It really stinks when your mother sends you back to the top of the bridge because you just can’t manage to keep your tennis shoes out of the creek while your big sister collects pond water for the crayfish at school.  That bubbling water is just so irresistible.  And there…

Rock knob is such a great easy, relatively short hike:  perfect for a spring evening when you don’t have a lot of time, but your kids need to do something outside.  This is one of my very favorite times to hike in the forest.  There are hardly any bugs, and…

It turns out he LOVES taking a bath.  The Banana and Mr. SP were decidedly less enthusiastic about bath taking at this stage, but YaYa was just like Squirmy.  When he hears the water running, he wants to be IN the bathroom.  If the bathwater belongs to someone else, he…

YaYa has been busy begging for jars, designing luxury residences for slugs, and then searching under rocks, plants, mats, and bricks for slugs to inhabit the house.  This particular apartment had a green sunroof and formal garden.  I love that my girl is willing to walk all around the yard…

There was some concern, since we wouldn’t be staying at Grandma Kathy’s real house, that we would miss the horses.  However, it turned out that there were plenty of friendly horses in the pasture right next to the trailer house, and although the kidlets didn’t get to do chores with…

Valley City was still flooded while we were visiting, which meant that there were dikes up in town, and that the road to Grandma Kathy’s house was flooded in both directions over bridges.  Grandma Kathy was camped out at a trailer house that she and Papa Richard own on some…

YaYa found a long piece of paper that had been used to pack something in a big box (I can’t remember what for) and decided that it would be perfect to turn The Banana into a caterpillar.  The Banana is a very patient girl.  She was wrapped up for quite…

It was so entertaining to spend time with Alex when we were in North Dakota.  He’s the most tumble bumble toddler I’ve come across for a very, very long time.  He literally goes full speed ahead, at least 97 miles per hour, every waking moment of his day, and he…

My Mother’s Day was filled with all sorts of little blessings:  phone calls to my own mother and mother-in-law, FOUR vases of flowers (one from EACH kidlet), bagel sandwiches for lunch at Bixby’s after church (I always love not having to cook after we get home from church) a collection…

Before I can tell you why Dot was laughing so much she was nearly crying, I need to tell you a few things about my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law is quite possibly the least greedy person you will ever meet.  She shares everything.  She models sharing to everyone.  She is always…