A Four Year Old Birthday

Meg picked out a Hollie Hobby cake form from the library.

Her sisters set and decorated the table for her birthday lunch.

What a stash of presents from grandparents and family!.

County Fair Projects

For her 2nd year in 4H, Caroline displayed a table setting. The fair theme was Faradise, so she went with a Hawaiian meal. It was her first time to try this and she is already planning next year's place setting!

She also submitted arts & crafts and drawing, sketching, paintings to be judged. She received champion in her age class for her acrylic owl painting!

Caroline's last project was market goat. She made a pet out of Frappy, leading and petting her.

Riley also had market goats; 

two to feed, water, move to new pasture, trim hooves, clip hair, and train to lead. 

His second project was photography. Unfortunately his many phone pictures had been filtered, so without the enhancements and with them blown up to 8x10 size, they turned out a little grainy. He still received a top blue on one picture!

Miss Annie baked amazing goodies to be judged, but I failed to snap any photos of her end product. She entered 3 kinds of cookies, cinnamon toast muffins, chocolate bread, chicken Alfredo, and an anniversary gift basket. Her chocolate rolls received a top blue and were second to the overall yeast bread champion who sold her mocha cinnamon rolls for $800 at the food auction!

Annie also planted flower seeds inside and in our garden to take to the fair. She made a couple of arrangements as well. She received blue ribbons on the large zinnia, sunflower, Indian wildflower, and her fresh flower bouquet.

Her pictures taken in Colorado, South Carolina, and at home turned out well too!

The three littles pedaled hard in the tractor pull, a first time for them all.

Virginia Visitors

For four years, as newlyweds, we lived in Virginia up the hill from this sweet couple. I babysit a bit for their firstborn, then we started having babies close together, sharing in our parenthood journey. Our paths separated as our little family moved west to the Kansas plains. After 13 years, they came to visit!

The kiddos swam into the night.

Some of them pulled a few pranks in the night. 

Whoever heard of tp-ing yourself?!

Then they had to clean up the mess after a rain shower.

Another day of swimming, relaxing, eating, and touring the area.

What a blessing to have a roomful of fun friends, chatting, singing, and laughing together!

Annie Plays Summer Basketball

A quick post of photos taken while Annie played basketball in our local rec league. 

It involved about 2 months of practices and games. 

She enjoyed the shorter-than-winter season ball.

I learned how to run the clock and keep the books (a shortened version). 

We only has 4 families with 5 girls playing on our homeschool team, so parental help was stretched thin.

She made a couple buckets, her first foul shots in a game, and several memories to carry with her.