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Saturday, April 29, 2017

Family Comes to Kansas

March brought Shannon's parents, sister, and niece to Kansas for about a week.
It rained several days and was a bit muddy and cold until the end of their stay, when it cleared off. We went thrift store shopping one day where Caroline snatched up a karaoke machine. The girls discovered the microphone will plug into the keyboard too, joy! They tried it in all the bedrooms, then moved to the porch which made a great stage with seating and all.


Grandma fixed a nice dinner for us one evening that the girls wanted to serve like a restaurant with menus and waitresses (decked in aprons and clip-on earrings of course!)



There was opportunity for needle-punching tutoring and sewing lessons...and pantyhose overnight curls with the fresh supply brought from Grandma's house.


While the men found a few projects to work on. They finished hanging sheetrock on the newly-opened house walls and tore out the rest of the floor coverings.

We had in a few friends of Mom & Dad's one evening for supper and fellowship. Another night Aunt Britney treated us all to a first-time supper at the local sushi and steakhouse, then they were gone again!


Less than a week later, my parents, brother, and two sons arrived in Kansas.
The littles spent hours outside riding the small four-wheeler, beep, beep! Mom, Dad, & Shannon walked through a handful of houses in Pratt. Another day we all went near Hutchinson to check out a builder that could move a new house onto a corner of our property. We spent a few hours at Dillons Nature Center walking the trails, watching the geese, finding fossils in rocks, and playing in the stream.



Kris mudded the drywall for us so the walls and ceiling are ready to paint!
Our scrap paper supply was diminished by the making of paper boats of all sizes and colors.

And that is just a little snapshot of what happened in our life to make a month pass by quickly!

Saturday, April 22, 2017

8 Winter Activities

Here are a few pictures of what we did this winter and early spring that I managed to catch on camera. I have not been taking photos much, which is nice for computer storage and less time spent editing, but I always enjoy looking back at the everyday memories that slip so quickly away.

1. Decorating bags to fill with goodies for the elderly in a small community.



2. A violin concert.



 3. Ice skating on our frozen pond. It was only cold enough once this winter for this to happen and sadly for the children we just had a skiff of snow once as well.


4. Acrylic painting and sewing projects from a library book.



5. Basketball. It's a long season beginning in October - March, playing over 20 games and driving up to 3 hours away. I would not consider us a sports family, but the littles dearly love the social time and Annie & I enjoy running concessions when necessary.



There are some really fun games to watch like dads against boys too...

6. A pretend drink store using old bottles found in a nearby trash heap.



7. More violin showcases. This was a less-formal Irish/bluegrass mix on St Patrick's Day. Caroline soloed Amazing Grace in song and instrument.


8. Sister tea parties inside and out. Basically their afternoon snack all girlified, sometimes in dress-up attire, sometimes with stuffed animal guests.



Saturday, April 15, 2017

Alaska Friends Visit and a Barn Raising

We hosted visitors for 10 days in the beginning of February. I snapped a few pics of our everyday living together, but mostly we just enjoyed each other's company and forgot about documenting much. The weekday mornings were pretty quiet with schoolwork busyness. The afternoons of nice weather drew the kiddos out to explore the neighbor's landfill/ treasure pile turned fort, the pond's wildlife, and the trampoline. We also stopped in at the local Wildlife & Parks museum and aquarium for some Kansas nature education.

The farmer and the dell...hi ho the dairy-o...
photo books of old adventures
art time: painting feathers or trees.
face painted animals




Then came the "barn raising". There was some prep-work to do first, such as planting posts and building rafters. On Saturday some friends came to frame it up and put on the roof. It was all wrapped up by early afternoon.


making cinnamon rolls for the masses

break time
lunch time



A few weeks later...the finished product.
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Last, but not least...Date Night!