Around the farm

 In general, I like taking pictures.  I like to see the world through my camera and see what I notice that I otherwise wouldn't.  But oddly enough, I took a ten day break from my camera.  I didn't take a single photo for ten days.  That's really odd for me.  I guess I got busy and just didn't take the time to grab the camera.  So, today I decided I'd just carry my camera around with me in that little bit of time between when I get home from work and when we eat supper.  Lucky for me, it was leftover night at our house so I didn't have to worry about cooking.

 Levi was mad because he missed out on a ride a 4-wheeler ride...
And this is Chuckles.  This cat showed up at the farm a few weeks ago and decided to stay.  She had 3 kittens, but within two days they were all gone.  We think she ate them...but maybe something else ate them.  Anyway, now she's just around and friendly as can be.  We need a cat or two around the farm but none of us are cat people.  The boys picked the name Chuckles.

 There's that 4-wheeler ride Levi was hoping for!

 And we have a garden!  So far only the onions are up.  Hopefully, the potatoes will show up this week and just yesterday we planted peas.

 My lettuce is starting to grow...although I was told that it may have gotten sprayed with Round Up this evening on accident....so, we'll see what becomes of it now.

 And, we made a strawberry bed.  We planted twelve plants over the weekend and they seem to be doing pretty well so far.  Hopefully, we'll get some berries next year.

 And the final project - at the moment - is this patio area.  The west side of our house, where the concrete slab is, can be unbearably hot in the summer time.  The ground on this side (or the east side) of our house has an area that is terribly uneven.  So, we thought it'd make the perfect spot for a patio.  We'll get that uneven spot fixed and have a shaded area to hang out on.  Granted we're not going for a fancy patio here - since we don't plan on living here for THAT long - it'll just be a low-key, shady patio.  Now we wait for that Round Up to kill off the grass...

Maxwell

Friday was a warm, humid and windy day - a perfect day for exploring rural McPherson County. I've lived in the same spot for the majority of my life - within thirty minutes of Maxwell Wildlife Refuge and I'd never been there!  Thankfully, my parents have both taken classes of children on field trips to Maxwell so they knew just where to go.  We drove up to the look out tower and right away spotted buffalo and elk.  

The buffalo were pretty impressive - massive and furry with really intense eyes.

Then we drove a short distance to the county fishing lake for a picnic.  

  And we spent time walking on the nature trail.  

 It was great to explore a place, new to us, that's so close to home!

State basketball

State basketball tournaments just wrapped up in Kansas.  Ben reffed his first state tournament games this year so we went to watch!

It's no small task getting games in a state tournament.  It's not just luck that Ben got post-season games, the coaches recommend officials for it.  The same is true for officials and basketball teams - the longer the season lasts, the more intense the games become.  Ben reffed a 3A Substate tournament in Sedgwick the week before and then had two nights at the 3A State tournament in Hutch.

The boys claim to love watching Ben ref basketball.  I'm not so sure that's the case.  I think they just like going to games, seeing the action and eating Skittles.  I like to watch Ben ref.  It's fascinating to see him work and interact with players and coaches.

It also helps me to reflect on how he and I are different.  I wouldn't have the courage to blow the whistle during a game, let alone withstand the complaining and insults from the crowd and coaches.  But he handles all of that so well.  He's not afraid to tell a coach he messed up on a call, but he's also confident enough to tell the coach that he'll get it right the next time.

And with that, another season ends.  Thankfully, for the boys and I, this season seemed to go by very quickly.  Perhaps that's a sign that the boys are getting older....?  Yes, I think so because I'm certainly not getting better at parenting them on my own for nights on end.  I couldn't be happier for the end of basketball season and the beginning of spring!

March Madness

In February and March, the Goessel Rec Commission held four 1-hour long basketball camps for the kids.  Kindergarten through 3rd grade were grouped together and boy was it fun.  

Noah absolutely loved going to this camp.  Levi loved it too, because he got to run around with some of his buddies, so it was a win win situation for me.

They started each time by shooting around until everyone was gathered, then they stretched.

They split the group up to make it more manageable.

The first three sessions they focused on dribbling and shooting.  The final night they played a basketball "game"!  All the kids were buzzing with excitement about their basketball game - Noah even invited my parents to come and watch.

Have you ever tried to organize kindergartner's into a five-on-five half court "game" without jerseys?  It's not that the guys in charge (basketball coaches and PE teachers) didn't realize they needed jerseys for the kids, they just didn't have 50+ jerseys for little people hanging around.  So, the kids (and adults) did their best to help make it all make sense.

5 and 6 year old kids are easily distracted and it was hilarious to watch all the things they did that had nothing to do with basketball.

They did get it at times, though.  There were some pretty athletic and coordinated moves made by lots of kids,

but there was also chaos and lots of laughs.

Ben helped out some too. :-)

The kids had fun and learned quite a bit about the basics of basketball.

But it certainly was a bit crazy.  50 kids+50 basketballs = Madness

A Good Start

So, we're going to try and grow a garden this year.  We've tried this once before, but then I got pregnant and felt sick all the time, so that first garden was a tremendous failure.  We have a bit more hope for this one.  We borrowed a tiller from some friends to till up my grandma's old (and now weed infested) flower garden.  Noah watched:

as the tiller took Ben for a ride through the old flower bed.  While Ben struggled my dad and I laughed and laughed.

But quickly, Ben got it figured out

and the weeds were turned over into what appears to be pretty good soil.

So, now we need to get a little fence put up and plant some vegetables! We'll see how this all goes...

Levi's Haircut

Levi needed a haircut, like two weeks ago he needed a haircut, but just the other day it finally happened.

It was his choice to go shirtless, even though it was pretty cool outside.  Can you tell he doesn't like getting his hair cut?

He interrupted the hair cut to go inside and get his coat - not a shirt, or jacket, but a coat.

Then he ran off to play on the tractor,

but we got him to return for the remainder of the cut.

And just like that, he was all done and

making a beeline for the tractor!