PJ's in the rain

The boys decided to ride their (dirt) bikes down to the fire hydrant to "fill them up" (with gas). Levi dressed himself in pajamas before he came out to play. He was DETERMINED to keep them on...

He even played a little bit of tennis in his frog pajamas.

And then, Praise The Lord it rained!!! That hasn't happened since I don't know when. It didn't last long, but it was refreshing to feel rain fall on us again.

Don't let this serious face fool you. They had a great time playing in the rain. Levi's poor frog jammies sure did get a work out tonight!

Corn Chopping

Fensky Harvesting was around the farm last week chopping corn. The boys LOVED the excitement of corn chopping.

The chopper itself is quite the machine. It seems to speed through the field gobbling up the corn and shooting it out it's auger. It's an impressive operation. The corn has suffered this summer in a relentless dry spell and heat wave. Corn does not thrive in 100 degree weather. And we've been at or over 100 degrees for 30 days this summer (so far).

Both of the boys got to ride along - too bad chopping goes so quickly. After just a day and a half, the farm had a big pile of silage and the Fensky's moved on.

Sweet

These moments are worth remembering.

Sunflowers

The handful of giant sunflowers growing in our yard have proven to be some of the few bright spots in our yard this year.

The extreme heat has held the plants in our yard in survival mode. There have been very few blooms and when plants do flower the flowers don't last long.

Since I snapped these photos the taller two sunflowers have opened, but they're already almost loosing their petals. Oh well, at least the flowers were stunning for a couple days.

Rodeo Night in Canton

We headed out to Canton with friends on Friday night for the Canton Rodeo. We didn't know we'd get to see goat judging, run into other friends and get rides on a barrel train! It was quite the place to be on a hot Friday night.

Levi was planning to ride a bull, at least he was until he saw them. Then he quickly changed his mind.

Kreed is around 18 months old and goes to daycare with the boys. His older brothers and dad ride in rodeos and it looks like Kreed might join them someday.

I took quite a few photos during the bronco riding. I don't know who these men are but I'm pretty sure their bodies do things mine doesn't do.

This guy stayed on his bronco for longer then the rest of the guys did.

But I'm not sure how much of his ride was due to his skill or the fact

that his hand was caught. He got bucked this way and that right over to the fence where our boys were standing.

After his horse pinned him to the fence - smack dab in front of us and our kids -

he got up and gave his horse a look, and walked out of the arena.

That had the boys talking!

Then the clown came over to make sure everyone was doing OK. That same clown may or may not have put several of the boys in a trash can later in the evening.

This looks like a stressful sport.

After several events, all the kids were invited into the arena. Since we never go to rodeos we had no idea what for, but both of the boys went out there. Then we found out they were all going to chase down 3 chickens.

Noah and Levi didn't catch any but they still got a 50 cent piece for their efforts.

It wasn't our typical Friday night but it certainly was a fascinating and entertaining evening in the great city of Canton, KS.

Soccer & Sprinkler

It's hot. So hot that the only way we can play out in our yard is with the sprinkler on.

So, we played soccer in the sprinkler the other day.

Hopefully this awful heat wave passes soon and we get some much needed rain.

Although for the next 7 days the highs are all above 100 with no rain in sight.

Sand pile

Life is good when you've got a sand pile, isn't it?

Especially when someone parked the loader tractor in the perfect spot to jump off the loader onto the sand! Gotta love happy coincidences like that.

Uncle Carl

Nope, Noah doesn't have an Uncle Carl but he did go to Uncle Carl's Way Back When Camp at Kaufman Museum last week. Tuesday through Friday for 2 1/2 hours each morning Noah, Abram and Mara (from swimming lessons) and a bunch of other new friends got to learn from Ms. Kristen and her helpers about how life was "way back when".

Noah had a great time and was eager to go each day. They learned about all sorts of ways that life "way back when" was very different from how we live today. They visited the horses near the museum, cut out log cabins, made mud bricks, washed rags the old fashioned way (after getting them as dirty as they could), explored the old red barn and the old house at the museum. On Friday, they gave their families a little program and then showed us around.

To start things off we had a campfire - each camper got to take their own campfire home.

They sang us a song, as Ms. Kristen and her daughter Naomi led them.

He seems to take programs pretty seriously and I think I'm OK with that.

After the short program Noah took Levi and I out on a tour. We went to the barn,

and the Voth-Unruh-Fast farmhouse - my great grandmother grew up in this house. It was fascinating to walk through it. It helps that we've been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie book series. We're currently reading On the Banks of Plum Creek so all of this "way back when" stuff fit right in with what we've been reading at home for the past couple months.

We even spotted a few mud bricks in one part of the house.

Noah really wanted to show us the horses, so even though it was steaming hot outside we walked over there. I thought there was no way the horses would come to us, but sure enough! Noah started calling to them and they all came right over. I was amazed!

Finally, we grabbed a snack and Noah showed us the "snack tree" - I guess they ate snack in the shade of the snack tree each day. It also happens to be a great tree for little ones to climb on. We walked through the museum - we didn't even break anything!

What a great week of fun, time making new friends and learning new stuff for our little Noah. He certainly seems to be growing up this summer - I think he's actually turning into a kindergartner in front of my eyes.