Owls!

For about a month this summer we discovered little screech owls in our backyard.  Three of them! The first night we discovered them Joel and I were on the back porch around twilight and I saw something large land on the ground under our tree.  I went over to check it out & it flew to the back fence.  When I went back and saw it was an owl, we then discovered the other two hanging out nearby.  They let us get quite close and even let Joel take pictures of them with his flash.  They stayed on the fence until it got dark and flew off to hunt their prey.  There were several more occasions we got to see them again.  The kids even saw them one night and thought it was very cool.  They let us all get very close and just studied us intently.  The neat thing was we had just seen and learned about them at our library's summer program where raptors were brought in, so we knew exactly what kind of owl they were and several neat facts about them.  It was such a treat to have these cute visitors in our own backyard.  I still try to peek out and see if they are on the fence some nights, but have not seen them since.  I hope they are thriving and loved getting to have such a neat part of nature so close to us for a little while.

California 2014

All 5 of us flew out to California last week to visit Kerry & Jeff.  We basically lived in the pool the whole time & it was glorious!  When we weren't swimming there was Wii Mario playing, Catch Phrase battles, a trip to see Jeff's new practice, and a visit out to see some peacocks.  It was relaxing, fun, and a little hard to leave.  Until next time!

Race for the Cure

Joel and the kids did Race for the Cure this year with Mom (I was wrapping up at a women's conference at church that morning).  Here are some photos from the event.

MasterChef Cookies

One of our favorite summer shows is MasterChef.  This year we've been letting the kids watch it with us too.  The premise of the show is that home cooks compete in a culinary competition to earn the title of MasterChef and various other awesome prizes.  So today we had our own mini episode of the show.  The kids and I all made our own basic cookie dough and then got to select from the "pantry" available to create our own, one-of-a-kind cookie.  Mine had chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and a little almond extract.  Katherine added mini m&ms, yellow food coloring, cinnamon, and sprinkles on top (because they make everything more fun).  Emily used mini m&ms, cinnamon, a squeeze of chocolate syrup, and green food coloring.  Jonathan's included blue food coloring and chocolate chips.  They all turned out quite yummy.  The last part was setting them each out for Daddy to try when he gets home, just like the judges do on the show.

Another Great trip to the Fatzingers!

We took a weekend trip down to visit our good friends, the Fatzingers, again earlier in the summer.  We had a great time.  The deer literally come right up to their back door there.  Katherine loved to swing on their tree swing.  The kids played beautifully together and the adults just enjoyed catching up.  I even got to help organize a game/book cabinet...it made me really happy to do so...it's one of my quirks.  Joy fed us very, very well all weekend too.  We miss them not being closer to us, but are so thankful we get to catch up and hang out like this!

First Grade Jon

Jonathan just wrapped up first grade.  We were so grateful to have him taught by the same sweet teacher Emily had for 1st grade.  She's a jewel and Jonathan loved being in her class.  She takes photos throughout the year and posts them online for the parents to get a peek inside the kids' days at school.  It's very thoughtful and I love getting to do so.  So here are some of my favorite pictures from Jonathan's first grade year!

Reading to Mollie & Boomer

Our library has dogs come once a month that kids can sign up to read to.  We did so this past weekend.  Jonathan got to read to Mollie and Emily to Boomer.  Katherine sat by Boomer and listened.  It was something fun and different!