Field Trip Time!

Well, it's field trip time again! We had 2 field trips this week. One was to Super Target:

Which was rather fun and interesting learning how many sandwiches were made in the deli and how many cakes were made in the bakery. We also got to tour the "back rooms" where they store the meat and dairy, the extra stock of groceries, and the extra supply of other things they sell at Target. After the tour we all sat down to a complimentary cookie and an Icee.

The other field trip was on "Honeybees" and took place at Indian Creek Nature Center. Here Hannah is holding a stuffed animal one:


And here the kids are standing in front of real live ones that are behind glass:

(by the way, they are standing on a step.......yes, Jeremiah is tall, but not THAT tall!!

And here are the bees:

And to complete the trip, we bought some honey to take home!

It was a fun week with both field trips and we look forward to the ones to come!

If you sneak into your boys room.......

you might find this:

He loves to play army guys in the windowsill!

Where Oh Where Has My Summer Gone?

Oh where, oh where could it be? Could it really be September 1st already? Where did June, July, and August go? This was the craziest, busiest summer I think we have ever had!! I took pictures of different things throughout the summer, but never took the time or even HAD the time to do any blogging!! We started back up our school year here recently, so spare time probably won't get any better. However, I will try to get a few things on here as time allows! One bonus for our daughter has been that our neighbors have had their granddaughter over quite a lot, and she and Hannah have become pretty good buddies over the summer months! Here are a couple pictures of them having some fun:

It's so nice that she finally has someone else to play with other than those crazy brothers!!

Fun at the Splash Pad

Here is Micah under a bucket spilling out water:


Here is Hannah.....do you think she is cold?

Jeremiah wanted his picture taken here:

Then we went to Pinicon Ridge Park and climbed the tower:

And watched the geese:

Fun at the Playstation

Last weekend was Kirby Fun Day at the Playstation. Our bank puts this on every summer for the kids. They get donuts and can play games. Here is Hannah with Kirby:

Micah won a Reese's in the candy machine and gave it to his sister who loves Reese's:

Here are the kids peeking out at us:

I went up and crawled around with them for a little bit

Here is my husband being a party pooper:

But I did manage to talk him into getting into the ball pit for a few minutes:

Happy 11th Birthday Jeremiah!

I have NO idea how he went from this:


To this:

The boy is almost as tall as me! He is growing up so much lately, not just physically but also in many other ways. Randy and I still remember bringing him home from the hospital. Looking at him in the back seat and thinking "What are we doing?" But it has been a wonderful journey. He is one of the three greatest blessings God has given to us! We love you Jeremiah, have a great birthday!

Homemade Cherry Pie

Grandma Manternach ( my mom) called the other day to tell us that her cherry trees had cherries ready to pick. So Sunday after church, we went over to pick some. The boys had fun climbing up into the cherry trees to fill their pails with cherries.



My mom so graciously let me borrow her cherry pitter which is pictured below:

And I FINALLY got to use my pastry cutter that I got at a Pampered Chef party a few months ago:

And I think it did a fine job

And here is the final result fresh out of the oven:

It was very delicious! We had it warm with leftover homemade ice cream that we made this weekend! Yummy!

Hannah's new hair stylist......

(he was having so much fun playing with her hair, and I just couldn't resist the chance to snap a couple shots!)

Patriotic Snack

Here is a little patriotic snack with the 4th of July right around the corner. Just put a little vanilla yogurt in a bowl, top with a couple sliced strawberries and a handful of blueberries, and enjoy!!

Prayer Request

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/49451707.html

The above link is a news story of a guy we go to church with named Adam Zimmerman who was in a work related accident yesterday and was buried up to his neck in dirt. He is the son of Don & Kathy Zimmerman, who I was mentioning on here yesterday. He was taken to the hospital and is doing fine. Please pray for him and his family and that he will have a quick recovery.

Be VERY Careful What You Say on Facebook....

I had written a post on Facebook on Friday that read like this : I NEED SOME CHOCOLATE!!! After all it was one of those days and for anyone who knows me, I am a chocoholic! But little did I know that one of our deacons from church (Don Zimmerman) had read this and was calling his wife at the grocery store to have her buy a chocolate bar. This deacon is the guy who hands out the bulletins at our church and when I got mine on Sunday, I sat down and opened it up and found this:

That Don may look sweet and innocent, but he is a sneaky little stinker!!! The funny thing was that Randy asked to see the bulletin and I said," I'm not sharing my bulletin, there's a chocolate bar in there!" He actually figured it out before I did that it came from the post that I wrote on Facebook. I was sitting there trying to figure out why there was a chocolate bar in there and he said,"Maybe they saw what you wrote on Facebook." Well, he was right! Between Sunday School and Morning Service Don's wife Kathy said, "You better be careful what you wish for on Facebook!" What a sweet couple!

12 Years of Marriage

We celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary on Sunday (June 14). I was going to post this sooner, but I was hoping to scan in a few pictures from our wedding day. However, I couldn't get our scanner to work the other night and Randy was going to mess with it lastnight, but the boys wanted him to take them fishing. So for now I just have a current picture. I'm not sure where the last 12 years have went, but it's been great spending them with the love of my life. God has blessed me with a wonderful husband, and He has blessed us both with 3 wonderful children. I look forward to many more years of marriage to my handsome red-head.

Our Garden

WOW! Has it really been almost a month since my last post? I guess once we finished the schoolyear we just got all kinds of projects and activities going on and I just haven't taken the time out to blog. So I thought I would share some pictures from our garden.

These are our strawberry plants: (which are the kids favorite thing to check on!)


These are our eggplants:


This is our row of cauliflower:


This is our broccoli: (which is already starting to produce)


This is some of our 18 tomato plants:


This is some of our pepper plants:


This is our onion row: (part of it!)


This is some of our 23 potato plants:


Here are a couple of our cucumber plants:


Here is our zucchini plants:

So even though school was out in May, we are still learning plenty of science! (and math!) We have had a couple of strawberries and a little broccoli, but we are excited about all the other stuff to come!!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Well, looks like my husband found the pie! OK,OK, I did too and so did Micah and Hannah! There were people requesting the recipe for this, so here goes:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

1 single pie crust

2-3 C. diced rhubarb

2 C. sliced strawberries

1 C. sugar

1/4 C. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

In a large bowl, stir together the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Pour into pie crust and then prepare the crumb topping that follows:

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. flour

1/2 C. oatmeal

1/4 C. cold butter

In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour, and oatmeal. Then cut in butter with a fork. Crumble over top of pie and bake at 375* (covering the edges with foil) for 25 minutes for fresh fruit or 50 minutes for frozen fruit. Remove foil and bake for 20-25 more minutes for fresh fruit or 20-30 minutes for frozen fruit or until top is golden. Cool on a wire rack.