Picnics, football, fishing and fun

Friday, Harper was encouraged to invite a couple of people to join her at lunch time for a "picnic on the playground."   She really wanted Saige to come eat with her.  A couple others also joined her.  They had a great turn out for this fun lunch.  

Friday evening we headed to Anderson county to watch Colin's team. 

They played hard but we're not victorious.  

Mike Beckmann took these amazing photos.  I appreciate his photography skill.  

This morning, Preston had a game.  I was on football duty as Jim and the girls were going to the Overbrook fishing derby and we worried that Preston would be late.  Our worries came to be...as the fields were running far behind today.  Preston's game started an hour and 20 minutes late.  

Preston's team also was not victorious.  They tried hard though.  Preston played really well. I was proud of him for continuing to work hard even with a disheartening lopsided score.  

I managed to meet up with Jim and the girls at the derby.  Unfortunately, Preston only got to fish for a few minutes before the time was up.  

Jim and the girls had a great day fishing though!  Quincy landed a couple of really nice fish. 

And Harper caught this 2.9 pound thing which helped her a lot. 

Harper placed 2nd in her age group for biggest fish.  

The event is so nice.  All the kids get prizes and we actually walked away with 3 nice new poles.  Saige won a water bottle.  She has never been happier to win!  

Because Preston was late and didn't get much fishing time, Jim took Preston and Quincy fishing after the tournament.  Quincy was sorry she didn't catch this big guy during the derby, but was happy to land him!  

My boys are all goofy.   Preston was recreating a photo I have of Colin around this age.  

Meanwhile, Cameron was busy making new weird family photos.  Look close, and you will see a copperhead. Yea that is my kid sitting in the middle of a gravel road with venomous snake.  Colin ran over it on their way home from work.  Life is no good unless you photograph your road kills. I blame their father.  

Wild Wednesday

This was one of those days where you look at the calendar and wonder what else you can put on there.  And then you shrug because there's not a thing you can do about it.   Then you jump in rump deep and it all works out.  The Kansas State Bank in Overbrook hosts a sunset stroll in the fall.  It is sort of a localized, scaled down version of the relay for life. They have all sorts of fundraisers and the money raised all goes to cancer research.  The 4-H club usually works at some kids games.   Preston, Quincy, Kyle and Alex worked the first shift.  

They did a good job and had a lot of fun helping the younger kids that came through, but I admit that they were a little distracted by the balloon animal making clown that was there.  I am pretty sure he was the hit of our area!  

After our shift, we ran home and shoveled in dinner and then ran to our first night of religion Ed for the year.   They started a new program that starts in preschool.  We asked Saige if she wanted to go, and she was so excited.  So tonight, she had her first "church school class".  She had a blast!  Ms. Monica is her teacher.  Harper is in her class too and they both loved it!  

Mallory is teaching 5-6th grade RE and has Preston in her class.  He told me it "wasn't as bad as he was expecting!"  I can't help but wonder what he thought she was going to do!   I  am teaching 1st grade this year.  I have an assistant teacher who I have worked with for several years now.  She was gone tonight.  I am not shy in saying I needed her.  I have a lot of kids who can't sit.  I think it could be an interesting year.  

Preston is excited because he taught Glow to stand on her back feet and beg. Goats will do about anything for food!  

And jerry the peacock flew out of his cage.  We are pretty sure we can hear him in the trees, but Quincy is pretty sad that we haven't been able to see him or catch him.  We have put out some feed hoping to lure him back up by the pen, however we also have about 25-30 wild turkeys who think they live with us, so I wonder if they will eat the food!  

Poultry auction

I love craigslist.  It is my secret addiction. Or maybe it isn't that much of a secret.  We don't usually buy a lot of stuff, but I love to look, and I am often amused by the ads.   A few weeks ago, I noticed that there was going to be a huge poultry auction in Onaga today.  There were supposed to be 2000 birds sold.  I was immediately interested!  Quincy and I invited some 4-h friends to go along.  We made a day of it.  

We also talked grandma into going and driving a bird transport vehicle.  

These two are the best kind of friends.  There is so much goofiness when they are together but there is zero drama.  They like a lot of the same things and they want to live together on a poultry farm when they grow up.  They took sale bills and very carefully scrutinized every bird on the place.  They quickly both decided it was the best day of their lives.  

While the big girls were scrutinizing birds, Harper and Saige were discovering that grandma carries mini toothbrushes (throwaway kind) in her purse.  There should be no bidding on birds unless your teeth are immaculate.  

I love auctions.  I do know however that they go one of two ways.  Today was the way of wow we really can't afford to buy this stuff.  We did try though.  At the end of the day we came home with 6 new half grown guineas, 6 brown leghorn pullets, and one peacock who Quincy named Jerry.  

I honestly don't know when I have seen Preston nor Quincy happier.  Jerry is exactly what we needed.  I just hope we can keep him alive.  

At the end of the day, I realized this little endeavor took 9 hours.  But what a fun Sunday! 

A little catch up post

It was a busy week around these parts.  For whatever reason, despite taking photos, I never made the time to throw them on here.  

Preston ran for one of 3 positions on student council with 27 other 5th graders.  He wrote a fantastic speech, had an awesome campaign manager, made fabulous posters, and won the elections.  He also had his first stuco meeting, and says they are on a path to really making Carbondale school a better place.  I love his enthusiasm.  I  am proud of him giving a speech in front of the whole school, and happy that he was successful. 

Harper's abc camp is really fun.  She has made so many cute hats and seems to know what letter they are going to work on next.  She can identify letter sounds and loves her teacher.   I am glad she is doing  well. 

If Harper has a headband, Saige should have one too, right? 

I shared this photo on facebook, but I like to save photos on here.  

Quincy's class wrote a directional essay on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  If the whole class did well, her teacher promised to bring them each a sandwich as a snack.  Mrs. Bolz sent me this photo, so I assume they must have done well at this task! 

The hats are all cute, but p is my new favorite.  The tail.  I love the tail.  

Last night, Colin had a game at Royal Valley.  Right before we left, this storm went right behind our house.  On our way, we heard there were tornados in Paola.  I couldn't help but wonder if it was the same storm. 

This morning, Cameron and I spent about 6 hours parking cars at the River Run in Ottawa.  The kids going on his CWF trip seem like they get along well.  I am guessing this will be an awesome experience. We both should have thought about sunscreen though! 

Tonight Quincy is hanging out with her bff.  They are having a good time judging from the decibel level in the living room. 

While I was in Ottawa with Cameron, Jim took Preston and the fan club to his football game.  

When I got home, I asked Preston how his game went.  He responded with "it was awful!"   Colin and Preston can commiserate I guess.  KSU pulled out a win or we would have to proclaim this a terrible football weekend!