girls and so now I'm happy!

 She dressed up all on her own.  Silly kid.

We watched Grace and Eden Friday morning.... I think the craziness of the week was getting to them... there were two incidents involving blood.  *sigh*  I was glad that Bob had the day off to help with the fallout.  We were all glad that it was Friday and the last night of Bible School.
Marci invited us over for a cookout Saturday evening.  The girls insisted on swinging.  I'm not sure if I can show Luci's little's face so I won't, but she's adorable. Then they had lots of fun playing with Marci's old toys.  They wanted to come back the next day...    

 We went out to eat with Bob's family for Father's day and then chilled at home for the evening.  
I made frozen hot chocolate one evening.... Cadence was a fan.

 So I used some of the fabric my neighbor friend gave me to make myself a shirt.  I loved the blue and orange flowers... because I love blue and orange... even though it is sort of vintage/70's-ish.  

 We had four more days of swimming lessons.  Cadence had lots of fun splashing with Laural.   

 One last time off of the diving board for Emmy. 

We celebrated the end of our super busy two weeks with McDonald's.  They wanted to eat it at the little table.   

 Friday night Pinky's.  We split a whirlwind, but she insists on having the cup it came in... 

It was our turn to serve lunch at church on Sunday.  Always exhausting.  And it was a small Sunday so we had GOBS of food left.  Is that even a word?  Extreme excess.  So. Much. Too much.  We gave most of it away but still...
After a few hours to regroup we went to the Sunday School picnic.  The girls had a great time.  Cecily played with her friends, Emmy spent most of her time on the swings, and Cadence thought the pool full of drinks and ice was awesome.  And then we tried to go home and Cadence threw a huge fit because she didn't want to leave...
Donuts for breakfast!  Haha.... so after two days of donuts for breakfast they were completely uninterested in donuts and asked for cereal.  It feels really wrong to be pushing donuts on them... but they're not going to last... I don't want to waste them...

 Luxury resort in our own backyard...

 The library had a reptile program on Tuesday.  Cecily touched every snake and lizard they had.... Emmy's body language!  She was not quite as interested. Ha. She ended up coming back by me and Cadence.

This was a big snake. 

 Then they brought out an even bigger snake!  And she's holding it!  

 Cadence was getting a little restive but she was happy to pet the tortoise at the end.  

One of these days we'll have time to relax this summer.  
Blessings.

Baking Day

So I don't remember where or when the idea originated, but Michelle and I have been tossing around the idea of having a baking day with Grandma and Pearline for quite a while.  They are both excellent bakers and it's one thing to have a copy of someone's recipe- but if you don't know their methods or process you can end up with completely different results.  And, if you're like Gram and Pearl, what you write down on the recipe card and what you actually do in the kitchen can be completely different things!  Shells had the recipe typed up with room for notes and I think my notes are longer than the original.  Haha.  

Anyway, we've been talking about this for a while and done nothing and finally Michelle stepped up and set a date.  It was the day after Clayton's baptism and it was pretty much the perfect day since the Klopfenstein girls were all in Illinois; all 8 granddaughters could be there!  We were only missing Kayla, but Pearl said she's already had a few lessons.... :)  

We rented the Goodfield Fellowship hall for the day.  It was perfect.  

Cadence and Gideon explored the playground and dried off the slides for the other kids.

 Grandma and Pearl were ready to dive right in and we were not quite all there yet.  

"Now Kacie, you need to tie your hair back! Nobody wants a hair in their cinnamon roll!" Kacie writes on paper: Tie hair back.  hehe. 

Wait, slow down and explain what you're doing!   

 They use the same recipe but they each do it slightly differently.  So fascinating.

I borrowed this picture from Alyssa, I love it.

 Busy kneading their dough.  We made 5 batches of their cinnamon/ caramel roll recipe... we used all 12lbs of flour.  

 We ate lunch while the dough was rising. We may aspire to be like them, buuutttt... we ordered pizza instead of cooking.  Bob took the older girls to swimming lessons in the morning and brought them over in time for lunch.  

 After lunch it was time to roll.  Or braid!  Pearline makes a delicious braided and frosted bread from roll dough.  It's one of my favorites. 

 And Grandma showed us cinnamon rolls.

 Lots of brown sugar, lots of cinnamon, lots of butter.

 Then we tried...  ours are not quite as uniform as theirs are.  

 We were running out of counter space!  

 Grandpa came for a bit.

My girls thought the playground was great and were in and out all afternoon.  Abby and I happened to look out just as Boden was pulling up his pants- the look of horror on Cecily and Emmy's faces were hilarious.  "Mom!  He peed on the sidewalk!" Haha.... yes, you're not used to little boys.     
We used the convection ovens and the double oven and got 17 pans of cinnamon and caramel rolls, 4 loaves of braided bread, and 2 pans of dinner rolls done in record time.  They got a hurried frosting so the Indiana-ites could get on the road.

 A picture of the girls and Grandma and Pearline + Adelaide.  

It was such a fun day and such a blessing.  It's always good to spend time with Grandma and Pearl and my cousins.  It was also really nice to have some of the aunts/mom there to keep an eye on the great-grands so we could not be so distracted.  :P 
I went home feeling very blessed.

And it's summer already

Emmy decided one afternoon that Little Baby's birthday was the very next day and we needed to make her a cake, and go shopping at menard's for her birthday presents.  I talked her into making cupcakes (that we shared with the neighbors- I do not need cupcakes sitting around) and shopping in my closet for a present for Baby. She's getting pretty good at cake mixes.

And Baby was delighted with the Russian nesting doll I use to demonstrate electron orbitals and valence shell electrons...  We sang happy birthday at lunch time and had baby's favorite lunch (coincidentally, also Emmy's favorite). 

 We went to Cecily's first field day.  It wasn't too hot, just nice and sunny.  They thought they were pretty cool eating snacks under my umbrella.

Can you find Cecily in this picture?   

 When picking clover flowers is more exciting than races.

 They know how to turn the hose on and so they get wet every time we go outside.

 The last of the peonies and catmint.  So pretty, but so sad since spring is my favorite.

So there was a fundraiser thing at the coffee shop that included meeting dogs available for adoption.  We're NOT getting a dog, but we did go share a smoothie and eat cookies. 

 And then we looked at the "puh-puh!"  Cadence was so excited about the dogs she wasn't sure what to do.    Emmy was nervous and wanted to go home, and Cecily, the cat lover, was completely indifferent.

 We got the pool out!

 Memorial day was hot.  Cadence thought the dirt under the table was more interesting than the service.  

 The other two were very patient and we headed to the playground when it was done.

 We visited Grandpa Beutel in the afternoon.  They behaved fairly well.... mostly.

 Cecily had one more day of school after Memorial Day!  Last day of Kindergarten and she picked out the same dress to wear as the first day of school.  It's slightly shorter.... hehe.  And she has a few more missing teeth.

It's crazy how fast she learned to read- I was bracing myself for a struggle since my earlier pre-school attempts were not well received. But she suddenly can read books to her sisters!  

 I was in the mood for pie and I really wanted to remake the Apple-Berry pie I'd thrown together for teacher appreciation.  Because, you can't really try and taste test a pie.  If you cut a slice out it's not like you can hide the fact that there's a slice missing.  And then my little baker wanted to make her own little pie too.  We had just gotten a library book about a girl who makes a little pie so... yeah.  

 The beginnings of a miniature "All Season Peach Pie" from the Farm Journal Complete Pie Cookbook.  I'm telling you, you'll never need another pie cookbook, at least not for fruit pies.  

 Cadence helped out by shaking pepper all over the butter and trying to get the knives.  
Supper was late, but Emmy was very pleased with herself and her cute little pie!    

 We spent an afternoon at the farm with Jack and Gideon.  They splashed a little bit and played.  The girls did not get through their list of things they want to do at Grandma's house so they were not very happy to leave.

 Bob helped them create a feast of grasses and seed pods and moss one afternoon....

Uncle Dennis and Aunt Michelene rented this large water slide again this year.  Bob took the older girls early; Cadence was heartbroken to be left behind to take a nap.  She loved the slide when we got there.

And the cupcakes. 

Bob is such a good sport. 

Up and down over and over... 

Last Sunday night my Mom started texting me pictures of the breeding room in flames...  I was really kind of jealous that I was missing out on all of the excitement!  They called in a bunch of different departments (for the water trucks) and the Red cross brought refreshments and it sounds like all kinds of people were there.... and I was at home.      Woe is me. :) And woe is the hog house.   

 So of course we had to rearrange our schedule to check it out the next day.  Gideon was there again.

It was probably an electrical fire and when I was trying to explain to the girls I suggested that possibly a mouse could have cut a wire- Emmy: "how did a mouse get scissors?  he couldn't open them up without hands!" Ok, forget the mouse, we don't know how or why it started... haha. Also, she knows all about hog houses. Silly kid.

 Burned curtains that Fred and Di saw in flames from down the road.

 The firemen pulled the ceiling down to get to fire in the attic, so the actual fire damaged less than it appears.

Thankfully this part of the building was empty- they haven't used the breeding room since they sold all the sows (which I'm still slightly bitter about since they didn't consult me, nor have they offered to teach the girls about the birds and the bees, and keeping the sows would have made everything so much easier).  If there were pigs in there, Dad and Fred would have been in a burning building getting them out. So, praise the Lord it wasn't worse!  
I'm still a little bummed I missed the excitement.
I took the circus to Sam's to stock up for bible school, baking day, and summer laundry.  We ate lunch there.  Ooo!  And I saw an old work friend!  That was unexpected and fun!

Three girls and a cart full of stuff. 

 They were in awe of the large lake float things.

Cadence was very quiet one morning.  I found her curled up in Emmy's bed with the chapstick collection.  It went back up on a high shelf. 

 Meg's kids came to play and I had seven kids around the table for lunch.  Poor David is a little bit out numbered.  

Our sandboxtire seems to shrink a little every year.   

We went to merchant's day Thursday morning.  It was hot.  We got Kona ice, which they love, and which thing I hate.  It gets all over the stroller and their clothes and they never finish them... ugh.  There was a puppet show that they thought was hilarious.
And then the moment they have been waiting for..... and I have been dreading.... buddy night at the T-fest carnival.  

 I wasn't really planning on Cadence going on the rides because she still seems really young and not tall enough.  But.... the big girls had barely started this ride when she realized that she was missing out and she wanted to be in the little car too.  There were very dramatic tears.  

 So she got to ride the little train.

 Not the dragon.  O dear little Emmy was so excited to go on this ride again and her face looks only slightly less pained than last year.  She did manage one little wave before grabbing the bar for dear life again.  Hehe.  She says she liked it?    

Carousel!  I rode this once with Cadence too and when the horse stopped moving and I said it was all done she shook her head No.  She waved at me once when she went around with Daddy.   

 And we were almost out of tickets and were just going to have the big girls ride the mini Ferris wheel but the dramatic tears started again and they let her squeeze in with sisters.

 The girls and I walked up Friday afternoon to go to the book sale and got short cake and lemon shake-ups to share.  

 And popcorn.

Cecily asked to get popcorn (for 50 cents) and Emmy didn't want to share with her so I let her get her own bag.  Then Cadence, not to be left out, walked over to the machine and just stood there looking expectantly at Leah waiting for her popcorn too.  It was rather cute, so I gave her some quarters for popcorn too.  
We took sandwiches home for supper and that concluded our Turkey Fest for the year.  
Saturday I didn't get a whole lot done, I need to paint the windows outside but it was over cast and they were calling for rain.  So I didn't do that.  And I didn't want to get dirty working outside and need to shower again so I was mostly just lazy inside.  
In the evening we dropped the girls off at the condos and went to my cousin Clayton's testimony.  It was a good night.  But, the girls were up late and slightly grumpy which always ends the night on a sour note.  
Today we went back to 'Grandma Kathy's church' for the baptisms.  Cecily went to Sunday school no problem, Emmy was a little bit more hesitant.  But she went and she was fine.  I had Cadence in the morning and she did pretty well, until she saw Gideon go out and then she packed up her stuff and decided she was done too.  *sigh* I got to sit with the big girls in the afternoon and I think they spent most of the service distracting Aunt Rachel.  We didn't stay long afterwards because Cadence was a mess.... 2 pm naps are great until you have a long Sunday....  It was still a good day.  Lately I've been feeling that so many, if not most, of my prayers are not being answered.  But.  Clayton is an answer to prayer.  And we are so glad.  Even if, as Emmy told me, "You shouldn't be friends with Clayton because he will tickle you."  Hehe.
Blessings.