From Soccer to Super Heroes

 Here are a few pics from the last months...

Wonder where they get their dramatic flare??

Daddy and his princess

See those front teeth coming in!!!

     

       We are pretty sure he thinks he's actually
       an Avenger...

 

        Given his brute strength and aggression....
 you might convince us he's right.

Tess' sideline stance

She's gotten to be quite the little kicker!!

And here is the Super Hero again...at a soccer game.

Trace givin' his coach a "5"

He is always making funny faces and doing weird things
during the game...so full of personality!! He's also quite
fast and full of team spirit!

Good thing Daddy is a coach so he can come to the
rescue when there's a collision...

He wasn't thinking quite this crazy for
Crazy Hair day.

Titus turning it around...

Never mind it's his teammate...he's going for it!!! 

                           

   

Central College Homecoming - Our 10 year reunion, too.

Little House on the Prairie Party

It is "Birthday Central" around our house this time of year.  Over Labor Day weekend Tess turned 7!  Can you believe that...7! The theme she chose was Little House on the Prairie.  We had been reading the series over the last several months, so it was an appropriate choice.  We took a break before staring The Long Winter, but I expect we will pick back up as the weather cools and it gets darker, sooner.

So here's the recount of the party.  Tess wore a dress that my mom made for us when we were little.  I think this dress dawned the stage of a 4H performance as well as an award winning appearance in the Chicken Show Parade.  Likewise, my dress was made by my mom for a musical I was in, in 8th grade...still fit (sorta)! The bonnet that I am wearing belonged to my Grandma, who recently passed away.

Tess' friends came dressed in prairie costumes and we made cornhusk dolls and 'Sunbonnet Sue' quilt squares (using glue instead of stitching.) Here is the link to the corn husk doll instructions and here is the link to the Sunbonnet Sue pattern. (I cut one apart and traced it on cardboard to make a few sets of traceable pieces for the girls to use.)

The party was as authentic as I could make it.  We got the Little House Cookbook and I made "Laura's Wedding Cake" from the recipe in the book.  I also made the homemade frosting recipe for this book.  We made homemade ice-cream (which I admit I made with an ice cream maker rather than salt and ice in a bucket).  I also made lemonade using a Little House recipe - just sugar and lemons! The cake was a heavy cake - like pound cake. And the frosting tasted much like the powdered sugar it was mostly made from.  The girls loved the ice-cream and, inmost cases, appreciated the cake. :) The baking of the cake took a lot of time, so the decorating of the cake took a back seat.

 After the party was the requested birthday dinner. Still staying with the theme, I made biscuits from scratch using the recipe from the book. (This took a lot of prior planning for the dough to raise and to eat the bacon for the drippings I needed.)  Titus tried his hand at rolling out a biscuit too.  Turns out the time was worth it. They were yummy!

As with any child's birthday the theme was great fun - and so was the present opening.  Here are a few shots from the party and later that night:

This was a really fun party to plan and participate in.  Just right for our 'little' girl.  We are so amazed at her growing personality, and helpful heart.  What a gem, this one.  What a blessing.  

Happy Birthday Tessie!

PS - My how I earned more respect for our pioneer sisters!  What a full time job just getting a meal on the table was! And my forearms from stirring and whipping egg whites...ouch! (In the interest of full disclosure - I did resort to a mixer after a few minutes of whipping!) It sure was a fun experience though, especially knowing how the recipes fit into the story of the books.

Trent's 4th Birthday!

Trent turned 4 on Monday...

But we partied it up on Friday with an Avengers party.
Here is the cake Mommy made.

and some capes for the heros as well...
Hulk, Captain America, Ironman, Thor.

Avengers - assemble!!!

This little guy had a super b-day!!

1st Day of School

1st day of school :)
Trace - Pre-K; Titus - 3rd; Tess - 1st

1st day of school was also Trent's 4th birthday.
Here he is with 'Thor' from Grammie and Papa. 

Daddy walking the kiddos into the building.

We had already dropped Tessie off in her room...
Notice the sweet Uganda soccer jersey he chose for day 1 ;)

Brystal's back from Africa!

Hi Friends,

Brystal has returned home safely from Africa!  For the first of her blog posts and pictures visit her blog at:

brystalhopkins.blogspot.com

The Chicken Show

Get it?? Catsup ...Catch up...That is definitely what I need to to here.  Unfortunately, I took a picture taking hiatus - inadvertently - but there are things to share, nonetheless.  I think last I posted, we had just come back from our family vacation in Lake of the Ozarks.

We returned back to backyard barbecues and late summer nights celebrating summer, and the 4th of July.  I don't have pictures, but believe me we had fun. We were very hot, and enjoyed lots of laughs.

Then we headed to Wayne, NE (birthplace of Brystal) for a Jones family reunion of sorts for Brystal's parent's 40th anniversary. (The actual big day is coming up on Sunday!) Wayne was having it's annual 'Chicken Days' celebration - which was a great memory growing up there. (Okay, she moved when she was 7, but  Chicken Days are one of the memories she has of living there.) We spent the weekend with cousins and Aunt Brielle and Aunt Brittney.

First up there was the parade...the very, very long parade. Here are a few shots of that: (our shirts were designed by Brystal's brother, to commemorate the anniversary and Chicken Days - they read "A 40 Year L-egg-acy" (that was Brystal's creative contribution to the design) and had little chickens and chicks for each of us, complete with a cracking egg for our soon to be born niece. (She was born two days later!!)

Here comes the chicken!!

Jackpot!

He's having a fabulous time...can you tell?

Then we headed to Bressler Park (right across the street from Brystal's 1st house) for all the chic hen Show contests. First we participated in the 'Chicken Feed' a chicken dinner provided by the local Rotary chapter. The we spent some time playing at the park before heading over to the contest sites.

Thanks for the free ice cream...some company.

Titus and Caden reach perfect balance...with out yoga.

He was having fun, even though this looks as if he is in pain.

Next was the contests.  WE watched chickens begin pushed out of mailboxes with a plunger in the "Chicken Flying Contest"  we watched a girl gag in the "Hard Boiled Egg Eating Contest".  We listened to the fabulous imitations of chickens in the "National Cluck Off" and we screamed our heads of for our favorite, albeit non-traditional, chicken legs in the "Chicken Legs Contest". Tessie, Trace, and Corinne participated in the kids division, and this bad boy won second place in the adult division - second only to the British film star who was there filming a reality movie.

Those are legit!

Proof! What a competitor.

We then headed over to the "Chicken Chuck Contest" where kids got three tries to throw a rubber chicken as far as they could. (You can't make these things up, people):

We might not be centered (thanks - random 4H girl), but we are all here!
MISSING: Michael, Brandon, Emily :(

We headed back to Brystal's Aunt and Uncle's farm for a wonderful meal and celebration of Ron and Karen's Anniversary - complete with 4-wheeler and horse rides. That farm is so stinkin' fun!!

Dave gave lots of rides...including to Brystal.  She did have a moment of
envisioning her death by farm 4-wheeler  -
despite her appearance of enjoying herself, here. ;)

Trent's 1st horse ride

The big Jones clan.

We had a fun time, as always.  And Trent waited to barf only 15 miles from home. So close.