Horses!

 Jonathan and Kristy have neighbors who have horses.  Really pretty horses!  The girls had gone over to see their new kittens and came racing back to ask if they could ride.  Heck yea!  I wandered across the pasture to see the fun.  The high school neighbor girl was awesome.  I love her! She got out the horse, showed the girls how to brush him, and saddled him up.  She let the girls "help" lunge him and then she took them all out for sedate spins around the pasture. The best part- she did it in shorts and flip flops!  It was an amazing horse.  I think she said she or her sister had showed him at the national level and he excelled.

Callie riding and loving it.

 Rylee riding and not sure if she's having fun or not.

Iowa is so pretty, I might need to move there!  Rylee did enjoy her ride.

Marian got to ride, but she was having some sever allergy issues and didn't look like she had fun, but she did.

I think she ran home for allergy meds right after this, but she really wanted to ride first.

Delaney, in her unbrushed glory.  She could not wait to get on the horse.

 Having fun up so high.

 After riding, the girls had fun feeding the other horses in the paddock. 

Rylee and her bare feet.... fine, not the smartest thing for her to be doing.

He was also a lovely horse and nice to the girls.

It was a fun day for them!

BEST Library Ever!

We made the tactical error of wasting lovey days at Jonathan's house doing things around the farm.  Thus, on the day we decided to go out to the park, we were sorely disappointed when it was raining.   We spent that day indoors, which necessitated getting out of the house the next day.  Alas, there was more rain.  Never fear!  Kristy directed us to the giant city library.  It turned out to be a great idea!  They had a decent sized kid's area, but it was not separated from the rest of the library.  On the plus side, it had a train table, a lego table and.... wait for it.... Puppets! 

I know, who'd have thunk it?!  They had a little puppet show station and tons and tons and tons of puppets.  The kids played for an hour and a half.  I kid not.  They actually were entertained for 90 minute by all these fabulous puppets!

 See, when I said puppets, you were thinking boring puppets!  Check out this awesome sheep!

 How fun would it be to have this guy when you read "Llama, Llama, Red Pajama"?! 

See that long bookshelf behind Marian and her raccoon?  that was filled with puppets and the kids had so much fun going through just about all of them!

Camden found a cool Dragon and Callie has a lovely tiger.

Miranda thought this Woolly Mammoth was neat.  It was.

I know, there really were millions of fabulous puppets!   and Callie was totally in her element with the Puppet Theater.  Combining making up stories with bossing people around- yep, she loved it!

Marian and the little weasel puppet were so cute and she really made it look real. It was getting jut a little creepy for me.

Delaney and Emily working on their program.

Rylee really wanted to do her own puppet show, without any of the big kids.  she was very upset when she kept getting overlooked.

I had to hold back the big kids so Rylee could give her 30 second show.  It was pretty amusing, and she was SO pleased with herself after.

Yes, Callie wanted a picture with every-single-one! 

Delaney enjoyed herself, but did not stop for photo ops.

As the bigger kids wandered off to find new puppets, Rylee found herself in charge of the theater and gave an enthusiastic performance with her horse.

The train table did get a lot of use, but nowhere near as much as the puppets!

Same with the Lego table.

So if you ever happen to be in the Des Moines area, you need to find this library!  Best way ever to spend a rainy day!  Thank you Des Moines Library!

Cousins!

 Every so often, I realize what an insane amount of traveling I am doing this summer and I think I must be crazy. It IS crazy.  However, when I see how much fun my children are having with their cousins, and I get to stay up late chatting with people I love spending time with, it makes a little more sense.  It is worth the stress and hassle and miles to let our children spend time with their cousins.  I hope they are able to build strong bonds and friendships with each other.We will get to see a lot of both sides of the family, and that should be worth all the insanity of the travel.

This was totally not posed!  All the kids were in those very spots and I just said, "Look at me!" and they did.  So cute together!

(Emily, Delaney, David, Camden, Miriam, and Isabelle)

 Reading and hanging out together.

Ethan in the car. Yeah, we got some cute genes on our family!!

 Zachary in the car.

A whole pile of kids on the slide!

Best picture ever!  Camden has slid off the slide and Zachary is falling off.  I love it!

It is amazing how much more fun a play structure can become when it is full of kids.

Did I mention there was dancing?  Levi was happy to boogie, but he hasn't got the mad skilz like the little kids.

Rylee and Emily, swinging high.  Rylee did not want to share till she realized how high she could go with her cousin along.

Callie was getting ready to jump and I was a split second too early on the shutter.

I loved that Marian was on the baby swing.  But look at her so sad face.  She did not take allergy medicine that morning and she was so miserable.  Poor kid.

 Marian and Isabelle went fishing in the pond! Marian informed me that she did not go into the mud like Isabelle so her feet stayed dry and clean(er!).

Marian also said she was a better fisher because she jerked the line fast when a fish nibbled, so she hooked more fish than her cousin.

I love these kids!

And their parents.

A Chipmunk Tale

I was happily sitting on the couch with my nose in a book, when some very excited girls came screaming into the house.  I finally understood that they had rescued a chipmunk from the cat.  Well, this I must see for myself!  So I did.

 They had nabbed him by the tail (and they did inform me it was a him!) and put him in this bucket.  He did not appear to have any real injuries aside from a missing toenail, but his back end did not seem to be working well.  I was worried about a spinal injury and trying to figure out the best thing to do with a terminally internally injured chipmunk.

 I went to google chipmunks and came back to see this.  The little guy was letting the girls hold him.

He seemed pretty docile and the girls were so excited to hold him and love him and try to figure out how to keep him. I couldn't figure out what to do with him.  Jonathan had already told his girls they would not be keeping it.  That was good, because who wants to have their new pet die on them?  But it still begged the question of how to end him quickly or should we release him to a slow and painful demise.

 See how sweet and adorable he is!

And Callie had to have a picture with it too.

So, the follow up.....

I went inside to look up wildlife or humane societies that might take a chipmunk and deal with it so I could stop worrying about it.  As I was dismissing the "critter control" guy as an option, one of the girls came in to inform me that someone had dropped the chipmunk and he had scampered away.  The details were a little hazy, but it bit the hand that grabbed for him and he bolted away, seemingly on 4 good legs.  I was delighted to be rid of the "that to do with it" problem, but the girls were so sad to have lost him.  Nevermind that Jonathan had said the little guy would be out of their possession by nightfall. I do not know if the chipmunk was truly injured or not.  I hope he ran to a safe place and is living a long and happy life.  that is what I told Callie he's doing and I hope it is true!

Look! We're Farming!

I want to be a gentleman farmer like my brother!  It is so awesome to see his little homestead and how fun the animals are.  Work, yes.  But not as overwhelming as I had expected.  The kids have had so much fun hanging out with their cousins and learning the ways of the farm.  I'm just feeling a bit grateful it is not mating season.

 This is Louie.  Miranda wanted a picture that showed just how gigantic this dog is!  I'm pretty sure a lot of that is just hair, but he is still a massive dog.  And sweet. Of course, his job is to protect the sheep and he gets a little less sweet when Levi gets a little too close.

Iowa sure is pretty!  this was the view out the back door the other day.  Yep, I could totally live here!!

Jonathan has a cow.  Actually, he has more than 1.  They are adorable, miniature cows!  Who knew?!!  This little lady gets milked twice a day.  As a mini cow, she gives less milk than the larger variety, which is nice for a family that doesn't need 5 gallons a day.  And it was GOOD milk!

Yes, Rylee went to the barn in her PJs.  It was evening milking.

They do have a barn cat.  The cat does like warm-from-the-cow milk. Callie had to make friends with the kitty.

And baby chicks.  There were those in the barn too.

 Callie was thrilled to pet the cow and to brush the cow.  She was eager to be a helper. But she was happy to leave the milking to her cousin.

Callie just hat to pose for the camera with the cat!