Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A sunny Saturday

We soaked up as much of the warm sunshine on Saturday as we possibly could. We did some farm "exploring" in the morning down by the creek. While the boys sloshed through the icy-slushy creek, Ben and I stood and dreamed about clearing this space. We started a while ago cutting out trees, but we've made very little progress otherwise. Someday we'll get to this project....
 We're working hard on getting Levi and Harold to get along. Harold's knocked Levi over a couple times - out of pure excitement, nothing mean spirited - but Levi was terrified by it. But lately, Harold's cooled off a bit and Levi's listened to our encouragements of being "brave".
 On Saturday, they got along really well. Levi confesses to "loving Harold" even if he doesn't like everything he does. :-)

 We've had a few days of spring-like weather and in just that little bit of time the wheat has started to show more green.
 We stopped by the de-construction spot....the de-construction of an old grain dryer, that is.
 It's been quite a process of dismantling.

 Levi found a warm sunny spot to relax while the other farmers worked.
 In the afternoon, the boys played barefoot in the sand and mud over at our new house construction site. I didn't think about sunscreen, but on Sunday morning I realized Noah's arms were slightly sunburned! Oops.
This is definitely a tricky time of winter....spring seems so close, but elusively far away. Thoughts of gardening have been popping into my head since Christmas...and a sunny, warm Saturday is a really good way to get me wishing it was gardening season.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Basketball on the slab

We were blessed with warmer weather this week, which meant we actually got to play outside after work! Crazy goodness!  The boys are really into playing basketball these days. 
 Mr. Harold is too! He thinks the basketball is toy to chase after and eat. So he often ends up being penned up in the old milk barn while we play. That doesn't stop him from watching the action, though!
 Ahhh....to play without interruption, now that's better!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Spring Program

"It's a Jungle Out There!" or at least it was last night in the gym while the boys (and all the kids in their school) gave their spring choir concert. The kindergarten and first grade classes started off the night with several songs. Levi led his class on stage and took a lot of pride in his important job. 
 There were cute kids, cute songs and lots of cute actions.
 Next up was the 2nd-4th grade choir. They sang a bunch of songs with tricky rhythms, percussion instruments and fun animal sounds.
 Noah wasn't excited about being in the front row and having to stand on the stage, but he did a great job!
I've been hearing bits of these songs for weeks! It was a fun evening listening to and watching all that they've been working on in music (a class they both love).

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

8 is Great

Look out world, this kid is 8!
Saturday was a busy morning in my kitchen, bread and vanilla cupcakes with blue butter cream frosting. The house smelled amazing!
Noah had his friend Jake over to play and for lunch he wanted to eat frozen pizza and apple slices. I added in veggies and ranch dressing in an attempt to round out the nutrition level of the meal. It turns out that watermelon Kool-Aid isn't that great, fyi for the next time you're in the Kool-Aid aisle at the grocery store.
And of course, cupcakes for dessert, yum!
 
 We totally forgot to have Noah open his present at lunch, so before the boys headed out to play he quickly opened his package from us. Adidas pants, baseball/football gloves and the promise for going out to the movies as soon as we can make it happen.
 The gloves got put to use right away on the football field!
 Then we moved on to bale jumping!
 The boys had a great time and burned a lot of energy.

 In the evening went to watch one of Ben's basketball games, then out to iHop for dinner. Noah thought it was delicious!
Sunday we celebrated with my family.
 And I only managed this blurry photo of him blowing out the candles on his apple crisp.
 He got a KU basketball and pen, and some cash. He'd already received birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Schrag in the mail and was very excited to add his money together to buy an NBA Wii game.
Happy birthday Mr. Noah. We love your honesty and how you strive to do the right thing. It's amazing to watch you learn to play piano and get better at reading and writing, even though you hate to write complete sentences.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Valentine's

Valentine's Day isn't a big deal in our house. But the boys had a wonderful time exchanging Valentine's with their classmates and at their parties at school. Ben and I took heart shaped brownies to Noah's classroom in the morning for his birthday treats. Note to self: never try cutting brownies into heart shapes again. 
 Ben and I did get a little time together on Valentine's morning. A trip to Kropf Lumber in Hesston to work out some window details for the house and then coffee at Lincoln Perk - pretty romantic, right?
Speaking of the house - it was a snowy mess on Friday afternoon.
 Friday was a warm day with a cold wind. Levi and I went along to chore the steer over at my uncle's place. I'm in love with their red barn. It's not perfect, but it's held onto so much of it's original beauty and detail over all these years.
 Lamar the steer, was living in the red barn. He had a bum leg and the other steers were picking on him so he got some privacy to get his strength back. Unfortunately, just when he seemed to be on the mend his leg suddenly got worse and he was taken away today to get more TLC. Hopefully, our friend Lamar will make a full recovery.
 Levi was drawn down to the creek, as usual. He had ice fishing in mind, but the melty ice was making me much too nervous.
 Meanwhile, Ben was busy pushing up feed for the steers.
 Levi is very brave with animals when there's a metal fence in separating them from him. He worked hard to get them to eat some snow (which they didn't), but he was successful with some hay.

 Hello Mr. Steer.
 Our poor chickens...because of the coyotes and Harold they've been kept inside the barn nearly all winter long.
 It's amazing how dusty their little world is.
Regardless of their indoor life this winter, they've continued to produce eggs even through the coldest weather. We have 18 chickens left and we usually gather at least twelve eggs a day. Go ladies, go!
Oh, and then on Valentine's night Ben worked a couple basketball games and I took the boys to the Goessel game. A great day with a little bit of a lot of good things.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Random

It's Valentine's week and the week of Noah's birthday and I found random photos on my camera! 
It snowed over a week ago and we've barely been outside to play in it. It was too cold and nasty outside for so many days, and now suddenly the weather is warm and the snow is disappearing! Maybe we'll get some good mud play in over the weekend.
 I found these photos on my camera. Levi created all the artwork above. The one on the left is a sunrise, then our new house, then one that's a painting of rain and finally a rainbow. He loves to have his artwork up in the kitchen where we all see it all the time.
 Last Friday afternoon I brought a huge icicle into the house for Levi to snack on.
If Goessel plays basketball at home on Friday, we go to the games. But on the Friday nights that Ben is away and Goessel's teams are away - we have movie night. The boys love to eat a snacky supper on the picnic blanket in front of the TV. Our picnic blanket of choice is the amazing baby blanket Grandma Schrag made for the boys. It's the perfect size and, colorful and washes easily.  

A sunny weekend lies ahead of us, hopefully we'll get to spend a bunch of time outside. Plus, we've got a birthday to celebrate!

Friday, February 7, 2014

Basketball Nights

February evenings can get pretty long, they're dark and cold and everyone is a bit stir crazy. Thankfully, four of them are being filled by basketball for our boys. The Goessel Rec Commission organized four evenings of basketball clinics for kids in 1st-5th grades. Levi's too young, but he comes along and has a good time anyway.
The Jr. High and High School basketball coaches and the varsity HS basketball players lead the clinics.  The boys are in one gym and the girls in another. 
First things first, they get in a big circle and stretch. 
 Noah with his buddies, Eli, Jake and Javin.
 Coach Guhr has taught them quite a few basics already - defensive stance, triple threat, chest and bounce passes, proper shooting form and dribbling.
 Noah's chest pass form leaves a little to be desired, but his effort and careful listening are outstanding.

 The kids were encouraged to keep their eyes up while dribbling,
 I love how hard he's concentrating!
 Levi gets in on as much action as possible. As long as he's got a basketball in his hands he's pretty happy, plus he can run around and shoot and nobody seems to mind.
 He watches everything the big kids do and joins in with most of it. When Coach Guhr whistles two times, all the boys drop into a defensive stance and yell, "Defense!" Levi does it, too.
 He wanted to run through the middle of the court last night and I told him he could (all the big kids were busy doing shooting drills at the baskets). He thought about it for a while....
 then went for it!
 Noah really likes being with his friends, but seems to soak up everything he sees the high school boys do.
Two nights down and two more to go. It's a blessing to let the boys run off energy at the gym in the middle of a cold and snowy February.