Wabbits, Wheels and Water

(HEY, it's the best I could come up with tonight.  So sue me!)

 

 

 

I am posting pictures of Grace and Tinkerbell Grace.

 

I thought this would be more enjoyable than seeing pictures of Emily's hamster....

seeing as how Emily reported to me tonight that her hamster died.

 

I foresee a trip to the pet store in my near future.

Emily loves her hamsters!

 

Oh, and I wondered what the funky smell in the basement was today.

I blamed the rabbit and cleaned its cage.

 

Guess now I know it wasn't the rabbit's fault.

 

Mr. Hamster is resting peacefully on the patio awaiting David's return home.

He is our official pet cemetery caretaker.

 

I have noticed a trend that hamsters seem to die when David is out of town.

I will not even venture a guess at the correlation.

 

 

 

TG is getting pretty fat.

 

 

 

Why play with the rabbit in the bathroom, you ask?

 

The rabbit will not hop on hardwood or tile floors so by placing her on a rug, she stays put.

No chasing the rabbit to catch it when Grace is done playing.

 

 

 

 

Anything with wheels.......

 

 

that is what Grant is interested in right now.

 

He had the geotrax out recently playing with it.

 

As soon as this was put away we dragged out the Thomas the Tank Engine stuff.

It is strung all over his floor right now.

 

Speaking of wheels,

he is really interested in sports cars and race cars now.

He keeps talking about mustangs and is pretty good at spotting them along the road.

He says he wants a mustang  "because they can drift like a real race car".

I have no idea what that even means!

 

I am pulling out some old photos now.

 

This picture was taken one evening as we were headed to the pool.

It is Grant driving his Power Wheels truck up the sidewalk to the pool.

 

 

Most nights he either drove the truck or rode his bike.

I would follow (v e r y   s  l  o  w  l  y ) in the big white bus hauling all of the goggles, towels, food, sunscreen, etc. along with any kids not interested in riding bikes that night.

 

Grant never rode in the car unless I made him.

He felt so grown up getting there all by himself.

 

 

 

 

 

Last night at the pool......

 

 

 

It was a great summer.

The two youngest kids became very confident and capable in the water.

I always kept a close eye on them, but I did not have to get in with them every time we were there.

 

I see leisurely hours sitting by the pool with a book in my future!!!

YEAH!!

 

 

It is pouring rain and storming hard here.

I have heard the sirens go off twice in the past hour....

that's a little too close for my comfort.

I won't complain though since we need the rain.

 

Goodnight!

Flippin' Fun

We did some flippin'.

 

 

 

We did the corn maze (in record time compared to last year).

 

 

 

 

We petted animals, rode bikes, rode the train, climbed the tires, picked pumpkins, rode the wagon, did the slide, did the mazes, did the swings and

 

spent the day....

 

 

HAVING FUN AT DEVINE'S CORN MAZE AND FARM.

 

 

It was a fun and busy weekend at the farm.

 

 

The week has started off busy too.

Tonight was a skating party for Grace's school.

 

All four of the kids went and skated

plus we took a couple extra friends just for fun.

 

 

John and Emily can skate very well of course,

but it makes for a busy evening trying to keep the two little kids upright.

 

Two kids on wheels hanging on to my arms makes good material for an Abbott and Costello clip.

 I am glad no one was video taping the chaos.

 

Goodnight!

Baby - That's a Sweet - Ride

Baby Snickers is doing great.

She's now sharing the big pasture with her adopted mom.

 

 

We moved the other horses over to the second pasture and gave nurse mare and baby the front pasture all to themselves.

 

She learned to eat grass this weekend.

They were loving the new arrangements.

 

 

 

Sweet honey

 

 

I pulled one of the partial frames of honey out this weekend when I removed the honey super the bees had been working on.

I'm in the process of getting them ready for winter and reducing the size of the hive so they can stay warm.

 

Most of the honey they had stored in the honey supers I set out so they could retrieve and store it in the lower part of the hive for winter food.

I snitched this one partial frame so we could share a little of their hard work with them.

I don't think they will  miss this little bit.

 

The kids were loving it eating fresh honey.

I got about one and a half cups from this partial frame.

 

 

Wagon Ride

 

 

Snowball getting a little workout with the kids....

 

I am always amazed at how strong these little guys are.

They can pull so much weight!

 

 

We tried to convince John and Emily this is cooler than having a car for transportation.

They were not buying it.

 

They opted NOT to use this as transportation to high school in a few years.

I don't understand their lack of interest.

 

THIS is the only redeeming quality this little pony has.

He's hard to catch.

He stirs up trouble with the other horses.

He is unridable by a child unless someone leads him.

 

BUT

 

he's great in a harness.

 

I guess that makes him worth holding on to.

Birthday #13

A little late, but I thought I would post pictures of John and Emily's big 13th birthday bash.

To commemorate such an important milestone in their lives, we REALLY did something special.

 

We fed them dinner.

 

Yep, that's about as special as it got for them that day.

 

 

When we got home that weekend, we did celebrate with a cake and some presents.

Emily looking in her bag for gifts.....

 

 

and John looking in his bag for gifts....

of course.

 

 

 



 

It might not have been the best planned birthday or the most memorable, but they had fun and enjoyed their presents.

 

They sure do grow up fast!

Golf and Vettes

This seems to be a favorite activity for us.  It's something we can all enjoy no matter our ages.

 

 

Of course some of us take it WAY more seriously than others.

 

I'll let you decide who is competitive and who isn't.

 

 

 

 

David is a bit horrified by the techniques employed by the youngest two kids.

 

 

 

He tried to be helpful and give them some pointers to improve their game.

 

 

They listened politely to what he had to say....

 

 

 

 

then wandered off to love on a kitten that stopped to say hello.

I don't think they much cared if they won or lost once there was a cat to play with.

(It's too bad their parents don't get them a pet of their own; don't you agree?)

 

 

 

Sarcasm there, folks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later it was off to the Corvette Museum.

The production plant was shut down that day or we considered taking the kids to see the cars being made.

 

 

 

 

Good thing these people are great at designing beautiful cars because I don't think they are quite so stellar at designing beautiful buildings....just my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the favorites we saw.  There were lots to pick from too.

 

Grant being Grant.

 

 

 

A picture made entirely of smaller pictures of corvette owners with their cars.

Grant was fascinated by this and still talks about it even now.

This was his idea of standing still for a picture.

What a dope!

KOA Fun

Playground complete with pirate ship and fireman's pole.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outdoor chess game.....

 

still making up their own rules

 

 

 

 

still cheating

 

 

 

John deep in thought trying to beat me at a round of chess

 

 

 

I stink at chess......too much thought involved for it to be fun at this point in my life

 

 

He won.

 

 

 

 

 

Campground pool

John always looking for a way to aggravate Emily....

 

 

 

And here is Grant

 

doing what Grant does best...

 

being a total squirrel...

 

 

 

HEY MOM!!!!

 

 

WATCH WHAT I CAN DO!!

 

 

 

 

 

I CAN JUMP BACKWARD INTO THE POOL!!

 

 

 

 

After he did this for about the two hundredth time,

 

 

I stopped cringing with anticipation

 that he was going to slam his face into the edge of the pool.

 

 

 

 

It doesn't take much to entertain this kid.