Shelly's Birthday

I celebrated my birthday at the end of July while Tracy, Emily, and Melissa were at camp and Aaron was at work and then a friend's house.  I made some cinnamon rolls and put David's old "4" candle on the cake as I have hit my 40's.  I received 7 cards in the mail plus an e-card and LOTS of Facebook greetings.

4th of July Skirts

The 4th of July is celebrated "big" in this town.  Each year I have wanted to do something special for the kids and have never done it.  Well, this was the year!  I made these red, white, and blue skirts for the girls with some fun "celebration" material in them plus a pair of shorts for David.  He would NOT wear them until we convinced him that if he wore them to the parade people would throw candy at him.  :)  What I thought would be an hour's long project took most of the day plus part of the next day!  The skirts had a lot of gathering because I made them flare out.

More Pictures of the Camping Trip

I THOUGHT I had loaded more pictures than in the previous post!!!!!

Camping Trip

Reading around the fire before bed

The view of the lake from our site

Making S'mores

Melissa entering the tower

David and Shelly in the tower

Melissa and Laura debating on jumping out the tower (Just kidding!)

I took off for two nights with the four youngest kids, and we went camping at Lake Bronson State Park.  The water was quite "green-filled" which was not very inviting after our summer of chlorinated pools.  We did swim, however, and we enjoyed the waves the boats made and also were a bit jealous of those getting to ride on tubes dragged behind the boats.  David enjoyed the big boat that was parked by our campsite, and one evening the people were on it doing some work so he stood and watched for the longest time.  The girls got to practice putting up their new tents, pumping the mattresses, and making their campsite.  They had fun biking around, although Laura's training wheels were quite noisy--especially during the morning bathroom run when everyone else was still asleep!

Birthday Trip

Mike and I along with Melissa and Laura went down to the cities to visit my new niece for a trip for my birthday.  It was really strange not having David along with us, and it ended up being a long two and a half days for Tracy with him.  Emily was at camp down in Gilbert, MN.  The fun for me was being able to sit on the couch and hold Danielle, and that was a perfect birthday gift.  :)

I didn't get a picture of each of us with her, but here is Melissa holding her and also pictures of Melissa and Laura in Mike's parents' tree.

My Birthday

I had my birthday near the end of July.  When I was a teenager, I would ALWAYS get between 12 and 16 cards, which I would hang on my wall for a month or two.  I have continued the tradition of hanging them on the wall.  In recent years I haven't had more than three, but this year I was blessed by several and enjoyed seeing them on the wall to remind me of special people in my life.

Just Horsin' Around

We visited my parents over Easter weekend. She has pictures of all the kids on her horses so we had to continue the tradition with the youngest three. Thanks, Jeff, for all your work in getting the horses out for riding! (Sorry about the undignified positioning in the middle picture!) :)

Famous Last Words

I gave instructions to each child this afternoon for an outside job. I told the oldest two to "clean out the shed," and this is what I got. I had actually been considering this for a long time but have never been ambitious enough to do it. It sure looks nice!!!



Does anyone want this smoker?








Ahem...did I say it looked nice???

(all the junk they took out) LOL!!!!!





Emily did a great job of cleaning out the sandbox so I took the tiller to it.

Jason was supposed to be picking up stuff from around the yard and putting it by the sandbox, but I don't think he did very well. I will have to go out and point some things out to him. He is, after all, a boy. (Most of this is what Emily took out.)

Laura and Melissa (along with a tiny bit of help from Jason at the end) put the soil from the box garden into a can to save for next year.

I took down the garden area and got most of that tilled. I still have carrots and onions in it, if they produced. Most of what I have pulled out of the garden this year has not been anything worth mentioning. I will see if any of it is picture-worthy. I had been lamenting about not having enough beans to can, but after thinking about it, I have never had enough beans to can from my garden. The beans I canned came from a friend, and she did not get many this year.



David crawled around where the excitement was best at the time. Here is a picture of him earlier today.
Dumbo-dog is barking at the shovel while Jason takes dead bean vines to the woods and Aaron tills the horseshoe pits.

Itasca State Park

We finally made it to the state park with the youngest two kids.

David at the base of the tower. Because of the HUGE amount of people and limit of six on the tower at a time, I didn't even bother trying to take him up. Had he been awake, I would have considered it.
Laura climbed all the way up.


David at one of the pine trees.


Crossing the headwaters of the Mississippi River...






Trying again...

Swimming

Our indoor pool is now closed for three weeks for its yearly maintenance. Tonight I took Emily, Melissa, Laura, and David swimming. We met up with some friends. After that, we got a few groceries, picked up our laundry from the laundromat, and picked up Aaron and Jason who had been at a sleepover. We cleaned out the van, which has been a "catch-all" for the past week so I sorted through that a bit ago. I do not normally let it get so dirty, but coming home in the evenings when the mosquitoes are at their worst, I tell the kids to just, "Hurry and run in." I'll have to put the vacuum cleaner to the floor in there one of the mornings next week while Tracy is at her driver's education drive time.

Everyone is now tucked away in various sleeping locations, and I'm doing last-minute things before my birthday tomorrow. :) I have already received two cards and two e-mail greetings. I'm too old to remember how old I will turn for sure, but I think it's 38. I have been officially "ancient" for ten years now! Twenty years ago, 40 seemed SOOOOOOOOOOO old. :)

David was eight months old today, and he celebrated by getting his sixth tooth through. He has been very fussy. Here he is this morning,

and here Laura is feeding him.

I AM Still Alive...

...but holding on by threads. :)

Group Christmas 2009 Picture

Here's a picture of the whole group that got together from my side of the family. I did not edit out the red eyes. :)

More Pictures of David

I know I've been tired, but I look utterly exhausted in this picture!