Fourth of July Picnic on the Third: Part One

This is my dad. He's patriotic and really happy. Look at all those hot dogs! Wowzers! For the fourth of July, all of my siblings were together for the first time in... I think it was five years we decided. Everyone was there but Dale. Boo!!! WAAAHHH!!! I missed him. So my mom decided that while we were all home, we should christen the farm with a giant family picnic.

And picnic we did. My parents invited a few friends, my sister invited a few friends, and the rest was just us. It felt like a full-blown church picnic!

I have to be honest, it was a lot of work. While we were hustling around trying to get everything done, a couple of times I thought, "Wouldn't this be more simple if we just ate here and then went to the farm???" but I didn't say that out loud until after the party when I finally understood why we did all that work. It was awesome. We had SOOOOO much fun!!!

My brother, Jon, and his wife, Cara, got to Emporia earlier that week from New Mexico. This is their son, Zane. He's been voted "the funniest kid on the earth" at my house. The kids in our neighborhood can't wait to meet him.

...and Cara, Stephanie, and Alexa. I was so excited to see all of them; it's been way too long. The other members of their family, Colby and Ellie, stayed in New Mexico in a kennel.

Aside from the pond, and the giant garage, and the guesthouse, one of the perks of the farm is the covered patio that has electricity. Does it get any better than that? LOVE IT!

There was a pretty good crowd down by the pond for most of the light hours. I came down to take pictures. That was pretty much it for me. I wanted to stay close to the food.

Zane sprained his foot on their first leg of the trip. As soon as they got to my mom's, Jon took him to see a doctor. Poor dude; except for during the eating portion, he was stuck in this chair for the whole party! What a trooper, watching the kids swimming and running around. He just hopped to wherever they went. I didn't hear him complain one time. It amazed me.

HOT RODDIN', BABY! Deisha might have been quiet the whole night if I would have let her stay in this. Unfortunately for her, it belonged to another little guy and besides, there was a long line of kids waiting to take a ride in the hot rod.

My boys, doing what boys oughta' be doing. They crack me up.

No one swam in the pond until Nature Boy took the first dive. We weren't sure how deep it was or what might be lurking in there. There were some rough estimates, but David okayed it for free swimming after this dive. No leaches, just mud. That boat was left by previous owners on the land. My dad wanted the kids in life jackets if they were going to be tooling around the pond in it. After the first few trips, they figured it was about at sturdy as a barge. It wasn't going over. That's when the swimmers took over the jackets.

This game is the perfect outside-at-the-farm-at-dusk-picnic game. Once they set it up, there was a steady tournament until dark. I can't be sure but I think it's called Corn Hole. From my own assessment, you throw beanbags that must be full of corn into the hole on the platform. You can buy the set at Target for 50 bucks, but I'll never pay. If we own this game, you can bet I made it and painted big paisleys on the platforms!!

Deisha and Maren had quite a bit of catching up to do. They hadn't seen each other since they were babies, you know.
A little bit of heaven right here. Seriously... Does it get any better than this?

Sandy Came to Nana's!!!

When the details of our trip were finalized, it seemed like I'd be there for so long that I'd want to travel all over to see my friends that were within five ours. Turns out after three days of driving and then the back and forth to Kansas City and Great Bend burned me out on the whole travel thing. It was a huge relief that I made plans with my best girl Sandy to come and visit while we were at my moms. I love her. She's the kind of friend that every woman needs and wishes they had.

She came early in the morning and stayed two nights with us, which was amazing. We had so much fun laughing and just hanging out. Her kids didn't come this time so that on our visit we could concentrate on catching up, which was just what the doctor ordered for both of us. On thing we did do was play American Idol on the Wii. The kids were totally into it and begged to play over and over again. My little rock star was the only one I captured because I'm kind of a flake that way. This just cracks me up every time he gets a microphone!

I have to say that my favorite moments with American Idol came when it was just Sandy, me, and Sarah. And Brooke via Facebook. And Jonjenek and Teresa via text. We laughed so much that night that I had flashbacks to my benedryl episode when I was in the hospital having Leila.

Thanks for coming, Friend. I'm pretty sure you can't know how much it meant to me.

Sarah's Farm

My dad and sister bought this house that was a foreclosure. It's on five acres, has a pond with fish in it, a couple of out buildings, fruit trees, a garden plot, and years memory-making potential.

Early in our visit we started making trips to the farm to fish, pick fruit, check out Papa's progress on the remodel, and party. It's kind of a dreamland.

In this photograph we have my sister dragging her best boy and Deisha around the pond in the wagon. Love it!

My dad was really excited about taking the kids fishing, almost as excited as the kids were. They were hysterical. Because of the sheer numbers, the kids had to take turns with the poles. No one in their right mind has enough poles to go around for my bunch. Poor Tre; every time he got a turn with a pole, he spent most of his turn trying to unsnag his hook from the trees and the rocks.

Here's the crew from my vantage point. From left to right we have Kennedy, Micah, Jasmine, Sarah, my dad, and Leila and Deish in the wagon. It was so much fun!!!

This was my vantage point in the shade, far and away from the risk of Tre's flying fishing hooks.

This is my fancy-lady sista in her overalls. I love her. She's my fave.

We had a heck of a time with the bait. My dad thought we could find worms in the ground, but we didn't have much luck. As a matter of fact I think Micah brought over a grub worm and that was about the extent of their findings. Can you fish with those? I don't know. I assume my dad knows everything and I don't really question his methods.

Jon spent a lot of time right there helping with hooks and snags and standing guard in case anything jumped out of the water onto a line. He's super-duper. We like him very much.

Trebo. He makes me laugh.

I can't remember what they were doing here... I pretty much stayed in the shade close to the water. I love the country, but you can't take the city out of the girl, you know?

Here's our spot. The cars were close behind where I eventually moved to. Deisha was having a good time for about an hour. After that we moved to the comfort of our truck with music and windows that close. She likes it in there because it gives her the illusion of freedom.

My dolly, Lolly. She's just this cute in real life.

SISTA! WHAT'R DJOU DOING RIGHT NOW, OKAY!?

Sis loves fishing. I mean she lives for it. The sun, the worms, the-- fishing... she loves every minute of it. Can't you see how much she is loving it? xoxo

Segue

On the way to my mom's we stopped at my T.R and Mel's house for dinner and some hanging out in Kansas City with the cousins.

I should have known my brother's house would be immaculate and perfectly organized. He was the kid that organized his cassette tapes in alphabetical order and checked them every night to see if I "borrowed" any of them without asking. I usually did.

He also had the coolest toys for the kids! Their garage was too short to park their truck in, so it made for another indoor playroom. This little pop-up tent/playhouse was in there. He found it blowing down the road so he hopped out and snatched it. Now my kids are in it with his. And boy did they love it!
I love this picture; we could be triplets! This is my cousin Erica. She, Aunt Cindy, and Uncle Greg came too, but I was so taken by their company that I didn't have the mind to snap more pictures. It was kind of an emotional night for me besides, with leaving Richmond and everything... booooooohooooohoooo... waaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! I'm still sad!!!

This was a precious moment that I did manage to capture. Uncle Greg was always the funtime uncle that I adored who could do no wrong. Deisha must have sensed that because she went straight to his arms, and I don't think he could have been any more tickled about it. I love that! It really stinks that I didn't get a picture of Aunt Cindy, I really am sorry. I need a picture of you for my collection, so could you send one my way? Email would be great. Please and thank you very very much!!! xoxo

A Party, A Party

He's eccentric, but in some things, he's pretty low-maintenance; like this party, for example. For Tre's seventh birthday, he asked for a day out with me and Dale full of shopping and eating out and alone time aka playing his DS in the backseat while Dale and I talked in the front on the way to Santa Maria. We did that on Wednesday.

So before I started painting the dining room on Saturday, the day of his birthday, I baked a cake and stuck it in the oven to hide it from the constant flow of traffic in and out of the house.

The deal was, if Tre got his room cleaned, he could invite his friends over for cake; he didn't get it cleaned up. All day I was making threats about how he'd have to only share his cake with us and his friends would be disappointed which was a moderate amount of leverage since they were all outside waiting for most of the day.

He did go back and spend about five minutes piling stuff into neater piles so it wasn't spread all over the room, but it definitely wasn't clean and I wasn't happy about it. It was his birthday DAY, however, and I'm kind of a sucker for birthdays so I decided to feed them cake anyway. Besides, once word got out that we had a cake we were willing to share, kids started showing up and they weren't leaving until they got cake. Seriously, they started coming at 8:30 and I gave them all the boot around 5:00 that night when I started dishing up dinner. So when I got the mess cleaned up from the paint, and Dale got home, we lit a candle because my birthday supply box is depleted, sang Happy Birthday, cut the cake, and sent them to the courtyard to party.

It wasn't fancy, but he loved it. And I love him. Happy Birthday, Wild Nut! You're awesome!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRE!!!!

Tre's seven today. I can't wait to show you pictures of the party, but with all the pandemonium of this fantastic celebration, I won't be able to get them loaded until a later date. Sooooo.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIDDO! This Momma loves you more than you'll ever know!!!

Country Cousins

This is breaking my heart because going through all these pictures because it was so much fun in the beginning and now I'm starting to feel sad, like I'm reliving the good-byes. I miss you guys so much. This was the last day we spent in Richmond, some of the cousins came over to party with us one last time.

I told you, he's a lovey baby! Even Jasmine was smitten. **note on living room. I can guarantee that this living room has not looked like this since that day. We really bring a whirlwind everywhere we go.

sniff.

I hate to play favorites, and really I'm not, I just... he just... I mean, he does the army crawl! It's priceless!
I cut my hair when I went to my moms. It looks a lot better, but it's a lot shorter. I miss it. I miss my hair. My life hasn't been the same since I cut it. boohoohoo. I'm getting emotional; I must be really tired. Better get in my jammies and snuggle in for the night. And why shouldn't I? It's already 5:47!
Hey wait! MORE PICTURES! Jade...
Ronin, Liam, Tre, Lol, Angie, Micah...
Lol got a haircut too. Hers was not a mistake. It looks SO much better. Tre and Noah...
... and Micah and Dawson. Where are all the girls??? Oh! They must have been in the basement playing Barbies. Everybody has a friend. It's the way it should be.