Fourth of July

We had a wonderful Fourth of July!!  We started the day by going to the church for a flag raising ceremony (which I loved!! I am such a sucker for all things patriotic!)  There was also a pancake breakfast.  Let's just say, I did not go for the food.  But, the company was great!
We ran a couple of errands after the breakfast including finally getting hanging baskets for the front porch.  It looks so pretty!  We also bought the first sweet corn of the season from a stand in town. 
For lunch I made an American Flag with blueberries, strawberries, and jicama.  It was a big hit with the kids. 
On July 03, I made a simple wedding cake for someone, and had some extra batter, so made some small cakes for us and I decorated them up.  The kids loved having a Birthday cake for America.  I also made black bean burgers with jicama, cilantro slaw.  My husband who grew up on a dairy farm with excellent beef around was a little wary, but in the end was pleasantly surprised at how good it was! 
We went to a celebration right here in our little town in the evening.  Our property actually backs up to a retirement community.  Each year they throw a big Fourth of July Party with food, music, and a great fireworks show as a thank you to the community.  It was awesome!  They even had fun activities for the kids, including a balloon artist and a coin grab, which, of course, the kids loved!  When we got home, Kenneth lit off some fireworks here as well.  (He just can't help himself!  He loves them!)  It was a late night, but it was memorable!

Here are the pictures:

Purple and fuchsia petunias this year



Aren't they lovely?

And a geranium for the back of the house- because they were on sale =)

Right outside my kitchen window- makes me happy

Strawberries, blueberries and jicama

Happy Birthday, America!

Kate was interested in this thing, too!

They loved eating it!

Our Fourth of July picnic lunch in the backyard.  Kate wandered around the whole yard eating her corn-on-the-cob and I think she got every last kernel!

Fireworks in the driveway

Arianna loved this one!

Daddy letting Grant have a turn lighting

Kaplooey!!!

Like father, like son




The kids had drawn on the driveway a few days before this and were pretending to burn down the 'ramshackle barn' they had drawn. 
We've been reading Bill Peet books lately. . .

Family Pictures

It was winter wheat harvest time a couple of weeks ago, so we got out there in the fields right outside our neighborhood and took some family pictures.  The only problem was, it wasn't that easy; it never is.  We ended up not being ready in the morning.  Then Kate needed her morning nap.  By the time we were all ready to go, it was almost noon.  The sun was just too bright for this amateur photographer to get a really good shot.  Plus, in most of them the kids look they are melting and dying.  So, we did come home and take some pictures in the shady backyard.  I think I got some good ones!  I especially like that you can see the chicken coop and the rope swing in the background.  Then, we decided we really did want some good wheat field pictures, so we went out again in the evening.  It was still too bright, although the lighting did look pretty cool in some of the pictures.  We were heading home when we realized the sun was going down and now was the time we could get better pictures, even though it was past bedtime.  So, we ploughed ahead and I think we ended up with some pretty nice ones.  Enjoy!

Trying to get set up in the sunny wheat field

This is one of the best we got in the middle of the day- you can see Arianna is in pain.

Fun shot

Another

Up on a bail!

Oh the love!

If only it were always this sweet!

Handsome Grant

 

Cute Kate

Another of Kate

Princess Arianna

Regal Queen Emma



Love this one in our backyard!

From the evening shoot:

Making their way into the field

Fun!

More fun!

The combine doing its thing in the field right across from us.

This field is literally right across the street from our neighborhood.

Love this pretty baby

Cute little tongue

 

Arianna

Emma

Grant

Sweet sisters

One of the kids took this one

I love this picture because Grant was so excited to see the combine, while Kate was terrified at being put up on the bale.

Goofy kids

Kate was tired- it was about 9 pm I think and she wanted to be in her crib!

Check out Grant's bubble!

The kids and Dad moving the bail:

Our Haycation: Part VII {Our travels home}

We took off  Wednesday morning and took 2 days to travel the 21 hours home.  We made a stop in Kirtland again; this time to see the temple, which I hadn't seen inside before.  Emma and I went on the tour and Kenneth hung around on the grounds with the other three kids.  It is a very special building and I enjoyed the tour.  Wednesday night we stayed with friends from our ward in New York, who had since moved to near Cincinnati, Ohio.  It was so nice to see them!  Kenneth also got to see some other friends who live in the same area that he knew from his childhood.  It was great!

I fell asleep in the backseat with the kids in the morning. 

The kids and Kenneth in front of the Kirtland Temple

Hooray!  They all zonked out at the same time in the afternoon.  It felt like Kenneth and I were on a date or something!

Feeding the ducks at our friends' house.  Their backyard backs up to a community lake.

The kids really enjoyed this!

The kids especially loved the dog, Buddy

They wanted to take him home!

Here's Kenneth and the girls with Rick; his wife had already gone to work that morning, but it was so good to see Julie, too!

 Kate, and the rest of the children for that matter, ate almost the entire way home the last day.  I stopped at Aldi in the morning before we left Cincinnati and got a bunch of great, fresh produce to eat on the way home.  I rinsed it all off before we got started and they ate all day!  The kids were loving it! 


Here is Kate eating an apple and a sugar snap pea.

Poor guy!  He's so bored, he's tied himself to the van with a snake! 

The end! It's always good to be home!  We're thankful to have good neighbors who took care of the chickens for us!