A boy, a mower and some trash

Noah has been begging to be given the chance to drive something. He wants to be big like his dad and drive big things and be helpful. So after some thinking, and just plain being tired of listening to the begging, we decided that mowing the weeds by the pasture was just the spot to start Noah on the mower . 

 He was so proud of himself and he took his job very seriously, being very careful and learning how fast or slow he needed to go. He missed a few spots, but before he declared the area finished he went back to even everything out. This first adventure was back on Saturday. Throughout the week he's mowed other areas that we feel are "safe" enough (for Noah, the mower and all the buildings, poles, fences, etc!).

 While Noah was mowing, Ben and Levi gathered trash from the shed and brought it over on the old 4030. Burning trash, oddly enough, in this family is considered a perk of living in the country.

 And who needs pants to burn trash?! Not Levi.

 He started singing and acting silly on his ride back to the shed...

 then he realized the sprinkler was going on the garden...

 and yep! It got him.

 He's pretty far away here, but both Levi and Ben are laughing. That Levi sure does love his daddy - and acts like him too.

Sunday

Sunday was a super full but thankfully it was full of good stuff. At church, the kids gave their Bible School program. 

 It was a wonderful program to wrap up a great week. The boys enjoyed their week of bible school, even if they didn't tell me too much about what happened each day. I know they learned about Standing Strong for God and had a blast doing it.

 Levi, as musical as he seems to be, is always very serious during performances.

 Levi's class was dismissed after a couple songs, then the big kids took over and continued sharing songs and photos from the week. Noah looks thrilled, no?

 Fitting in with the theme of the week we had two local teenagers play bagpipe while we ate lunch outside after church. It was fantastic!

 Following lunch, there were snow cones for everyone and lots of activities.

 My boys had a ton of fun with the Stick Horse Water Balloon Jousting.

 None of my photos have Noah in them, but he was there running around faster than I could find him.

 I have no idea how many times each of the boys was in the huge castle inflatable jumping and bouncing and flopping around.

 When the festivities at church were winding down, we headed home for a little bit and then took off again for MCC's Song on the Lawn. It's an outdoor music event featuring local groups, a meal is served and this year there was kettle popcorn and out-of-this-world homemade ice cream.

 The weather was perfect, the setting was beautifully peaceful and the music was lovely. Erica and Rylee came and so since Ben and Noah had to leave early so Noah could get to baseball practice, I hung out with my sister in the very front row on a blanket.  Levi and Rylee played with the other kids that were there keeping themselves occupied and happy.

 It was the perfect ending to a busy day - hanging out on a blanket with my sister, chatting, listening to good music, keeping an eye on Levi and Rylee and then having Levi come and cuddle up with me during the last song - finally exhausted from a full day of playing outside.

A day with the boys

Ben was away for a couple days over the weekend, so Saturday was truly a day with the boys for me.  It started with a good morning phone call from daddy. 

 Then we spent a couple hours at another auction in Goessel. It was fun, but also kind of sad to visit with Wilbur - one of the men in town that has been there my entire life (same well kept house, immaculate yard and garden, cute out buildings) - and see him watch the belongs of his life sold at bargain prices. The entire place was up for auction today, house and all. I've loved the house my entire life and the inside did not disappoint. The new owner has quite the gem on their hands.
From Goessel, we headed for Sand Creek behind Bethel.

 The boys wore their water shoes and brought boots along, too.

 The boys ran ahead of me and when they caught sight of the creek and saw that it had water they yelled and hollered back to me, "Mom!! There's water!!"

 The best part of the creek (for me) is how shady it is. Each time we've been there it's been cool and shady, like a complete escape from the real world. The trees seem enormous there.  Perhaps it's because so many of them have roots showing instead of having them all hidden underground.

 Levi was braver today in the creek then I've ever seen him. The water shoes didn't last long and then he was slopping through the muddy muck and water barefoot without any trouble. I couldn't believe it!

 Noah was brave too. He's usually very, very aware of where there might be animals or whatever. But today he led Levi around and was determined to "explore".

 We ventured further north today than we usually go and found a tree across the creek. Just right for these two goof balls to sit on.

 On our way back to the bridge we came across this guy:

and the most surprising thing of all happened - we all kept our cool and didn't freak out. I think we all wanted to just run for it, but we didn't. We walked just as calmly as we had been and it all worked out just fine.
We had a wonderful day together. Very little fighting, lots of good playing, very little TV watching (always a bonus in my books) and even weathered a thunderstorm without Levi shedding any fearful tears. We're still ready for Ben to come home, though! :-)

Baseball

Summer baseball - another parenting first for us. Noah's playing coach pitch baseball this summer and is really enjoying it. He plays with boys from his class and the 2nd grade class. 

We got to Inman on Monday night for their first game and Noah just took off to catch up with the rest of the boys. 

 He's done well with batting, fielding and throwing. It's the quick decisions about where to throw the ball that are truly challenging.

 Ben pitched for Goessel during this game, and this was Noah's first at bat:

 He hit the ball really well and I thought he'd for sure make it on base. But what I couldn't see from my limited camera view was that Inman caught the ball and he was out.  I was confused for a bit why all the Inman kids were running for the dugout.

 It was fun to watch them. They had a second game on Thursday night and already they made improvements.

So far, I've been cold at each of his games - that surely won't continue for long!

Sunshine & Moonshine

 Rylee's dress on Sunday was like a ray of sunshine. I loved it! So happy, cheerful and simple.

 Rylee got to meet our kitten, Moonshine. She is one sweet kitty. She's lived in our garage her whole life, so she's very tame - therefore, very sweet.

 In other random, yet sunshiney, news - we have strawberries! Roly pollies devoured many of them, but we think we fixed that problem, so we're looking forward to more delicious strawberries from our little patch.

Badminton

 Let me just say this - I love auctions. I always have, likely always will. Saturday I took the boys and my mom to an auction in Goessel, spent $20 and brought home two shovels (that we needed), two complete fondue sets including two fondue cookbooks, and a badminton set.
Sunday afternoon the weather was perfect for badminton - cool, little breeze, sunny - perfect.

 Erica and Rylee came out and we all took turns playing. It was tons of fun!

 The boys found it difficult at first, but both of them improved a lot while we played.

Ben and I had a good time playing, just the two of us.  It reminded of us when we used to play tennis way back before we had Noah. Our level of competitiveness usually matches up well, ensuring we have a good time. Although if I'm honest, he beats me every single time - even when he's being nice to me. Oh well...we still have fun!

 We certainly did a lot of this:

 bending over to pick up the birdie. Lots of it.

 I just love that the set came in the original box. Apparently, all we needed to make our games official were some sweat wristbands. :-)

Dirt play

Levi wants to be independent in everything he does. He doesn't want help or need help with anything - unless he's tired, then he can't do anything on his own. Knowing this about him it shouldn't have surprised us (but it did) to find him all alone in the corner of the garden playing.

 Ben and I had been in the house cleaning up supper and were venturing outside to see what had become of our children when we found him. He found some of our old sandbox toys (from back in Hesston when we had a fantastic sandbox) and was having a great time playing with them.

Later that night, mud pies, muddy tea and other mud goodies made a mess of grandma and grandpa's deck - but fun was had by all (except maybe Grandma - sorry mom!).