Schools Out, Flooding and Fish

The kids are officially out of school. Yay! Just in time to be stuck inside with me because of the nonstop rain storms. It has rained every single day for a week now and the ten day forecast has rain on every day. It's a soggy, muddy mess outside. We've gotten almost nine inches of rain now.....which is nothing compared to the 20+ inches we got last May. It has been enough to fill up our lagoon to the highest I've seen it in the 12 years we've lived here. I wonder what happens when it overflows. Gross.

GoatMan goes in there to eat his dinner and then he's let back into the horse pen.

The koi pond out front was full of mosquito larvae so I went to the fish store and bought three good sized goldfish to take care of our problem. The pond is super full from all the rain and the fish seem happy (and hopefully full of larvae).

Sean was nice enough to put a hitch on my car so I could haul the bikes on the bike trip last weekend. It will be nice to have a hitch on it.  He's such a helpful guy.

The kindergarten awards were handed out on the last full day of school. I went to see Greta receive her awards. She did so well in kindergarten. She's a reader now and mastered all of her math facts. Hard to believe that little girl is ready for first grade!

Katy Trail

This weekend Wesley and I packed up the car, loaded bikes on the bike rack, and headed out to join my family for a fun weekend of bike riding. My Dad has been telling me about the Katy Trail for some time now and we finally scheduled a weekend where nearly all of us could gather together and ride a portion of it. Sean stayed home with Greta who is still on training wheels and wouldn't be able to manage riding 20+ miles.

I took Wesley out of school early on Friday and we drove for quite some time to get to New Franklin, Missouri. We found the campsite where my parents had already set up their Airstream and my sister had set up a large tent.

My Dads cousin Phillip and his wife Wendy joined us as well.

I haven't tent camped in decades. It was fun.

My Dad aka The Griddle Master.

We woke up Saturday morning to a brisk 48 degrees and my Dad made a breakfast of champions for everyone. After that we all got on our bikes and set out for Rocheport which was 10 miles away. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride. The Katy Trail is an old railway line so the path is nice and flat, no huge hills which is great for somebody like me who hasn't been on a long bike ride.

In Rocheport we found a lovely outdoor restaurant up on a bluff. There was a winding, forested path up the hill to get there which was quite beautiful and lush. I had a delicious lunch of hummus, veggies, pita bread and soft pretzels while overlooking the Missouri river. 

After lunch we headed back to the campground. In total it was 24 miles on a bike. Wesley did awesome! My knee started acting up on the way back but that was bound to happen with my bum knees. It was a great experience and perhaps we'll do it again some day. Thanks for the invite Pops!

Exploring an old abandoned explosives storage site.

Our return trip was fueled by Twizzlers.

My parents on their recumbent bikes.

Wesley and I

Wesley about 19 miles into the experience.

Field Trip Day 2

On day 2 I went to the zoo with Greta's Kindergarten class. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a lovely time.

Greta with her fabulous kindergarten class. They are all great kids and we couldn't ask for a better teacher!

Greta had a moment with this giant gorilla. He stared at her for a good two minutes.

Greta and I fed this regal goat all of our treats. A zoo keeper came over and thanked us for feeding him, he gets overlooked often because of all the cute baby goats everywhere (which are his offspring). He's just gorgeous.

I felt very much like this meerkat by the end of the day. :)

 

Field Trip Day 1

I had the pleasure of joining Wesley on his third grade field trip last week. Then I had the pleasure of joining Greta on hers the next day. It was a long two days and my legs still ache but it was fun and we enjoyed some beautiful weather. Wesley went to a 1880's town/museum. It had people that "lived" and worked in the town all in typical 1880 fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the kids.

They asked the kids to jump to see the scale move.

The kids were hooked up like livestock to grind the corn.

Wesley being.....Wesley.

Kindergarten Program

Miss Greta had her Kindergarten program last week and it was super cute.My parents were there and even got to join in on the fun. I shall use this video for future leverage. Hehe.

Biking, Tree Limbs & Handcuffs

I've been trying to get out two or three times a week to get exercise, sun and fresh air. Working from home, I feel guilty if I'm not working.....but then I get burnt out on sculpting if I do it nonstop. So I've found the happy medium is getting out of the house for an hour most days. I was getting bored with walking so the new bike has been getting ridden. The skinny little tires aren't real great on the dirt roads but they do ok, as long as there is no fresh gravel. The other day I was out for a five mile ride and decided to go a new route. The had just dumped fresh gravel and it was uphill with a 30 miles per hour head wind. I was bound and determined to make it and I finally did. It was brutal though.

The new route took me along a fence line with a herd of cattle with very young calves. The sweet little babies were all lying down napping when I came riding by. They would slowly open their eyes and see, what I can only imagine was, a hideous metal alien riding by. They would fly into the air in a state of panic and gallop off at high speed with their little tails in the air. I don't think they had ever seen a bicycle before. The mothers on the other hand just stood there chewing their cud. It was funny stuff.

Every Spring comes and I find myself with a huge to-do list. This year is no different. One of the items is figuring out what to do with the massive amount of downed limbs all over the property. I try and make piles throughout the winter but most of the limbs are just randomly strewn about the walnut grove. As you can imagine 200+ trees create quite the mess. My parents were nice enough to let us borrow their trailer and so I spent the entire weekend loading limbs, ratcheting them down and hauling the load off to the green waste site outside of town. I prefer this method over burning, especially since we've been dealing with wildfires at an increasing rate. I managed to take four big loads of limbs and probably cleared 95% of the downed limbs off the property. Yay, one item checked off the list.

Cub Scouts is winding down for the year and last week they scheduled a Sheriff to come talk to the boys about safety. When he was done talking they got to go through his belt and see all the cool gadgets up close. The boys were all very enamored with the hand cuffs and took turns trying them on. Wesley was adamant that I take a picture of him in handcuffs. So here he is. :)

Birthday Weekend

I enjoyed a lovely birthday weekend full of fun and family. Sean, the kids and my parents took me to go see Ratchet and Clank the movie. That's a movie based on the Playstation game that I've been playing for over a decade. It's actually my favorite game and I was so excited to see they were making a movie. The movie was true to the video game and it made me smile. Afterwards we all went out to eat and had a very good meal. It was a lot of fun.

Afterwards the kids and I went to a special surprise party for their former preschool teacher. Miss Cindy is closing down the preschool and moving to Florida so a surprise gathering of some of her former students was put together. This was done during the final graduation program for her current students. She had no idea that 60+ alumni had gathered and were about to present her with a flower and a hug. She had been teaching for 16 years so some of the oldest kids were 19 and 20 years old. It was very special and I don't think there was a dry eye in the auditorium. We sure were privileged to have her teach our kids, she is one special teacher.

Here is the video I took as the kids were walking in to surprise her.