In the good old summertime

Summer seems to be flying by.  Our garden is suddenly full of produce that needs to be taken care of.  Woot.  And girls that need to play.  The littlest daredevil figured out how to climb the slide, promptly fell off, and has a nice bruised cheek that is only now starting to fade.  So much for one year pictures. 

We have a rodent problem.  So far this year we've caught three voles in the garden.  The potatoes were still getting eaten so we decided to cut our losses and dig them early.  We ended up getting some decent sized potatoes and we have more in the potato fridge than last year.  Bob was making a pile and mentioned getting a bucket to put them in.  Helpful little Emmy ran off, "I will get a bucket!!"  We needed slightly bigger buckets.  :)

Sorting the chewed potatoes from the good potatoes.

Helping dig.

 This was the morning that the across the road neighbors got a new roof.  They pulled up chairs to watch.  And tried to shout things to them across the road all afternoon.  *sigh*  I'm not sure how they're related to me.

Cecily was pretty sure we were going to get a new roof the next day, even though U. Dennis had a really long waiting list and we hadn't heard for sure when they could get to us.  Well, guess who was so excited to wake up to "workermans" on the roof.  (Guess who was not so excited to wake up to pounding and thumping? Me.)

 It was so hot.  The heat index was over 100 and we had three guys on our roof- but it didn't seem to bother them.  They worked all day long in long sleeves, took very few short breaks, and didn't leave until the light was gone that night.  I was impressed, I for sure don't ever work that hard, definitely not in the heat.  We were only outside briefly because we are wimps.  They were speaking Spanish and my poor sheltered children were so confused.  "Are they talking Japanese?  Will they have to fly home to go to bed?"  I have failed.  Haha.  The guy driving the dump trailer gave Cecily a bike... with a bent front wheel, but she doesn't care.  It doesn't have training wheels so she thinks it's great.
Watching the shingles get delivered.

 We went to the kids swim time at the pool one morning and had the place to ourselves.  There was an aerobics class in the big pool and Cecily was "mermaid dancing" to their music.  Rather hilarious.  In the afternoon Cecily went to the eye doctor for her pre-kindergarten checkup.  I think she has my eyes... she doesn't need glasses yet, but she probably will.  Poor girl.
Friday and Saturday I was super productive!  I cleaned the house while the girls were at Emily's.  Cadence fell asleep on the way home so while she was napping I weeded the garden and picked beans. The big girls went to play next door at Miss Crystal's while I was in the garden so I didn't have to referee.  Then in the evening I mowed when Bob got home. I stayed up waaay too late finishing my latest sewing project and it was totally worth it.
Saturday I trimmed the boxwoods while Bob and the girls pulled onions because some of them were starting to rot; I'm hoping they didn't have some disease. The big girls helped me peel them and then I chopped them up in my food processor and filled 21 pint bags for the freezer.    Woot!  The whole house smelled and I had to wear my lab goggles to not cry, but hey, chopped onion for soup this winter!
The girls got dropped off at Bob's parents' and I cleaned up and got dessert ready for potluck.  I wore the shirt I finished the night before. (And a skirt I made a while ago. Huh.  I didn't plan that.) Please excuse the cheesy grin and bad selfie.  I was just so excited about that scalloped neckline.  It took me three tries to get it right- hence the 1 am finish time. I love my serger and jersey knit!  Anyway.  Potluck was a good time as always.

After two busy productive days and a Sunday in church, I was pretty worn out but off we went to the annual Koch water fight.   Dennis and Michelene rented this mammoth water slide.  That little purple blur in the foreground is Emmy running away because she didn't want to go anywhere near the slide.  She stuck to the kiddie pools.

Little squishy had just woken up from her nap, but never seemed to perk up.  She also was very warm.... poor baby had a fever and just wanted to sit in my lap, so that's what I did all evening.

 Cecily spent the night going up and down the slide.  She loved it.

And then we came home and crashed.  Well sort of.  I was up a few times with the sick one, but it didn't last much more than 24 hours and she's back to her usual busy, ornery self.
The girls like to help snip beans.  So I let them.  Even though we waste a lot of good bean in the "fetzes" pile.

I finished two rainbow-ish quilts for two rainbow babies.  There's a really quick method to sew jelly-roll strips together and it ended up the perfect size for two little quilts.  Hooray for baby gifts and using up scraps and sewing in the nice cool basement!

 Oh, this picture makes me weary.  Our washing machine didn't have its own drain, it drained into this ancient utility sink and something was clogged.  So I came downstairs to find this.  Ugh.  The coat hanger snake trick didn't work after I had bailed out all the water so we called Tim.

I the meantime I still had laundry and diapers to wash so we went on an adventure to the laundromat.  They were fascinated.

Clearly, I don't get them out of the house enough.  "Look!  Cadence's diapers are going around like a carnival!!"

"Look at them go around, Mom!"  Then they pushed Cadence around and talked to the kind gentleman who just wanted to read his paper while his load dried...

 Tim and U. Howard came today and reworked the laundry/sink plumbing.  Now the washer gets an actual standpipe and its own p-trap!

 And the sink drain now has a proper p-trap (I hate the 60's- especially the plumbing)! And the most beautiful thing of all, a cleanout!  Isn't modern plumbing the most gloriously wonderful thing???  

I'm also very glad we're related to them because within 5 minutes of their arrival the girls had shared our upcoming vacation plans and we left the house to run errands....
It's so hot.  We went outside after supper hoping it had cooled down a bit.  Nope.  Still 93 and humid.  We picked some zucchini and came right back inside.
Blessings.

Farm, First Birthday, and the Fourth

Fair warning: there are a plethora of pictures in this rather long post.   

We went to the farm on Tuesday to hang out and swim.  Mom and Dad got out the cow tank from the good old days and filled it for the grandkids to swim in.   

Gideon and Cadence stuck to the kiddie pool.

 They've also acquired one of these- never would get us one, but anything for the grandkids! Imagine maniacal laughter from Emmy as she drives straight towards you.  In fits and starts, because she's still a little scared of it.

Double trouble.

 Little squishy found the kitchen.

And Emmy found the markers.

We went to the grocery store on our way home and picked out some roses for Cadence's first birthday.  Why yes, I would love to try one!  Silly girl.

Cecily got invited to a birthday party on Wednesday, and Sprout came over for lunch.  She brought Emmy's belated birthday present and helped soften the blow of not getting to go with Cecily.

This little girl found her birthday present and was "driving" it all over the house.  I guess we chose well!  

Emmy got a toy cleaning set from Susan and they were so excited to clean!  Why aren't they this excited when I'm ready to clean for real?

We had spaghetti for supper since it was Cadence's birthday and she seems to enjoy spaghetti.  

A cupcake and cookies!

 We let her open one present.  (Mostly for the sake of the older two. Ha.)

It's my airplane!

Then we enjoyed the beautiful evening with some chalk art...  so typical; Marci is hard at work in her yard and we are not.  

 Emily has been watching the girls for a few hours on Fridays so I started working on Cadence's cake. (For her party.)  I copied two different cakes I found online, and I was pretty pleased with the results.  I made gumpaste flowers, strawberry buttercream, and filled them with strawberry jam.  All over a box funfetti cake mix.  Ha.  Maybe someday I'll learn how to bake a cake from scratch.

The edible paper butterflies are so fun!  I'm not sure I had a theme, but since I made lemon-lavender cookies too, maybe something summer garden-y? It all turned out so pretty.

And I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of the cakes and cookies. I was just so excited at how they turned out. Please forgive me. :)

Impatiently waiting for the guests to arrive! They were driving me crazy so I made them go outside to wait...

So a small, just family, party is not really very small anymore.  Jack and Gideon found the toys.

Cadence opened her presents.

And then migrated to grandma and opened a few more.

And then lost interest so Emmy helped.

 Another cake!

 She didn't even try to stick the butterflies in her mouth!  Shocker!  Usually everything goes in her mouth!

 Yum.  She very daintily ate frosting.

And then decided she was done.

O little Emmy.  Are you ready to go outside?  No, still eating!

Little dare devil.   She doesn't want to swing sitting down anymore.

Here comes Emmy!

Eating dirt.  Dad would react and she would grin.... a lovely black dirt grin.

The teeter- totter with Gideon is probably a better activity than eating dirt.

Bob took the 3rd off work and he filled both pools for the girls.

And brought us snacks to eat in the shade.

 An evening outside.  They dress themselves.  And she's wearing Cadence's new birthday sunglasses.

She likes to help unload the dishwasher.  I only have to rewash a few things...

For the 4th, I cut their sandwiches and watermelon into stars.

 So festive.

 Cadence has been walking more and more, and also trying to climb into her high chair.  She gets stuck and squeals until someone rescues her.

 I dyed half the spaghetti blue so we could have red, white, and blue spaghetti.  Yay pinterest.  One of my children refuses to eat colored noodles;  tri-colored rotini is vile, in her estimation.  But she did manage to choke down a few blue "worms."

Emmy ate jello.  And that's pretty much all she ate.  

 After supper we went to Ron and Kary's for fireworks.  Cadence found a comfy seat. Ha.

They have lots of great toys for the kids to play with.

Cousins!

Mom, can my new friend have a glowing star necklace too?  Sure... what's your friends name? Um, why don't you ask her?  Haha.... oh Cecily. This is Haley, and they happen to be third cousins if you're keeping track.

 I found Grandma's phone!

 Cecily liked the fireworks, though she spent half the time playing.  Emmy wasn't so sure but she was pretty brave.  Cadence was more interested in chewing on glowsticks.

When they were over we had root beer floats while we waited for traffic to die down.  Silly little Emmy enjoyed her snack so much and took so long to eat it, "I didn't get to play with toys any more!"  Poor kid.  Then she was wandering around the house at 3am trying to turn lights on.  It was a late night for them so they slept in, which was great.
They swam a little bit.  And sailed the turtle lid a little bit.

 I heard squealing and found this.  Ayiyi.  

Today we went to Cadence's 1 year checkup in the morning, came home briefly for lunch, and then went swimming in the afternoon.  We went to Summer's pool- she wasn't home, but Mom, Shelly, and Lena joined us.  The girls did pretty well swimming.  Cecily jumped off the diving board a lot.  Emmy started trusting her life jacket and didn't have to cling to someone the entire time she was in the water, which was nice.  They also spent as much time on the swing set as they did in the water.

 Then in the evening I got to hang out with these wonderful ladies! (plus Abree, who was so good we hardly knew she was there.) It was good for my soul.  We haven't all been together for ages.  We met for supper at One World and then went across the street to the Little Raven Creamery for dessert.  I got a cake shake, which was amazing.  Good times, and it made my heart happy.

Blessings.