My beautiful babies

When we were up in Wisconsin for Erin and Chris's wedding at the end of June, one of their friends, Bill Anthony, a professional photographer with William Anthony Photography , took some amazing photos of L & J - I haven't seen them all yet, but he sent me a little preview today with this photo of my babies.

Blueberry Fields

We took advantage of some nice weather last week and went to a local blueberry farm (The Berry Patch) and picked over four pounds of delicious blueberries. Lucy was very enthusiastic about the whole experience, and picked almost two pounds all by herself. James wasn't quite as happy about the outing as Lucy was, but he certainly enjoyed the fruits of his labor. Pun intended.

poppy, cracker crumbs, ibis

My papaver "Manhattan" bloomed (finally!) today, and I am so happy. It is so pretty. Memorial Day trip to the zoo this morning with D and the children. James ate cheddar bunnies with gusto, as you can see, and Lucy and David enjoyed the birds in the aviary.

tractors and guns, oh my

We spent most of the day Sunday at D's sister's house in Lane, KS, about an hour south-west of here. J spent most of his afternoon parked behind the steering wheel of a vintage, non-operational John Deere tractor. He was in heaven. The grown-ups and older kids spent an hour or two shooting clay pigeons with shotguns. I have VERY mixed feelings about guns, children with guns, and the idea of shooting things. But it was fun to watch, and D, his brother and brother-in-law were incredibly careful and cautious when the kids were shooting, and they even managed to convince me to give it a try! Aghhh, I know, I can hardly believe it myself. But it was actually fun, and empowering. Might even try it again sometime (but no, I would NEVER want to go hunting, no way, no how)

fairy gardens, happy children

A few weeks ago we moved our enormous swing-set from the side of our house to the backyard, right outside the kitchen window. Since the move the children have been playing outside a LOT more than they were before, because it easier for me to watch them AND cook dinner/fold laundry/etc./etc. All this outdoor time has inspired all sorts of new creative play, including the "fairy house" Lucy and I made (out of an old plastic pot, twigs, moss, and a lot of hot glue from the hot glue gun!) and the "fairy garden" we've been constructing all around the fairy house. We think the fairies approve of their little refuge, and have been visiting often.

sweet baby james

I really am going to have to stop calling James my baby sometime soon - he is a "big boy" now! But oh, he is still my little sweetheart baby boy sometimes, like this morning. We had half an hour to kill before Costco opened at 10:00, so we stopped at the Kauffman Garden for a little mommy-son romp among the flowers, and James was so sweet, so cute, so funny! (This is rare these days as he is definitely putting the "terrible" in "terrible twos" . . . hopefully he'll get through this stage quickly!) He had so much fun sniffing flowers, running down the paths, balancing on the curbs . . . it was a joy and delight just to see him so happy!

artichokes

I adore artichokes. I can eat them all ways, at all times. Lucy does not (yet!) love them, which breaks my heart. But tonight I introduced James to his first-ever steamed artichoke. I showed him how to peel off the leaves one at a time, dip the leaf in the dipping sauce, and scrape the yummy artichoke flesh off of the leaf with your teeth, and toss the spent leaf into the "trash" bowl in the middle of the table. The first two leaves he needed a bit of help with, but after that he took to it like a duck to water. He'd take each leaf off, eat the good part off, then throw the leaf into the bowl and scream "I did it" - then repeat. It was noisy, but very, very, very cute!