Thomas the Tank Engine

Since I took Casey to Bob the Builder back in January, I decided that I would do something special for each of the kids. Just with Mom. I'd never really done anything like this before and thought I should. Casey just loved Bob the Builder.

Emily's choice was to see the opening of the Hannah Montana movie in a big theater with movie theater popcorn pop and a giant kit kat bar!! I didn't get any pictures of the movie...But we had an awesome time!!!

Carter's turn came Tuesday. We went to a play called Thomas the Tank Engine and the Circus comes to town. It was very much a musical and encouraged lots of audience participation.

Carter has always loved Thomas the Train and we haven't had the opportunity to see lots of play productions so this was just great! I think Carter enjoyed having Mom all to himself as much as the play. He got to ride up front in the van with me and was watching the speed limit signs. (Because I got pulled over last week and he wanted to be sure I was following the rules that night!)

He was as mesmerized as Casey was with Bob the Builder...
My little boy is getting so big...I even got him to sit in my lap for awhile. I don't get to do that often any more. Carter is my big cuddler.
Carter was enthralled with how everything worked. He kept watching where the lights were shining from and how they were making the engines smoke, etc. Maybe he'll build and create things someday...

The verdict was that it was awesome, even better than movies!! Since Carter loves TV, that's saying a lot!!

I really enjoyed myself. I think we need to do this alone time more often...

And the Winner is....

Carter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, Carter's cub scout pack had their Pinewood Derby! We made 2 cars; Carter made one and Emily and Casey entered one together in the siblings' race.

Carter won every. single. race. he participated in!!! Yea Carter!!!

His pack doesn't do an all around champion, just his tigers raced and the wolves raced each other, etc. But I'm sure Carter would have won that too!! His John Deere green and yellow car was awesome!!!!

Casey and Emily won all of their races too!!!



Here Al is adding some last minute graphite to make the wheels turn faster.

Here's the line up. Emily and Casey painted theirs orange with a pink racing stripe and Carter's obviously is the John Deere Green with the yellow racing stripe.



This race when Carter's car was in the lane next to the yellow fire truck was the closest race there was and he is still a good car length ahead!!!


Carter came over to us after a few races and said, "All I'm doing is winning."



Emily and Casey's car shot ahead of all the siblings' cars too!



This picture was taken the next day, but we NEEDED a picture of Al and the kids because he worked hard helping them! I neglected to make them pose on that afternoon, so I remedied it Monday night.

Checking the wheels even though we won all of our races...

A great day and activity put on by the Boy Scouts!! We had fun working on the cars and racing them. We had fun letting Emily and Casey participate and we had fun watching!!!

I Didn't Bring My Camera...

I didn't bring my camera to the field last night to pick up rocks...

But, if I had...

I would have taken a picture of:

**Emily and Carter "surfing" on the rock bucket of the skid loader as we drove across the field.

**The big, I mean Huge, smile on Emily's face as she drove the skid loader for the very first time.

**The beautiful sunset we watched out in the wide open field. Living in town, you sometimes forget the beauty in the openness.

**My daughter and me doing cartwheels in the cultivated field while the guy helping us dug a really big rock.

**Emily making "poop" out of the mud and showing everyone.

**Carter drawing on the big rocks nobody could lift instead of picking any up.

**Al and the boys in the tractor coming toward us at the end of the evening framed by the setting sun.

**The dirt clod fight Emily and Carter had.

**Emily rubbing dirt on her shirt because she thought it made it look like she did some work.

**The guy who was helping us, a friend of Al's from work, when he took his sunglasses off and had raccoon eyes from all of the dirt!!


I didn't bring my camera, but if I had that's what I would have done.

Kayaking at Sweets Marsh

Okay, so let me start out by saying that next time, I'll get some pictures of the other cool stuff, like the roller system on the truck used to haul my kayak, the dry bag that I hauled my camera in and maybe, if you're lucky, the actual kayak.

For now, it's pictures from the kayak, as I was in it the whole time.

My friend Janette and I went on a two hour tour of Sweets Marsh last night, one of the top 10 bird watching places in Iowa. The wind was really strong and this morning I'm feelin' it let me tell you!

Here we are getting started. We got in the kayak, situated a very little, and went promptly into the cattails!! What better chance to get the camera out and take a few pics, I say!
Janette was scared she was going to drop my camera in the water when she took my picture, but as she would say, "No Worries. It's All Good."

She said here, "Oh should I look all serious?" So we did.

There were soo many cattails. It was fun "sneaking" through them. Sometimes, it was a bit hard to maneuver through them. I'm just guessing this of course.


There were probably at least 25 kayaks and canoes on this little trip. It was such fun! Mostly friendly people all out to enjoy the evening, no matter the wind speed, and spot some birds.

Janette chose the front, but quickly figured out I was much of a steerer.
I told Janette, look that sun is really cool. If you turn around then I can take a picture of someone I actually know in it!! So she did!

I didn't put my telephoto lens on so when I did try to take pics of the birds, they were tiny specs because I didn't leave my camera around my neck to catch the really close ones. Live and learn or buy a new lens. So, the man giving the tour asked what the coolest thing we saw was...The swan! Definitely the swan!

Thanks Janette! I hope you had as much fun as I did! I'll start looking into those races soon....

Impromptu Photo Shoot

These are some photos from an impromptu photo shoot we had at my parents' house when we ate an Easter dinner together there. I thought I looked nice that night, good hair day and new shirt, ya know. Anyway, I handed my cousin my camera and asked him to take some pics of me. The kids and Al joined in and we had a ball! Everyone got to kiss moma and we all laughed a lot!! What better way to spend time with family than laughing!!

Spring Fever

I got the urge to rake the other day because it was sooo nice out and our yard really needed it. I don't rake very often; maybe that is why I always get blisters. I really do wear gloves, but it doesn't seem to matter!

Anyways, the kids were outside too and wanted to roast marshmallows on my leaf pile. The neighbor and I decided to use our campfire ring instead, so the marshmallows wouldn't taste like burnt leaves. Yuck!

This demonstrates my fire skills...
Pretty nonexistant. I burned alot of paper and not much wood. In my defense, it was all a bit damp. My neighbor found some lighter fluid and then we were on a roll!!

Look!! Barefoot in April!! Does it get any better?? Although, it's pretty cold today...
Here, Al is taking a moment to relax before he heads out to the next job....
And this is the marshmallow Carter made for Moma!!!

Casey enjoys a s'more! We really have the camping bug now!! Can't wait!!

I can't wait to use my new kayak either! I'm actually going to try it out tonight!! A friend from work, Janette, and I are going to a marsh near here for a program being put on by our local outdoors store and kayaking and hopefully seeing some wildlife and staying dry!! Should be fun!! I'll try and take pictures...hopefully my camera stays dry; I'd hate to have to buy another one!

Artsy

It was actually kind of warm the other night, so we were outside playing in the yard and I pointed out to Emily and Carter how pretty I always thought the sunset was bouncing off of the grain elevator we live next to.

And Emily said, "You've never taken a picture of it before, Mom."

So I went inside, grabbed my camera, put my boots on and hiked across yards to try and capture the beauty and warmth I see reflected in this plain tin building. And to show, there is beauty in town.

(this picture was more psychadelic and rainbowy in camera; like this one below. I'll have to look at it again. I still think it's cool this way, though)

Taking pictures like this makes me feel artsy; it brings out my creative side. I like that.

Memories

Have you ever seen one of these?

I don't know what it's real name is; I've always know it as a goldfish plant. My grandma had one hanging in her bedroom window that I used to love. Seeing this one and having it for my very own brings back lots of memories for me.
My grandma passed away about 11 years ago and I still miss her. I wish she had had the chance to meet my children; she would have loved them.

I remember having a conversation with her while I was in college about what I wanted to "be" when I grew up. And I remember distinctly telling her that all I wanted was to get married and have children!!!!! She said, "Well do it then!" But grandma, it's not that easy, I said. I wasn't even dating anyone at the time.

Here I am now with everything I wanted and I can't share it with her! She was able to meet Al and see me happy and on my way to my dream, but she died before Emily was born. This does make me sad, but I try to tell my children about her and keep her memory alive. She was one of my favorite people.

I used to go and spend the weekend with her when I was in college. College was in the same town as grandma and mom and dad lived farther away. Anyway, we used to stay up late watching scary movies. She loved them, especially ones with spiders! She was terrified of spiders, but had a fascination with them just the same. I always went to grandma's if I was sick and she took care of me. That is such a nice feeling.

My grandma is also the one who loved crafts; I was always getting homemade gifts from necklaces, to kleenix boxes, and in the later years ornaments for my own Christmas tree, which are very precious to me.

Having this goldfish plant in my house has sparked many fond memories for me. What makes you remember?

And the Winner is....

EMILY!! YEA EMILY!!

FOR HER ENTRY/TITLE:



"EYE DRIVE A TRACTOR"

In the end, since I felt too close to all of the entrants, I asked a photographer friend, Nichole Priebe of Nichole Priebe Photography to do the judging for me. And this one was the one she liked best. As an honorable mention, her second choice was Janette's with the simplicity of "I Spy..."Sorry Janette, I don't have another prize, but I could actually bring cookies for you since I lost anyway!!*smile*

Thanks everyone for playing along! I had fun and hope you did too! I'll work on more contests in the future!!!

I HAVEN'T DECIDED YET....

I haven't decided my winner yet, but I will, I promise. I'm having a hard time deciding what's fair, whether I should draw one since my family wanted to enter or if I mix them up and let someone else pick for me....

I let you know, thanks so much for entering! It's fun!!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Throw Snow Balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(If you look closely at the top picture, you will notice the snowball coming at me that did hit me, but was worth a picture!!!)


(There wasn't any snow on the ground when I left for church!!! Al and Carter had to shovel me a path to my camera by the time we got home!!)