Soccer Season

I was hoping to post a few pictures from the kids first soccer game...unfortunately we were rained out. I say 'we' because (foolish) me talked my friend Kelly into coaching the kids team with me. The only thing I know about soccer is that you may not touch the ball with your hands. But, I figured that for a team of 1st and 2nd grade boys and girls, it couldn't be THAT hard!

Kelly's two boys are the same age as our kids, so they are all playing in the same soccer group this year. The Rec. commision always has a hard time finding coaches (and I use that term lightly - especially when speaking of myself!) and I knew this was the only year that my kids would actually play on the same team, so I volunteered - and begged Kelly to join me!

Our team is quite the Motley Crue! We only have 10 kiddos and one has already quit on us. One is in a cast and won't be able to play for a game or two. You do the math...8 kids are on the field at a time. I'm sure we'll be playing short a few times this season!

We have had several practices and a scrimmage with another team. When we woke up Saturday morning, I was actually nervous! Well, the rain took care of that! The kids were bummed, but I was relieved. So, when we DO finally have a game, I'll be sure to let you know how it went.

Frog Day 2008

I've been participating in Frog Day for about 5 years now. This year was different because I took part as a teacher AND as a parent. Every year, 2nd grade kicks off the year studying about frogs' life cycles and habitats. The final day, every student brings a frog or a toad to school for a good old fashioned frog hopping contest!

The mighty hunters!

I should preface all of this with the fact that Kaela wants nothing to do with frogs. This made hunting for and hopping the frog a bit difficult. Luckily Brady was thrilled with the idea, so last Thursday after school we headed out with our net, ice cream bucket and camera in hand. The frogs weren't too cooperative...maybe it had something to do with Brady yelling and Kaela complaining loudly! Duane managed to get ahead and somewhat alone. Kaela and I continued our search farther back. I happened to look up and saw Duane dancing a jig! He had found one, but was having a hard time convincing it to go in the bucket. Turns out he had caught a leopard frog. My experience with this type of frogs is that they are fast and hard to hold onto. This one proved to be no different.

Here froggy froggy! Come froggy!

Duane was really hoping to catch a BIG bullfrog, but there were none to be found at 4:30 in the afternoon, and none of us felt like going out at sunset...especially Kaela!

We are happy to report that Frog Day went off without a hitch. No frogs escaped (yes that has happened several times in the past) and none were eaten by another frog (yep! that has happened, too!). Kaela never had to touch her frog which made her very happy. Dad rescued her (and a few other kids) by hopping their frogs for them. Her frog hopped 33 inches! The hop of the day went to a bullfrog who hopped 132 inches!

Brady is already looking forward to next year when he gets to have his own Frog Day. I'm sure he'll be willing to stick it out long enough to catch a bullfrog!

Cousins Come Calling

About the only good thing that came from Roger's death last Friday is that Duane's brother, Dwight and his beautiful family came to visit. Hadleigh had just been here a couple of weeks before, but we hadn't seen Lauran and McKinley since May. Kaela was once again in her element. She loves to entertain and keep Hadleigh busy and was constantly asking if she could hold McKinley. Dwight and Lauran said she was welcome to come and stay anytime!

Brady insisted on taking a picture. It took him quite a while to get one, as is evidenced by the look on Hadleigh's face!

Grandma Mary and Hadleigh

Cuties - Kaela and McKinley

Back to School!

The kids and I agree (though I've had a lot more 'first days' than they have!) that yesterday might have been our best first day of school ever! I have a wonderful, very small class of only 10 kids. Kaela is in the other 2nd grade class and already loves her teacher Mrs. Schrag. Brady is in 1st grade and thinks his teacher Mrs. Brandewiede is great.

I had been working very hard to get everyone back into that school mode schedule. We were working our way back to bedtime by going to be a little earlier each day and trying to get them up a little earlier. Then, the Olympics hit! I personally have spent way too many nights staying up late just to hear that National Anthem play as the US brings home another gold. I still get excited thinking about the 4x200 relay when we beat the French!

Here are the usual 'first day of school pics'. Brady refused to wear anything other than one of his "good" T-shirts! We have PE and music everyday, so he insists on being ready to run.

Minnesota

Let me start by saying that Vergas, Minnesota is a LOOONG way from Kansas. We left very early on a Saturday morning and arrived 12 hours later at Loon Lake. Along the drive, we managed to see license plates from 33 states (including Alaska!) and 3 Canadian provinces.

Our cabin was a bit neglected but, after a good vacuuming, cleaned up pretty nicely. Now, Minnesota touts themselves as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". I would like to see the definition of what they constitute as a 'lake', as several named lakes we saw would only qualify as relatively small ponds around here! Their lakes are almost entirely glacial. There are no rivers, streams or spillways feeding them. The water (at least the water we saw) was pretty much clear and the lakes can be very deep. Much different than Marion Reservoir!

Duane and Mary (his mom) were disappointed in the fishing. We went with high hopes and had heard stories of the BIG walleye and northern pike in Minnesota. Unfortunately, they didn't catch much.

Doesn't he look thrilled!

We had some boat trouble, but found a very nice couple who ran a boat repair in a nearby town. They knew we were on vacation and fixed our boat in record time. After that, we gave up on fishing and just spent time relaxing and pulling the kids around in the tube. The weather was beautiful and the smores were wonderful!

Kaela, Brady and cousin Garret.

For those who don't know, my parents are spending at least 6 weeks in Minnesota, so we joined them (along with my brother and his family) for their first week.

The kids had a ball swimming and fishing for perch. I enjoyed just sitting around relaxing. I read more on this vacation than I have had time to in what seems like forever. (By the way, I LOVE the "Twilight" series of books by Stephenie Meyer...in case you're looking for something to read.)

Brady was able to catch perch right off the dock.

Some pics of Kaela and Brady with their cousins Garret and Tatumn.

What a couple of hams!

I'm SO far behind, I may never catch up!

I have heard from some of you about the fact that I'm not keeping up with our Blog. I guess I'm just thrilled that someone is actually looking at it! There will be more coming very soon - I promise.

I know you aren't interested in any excuses, but you're going to get them anyway. I shut down the computer when we went on vacation and when we returned, it wouldn't start back up! So, it took a few days to repair, but is up and running now. Also, school starts in 3 days and I have been busy trying to get my classroom ready.

My final and most legitimate excuse is that Duane's step dad very unexpectedly passed away last Friday. We believe he had a massive heart attack. He collapsed as he came back to work from his lunch break. We could certainly use any prayers, as this has been a hard time for our family.

Enough with my excuses! Please don't give up on me...I will get some vacation stuff posted this weekend!

A Trial Run

We had some boat trouble on the 4th of July weekend and Duane has been working very hard to get it all fixed in time to take the boat to Minnesota. Thanks to Roger's help, the mechanical work is done and we were ready to take it for a trial run.

Dwight and Lauran's oldest daughter Hadleigh is here this week to stay with Grandma, so they went along for a ride. Unfortunately, when we got to the lake a thunderstorm began to brew, so it was a quick test drive. Kaela and Brady also got a brief chance to try out the new tube before the thunder and lightning scared us away.

Can't Believe She's Turning 8!

Since we'll be on vacation in Minnesota for Kaela's actual birthday, we did some early celebrating. Matt, Katy, Garret, Tatumn, Grandma Mary, Memaw, Papa and Grandpa Roger all came over for a family party. I'm not sure if it's normal party food for an 8 year old, but Kaela requested ribs and BBQ chicken for dinner. Delish!

Of course, there HAD to be a Hannah Montana cake...in fact nearly every gift had something to do with Hannah! Probably the most entertaining was the Disney version of Dance Dance Revolution, which we still haven't quite mastered (and probably never will!).

The following Friday, Kaela had some friends over for a sleepover. They went swimming (twice!), made their own pizzas, did some crafts, ate cake and were still going strong at 11pm. I think they all had a good time though and that is what matters the most.

4th of July Weekend

We had such a fun weekend! We met Duane's Uncle Jim, his wife Mary and all of his kids and their families at Marion Reservoir. Duane and his cousin Mitch took Brady and Layton (Jamie and Jamie's) out fishing while Kaela and Kaden (also Jamie and Jamie's) went tubing. I think it is safe to say that a good time was had by all. Layton caught a walleye and was SO excited. Kaela had a ball with her first tubing experience.

On Sunday, we broke out our Big Bertha tube or as I now like to refer to it the "Big Tube of Pain"! I discovered that I am too old for punishment like that. By the time I drove home that evening, I couldn't turn my head to check for oncoming traffic and my ribs are SO sore! Mind you, this is only after one trip on that thing! Here are some pics of Julie, Holly and the kids being flung about. The facial expressions tell it all.

Before calling it a day on Sunday, Brady decided that he wanted to try kneeboarding. Kaden and Layton are already very good, so they showed him how it was done. Jamie gave Brady a lesson and helped him get started. To our surprise, he took off on his first try and he loved it!

Sunny Escapes!

It was inevitable. Almost impossible to avoid. Bound to happen at some point. Sunny the hamster escaped. At 10pm Sunday night, she was getting a workout on her little running wheel. At 8am the next morning, Kaela reported her missing. Of course there was crying and poor Max had to be kenneled practically the entire day, so as not to attack her if he spotted Sunny before we did.

We searched EVERYWHERE, prayed (Kaela for Sunny to be found, me for Sunny to be found ALIVE and SOON before she made a mess of something), set out strawberry and banana bait and finally made a trip to the store for humane mouse traps.

At about 5:30 this morning, I heard something rattling around a plastic Dillon's bag I had left on the floor (FYI, plastic bags are very useful and noisy tools when trying to find very quiet critters!). I flipped on the light, and there she sat. Kaela awoke this morning to a furry surprise and was very relieved. Needless to say, we will be triple checking all cage exits from now on!

Hamsters!

"Mom...can I have a rabbit?" Now, doesn't that make a hamster seem more reasonable? I think our kids are on their way to being masters at negotiation. Ask for the unreasonable (repeatedly) and then nail them with something more reasonable to make the adult feel they have won the battle! HA!

Seriously, they are cute, quiet and pretty easy to care for. The kids love them and are doing a good job of taking care of them. Did I mention that they also had to shell out $50 each of their own savings to buy the cages and critters? (I sprang for the food - feeling generous that day, I guess!)

Kaela named her new pet Sunny. She (?) is a teddy bear hamster. Brady's is a dwarf hamster named Jet. Jet is so small that he isn't able to climb UP the cool tubes that are a part of the cage set up, so we made some modifications and he seems quite happy in his new digs.

We can't forget about our still favorite pet, Max! Had to throw in a picture of him, too. Doesn't he look thrilled? The look on his face tells just how he feels about the 'new additions' to the family.

Feeding the Turtles

A few days ago, we all went for a bike ride and discovered a place here in Hesston called the Dyck Arboretum. I guess we always knew it was here, but didn't know it was so neat! They have a nice walking/biking path around this beautiful pond that just happens to be full of red eared sliders, perch and even a couple of HUGE alligator snapping turtles. Past experience has trained these critters well! The minute the first piece of bread is tossed, they come running (swimming, I should say)! When Mom, Dad, Garret and Tatumn (my brother's kids) came to visit this week, we took them there one morning. Only Brady managed to fall into the pond...this time!

T-ball off to a soggy start

It has been a very wet start to summer around here! We have managed to squeeze in a few t-ball games, though. Kaela plays on a team of 1st and 2nd graders in Moundridge. Unfortunately, they don't have a team for Kindergartners, so Brady plays on a team in Hesston. His team is 5 and 6 year olds, so it is pretty tough to keep the attention spans going, but he has fun playing and that is all that matters. Here are a couple of pics of the kids in action and one of Kaela and her good friend Ellen.

Kicking off our summer

We began our summer vacation with a road trip to Houston right after we were out of school. It is a long drive, but a DVD player always helps with that! We went to see the new addition to Dwight and Lauran's family - McKinley. She is a beauty, just like her sister Hadleigh.



While were were there, Dwight took us out the Brazos Bend State Park. They claim there are more than 600 American alligators living in the park - NOT in cages or pens mind you! We did manage to sneak a peek at a few. I've posted a picture of one that swam out from under the pier we were standing on. Duane guessed it to be about 8 feet long.



There was a nature center at the park as well. They had baby alligators, a snake and even a tarantula that you could touch. Kaela - much to my surprise - pet all three! Brady found a pair of goggles that gave him a "bugs eye view!" Goofball!