Monkey saw, monkey did; monkey is CRAZY! Amongst other things. . .

Hello all!  Here I go getting all caught up! 

So, you know how Kate wanted to climb the walls, literally?  Well, she succeeded.  She is nuts, I tell you. 

The wall-climbers

There she goes again!

 
 

 

Where there's a will, there's a way!

I can hardly make dinner (or do much of anything for that matter) without being interrupted a million times by that little lady.  I've got to stop and take her off counters, keep her from falling onto the hearth, etc.  She's a busy body.  But, she sure is cute! 

So, to update:

We have been canning more- tomatoes, maple syrup.  It's the year for canning around here, I guess.  Of course, me trying to multitask, I boiled the maple syrup over.  Boy am I glad I have a flat top stove!!!  I even roped Kenneth into helping me with the tomatoes one night.  Last weekend, I even hosted a canning activity for our ward.  I didn't teach- we got a real pro to do that.  But, I did have fun hosting and sharing the excitement of canning.  It feels so good to be building our food storage. 

Grant had a follow up appointment with the optometrist and he still doesn't have to patch.  His eyes are doing great.  Hooray!

The kids had a dentist appointment this week.  When the hygienist asked Grant what flavor he wanted to have her use to clean his teeth and gave raspberry as an option, he said, "Does it have the seeds in it?  I don't like the seeds."  Funny guy! 

Here are the pictures:

With us trying to be healthier, I have been looking for things to enjoy at a campfire other than s'mores.  These baked bananas were amazing!  We did some in foil packets over the fire and they were good too.

The fire pit in our backyard.  We have only used it 3 or 4 times.

Enjoying the bananas and ice cream

Yum!

We had family home evening out there in the backyard.  Of course, the chickens had to join us.

Emma loves to swing with her babies!

Grant loves his chicken!

Grant and Puffy.

Kate loves ladybugs!

Pile of cutie pies!

My twins- separated by 5 years!

Kenneth helping can tomatoes

This is the sort of thing you can find this lady doing while we are trying to do school.  She's a climber!

 

One week, Arianna found this little corner to do her school work in.

Grant doing his math work.

Arianna licking up the maple syrup that boiled over- no worries, it cooled first.

Kate turns bath time into waterslide time.  She never wants her bath to end!   You should see her in action- she's wild!



Hummus?  Yes, please!

Yum!

 These next few are from our short trip to Colorado to get my passport.  Here are Holland and Kate doing what 1 year olds do:

 

These two are first cousins-once-removed and 3 weeks apart.

It was tough to get them both sitting still and looking at the camera.  Here they are with Holland's mom, my neice.

 

Grant with Brent, my brother-in-law.  Is he picking his nose?!  I hope not!  Good thing Brent is a good sport!

 

Last call for Kansas!

If any of you had thought you may want to pass through this way and stay at the Larchar home, this is your last call.  A couple of weeks ago, Kenneth accepted a promotion with AGCO and we will be moving to Duluth, Georgia most likely in January!  We never planned on staying here in Kansas a long time, but I must admit this comes a little sooner than I wanted.  We are very happy here, but we feel this is the right thing for us. 
We have had some busy times lately:
I washed my phone last week.  I thought for sure it was a loss.  I put it in rice in a sealed baggie for 4 days and it revived!  I couldn't believe it!  I prayed really hard about it and really think it was a blessing from heaven. 
The kids and I drove 14 hours for a 15 minute appointment.  Yes, crazy times!  (Of course, my phone was still dead when this trip came up, so Kenneth had me take his so as not to be on such a long drive phoneless.)  Last minute, Kenneth is making one last trip to Germany for work and we decided that it was possibly now or never for me to be able to go back there, so I had to drive all the way to Denver area to get a passport this quickly.  I leave in 9 days!!!!!  Can't wait!
We are busy with school, church, dentist appointments and just life in general.  And, there are more green beans calling me from the garden. . .a blessing and a curse, I tell you.
Hopefully soon I will do an update post with pictures so I will be all caught up before my trip. 

Visit from the Sherburne Larchars

What do Larchars do when they get together for vacation? They work!! Yes folks, that's just who we are! So, when we had a week long visit from Kenneth's brother and his family, that's what we did. An awful lot of work! (And boy am I thankful for it!) It just so happened that my 3 bushels of peaches came right before they arrived, so we had a lot of peaches to take care of. Also, Kenneth's mom went and picked lots of blueberries for us, which they brought to us and we took care of getting all those frozen as well. In addition, Kenneth and Scott did some work, when they weren't helping with the peaches or with kids, down in the basement on the unfinished bedroom and bathroom. Scott and Jenni actually weren't that interested in going out and doing a whole lot of sight-seeing (with our 100 degree plus weather, I can't say as I blame them!) We did watch a movie one night and went to a splash park another day. But, other than that we hung out here at home. It was a lovely visit. A first actually. . .the first time we have ever spent time with just Scott and Jenni and their family. Always in the past it has been at the farm with everyone else, or if it was at our house there were also other family members visiting. The kids had a lot of fun together too. Grant especially enjoyed having so many boys around! Here are some pictures of our fun week together:

Caleb or Josh told me the peaches were so beautiful I needed to take a picture of it, so here it is!

Working away into the night canning peaches

 

This shot also shows the simultaneous work on the table of the freezing of berries (raspberries were also on sale this week!)

Clean-up done for the night.  I'm ready to hit the hay!

 

At it again the next night.

 

We did NOT plan the red shirt thing.  Isn't that funny?

We ended up with 63 quarts of peaches, 7 quart bags frozen, a batch and a half of jam and a batch of peach butter.  Whew! 

We had crab legs for fun one day. 

 

The kids really enjoyed themselves!

 

Arianna's dancing crab legs

 

Grant man's crab dance

 

Story time in the evening

 

Kate could not get enough of Scott's tickles.

 

She is usually very shy, but after only a day or so, she had totally warmed up to everyone and was happy as a clam

Fun at the splash pad.

I put Kate's swimming suit on, but of course she wouldn't go anywhere near the water.

 

Happy cousins!

Jenni asked me to take some family pictures of them.  It was fun!  I hope they turned out as they wanted.

 

During the photo shoot, the kids noticed this on our tree.  Isn't that cool?  The shell of the cicada, from which it just emerged, is right next to it.

 

When Arianna knew pictures were happening, she changed her clothes and asked for 2 specific shots, this being one of them.

 

This is an extra one I snapped.

 

Here's the other one she requested.  She's even told me where she wants them placed in the house when I print them.

 

Emma wanted some pictures of her and the chickens.

 

Kisses!

 

Inch worm!

 

We celebrated Grant's birthday a couple of days early while Scott and Jenni and family were here.

 

Grant's icecream cake.  Thanks, Betsy for the 'recipe'.  Why haven't I done it sooner- it was so easy!!!

 

licking off the trees and animals waiting for icecream cake in their cones!

 

I love this little face.

 

Opening presents

 

Piñata time!  I had actually almost forgotten about celebrating Grant's Birthday while the visitors were here, but we decided kind of last minute to go ahead with it and Grant was all over making the piñata. 

 

On your mark. . .get set. . .go!

 

Finding the treats!

 

 

Lining up for tug-of-war

 

Setting up

 

Pull!!!

We had a great time! I'm so glad they made the long drive to come see us!

Happy 5th Birthday, Grant!

Happy Birthday Grant!

Five years old!  Wow!  Grant got to have two birthday celebrations this year- one on Friday with Scott and Jenni and family and one today, on his actually birthday.  I'll share the Friday ones when I do the Sherburne Larchar visit post soon.  Grant made things pretty easy on me this year- food wise.  He chose cold cereal for breakfast, which is what we usually have on Sunday anyway.  For lunch he wanted pizza- which we had leftover from Friday night's dinner.  And for dinner he wanted kettle corn and corn on the cob- same as last year.  I also made a salad, because we haven't had one in a while and I was craving one!  He wasn't too happy that we made him eat some of that.  Grant got a wooden frog from us on Friday and painted that today.  While we was working on a painting project, the girls also worked on painting some plaster horses that Emma had received for her birthday back in May and had not yet painted.  That was a fun activity for them this afternoon while I made dinner.  It was a nice day. 

The Birthday Caterpillar!  Grant requested that it be all red since it is so hot!

Can't remember what he was so excited about, but he's sure cute!

Mom and the kids at Breakfast- holding up his Birthday letter from Grandma Pilz

With Dad- Dad had a meeting to go to pretty soon hereafter.

$5 from Grandma

Arianna picked out this little mailbox for Grant at the thrift store yesterday- 10 cents!  Nice!  It is going to be a house for Little Lion, so he says.

Painting the frog

Fun painting together.

Dinner time!

The 'cake'.  The volcano is coconut cream Larabar type stuff and the dirt is chocolate peppermint patty stuff.  Lava=raspberry sauce.  The trees are Pirrouettes with green construction paper.

He was so excited to come into see the cake

Wow!  Bitty is excited, too!

Blowing out the candles

Emma bought Grant the fawn to go with the Buck he got on Friday and the doe we already had.

Here is the Birthday Interview:
 
Do you have a nick name?  No.  None?  Yes.  What is it?  I don't know.  Are you sure? 
Emma: He has a nickname - Ant.  Is that correct?  No.  I don't have a nickname.
What do you enjoy doing most?  I don't know.  Oh yeah, greaaat.  Playing with Dad.  Yeah, playing with Dad.
What is your favorite book?  Ahhhh, I need to go look.  [Grant gets down form the the couch and walks to the book box on hearth] This one - Cowardly Clyde.  Why do you like that one so much?  Because it is fun.  I love all Bill Pete Books.

What is your favorite animal?  Horse.

     Why?  Because I like them.. they're fun.

What is your favorite color?  I don't know, red - no actually, blue.

What is your favorite food? Ahh, Corn on the cob.

Arianna: What are we having for dinner?  Corn on the cob and kettle corn.

What is your favorite treat?  Ice cream.

     Any particular kind of ice cream?  Ahh, mm-mmuh-mint.

What is your favorite song?  I am a Child of God [and continues to sing most of the first verse]

What is your favorite movie or show?  Mooovie, mooovies - its - I don't know...I like - I can't chose.  Ah, Max and ruby.

What is your favorite thing to do?  You already asked that.  It's to play baseball with Dad.

Arianna and Emma: Yeah he really loves his Dad.  [Grant then breaks into singing families can be together for ever].

This is boring bumbalows.

Where is your favorite place to go?  To the fishing.

Have you ever caught a fish?  Yes, a blue gill.

How did you catch the blue gill?  With a worm.

What is your favorite toy?  My Favorite Toy!  I don't know, umm, it is - everything.  Yeah, everything.

Can you tell what I'm typing?  Everything.  You're an everything catcher.

What is your favorite sport?  Soccer

Emma: Except when you fall down and scream

What is your favorite time of the day?  It's the evening.

     Why? Because I'm having my birthday.

Who is your best friend?  Daddy.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Dad, umm no, an animal.  No, actually a Dad.

Who is going to pay for your college education?  [Points to Dad]

Who loves you the most?  [Pointing to Dad]  Dad does.

Emma: That's not correct.  Grant: Oh yeah, Jesus

What have you learned in your years of experience so far?  That a horn worm turns into a butterfly thing-a-ma-doodle. 

Anything else?  No.

Have you started school yet?  Yes.

What grade are you in?  Five Grade, four Grade.  I'm in four grade.

How is school going for you?  Not good.

Why?  Because its not fun.  I have to do everything wrong.

Are you a mammal, an amphibian or a reptile?  [chuckling] A mammal

How many marbles have you eaten this week?  None
How soon will you seek employment to help pay the family bills and fund this operation?  I don't know.  That's a hard question.
On what day of the week were you born?  In the middle of the night.

Mom: no, you weren't in the middle of the night.

Grant: Oh yeah, I was born in the afternoon.

What day of the week?  [Singing like Olaf] Summer. 

If you encountered a predator crossing the road, please describe what you would do first:  Stay to the side.  If it is a coyote, I'd stay to the side.  If it was a wolf, I'd stay inside.

What are you going to do for your special day today?  [singing] Happy birthday to you...

Is that it?  Yeah, and that's all the poems.  Can we please?  I'm going to get my mailbox.

What are you expecting to receive as presents today?  Oh just a mailbox.

What does Dad do for work?  Just work on combines.. That's it. Being lazy.

What does Mom do for work?  Does the dishes.

Do you treat your sisters well?  Sometimes.

Do you love them?  Yes.

Grant, how would you describe yourself?  Ahh, I don't know.  Funny.

Any last words for your Birthday interview?  Are these pennies?  My teacher said to give three pennies.  I gave five pennies.