T Ball

This summer Logan and Ali got their first taste of team sports: T-Ball. Some friends in a neighborhood next to ours told us about this very low-key league some of the parents set up every summer. Low-key sounded great to us, so we signed up. They have 13 kids on their team, which is really too many. It takes too long for their turn at whatever they're doing, and when they're waiting they loose interest fast and tell me they are tired, thirsty, or done. But when it is their turn, they love it. Here is Logan actually running to field the ball:

And here is the priceless grin when he was actually the one to get to it first:

Ali running for the first time that game--over to me, to get a drink of water:

Logan attacking the ball. He broke the tee with his great, though misplaced, swing. It took them about 10 minutes to fix it...:

Ali was a little more careful about it:

Fielding?

Apparently the run to base was exhausting:

Eli would love to be in on the action and is happy to pick up any discarded balls, gloves, bats, or hats.

I can't decide if they like it or not. They're always so excited to go, but then spend a lot of time there saying they want to go home. But there sure have been some cute moments that have made it all worth it, to me at least.

A New Generation

Here are all our cute kids reading the Little Critter books I loved, collected, and saved from when I was young and Mr. Men books that Jason loved, collected, and saved from when he was young. I love that the very same books that were our favorites back then are their favorites now!

"Fruits" of our Labors

Here is the first vegetable we picked from our garden: a tiny, rather spicy red pepper. It has been a learning experience. I am now about 99.9% sure that the rows I thought were carrots and cucumbers were actually our garden's best watered weeds, but hey, I wasn't sure so I kept watering. We are getting a fair number of green beans and lots of tomatoes, so it wasn't a total waste.

More Visitors

We loved having my brother JD and his wife Lianna here visiting! It meant so much to us that they would take the time to come see us. One day we ventured downtown and took a boat tour. It was so nice to be out on the water and see the fun views!

Can you tell how much this silly girl loved playing with her silly Uncle? You're both welcome back any time!

4th of July

We love getting to celebrate the 4th of July at Grandma and Grandpa's house! As always, the little pools were a hit:

 As were the games:

 Of course the food was delicious:

 And Happy Birthday to Daddy! We sure love you!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the good time!

Rodeo!

A couple of weekends ago we took a really fun weekend trip to Galena, Illinois to see a RODEO! I had been to some rodeos when I was younger, but for Jason and the kids it was a first. We went in part to see the fireworks after (it was the weekend before the 4th of July) and it really felt like a very American thing to be doing for the 4th.

Before the show we got to go down into the arena and see all the animals up close. Eli is our animal lover, and so was the most excited about all of it--especially getting to pet the horse!

Logan was really interested to see real, live bulls (as opposed to the cartoon and basketball player versions we watch on TV during NBA season). They are REALLY big!

It was a lovely evening to be outside. I was so impressed at how happy our kids were the whole time, especially considering that it wasn't over until about 10:30pm and they're usually in bed no later than 7:30pm! Eli's favorite part of the rodeo was walking around behind us and jumping on our backs, or patting our heads while saying, "duck, duck" but thankfully never "goose":)

Here are our good friends, the Andersons. This is their 4th of July tradition and they were kind enough to let us tag along with them this year. I decided to thank them but putting this picture of them on the blog instead of their silly face one, even though that is the one I really wanted to add:)

One of our favorite parts of the whole night was watching these two cute buddies playing together! Ali's favorite part of the rodeo was the fireworks at the end--a girl after her mother and grandmother's hearts!

Logan's favorite part was climbing up the fence that surrounded the arena and sitting on the top rail.

It was a fun adventure!

Father's Day

Better late than never...here is the cute picture I took of Jason, his dad, and his boys on Father's Day.

Silly Friends

I love these pictures of my happy kids having fun together.