If your horse says no, you either asked the wrong question, or asked the question wrong. ~Pat Parelli

And summer is finally here! The kids are now telling me they don't need to go to bed cuz its not dark time. Which really lately doesn't even matter cuz we have been pretty busy. Chris had softball on Tuesday so the kids watched one game while I worked then I picked them up while Chris played his second game. Yesterday the kids and I went to a baby shower. While we were there the kids helped Justin landscape their yard and they didn't get to bed about 9:30. Today Zoey's class had a pizza party at the park. She was actually sleeping when I went to pick her up and she finished her nap in the car on the way home! Later we met up with some friends to ride horses. Well not me, I just wanted the kids to learn and feel comfortable around the animals. They each had a turn on the horse. We watched J.O. rope steers for a while. The kids got to take turns letting the steers out to be roped not to mention climbing on round bales and feeding the horses from their hand. They had a good time. Its been sunny and in the 80's here. Seems that everyone in town has lilacs which are in bloom and smell great where ever we go. Did I mention that I even have one in bloom?! Apparently we got one with the house in addition to the three we planted a couple of weeks ago.

Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed. ~Charles Schulz, P

Today was a great day for field day! It was sunny, but definitely not too hot. All of the kids were so excited about the races to run and what they were going to wear to make them run faster. This wasn't quite set up like when I was in elementary school, but the kids had fun. They started out with tug of war. They did like boys vs girls and kids vs teachers etc. Then they moved on to the three way tug of war. Next we walked across the street to Sunflower Park where they had running races and gunny sack races and then relay races one with a ball between your knees. One with a spoon and a fake egg (for less mess when they drop) and one with an actual baton. I would like to add that my cousin's son Isaiah had track and field day today in which he participated in 8 actual track and field events (long jump, softball throw, 50 yard dash etc.) He won first in all 8 events!! That is fabulous Isaiah!

I hope over the weekend I can start getting some before and after pics of the house on the blog. I'll try. Chris did get the back door put in yesterday, so I am guessing that the nasty old deck will be torn down shortly.

New Mile Stones

Isaac has gotten his first loose tooth! Most of his friends teeth have already grown back in so he is one of the last ones. Unfortunately, at first it was pretty painful for him. He is doing well now, but I think he'd rather keep his teeth than have the tooth fairy come. However, he does plan to get rich off this scheme. We asked him how much he thought the tooth fairy should bring, $100 he says. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

He is doing so well though. He has 13 days of Kindergarten left with Field Day on Friday and a program on the last day of school. He is excited about the songs he gets to sing. He has been referred to the summer GATE program. I don't have all the info yet, but its just stimulating stuff to keep him going through the summer. I signed him up for Kid's Camp @ the rec center instead of sending him to daycare. And I signed him up for tball too. Not sure both programs mix yet, but he's signed up. I got Zoey signed up for free gymnastics, so we have that going on too. The weather warmed up for a couple of days (upper 80s) so the kids are over joyed about shorts and sandals and sprinklers! It'll be back to the 60s or so and rainy by the weekend, but the sun is nice while its here.

Bless this house with love & laughter

Happy Mom's Day to all my MOMs!! The kids made cards and are in the mail.

I had a good mother's day. It was kinda drug out all week. I started with flowers made at sunday school from both the kids. They cut out the flowers and put them in a vase made from a soup can and they colored something mom likes on it. Zoey was the first to answer-her teacher says. "My mom likes to ride hippos!" And so she drew a hippopotomus on her vase. Ike drew flowers. May be I do like to ride hippos, but to the best of my knowledge I have not actually tried it yet so I am pretty unsure about the whole idea. Thursday Isaac brought home his silouette. I was so frustrated cuz he wasn't going to let me see it until mother's day. It was pretty cool! Zoey made more flowers at daycare and also a heart shaped candy basket of which I didn't get much of the candy cuz the kids horked it. Saturday I got my gift from the kids and Chris cuz Chris works on Sundays. He got me two lilac bushes!! It would be so cool to cover at least one side of the chain link fence with all lilacs. We'll see. On mothers day I slept in until 8:30am! The kids gave me a card with Snoopy on it saying Thanks for all the times they forget. I put boarder up in my kitchen/dining room. It went pretty well too. The only trouble I had is the tile floor in the kitchen is slightly raised compared to the hardwood floor in the dining room so the border is totally crooked! oops. The borders says "Bless this house with Love and Laughter". After that I did some yard work. Mowed the lawn and started cleaning out what was probably the last owners garden. He threw so much junk in there thou. So we are getting a start anyway. Chris and the kids took me out to eat for supper. I kept telling Ike that he had to take me out for supper cuz it was my day and he was pretty concerned about whether or not he had enough quarters.

Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while she mops up the floor after her husband has walked across it in his barn boots. ~Hoosier Farmer

SUPER excited to start working on the house. We bought trim a while ago. We ordered a new back door and are getting doors for the laundry and pantry upstairs!! The boarder I ordered for the dining room came in so I need to find time to put that up. I am super hoping we can start ordering supplies for the deck. The sooner that gets up the better!! Dinner parties/ grilling out here we come. Or should I say sanding, varnishing, wallpapering, painting and installing here we come?!

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. ~Rita Rudner

This is kinda weird, but I was thinking how if we got a babysitter--which in and of itself is a whole conversation, but IF we did I would probably instruct her not to answer our telephone. 9 times out of 10 its a telemarketer and those of you who have called know that we have strong issues with the fax machine. Which by the way I have been told that I am right to unplug it and that hanging up on it just doesn't work. So as I am having this random thought go through my head it travels once again to the fact that my 6 year old and 4 year old do not know how to use a phone-- in general. I have thought about this once when we lived in Montana. So I used my cell phone to call the home phone and found out that my kids couldn't reach the phone to answer it. Which of course also means they could not call 911 if any of us were to need assistance. It was odd to realize this. But of course we moved on. and on. and I should probably check in on the situation. There are things like proper phone manners, or emergency situations and whatnot. I know my kids can reach it know, but my kids still don't answer the phone and even on rare chance we tell them too, they look at us like you want me to do what, why? I am sure I was answering the phone by the time I was six. I am sure I probably crawled onto the counter and used the rotary dial phone with a short cord on it to bug grandma down the road ten times a day. It was exciting to answer the phone and see who was calling. (Heck, it was exciting to get a push button phone with a long cord on it) But we have caller ID now so if it is a telemarketer, I tell the kids that it is someone I don't know and I don't need to talk to strangers. So we don't have an immediate response to the phone and neither do the kids. I was letting Isaac get used to my cell phone to call Chris, but with my new phone--I'm just not ready to go there yet. Like I said this is an odd topic, but I just think it is so weird how things have changed in just a short time.

The rules of soccer are very simple, basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn't move, kick it until it does. ~Phil Woosnam, 1974

I have to say I LOVE watching my kids play soccer. I had no idea what to expect. Especially since when we kick the ball around at home, Zoey just lays on the ball and the game is over. So far she has only done that once. But they really like it. And they are both at the age where they skip across the field, waving at Mom, saying watch me, watch me.

First Soccer games.

Happy Easter

Nap time. Note Zoey's not really sleeping.

Kyle and his french horn.

Isaac and Dugan like being twins.

We had a ton of easter egg hunts, all very fun!

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

Just a couple of super quicky updates.

Last Friday was Zoey's first time turkey hunting. Chris may not have gone due to the snow, but Zoey woke up ready to go, so they trecked in the snow-- with no luck of finding a turkey. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Zoey is going to go to speech therapy this summer to catch up on some sounds she should have had quite a while ago. She does great when others ask her to, so it should clear up fast! She is still working on her power pinch--I will remind her and she says "Not now Mom."

Last week in between snow days, she had a field trip to the airport. She says "Mom, we didn't even get to ride the airplane." I ask "Did you want to?" of course her answer was "Not really." I think she was more impressed by the fire truck they keep there. The kids got to climb on that and they were spraying water so some of the kids got a little wet.

On Tuesday Isaac's soccer game was right before Zoey's. She was waiting by me when she noticed that the team Isaac was playing was the same color as her team. "Mom, I'm in! I'm in!!" What do mean you are in? "They are blue. I need my shirt. I'm in!" I had to explain to her that they were a kindergarten blue team and she still had to wait to go in. But when her turn did come she played very well--she was referred to as being tough. Isaac had a great game too. After a good run I said "Good job Isaac!" He says "It was nothing, Mom."