New chair

So, I bought a chair at the flea market in Newton last week. I took 2 layers of vinyl off it and spray painted the chair white.

Then, I found some new foam for a pad and fabric to cover it and now we have a new chair!

I think it turned out pretty well. This was my first time to re-do a chair like this and it wasn't quite as easy as they make it look on TV but it's a drastic improvement over the gold-ish and green that it was when I bought it.

"Gooder"

While the boys dressed up as farmers Levi declared, "I'm a gooder farmer!"

The sombrero, backwards hockey jersey and pink boots surely make him just that.

Random photos

It's rained, the weather is cooler and we're enjoying spending time outside. It'll get hotter again soon, but this change has been life-giving.

This is how Levi "rides" his bike....he's so close to being able to actually ride it. He just gives up too soon and "rides" it this way instead.

Some of the neighbor girls were out playing volleyball and the boys invited themselves over to join in.

We wrapped up the evening with a run to Scoops for ice cream and a visit with Great Grandma and Grandpa Hertzler.

Close-ups

Parade

The boys got to be in a parade this weekend. They were so excited to be able to throw candy at people and ride in the back of a gator. It was the topic of many conversations last week and finally on Saturday it became reality.

Ben drove a gator representing his employer through the annual Goessel Threshing Days parade. The boys were supposed to throw out all the candy, but Ben said they kept getting distracted so he ended up doing a lot of throwing, too.

When we got to town on Saturday, Noah said, "Holy cow, that's gonna be a lot of throwing!"

And halfway through the parade, Levi told Ben, "This is fun!"

It was very warm on Saturday. Too warm to carry a camera around.

At the museum grounds we watched a saw mill operation (I don't know what the men were doing is called but it was absolutely fascinating to watch). We checked out some old harvesters, ate some delicious vernike and dropped a few sno-cones in the sand....but the weather really kept us from enjoying the rest of the activities. We were drenched in sweat and tired before we could see everything at the event this year. Thankfully, there's always another year!

ZBB & KC in KC

Confused? ZBB (Zac Brown Band) and KC (Kenny Chesney) in KC (Kansas City, Arrowhead Stadium to be exact). Yep, that's what we did this weekend. Ben and I took off to celebrate his 30th birthday with one fantastic, sunny, hot, sweaty, 6+ hour concert.

Photo via zacbrownband.com

We pretty much went to hear Zac Brown Band and once again they didn't disappoint.

Our seats were a section or two to the left of this photo and 6 rows up from the field. We had a good view of the stage and lucked out with having decent people next to us.

Photos above via kansascity.com

Thankfully, my parents kept the boys overnight and we got just under 24 hours away. Happy 30th Benjamin!

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!