Colin's birthday party

(notice Quincy right in the middle of all these boys? - I think she was actually bossing them around!!)

Colin had requested a birthday party at the pool with all his buds this year. Sadly, we could only seem to squeeze this in on a Sunday evening since we live at the ball park every other evening during the week! He had a great time with all his friends and was very happy that grandma put a baseball on his cake rather than the Barbie that we told him he was getting! Pool parties are a definite bonus in my book - outdoors means that the pool staff just runs a hose on all the stuff they spilled, and there are paid chaperones to keep everyone in line (lifeguards rock!). Also, thank you Grandma Nancy for the awesome cake - the boys loved every last morsel!

We actually had a lot going on this weekend! Other than the birthday party! Unfortunately, I did not do a good job with the camera! We spent part of the afternoon picking blackberries at the local orchard with Jim's folks. The kids had a lot of fun even though it was very hot! We put 3 gallon size bags in the freezer! I am planning to make some blackberry jam, but for now they will just have to wait for my attention in the freezer! The benefit of hanging out at the pool all evening with the moms is that I now have a mom who has said she will give me some starts off of their blackberry bushes! I am very excited to try to grow some of these on my own! She promised me that they are not hard to grow! She may have underestimated my gardening abilities!

Jim's mom also gave us an ice cream freezer that she had in her garage. The kids were curious about this - and then got super excited when we used it to make orange sherbert! SOOO easy and yet so much fun!

We are starting to think about county fair projects. I said think about - not do anything with! We have lots of time to talk about this at ball games - which we have been to every night! This week is no better! Colin is also attending an overnight wrestling camp this week. He is excited because he hasn't been able to go to summer wrestling this year.

Summer is flying by! A few weeks ago I said that the week of Memorial day had drug on forever - well the month since then has completely zipped by! I can't believe the firework tents are up already!

Colin is a teen-ager!

Yesterday was Colin's 13th birthday! He is pretty excited about being a teenager! I took him shopping, but he doesn't want much. He ended up only asking for some fishing line....and I threw in a new shirt! Actually, he has a lot of things that he wants, but won't be getting.....like a jet ski, a boat, a four-wheeler and a few other ridiculously expensive and dangerous toys!

Colin is our busy, social kid. He is forever going fishing with one of the neighbor kids, or inventing some dangerous contraption to fling someone out of, or going to the pool, the batting cages, weightlifting, some sports practice, or just riding bikes around town. He likes showing pigs, and is not afraid of getting dirty! He is a good brother, and spends a lot of time taking Quincy fishing, and pitching to both Preston and Cam. We are truly blessed to have him in our family!

What's been going on around here?

Well, summer is kicking me in the pants! In a good way! We have been incredibly busy having fun. Trying to enjoy the warm weather, and having the kids home!

Good news - we found Harper's glasses - in a cooler in the garage - we have no idea how/when they got put there!

The bad news - we did not find them before I ordered her a new pair!

Madison had her wisdom teeth taken out last Friday. She did great and has healed pretty well. She even started eating solid food again today! Not that she was complaining about a diet rich in ice cream, jello and pudding, but it was time to move on!

Tonight we drove to Carbondale for Cameron's ball game only to have it cancelled due to severe weather....luckily Carbondale is not far! The weather has been a bit on the wild side for quite a few days!

During the school year, I rarely drive anywhere except around town. During the summer, I seem to never stay in Overbrook! Mostly because I have scheduled the kids all their eye exams, dental exams, sports physicals, and a plethora of other appointments trying to avoid taking them out of school. Add that to daily trips to see some pigs and nightly trips to ball parks and we just spend a lot more time in the car! Which brings me to my point. Kids in the car sure come up with a lot of questions! I think its fun to have these moments with them! OH and Jim came so close to hitting a deer tonight that I saw right up her nostrils! It was truly a miracle that we didn't do damage to the van!

Happiness...

Colin and Cameron had an awesome time at KSU football camp! They were especially excited that they got to meet Coach Snyder! He even signed their jerseys for them....and Cam is never going to wear that jersey again - it is now hanging up in his bedroom!

It was a great day for them!

another week bites the dust!

We had another wild week of summer! As part of the beekeeper scholarship, Cam had to give a presentation to the 4-H club. Since his beekeeping meetings generally fall on 4-H night, he had one chance to get this done! He did a great job of taking about his bees and his experiences. He also made everyone laugh when he compared his queen bee to his momma. He could never take anything too seriously!

Colin attended football camp at the high school all week. He had a lot of fun and is now ready for football season to start!

Yesterday, Colin and Cam attended KSU football camp. They were totally stoked that they got to meet Bill Snyder! My friend Marty took photos of the whole event - I will post soon! They said they learned a lot, and that the locker room tour was very cool!

Preston and Quincy both played ball last night, so I finally got to watch Preston play ball! It seems like either I had a meeting or had to take one of the other kids to their games, and had missed seeing him play! He did a great job! Quincy got a hit last night, so she was super happy too! Thanks to Jim letting me know she was up to bat, I got to see this as well!

The kids have battled the flu this week, so that has not been very fun. It even caused a little bit of trauma, as the girls had a friend in from Virginia, and we had to postpone her coming by so she didn't catch any germs from us! They had a great time visiting with her and it all worked out well!

Yesterday, I ordered Harper a new pair of glasses. I am not sure where she put the other pair, but we decided after a solid week of having every afternoon/evening dedicated to looking we were not going to find them....and if we do - well having a spare pair is never a bad thing right? My kids suggested putting a beeper on the new pair so if they get lost we can easily find them! The good news is that several closets have been cleaned out in the process!

Now we are just getting a little weekend action in so that we can gear up for another wacky week of summer!

St Anthony???

see these cute little glasses? we don't! Harper has put them someplace where even St. Anthony cannot find them!

The LONG short week

With Monday being a holiday, one would think that this would have been a very short week, but it seemed like the longest week ever! We had a ton of stuff going on! I love summer and all the activities, but this week was ridiculous! The kids had a ton of ball games. Quincy was very excited to get to play catcher....however after telling the umpire to go get the ball - I am not sure how much she will be playing in that position!
Madison spent the week at State Band camp sponsored by the Lions club. She said that it was a lot of fun, but a BUNCH of work. She made some friends, and learned a lot! I have to say that I was amazed by this camp. She was there for 5 days....in that time they learned 14 songs for a concert on Saturday. There were 197 kids from all across the state....to me to bring this many kids together and get them focused enough in 5 days to learn this many songs is amazing....and they sounded AWESOME! That is not all - they also learned ensemble songs for a second concert as well as some jazz numbers that they performed as well! Totally amazing! Madison said that the 10 hours a day that they practiced tended to feel a little bit long, but I am telling you it was amazing to hear them play together!

Ball games, ball games, more ball games. The kids are having fun, and are all on pretty good teams this year. Cameron has decided that he bats better if he wears this "sleeve" - not sure what the secret is to the sleeve but he has been hitting really well!

Harper has learned that the best place to be at the ball park is at the concession stand....she was digging for money in Madison's purse. Instead of stopping her, Mallory took her picture! :)

Cameron attended 'Beekeeper Fun Day' on Saturday. Jim reported that it was steaming hot, and almost miserable because of the sun beating down on them with no shade, but he also said he learned a lot! Cam even took part in the live swarm demonstration, and this video shows him with bees crawling on his hand....he stuck his hand in a swarm of bees and then carried a few around with him! My BRAVE boy! Cam may be having a little too much fun with this project!

Colin attended basketball camp this week. He seemed to enjoy it, although he is not the most fond of playing basketball, anything beats staying home! We shared rides with a friend of his. The friend got hurt on the last day of the camp, and I was absolutely sure he really was hurt because the kid was so stinking quiet on the way home. This is a kid who normally never stops talking!

Jim, Colin, Cam and Quincy are now fishing because Cabellas has turned a 2.2 million dollar fish loose somewhere in Kansas and they really want to catch that fish! Quincy is convinced he is in the Overbrook fishing lake! He could be! Quincy and Cameron have been night crawler hunting every evening, and had a huge bucket full of bait so if they catch the big money fish, it will be with free bait!