Dandelion fun!

We went picking "flowers" in the backyard. Our entire yard doesn't look like this, just the back 1/3rd...can't afford to pay for lawn service on the whole thing:) When the fun of picking had worn off, we came in and used our dandelions as paintbrushes. What fun! Olivia kept saying, "Daddy is going to LOVE this" as she worked on her painting. She adores her daddy.

Tryin' out the Bumbo Chair

This chair is new since the girls were that little. The picture is deceiving...Joey was hungry when we were trying to get the picture...he's really gonna like it:)

Vole Update...

As of today the body count stands at 4. I have visual confirmation of two more. They are gaining intelligence with each kill. They have overcome the challenge of the peanut butter mousetrap. I am consistently finding empty traps that are unsprung. They can even drag the trap close to their hole and clean it off without setting the trap off. I also filled in all of their holes and "trenches" except for one. They reopen the holes overnight. I have countered with strawberry slices held down by peanut butter. I'm hoping they'll have to work harder to get the bait off and therefore spring the trap. I'll keep you posted.

Menu Plan

While the girls soak/splash in the tub and Joey naps in the swing I'll post our meal/menu plan for the next two weeks:) indecisive about words today, hence the word/word

After last week and no grocery run, except necessary bread and milk, the fridge and pantry were quite sparse! Empty shelves no more...I bought 2 weeks worth of groceries today and was pleased to find it only cost me about 25% more than a 1 week's supply! How that happened, I'm really not sure...especially after buying meat today.

Let me know what you think of my plan and if you'd like any recipes, and which meals you'd be excited to eat:) Hopefully, I'll stick closely to the plan as I'll be held accountable to all you readers out there. chuckle chuckle-I know we don't have that many readers-just feeling facetious (first spelling: phecesious-way off) I'll get some pics of the dishes if they appear impressive.

1st Monday: pizza salad, garlic breadsticks

1st Tuesday: chicken quesadillas, fruit

1st Wednesday: zesty grilled pork chops, herb & butter rice

1st Thursday: slow-cook savory beef, baked potato

1st Friday: spaghetti, texas toast

1st Saturday: toasted sub sammies, chips

1st Sunday: BLT's, melon

2nd Monday: bacon-n-cheese strata, Cinnamon apples, biscuits

2nd Tuesday: chicken fajitas, spanish rice

2nd Wednesday: crusty baked pork chops, sautee'd asparagus

2nd Thursday: taverns (sloppy joes for all you non-NW Iowa folk), baked fries

2nd Friday: sirloin/green pepper/onion kabobs, fruit

2nd Saturday: fried egg sammies, fruit

2nd Sunday: grilled cheese sammies, anything left-over

In case you were wondering, these are just our suppers. The kids and I usually have very easy lunches, stuff they like to eat because they usually reject most suppers:( You know, "I don't like that". I will be making and eating broccoli & cheese soup for lunch this week. noone else in this family cares for soup

Thanks to Nurse Ferrari for some new meal ideas:)

Whacked-A-Vole

After giving our resident critters a taste for peanut butter I loaded up some mouse traps last night to see if I could whack some voles. Sure enough, this morning both traps were sprung and one had a victim. One down.....

For those that may not care to see a dead vole, I didn't post the picture. BUT.....for those that are curious to see what a vole looks like you can click here.

I saw another vole poking his head out and sniffing the newly loaded traps this morning.....it's only a matter of time.

Kid-Vid

Ab caught some video of the kids the other day:

Joe in his swing.

Sylvia sings "Jesus Loves Me"

Olivia sings "Jesus' Little Lamb"

Coincidence?

Do you enjoy seeing fun number patterns in your car's odometer? No? Hmm. Well I do! For those of you that know my passion for numbers (sure some would say 'obsession' is a better word, and still others would call me a 'number freak') this post won't be a surprise. 

I left school on Thursday and noticed that my odometer had the potential to align in a cool pattern. It was 64 degrees and my mileage was at something like 64027. I knew it was 40 miles to our house so I could potentially align the temperature and the odometer with all 64s! But the temperature couldn't change for the next 37 miles in order for that to happen. About 10 miles into the trip the temp dropped to 63, bummer! Well, I thought, I could still align it at 63 64065. That would still be cool. 

Shortly before I was arriving to Ames, the clouds broke and the sun came out. The temp rose back to 64...65....arg! Well, again I thought, "I could align at 65 64063." The mileage was approaching.....66 degrees! "No! I can't use 66 degrees!" Then, the temp dropped to 65 just as I hit 64063 miles. "Yeah! I hit one of the patterns at least!" Then, my odometer turned 64064 and I thought it would be neat if the temp dropped to 64......and it did! "Woo Hoo! I got 64 64064." But, surely the temp would not drop to 63 degrees in the next mile. Three degrees in 3 miles? Well, it did! "Incredible! I got ALL the patterns! 63 64065!"

I took pictures as proof of this extremely unlikely event.

I hope you can appreciate this 'coincidence' as much as I did. I tend to get really excited about little things like this. No, I do not need therapy.