Happy Birthday Big Boy!

I know, this post is LONG overdue. But, our big boy turned 7 on the 14th! Can't hardly believe I'm a mother to a 7 year old, but it looks like it's fact. :-) Wow. At his request we had some family for supper, and I made an ice cream cake for the first time. It wasn't the prettiest cake I've ever made, but it was yummy!

Here's the birthday boy and his cake!

 

One of the gifts...

 

That looks like fun!

 

Great-Grandma B. blessed us with her presence--here she's taking a peek at the newest little cousin.

 

Eliott enjoyed the box the grader came in!

 

The next morning we had a Lego party and put together one of the Lego toys Jaron had gotten.

 

 

We've been keeping EVER so busy these couple of weeks. Jaron finishes all his school but math this week, and is scheduled to finish that up next week. We're all excited to see the school year coming to a close for another year--though my excitement is mostly because we should be getting next year's books in the mail this week, and once school is over I'll hopefully be able to find time to plan out next year's lessons! Hooray! We had our last science class gathering Sunday evening, and I'm hoping to do something similar again next year, so I have that on my mind a lot too.

 

We've been spending a bit of time working in the yard, trying hard to get the landscaping done so we can plant grass. The garden is finally plowed, now it just needs to dry up enough to till so I can get my plants in the ground. The garlic is already about a foot high, and I'm really glad we made the effort last fall to plant it. The tulips we put in the flower garden didn't survive the winter, but the ones we temporarily planted in the regular garden did. I hope that doesn't become a habit, as I'd like to have the tulips by the house! 

Ending of vacation...

One day while we were in Colorado, we had a birthday party for my mom and Jaron, and splurged on making an old family favorite--Spring Rolls! (They are a Vietnamese food that my parents learned to make while working in a refugee camp around the time I was born.)

The birthday party!

Two peas of a pod!

We left Colorado on Wednesday morning, spent that night in Iowa, then went from there straight to La Crosse to go to the booksale where we ordered all of our school books for the next year. Jaron will be doing Second AND Third grade work, and Eliott will be starting Kindergarten. I'm looking forward to the summer break here in a couple weeks, but I love teaching school and am anxious to get the next school year organized!

And while in Colorado my sister let me play with the Lilla Rose hair accessories she sells, and totally sold me on them. Totally. I love the flexi clips for myself and for Leanna. Suddenly, even long, fine hair like mine is easy to deal with! I came home planning to have a party to show a few others what I found, but then decided to go ahead and become a consultant. They really do work.

A Sapphire blue flexi in Leanna's hair. Isn't it stunning?!

 

So, here is my info if you're interested in hearing more about it:
www.lillarose.biz/KickapooCountryStyle
https://www.facebook.com/KickapooCountryStyle

The end days of our trip

I know, it's been WAY too long since I last posted! And boy, do I have a lot to catch up on!

The cabin we stayed at while we had such a fun time in the Black Hills! It was so perfect for what we needed!

We left the Black Hills Friday May 2 and drove into Wyoming to visit my brother Josh and his sweet girlfriend Leah. My sister and her clan from Alaska also happened to be there while we were there. The kiddos had an utter blast blowing bubbles!

From Wyoming we went to visit my parents in Colorado. That was a lot of fun too! Megan and clan also came a day later, so we spent a couple days all together. One day, we went up into the mountains to picnic and hike. It was rather chilly, but oh, so beautiful!

Jaron throwing rocks into the lake at the park where we ate lunch. Rock addict!

Leanna enjoying the swingset.

Eliott and cousin really hit it off well together!

Shiphrah and kids in the van getting ready to go somewhere to hike.

A Bighorn ewe we saw right above the road.

We also saw lots of elk!

Megan and camera!

Shiphrah and Aunt Kay, who joined us for the day!

The cousins helping each other along on the hike.

My handsome man!

And another handsome fellah!

 

Rock climbing in a small way. Leanna was NOT impressed!

 

Well, I think I'll leave the rest of the pictures I have till another day! 

Gold Fever!

Now here's a small photo tour of what we did on Thursday. First thing was visiting an old gold mine. Imagine, two men working together for more than 30 years, drilling the holes by hand, for a total profit of about $50 each after all that time! I didn't realize that mining was such incredibly dangerous work--the average miner who worked with a pneumatic drill, before they were water cooled, worked in the mine for about 6 months before dying of miner's lung from all the dust they breathed. The men who worked in the mill, actually getting the gold from the ore, would use their bare hands in the mercury solution, and would get real "gold fever"--a fever of up to 110!--from mercury poisoning. The men who worked in the part of the mill that actually melted down the gold breathed mercury fumes all day, and would only live on average 4-5 months. Wow. An incredible price paid for gold! I think I learned more than the children did today!

Heading down the mine shaft.

In the mine.

After the mine tour we panned for gold in their sluice troughs. We ended up with more garnets (a gem) than gold, but it was fun! Here's my VERY handsome husband trying his hand at panning for the first time. I was surprised at how addicting it was.

Eliott loved playing in the water!

Here's a lovely picture of our lovely girlie! Couldn't resist throwing this one in...

After the gold mine, we took a hike to the base of the Cathedral Towers, a fantastic rock formation. We had gold fever--after crossing a wee little mountain stream we decided we should have bought a pan so we could see if there was any gold hiding in the gravel! Not that we really care about the tiny dots of gold we might have found, but we thought it would have been fun to really try it like they used to do it so many years ago...

Handsome and Little Miss on the trail.

The boys had an utter blast climbing all those big rocks!

Jaron took a family picture of the rest of us...

Here are the rock spires from the side, fairly close to the base.

A little view of how BIG they are--and this is just a little one!

As we were leaving the trail, we spotted a young fellow out rock climbing. He made it!

Playing Tourist

Well, we've spent the last couple days playing at being tourists, despite my husband's disgust at such a label being slapped on us! Here are a few pictures from yesterday, and what we were up to then...

At Crazy Horse.

At Mount Rushmore

In Custer State Park...

The determined Little Miss on our little hike. She did NOT want to be carried, even though the terrain was rather rough at times. It was a trail we'd hiked on our honeymoon!

The children thoroughly enjoyed the little hike we took through the woods on a ridge top.

Needle's Eye