Farm Day

The girls came home as farmers. They even had freckles drawn on their cheeks. This time Sara wouldn't let me take her picture, but Anna was more than willing! They even came with balloon mice. So sad that tomorrow is the last day of camp. Thank goodness school starts in less than three weeks!

Bug Day

Today I picked up two beautiful butterflies with their very own bug catching box.
Aren't they cutest little bugs you have ever seen!

They couldn't wait until their dad came home to help them collect bugs. They went into the deep unknown of the cornfield. Unfortunately, it started to rain so the collectors did not get anything. Oh, well. There's always tomorrow!

Castle Day

Today instead of picking up two animals I picked up two princesses from school. Sara was in heaven with her cape, crown and wand. Anna wouldn't let me take her picture, but she had the same thing. They are loving camp and having a great time. In the meantime, I am loving having three hours of just me time!

Zoo Day

Anna's old and Sara's new preschool is doing a summer camp this week. And since it was cheaper to enroll them in the camp than it would be for all of my therapy and medications from having them home all week, I enrolled them. Their teacher is awesome and always has the greatest ideas for themes. Today was Zoo day and when I went to pick them up after three wonderful, blissful hours, I didn't pick up little girls. I picked up a Leopard...And a yellow lion...
They loved it and wouldn't let me take it off of them until it was bedtime. The black didn't want to come off very easily and I was worried that they would be striped for awhile, but with a little elbow grease it came off. Can't wait to see what they come home as tomorrow!

Oh, and I had to snap a picture of this. Sara has decided that this is her new place. She just sits in there for about a half an hour and watches us through the window. Strange child!

Happiness!

Can life get any better?! I subject that it cannot!

Beginning of Canning Season

After the parade I came home and bottled these beauties. Our garden is exploding with cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash. We froze the squash and zucchini, but decided to pickle the cucumbers. It was the easiest thing I have done. I'm a little worried, though, because this just marked the beginning. Our garden has taken off and I will be doing beans, tomatoes and more pickles. I love being able to add to our food storage and such a low expense!

La Grange Day

We attended La Grange day yesterday. It started out with an awesome parade. The majority of the parade was done by the Shiners. It was quite interesting. All the churches were represented except for ours. We decided that our church will be represented next year with an awesome float of the a Book of Mormon with the missionaries walking with the float handing out pass along cards. We'll see how far that vision actually goes!
The cheerleaders were passing out these tiaras. Anna was pretty excited.
Sara wore hers as a necklace.
Afterward we went to look at several booths. One of which had a miniature pony that the girls were able to pet. And, contrary to popular belief, miniature ponies do not have miniature poops!
I love living in a small town! Oh, and one thing that the parades in Utah should pick up...Free water. People were passing out free bottles of water all over the place. It was great!

Tooth Number Two...Gone!

Anna has had a loose tooth since before we left for Utah. She wouldn't let anyone touch it. Well, it was just barely hanging in there and she was getting ready to go to a swimming party, so we convinced her to pull it out. But she wanted it pulled a certain way. We had to tie a string around it and then let Kassi run as fast as she could with it and pull it out. As we were tying the string to her tooth, it was so loose that it just popped out. She was a little surprised, a little mad but a lot more excited. The tooth was finally out and she could eat with her front teeth again. Plus, that meant the tooth fairy was coming!
All set with her tooth fairy pillow.Sara has been watching and is now trying to convince us that her tooth is loose. Hopefully it will be a couple of years before we have to deal with that one!

Goodbye Kassi

I had to include this picture on the blog. Sara came with me to drop off Kassi (Anna was at a birthday party) and she was just so sad. She didn't want to let Kassi go. I love that my girls love her so much! Thanks for visiting Kassi. Sorry the trip home was so rough. Hopefully you will come and see us again!

The Ohio River

For Kassi's last night in town, we went and got ice cream and then headed down to show her the Ohio River. It was perfect! The sun was setting and made for perfect pictures.
I love this picture!

Elder Raney

We had to say goodbye to Elder Raney. We really have become attached to him as he became one of our favorites pretty fast. Our area was his first one and we were able to meet hims family as one of our friends from Utah is good friends with them.
He is such an incredible missionary and brought the spirit into our home with every visit. We are going to miss him, but know that he has moved on to do great work. His parents should be very proud...He is a wonderful young man.

Just as a side note..his companion, Elder LeAno, took this picture and then bragged about his wonderful photography skills. Personally, I think he has a lot to work on ;)

Saturday Fun

We started out the morning by fulfilling our assignment of cleaning the church. We had been assigned with two other families, who all ended up out of town. So, the full responsibility fell upon us. The girls were such great helpers. Anna vacuumed all of the benches in the chapel and Sara carted around her little push vacuum, trying to get all of the crumbs. I am so glad that my children have the opportunity to clean the church. I think it helps them learn to respect the building more.

After we were done we headed down to the Kentucky Derby Museum. We have been a couple of times, but Rob has never been with us. I think he had fun.

Look out girls! Here come the horses!

Rob and the girls with the most recent Derby winner...Animal Kingdom.
Sara jockeyed up and rode a horse.
Anna did as well. Funny thing is that the real jockey's are not that much bigger than the girls!
It was a fun way to spend the Saturday with the people I love!

Scavanger Hunt

We got a phone call from one of our friends here in town that invited us to do a picture scavenger hunt with them and a couple of other families in the ward. Each family made a list of 15 items that another family had to take a picture of. It was a lot of fun and we won! Two of the pictures we had to take were of our family hugging a tree.And a two tiered human pyramid.
Thanks Gremmert's for a great time!

Bat Museum

With Aunt Kassi in town we headed down to the bat museum. I think they should offer some sort of discount for frequent visitors. I think this was number six for us. It's funny how you get a different tour every time.
The girls love the museum and were excited to get another bat. We actually don't have any left, since we keep giving them away. So they were glad that they got to keep these.

The obligatory picture in front of the bat.
Posing with "the Babe"
At the giant mitt.
What cute girls I have!

The Drive Home

The day after all of the celebrations we loaded up the car and started our journey back to Kentucky. Rob had to fly back due to work, so Kassi was a trooper and joined us for the long drive home. The first day we made it to a small town in Kansas. It took us forever to get there. We left the house at 7:30 in the morning and checked into the hotel at midnight. We took a different route because we didn't want to get caught with all of the flooding problems. Everything was running smoothly until we were just outside Vail, Colorado. They had the lane narrowed down to one lane and we were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. And because of that we ended up being stuck in downtown Denver rush hour traffic. Needless to say, I was completely frustrated by the end of the drive. The girls were such troopers, though. There was a little bit of whining, but no crying. Can't ask for better travelers!
We left Kansas pretty early and pulled into La Grange around 10 p.m. The last day of the journey we had no problems...Thank goodness. I don't think I could have survived one more problem! I love visiting Utah, but I don't think I will be driving there any time soon.

Fireworks!

After the bbq we headed back to grandpa and grandma's for some fireworks. The girls loved being introduced to sparklers and, surprisingly, no one was burned!

Grandpa was in charge of the big fireworks.
The kids got a little scared and insisted on watching th e rest of the fireworks in the back of the car.
When it started to get dark we headed down to watch the Thanksgiving Point fireworks at a nearby church parking lot.
Grandma brought some fun glow sticks.
The girls didn't make it through the fireworks. They were both out after about ten minutes. I think Sara is faking asleep in this picture, but she really did fall asleep.
Anna fell asleep snuggling Grandpa.
I am so glad we decided to head to Utah for the 4th of July. No one knows how to celebrate it quite like Utah. Thanks for all of the hospitality everyone! We love you!

4th of July BBQ

While we were in Utah we got a surprise...Zach and Erin and the boys drove out. On the night of the 4th we drove out to Erin's parents house and had a bbq. The girls had a blast playing with their cousins. It was nice to all hang out together.

Kassi tried to wrangle up Sara. She kept escaping!The three girl cousins. I don't know why my kids have to be so camera crazy!

All the girls.
All the boys.
Grandpa and Grandma with all of their grandkids. What a cute bunch!

I'm so glad that everyone was able to come out. It's nice to be able to be all together at least once in awhile!