The best fun of all...

A puddle FULL of tadpoles!  

Shelby and Jared, hand fishing for tadpoles.

Colesy, proudly displaying her catch.

And Ethan

And Micah.

Shelby and Jared also had handfuls of them.  I had to practically DRAG them the rest of the way home. They tried to bring them with us, and stopped at each puddle we passed to re-wet their babies, and when we got home, they put them in a bucket of water, but alas, I think none of them made it either. I guess today should have been a look but no touch type of day.  Our animals would have lived longer if we had stayed home and napped.  

Thoughts for next time...

Micah found a slug. He tried to carry it with us for a ways, but it fell off the flowers he had it on. Then he just had slimy flowers, so he didnt end up keeping them too much longer.    
This animal is REALLY hard to see. I can see it because I took the picture and I had to look at the bugger a LOT!   Shelby found a mini inch worm.  it is a yellow-ish color.  She named it Sun~Stick and was very sad when she forgot it was in her hand and she grabbed a walking stick.  Poor Sun~Stick had an untimely death.

Ethan Jared Micah Shelby Colesy

A Sunday Walk With the Kids What fun!

There are train tracks about our house, and the boys wanted to go check them out.  So, after lunch, I took them on a little hike. Here we are, just leaving our yard. (Ethan is back by me, so he is not in the picture.)

Here we are crossing the road to take the little path up to where it crosses the tracks.  

They stopped to carefully read the no trespassing sign!

Finally, we make it to the tracks.  It was great fun, I guess.  I must have gotten too old somewhere along the way, as I failed to see what was so great and fun about it!  

It did make for some fun pictures though, and I guess that makes it okay.

New Shed/Garage

Our new 12 X 20 garage.  Our basement sure looks better now that we were able to move things out to the shed!

Flowers...

My Mock Orange from Mom's yard.  It finally bloomed this year.  

The deer also discovered it this year, so I need to find a way to protect it.  

One of my hanging baskets on the front porch.  

These pictures of the front bank never turn out as vivid as it is in real life.  

I think it is pretty though, and really like my petunias on the steps.

We went to Lowes this weekend and found this iris plant. It is absolutely stunning.  We decided we HAD to have it.  It is so pretty.  2 more flowers bloomed today, and it almost takes my breath away.  The purpose of going to Lowes for plants was to get the shrubs that we planted beside the front steps.  The purple leaved ones will get bright pink flowers on them, and the littler green one will get little pink flowers.  We need to get more rocks to put around them, but I think it will look really nice by next spring.  

Family photos from Beartown

Matt and Krissy

Matt Krissy Shelby and Colesy

More Beartown Pictures

Shelby is a daddy's girl!

Shelby, my nephew Parker, and Colesy.

Fun at Beartown Rocks

We took Sharilyn and Parker to Beartown Rocks and we had a  great time.  We took pizzas with us, and garbage cake - with the first strawberries of the season - and had a lot of fun.  The kids loved climbing on the rocks.  

Mountain Laurel

Its pretty, but we discovered we're all allergic to it!  We had a sneezy, snotty ride home!  Yikes!

BELLY FLOP!

Jumping Sisters

All three kids in mid-jump ~ each with their own style!

More sister jumps.  They like to hold hands and jump together.  

Colesy does have a tendency to be dramatic! 

Swimming on the first day of summer!

We got to the pool at break time, so the kids sat on the step right at the edge of the pool for 15 minutes without getting in.  

Colesy's dramatic leap into the pool.

Next is Parker, all tucked up in a ball.

And then Shelby takes a leap as well.

The kids were being silly at dinner, and this is part of the conversation.

Parker: What is ice?
Colesy: Ice is frozen water.
Parker: What is frozen?
Colesy: Solid
Parker: What is solid?
Colesy: Solid is when something drops on your toe and it hurts.

We laughed, and figured she was pretty accurate!