Casting Crumbs

A couple days prior to school starting we were pleasantly surprised by a visit from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – in the flesh!

Here is Raphael and Leonardo. . .

I actually couldn’t post these pictures for awhile because of the recent memory associated with them. This was one of the WORST Mommy days of my summer. You can see how loud and obnoxious the house was that day. The fighting was unreal and I almost ran screaming through the neighborhood. But, alas, I can look at them and see my sweet boys looking cute.

Praise the Lord!!

For the past few years Tom and I have tried our hand at a little salsa garden. We have learned a few things about planting tomatoes, but still have a lot to learn. We have fought all sorts of devourers and blight, worms, rats and even groundhogs. Last weekend while we were out of town most of the tomatoes ripened on the vines. It was a beautiful sight to look out the window and see the big plump juicies hanging there! It also screamed at me “You have work to do now!”

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My Parents asked us a few weeks ago if we could squeeze in a trip to Branson before school started. This last weekend was the only weekend we would be able to go, so we did! We had a BALL!!

We got there early afternoon on Friday and headed to Silver Dollar City for the evening. It was really hot, but the park was not crowded so we could ride all the rides we wanted to without standing in lines.

In fact, all the boys went on this Lost River ride 4 times before getting off. They were drenched. This was Jaden’s favorite ride. He would just squeal with delight the entire time. He would beg to back on this ride over and over.

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We have this enormously beyond belief tree in our backyard. It is one of my most favorite things about where we live. It has always had this one limb that Tom and I said would be perfect for a swing someday. Last Summer Tom built a swing for the kids and hung it up. Every so often I see them out there trying it out. I’ve even been known to take a few swings on it every once in awhile.

The Discussion.

. . .The Compromise.

Because of the really hot days, the kids refuse to go outside and play (can’t blame them on that one!) and so they have resorted to other things to occupy their time. Painting is one of those things.

Some day these will be priceless! Just you wait.

I finally got the bike bug after not riding a bike for years! Now we can do another family activity that everyone can enjoy. I am finding so much pleasure in being able to all go somewhere and everyone has fun.

So we did yet another first and visited a local conservation area and rode our bikes. It was a beautiful evening and had cooled down from the hot day. The roads were shady and quiet and it smelled like the farm when I was a kid.

We even saw a deer and some rabbits while riding along.

Here are the boys on their bikes. We are going to put the training wheels on Julian’s old bike to see if Jaden can ride it better. His little bike has to be pedalled continuously in order to keep moving – it doesn’t coast. So his little legs get very tired after awhile.

Evely still has the best seat in the house, behind her Daddy. She likes riding behind and not having all the work of pedalling.

Somehow I didn’t get a picture of me on my bike. Maybe I will post it in a later post. I love it! It’s just my size and purple.