Good Stuff

Peanut Butter and Jelly Skillet Monkey Bread

We made this last night for a family snack and it was delicious! Mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty as this one from Picky Palate, but it sure tasted great. I actually forgot about the sweet cream that's supposed to go on at the end...I guess I saved us a few calories with that omission.

It was good - you should try it!

Spring yard work

Every spring we have one major task to take care of in our yard - trim the pampas grass and rose bushes. This year we added in cutting back our barberry bushes. I failed to take a "before" photo, but here's an "after".

In several weeks, these bushes will take off and before we know it they'll be just as big as they were before we cut them! It amazes me every summer how fast they grow back.

The worst part is that all the plants we have to work on are really hard on our hands. The pampas grass cuts (I have a scar on my hand from last year) and the thorns from the roses and barberry poke through leather gloves. It's tedious work because I'm very careful to get each little branch picked up. It's bad news when somebody gets a thorn in the bottom of their foot while playing barefoot in the front yard.

Thankfully, the hardware store has an electric trimmer we can rent for the day and my dad has a truck we can borrow for a day! Otherwise, this project would drag on and on and on. Plus, we totally lucked out that the neighbor girls were outside and willing to take Noah to the park while Levi took a nap.

For the Schrag's

Levi and Noah love to sing this song. Yesterday Levi was singing it and I asked him to sing it so I could record it and send it to Grandma and Grandpa Schrag.

The words:

I'm gonna wrap myself with paper, I'm gonna dab myself with glue, stick a stamp on top of my head, I'm gonna send myself to you.

On the tractor

Levi's gaining experience on the tractor these days.

This year he's tall enough for his feet to reach the pedals. That sure seems to make a pedal tractor a lot more fun. :-)

His sound effects are amazing. I bet you can them just from looking at the photos.

Potato Planting

Great Grandparents are such a blessing and we are fortunate to have Ben's grandparents just across town. The boys love to play out in their large garden and rearrange Great Grandpa's wood shop. On Saturday, we got in on potato planting!

Great Grandpa had to help lend a bit of strength to Levi for digging,

but Noah had a pretty good handle on how to do it.

So often, Lee and Mary Alice remind me of my Epp grandparents. I spent quite a bit of time playing outside while my grandparents worked in their garden. I have an interest in vegetable gardening, but no garden of my own at this point. I hope to have one someday and I really hope that the occasional gardening experiences the boys get now will be seeds for future growth as gardeners.

John Deere bonanza

My dad took the us to the John Deere Expo on Thursday evening. Ben had gone with dad the day before and reported that the boys would be thrilled with the amount of tractors and toys. His report did not over-hype what we found.

New toys shared the space with meticulously restored old tractors.

We had a wonderful time. We got popcorn, homemade ice cream and a couple hours worth of climbing on tractors - for these boys that's one heck of an evening.

New Toy

This grain auger has kept the boys very busy this weekend. It actually moves grain (or popcorn) up the auger. The boys love that it does "real" farm work. It was a fantastic gift from their Grandpa Schmidt.

I've never been so thankful for hardwood floors. Over and over the boys and I swept the floor and quickly it returned to this.

And sadly, after 3 days of moving grain - we seem to have broken the auger.

It's over....again

Ben's basketball officiating season, that is. This year, the season ended on Saturday with the 2A girls Sub-State championship game. The boys and I tagged along with my parents to watch. It was a close game and fun to watch. It's always interesting going to a game to watch the ref instead of either of the teams playing. Sure, I enjoy watching basketball it's just that I usually watch when there's a specific team I'm cheering for.

Levi loved that there were two bands to listen to. He pretended to play trumpet while they played.

The older the boys get the easier it is becoming for us to make it through the basketball season. Ben averaged 3 nights of games per week for the past several months. That's quite a bit of single parenting for me, but the boys and I got into a groove and it went pretty smoothly. And now oddly enough, it's weird to have Ben around so much.

What a Week

It feels like it's been a long week...on Sunday, Levi and I both got sick. Fever and aches - I don't recall the last time I felt that achy. Monday, Levi and I stayed home and late in the morning we had to go get Noah from daycare because he'd thrown up. Levi was consistently complaining about his throat hurting so I took him to the doctor Monday afternoon and found out he had strep throat. Noah slept for several hours on Monday afternoon and then felt fine. Monday was also Ben's first day at a new job.

Tuesday, Levi and I stayed home but Noah went back to daycare. I went to the doctor on Tuesday thinking I had strep throat, but I didn't.

Wednesday was a normal day - thank goodness. Today, after my mom was done at school we took the boys to the Wichita Garden Show. The theme was movies in gardens or gardens in movies - I'm not sure - but I know the Jurassic Park garden was a big hit with the boys.

The garden based on the movie "Up" was also a hit.

I hadn't anticipated the number of lawn mowers and tractors that would be onsite but the boys had a great time climbing on nearly all of them.

Isn't that an amazing amount of plastic?

We now have 14 seeds to grow giant sunflowers this summer! The boys had to color a sunflower and then they each got 7 seeds.

And golfing - they took a few turns at putting.

The big nurseries put together the huge displays with rocks and full-size trees and waterfalls (dinosaurs and houses), but the county extension agency had this lovely garden full of spring greens and honestly, this was the most inspiring part of the garden show for me.