Birds and Cicadas

Here are the boys' latest treasures. I love it when they find a treasure, but sometimes I'm not too thrilled with what they want to keep. For instance - Stephen found this nest, baby bird and egg. I let him keep the nest, but NOT the birds. He was disappointed.

Stephen with his nest. His collection officially numbers three this year. He also has an empty hornet nest. Hummm...patience is a good thing when you have boys who collect EVERYTHING!

The poor little birds. I have to admit this was a cool science lesson.

Blase found these cidcadas on one of our trees out from. We were impressed with the one above. He made me stay as a lookout while he ran for the camera. He was certain it would fly away before we were able to take a picture.

This is one we found on the other side of the same tree. There were between 7-10 empty cicada skins. We have found them on flower leaves, trees and just on the ground. Last year Stephen, Cormac and Rex collected over 30 of them in one day. NO I did allow them to keep all of them. We already have one cicada skin and that is enough for me!

Mushrooms in the yard

Welcome to our mushroom exhibit from our yard. Do you know how hard it is to identify mushrooms? These are a few of the mushrooms I found in our yard. I am certain there are more kinds out there.

one mosquito

two mosquitoes

No wonder my hand was all ate up after this!!

Garden 2010 update one

Blase by the tomatoes. They are almost as tall as me now.
peppers, beans, corn, cucumbers

peas

squash and pumpkins

Proof that the peas are as tall as me.

Blase and Stephen in the corn.

carrots, beans, tomatoes

Blase by his beans. They are become a jungle since this picture.

South Dakota Trip #2

We spent a week in South Dakota preparing for my Bestgen grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary party/reunion that my family hosted. I hardly did anything compared to all the work my parents and brothers and their wives put in. Hire my family if you want something done on time and in good working order.

While we were in SD it happened to be Rex's 4th birthday. He was super excited to have a party at the Mark Park. We were lucky to have his cousins, aunts and uncles and a few extras come for his party. He was spoiled as usual and loved every minute of it.

Rex and his cousin Sarah with his cake.
Cool glasses from Mom and Dad.

He had lots of helpers.

This is what Adam, on the ground, and Dirk do to make their mother freak out a bit! Adam was throwing a screw up to Dirk and Dirk actually caught it. I'm surprised I caught a picture of it.

I was playing tether ball with my sister and hit the knot at the top of the ball. It bruised half my hand. SORE!

Bear Butte - again. Yes I'm fascinated with it. I thought this was neat with the moon coming up over the top. Of course it looks much better in person, but think as beautiful as you can imagine and its more than that!

Bear Butte with a rainbow around it.

Father's Day

So I missed Father's Day yesterday. Yah, that happens - I get busy and forget what I wanted to do. I did send Dad a gift and wish him Happy Father's Day (through Mom)...so I didn't forget completely. I'd like to share a few pictures of Dad and myself when I was just a wee thing.

Garden 2010

beans and peas

tomatoes, peppers, squash and pumpkins
onions and peas again

carrots, radishes, various other odds and ends

corn and cucumbers

strawberries

the end

Small Steps

I recently purchased the book Small Steps for Catholic Moms by Elizabeth Foss and Danielle Bean. The book is set up in a lovely format with a quote from a saint, a short pray and a suggestion for living out that quote or pray for every day of the year. Every month has a virtue to focus on. Since we are trying to practice charity this month, I skipped the June virtue of gentleness and moved right into August's virtue of charity.

It takes about 2 minutes to read each day's quote, pray and act. I am enjoying the simple, practical suggestions for acts of charity. There is also a nice variety of ideas focusing on various aspects of a Catholic mother's life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, not just Catholic mothers. It is short, sweet and to the point. If you can spare 5 minutes a day, you will be blessed with many ideas to increase your spiritual life.

A big thank you to Mrs. Foss and Mrs. Bean! This is just what I needed to focus my day.