Teach a man to fish...

The city is hosting a week long fishing clinic.  Jim was pretty excited about it, and these 2 hooligans were too!  As a matter of fact, when weather pushed it back a week, Quincy had a near panic attack because she thought she would miss it.  

When I went to pick them up, I couldn't help but notice 2 things.  1- Quincy was severely out numbered (as in NO other girls there). 2- Quincy was by far the dirtiest kid being picked up.  Apparently she took the lessons to heart.  I was amused by how much stuff they learned today.  "Wind from the east, fish bite the least, wind from the west, fishin' is the best" and a few other things!   Today they were fishing for bluegill.  Not only did they learn to fish for a specific breed, but they learned how to tell males apart from females, and what size is a good one for eating small fish.  

Quincy caught 4 bluegill and Preston caught 3.  Tomorrow, they are fishing for crappie.  

Speaking of fish....my kids love to swim.  No amount of it being 75 degrees can convince them that there will be warmer days ahead.  It's summer, the pool is open, we must swim!  Grandma buying new goggles did nothing to help my "but it's cold" argument!  At least their eyes were warm!  

Memorial Day weekend

On Friday, the 3 little girls went back to Brookside for "Generations Day."  I am not sure what that is, but they had farm animals, carnival games, costumes and funnel cakes.  Madison had to work making funnel cakes, but there was plenty of entertainment for the girls!  They had a great time hanging out and enjoying the day!  

The big kids mostly had to work over the weekend.  They do tend to have a great time when they are actually home though, including a cook off between the bbq master and the pastry chef.  

Bbq master's Saturday boss gave him a gift.  Overalls.  He was super excited.  He wore them to work without a shirt.  Hello farmer's tan!  

On Saturday, the 4-H club helped serve the Overbrook Rural High School Alumni Banquet.  Preston and Quincy weren't real excited about it to begin with.  After a while, they said it wasn't that bad.  

Luckily, it didn't take that long to serve lunch and clean up the mess.  They were rewarded with lunch and a check!

Memorial Day weekend is always the opening weekend for the city pool.  Our pool had a little issue over the winter (we are not sure exactly what happened) which resulted in the ruination of the liner. We will be saving up money for a new one, but for this season we are going to be frequenting the pool in town.  In my opinion, the water is far too cold for swimming to be enjoyable, but it isn't the first time I lost that battle!  

Nobody seemed to notice their blue skin and they begged to go back!  Cameron was nice enough to spend a couple hours with them on Sunday too!  

Preston got the game "Family Fued" for Christmas.  He then put it away and forgot all about it.  He found it this weekend and the kids had a blast playing their own warped version of it.  

The bbq master is teaching some of his secret skills to his little brother.  I find it incredibly sweet.  

Quincy found this beautiful snake in the flower bed.  We did a lot of research and are pretty sure she is a scarlet kingsnake.  We did name her (at Quincy's request) and then we let Rosie go.  Kingsnakes are known to kill venomous snakes, so we are happy to let her live in our yard. 

Today, we attended the Memorial Day mass at the cemetery, and then had a project day here at our house.  We are building a pen for the chickens that we hope will keep Curley out.   She has a mild chicken food addiction.  Poultry netting is no match for her.  

She really loves Jim.  Wherever he is, she will be there helping him.   Little did she know that she was the main reason for the new pen.  

We are also building a billy goat pen, and we upgraded the pig into a condo compete with a wood floor!  

The kids worked hard with Jim today.  We all got a lot done.  

And just like that, the three day weekend is over!  

Throwback Thursday

Brookside had a throwback to your wedding day today.   Aunt Geraldine had her wedding dress and my mom recently found the flower girl dress that she had worn in Aunt Geraldine's wedding!  Since she was around Harper's age when Geraldine got married, she asked Harper to come and model the dress.  They had a fashion show with a lot of dresses and they also had some smaller dresses, so they dolled up Saige and they were both in the show!  

Modeling the flower girl dress while  in front of Great, great Aunt Geraldine's wedding dress. 

They let some of the residents talk about memories of their wedding day.  It was a neat day and I know Aunt Geraldine had a good time.  

Play ball!

Saige was so excited to have a t ball practice last night.  She has had several cancelled due to rain.  She got lucky and is on a team with a bunch of her cousins.  Should be a fun summer!   And if the  game goes to heck, she will have a bunch cousins to get her back during the t-ball brawl!  

Quincy had her first official game tonight at Lyndon.  She started the game at pitcher.  She did a great job there!  She had several strikeouts and caught a pop up that was behind her.  It was fun to watch. 

She also played catcher for a couple of innings.  She did a great job there as well.  It's a good position for her.  She had a couple of great hits as well.  

Preston had his first game this evening also.  He rode to the game with his bff since we were in Lyndon.  We got to the game just in time for him to be up to bat. Good timing!  

He played 3rd base.  He had a couple of great outs there and had a great hit with an RBI.  

His game got called due to lightening.  They played Eskridge.  On the way home we heard there was a large tornado on the ground in Eskridge.  I hope they all made it home safely.  

They did play long enough to have it called as a game and Preston's team won!  They honestly looked great!  

Weekend in a nutshell

We had one of those weekends where I end up happy to go back to work just so I can sit down for a while!  Interestingly, we didn't have much on the calendar, but things just kept getting added until I said is there anything else we can do in 2 days?  ;)

Mindy seems like she has settled into her new role as a house cat.   She is even doing well with potty training.  She does tend to want back outside.  For now we are distracting her.  When she gets bigger she can go out if she wants to.  

On Fridays at the Overbrook library, they are hosting some great programs, and of course they coincide with summer reading.   Quincy was not happy when I brought home the list!   I made a deal with Preston and Quincy that if they would take the little girls to the programs and check out books with the intention of reading them, then they could go fishing afterward in the city lake.  Every Friday.  Fishing is on the list of Quincy approved activities, so she agreed.  This Friday, they had a tropical bird show.  Quincy frowned about it but knew her part of the bargain.  The 4 younger kids came back absolutely thrilled and impressed.  Quincy included.  She said the birds were amazing!  Score one for mom!  

Saturday and Sunday the fairboard hosted a spring show.  We don't have any animals that would be ready to show, but we did agree to help with the concession stand.  We made breakfast burritos and cookies.  We also worked several shifts.  I think it was very successful.   I wasn't in charge so I guess we will wait to see exactly how successful!  

Saturday was a big opening day in Carbondale for all their ball teams.  Quincy's team was invited to a scrimmage game.  Her team came together late, and it has rained several times when they were supposed to practice, so we knew they were not quite ready to play yet!  

But Quincy and her sidekick felt like they had it all under control!  I love how these girls get along.  It's good to have a bff!  

Quincy played catcher while Landrie pitched.  She did awesome snagging balls. I don't know that she's really ever played that position before but she did great!

She also had a few great at bats. 

She finished out the game at pitcher.  She has not really been pitching very long, and hasn't practiced much yet.  She did great!  She had several strikeouts and a few girls hit off of her!  It was awesome.  

Her form reminds me a lot of Madison.  If she is enough like Madison...then we know all we have to do to get her to throw hard is make her mad!  

Because we didn't know about Quincy's game until the last minute, the kids were sort of bummed about missing "summer fest" at church.  Colin and Cameron had both signed up to be on horseshoe teams in a tournament there, but I figured that wasn't adequate watching for them. Luckily, when Aunt Amy stopped to buy a pulled pork sandwich, she offered to take them!   Harper and Saige had a great time playing the carnival games and getting their faces painted! 

Preston took second place in the free throw contest and got a trophy!  I was glad they got to go.  Colin and Cameron probably won't be leaving for the professional horseshoe throwing circuit anytime soon!  

Usually, I love Sunday as a day to relax and get ready for the week.  Sometimes, it just doesn't work out in my favor!