Digging for Treasure

The kids have also been working on a lot of art projects.  Emily spent a long time creating this book.  I believe she got the idea after talking to Grandma Lorenzen about being an author/illustrator when she grew up.  The subject matter of the book was inspired by the book Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman.  (I apologize that some of the lighter colors didn't show up well in the photos.)

Last days of summer

The kids & I have been enjoying the relatively schedule-free last weeks of summer.  In addition to actually being able to play outside again, Emily & Lincoln have hauled out and played with lots of different toys.  Here are some random snapshots...

Emily put together almost all the jigsaw puzzles on the floor of her room.  She discovered that the 100-piece puzzles in this set have exact matching shapes, so she was trying to put the zebra puzzle together based on the underlying shape of the lion puzzle rather than the picture.

Lincoln was being silly with the container that normally holds all the train tracks.  I call this his "mad cheese" face.  Also of note: Lincoln wore his new Thomas pajamas the entire day and never got dressed.

This "dumping" game soon became a "sorting" game.  Emily did pretty well with the sorting part until the end.  Lincoln was little help.  Plus, he now thinks that every day is a dumping day.  :op

Summer Olympics

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London have come to a close.  I'm a huge fan of watching the Olympics--especially the summer games.  I'm not so much a fan of how it makes you stay up too late and sucks all your time.  I didn't have to worry much about it this year because I didn't get to watch much.  I was excited to watch the opening ceremonies during our popcorn night, but it didn't go over so well.  Emily chattered constantly and kept asking what in the world they were doing during the dances.  Austin thinks it's pointless and wanted to know when the real competitions began.  To this day, I still haven't watched the second half of the opening ceremonies on the DVR.

I tried watching some sporting events after supper with the kids, but after three nights I decided it just wasn't going to work.  They got all riled up, I got too intense trying to actually watch it and bedtime just went badly.  I even tried watching the gymnastics team competition on DVR the next afternoon, but the same thing happened.  Also, during real-time prime time viewing, Emily had a hard time understanding the concept that you had to watch whatever the producers decided to air and you couldn't just decide what you wanted to watch when (spoiled DVR child).  She also didn't appreciate the fluff pieces and would constantly ask when the talking was going to be done.  I guess we'll just have to wait until next time.

One of the reasons it didn't work to watch the games is because the kids would try to imitate the events.  It was fun, but sometimes got out of hand.  Here are some examples...

Beach volleyball: Who isn't inspired by Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings?

Swimming: Emily set up a "pool" on the floor and tried to race across.  The kids quickly discovered that it didn't work very well and the sheets wrinkled up too easily, so they resorted to some kind of hybrid running/jumping (see video).

Unknown event:  Not exactly sure what Lincoln is trying to do here.

Gymnastics:  Emily actually got pretty close to doing a real cartwheel.  Lincoln just jumped and rolled around.

 

Balance Beam:  Emily was encouraging Lincoln to use her as a balance beam.  Not a great idea.

I tried watching again one of the last nights only to have to put the kabosh on Lincoln's attempt to perform platform diving off the couch.  Sigh.

Bike ride and birdwatching

Saturday was a perfectly gorgeous day.  Austin had some errands to run, so the kids & I set off on a bike ride.  I was happy that Emily readily agreed to go.  She has been avoiding her bike after a standoff over training wheels, but I recently took it in for a tune-up that fixed a few minor issues and reset the training wheels.  We headed for the Brookwood Loop, but stopped to explore a soft trail (i.e. not paved) on foot that went along the Cedar River.  I had never been down it before.  With the low river level, we were able to climb down to a beach/sandbar area to observe minnows and throw rocks. 

We finished our bike loop and then decided to cross another item off our bucket list by going birdwatching at Babcock Woods.  Emily took a field trip to the bird hut in Preschool last spring.  It was easy to find and a really great set-up.  We opened the windows, put a scoop of sunflower seeds in one of the feeders hanging on a wire and attracted a female cardinal in less than 5 minutes!  Emily & I quickly discovered that Lincoln is not a very good birdwatcher.  He's a tad too noisy and active. ;o)  We then strolled along the trails through the woods.  It's kind of hard, though, when the kids have different agendas.  Emily was collecting interesting nature objects but was constantly moving along the trail.  Lincoln was more interested in finding acorns and then dropping them/burying them in holes dug by small animals along the trail.  All in all it was a fun outing and a great way to explore nature close to home!

 

Tomato stand

As previously mentioned, we have a bumper crop of tomatoes.  After sharing buckets with family and friends, the kids & I decided to set up a tomato stand in the front yard.  It only took two customers and less than 20 minutes to make $3.50 and sell out.  Emily caught the entrepreneurial bug and wanted to sell lemonade, too.  Unfortunately, I did not have the time or patience to do that today.  There should be another big round of tomatoes ready early next week!

**Note to readers:  After falling almost two weeks behind in blogging, I have put up more than 10 new posts in the last day or two.  If you're reading this on the actual blog site, please click on "Older Posts" when you get to the bottom to make sure you've read all the new ones.  If you normally read posts on Google Reader, you might want to consider checking out the July 24 "Farming" post via the link.  For some reason a bunch of the pictures aren't showing up in Google Reader.  Thanks!**

Beach party

The kids & I enjoyed another fun trip to the beach at George Wyth lake.  This time we met up with four other moms + kids for a picnic lunch (not all pictured).  I met these moms through church, and they have been a part of my social circle for years.  All five of us are sending our oldest to Kindergarten this fall in four different school districts.  We're already planning a Mom's Night Out in a month or two for debriefing and to compare notes. ;o)

The highlight of the day for kids was the giant pile of seaweed they collected and then threw back in the water (behind Lincoln in this picture).

Austin's birthday

Austin celebrated his 33rd birthday with a quiet day working at home.  He doesn't do dessert, so we didn't bake him a cake, but he joined us for a birthday cinnamon roll for breakfast.  Emily proudly gave him a special gift--an ink pen she found and "wrapped" in an Amazon.com box.  She also made him a cute homemade card.

NASCAR Nationwide race

In case you didn't know, Austin & I are NASCAR fans.  I have been a closet fan since 7th grade when I sat at a table in Mr. Landman's room with two boys in my class who were fans.  Austin & I started watching together a few years into our marriage.  It has been on our lifelong bucket list to go to a race some day.  Thanks to connections (my sister works in the marketing department of the Pizza Ranch corporate office), we got a great deal on tickets to the NASCAR Nationwide USCellular 250 at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.  (For non-fans, the Nationwide series is like Triple A minor league behind the Sprint Cup series, but sometimes Sprint Cup drivers also drive in the Nationwide series and vice versa.)

We dropped the kids off at Austin's parents' house in Waukee and headed to the track Saturday afternoon after a huge line of thunderstorms moved through.  With the exceptionally hot, dry summer we've had, who would've thought we'd have perfect weather--mostly cloudy until race time with comfortable temps and a nice breeze away from the stands (no fumes).  And that we'd have to dodge mud puddles!

Our ticket package included entrance to the Pizza Ranch hospitality tent and a Casey's Fan Walk pass to the infield.  We met my sister and BIL (who were working the hospitality tent check-in table) and snagged a ride to the infield to play promotional games and watch pre-race inspections.  We also did a race simulator and rented headsets with a race scanner before heading back to Hospitality Village to enjoy Pizza Ranch buffet.  We also got to hear from Michael McDowell, the driver of the #18 Pizza Ranch car.

The race itself wasn't terribly exciting with only three cautions, one small single spin-out on the grass and no green flag pit stops for the entire field.  Plus, the radio scanner channel for the #18 car wasn't working right.  But it was a great experience, and we're looking forward to doing it again!  Here are some snapshots of our day...

Victory Lane sponsored by Pizza Ranch

Pre-race inspections

Michael McDowell--driver of the #18 Pizza Ranch car

Let's go racing!

The #18 started 8th and finished 7th.  Elliot Sadler won the race.

A beautiful night for racing!

Austin & I stayed in a hotel back in West Des Moines and enjoyed a morning of leisure before joining his parents and the kids for lunch.  It wasn't warm enough to go swimming (who knew?!?), but Emily & Lincoln had a fabulous time with Grandpa & Grandma Lorenzen doing a tour of parks.  They even both went to Sunday school AND a service at G&G's church.

The kids also enjoyed the Pizza Ranch Racing "Eat My Crust" flags and die-cast model cars we got for free at the race.

Digging day

Today the kids & I did a lot of digging in the garden.  We harvested the entire carrot crop and a third of the potato crop.  We enjoyed both in a favorite recipe for supper. 

We have an overabundance of Dakota Red potatoes--which is really exciting since it's the first time I've attempted to grow potatoes.  I've been searching for all my red potato recipes as well as sharing with friends.  We also have a bumper crop of tomatoes.  This is a picture of one plant, and each tomato is almost as big as my fist.

However, all things are not well in our garden.  It has been invaded by Japanese beetles.  While I've heard of and seen them before, I have never experienced them like this.  They completely destroyed the green beans just as the second round was starting to emerge.  They started in on the raspberries and have been hanging out on the rhubarb and zinnias.  I didn't do my research and made an impulse buy of a lure trap because I was so disgusted.  It's the same concept as the bag traps, but is a reusable plastic container that has to be emptied.  Apparently, no one recommends using lure traps other than the lure trap companies.  I think it's true that they work too well, and you end up with more bugs in your yard than when you started.  I was emptying it twice a day, and that still wasn't enough.  After a week I had the equivalent of a 5 gallon bucket of stinky, rotting beetle carcasses.  I had to keep the garbage outside so they didn't stink up the garage.  That's when I called it quits.  I trashed the trap and resorted to the old-fashioned tactic of flicking them into a bucket of soapy water early in the morning before they started flying around.  Either that helped tremendously or the short adult season is ending.  I learned a lot thanks to Google.  I'll be much smarter next time they try to invade!

Bremer County Fair

It was Bremer County Fair week--and it was a hot one.  The kids & I walked over Tuesday afternoon to check out the rabbit and poultry tent, as well as the petting zoo.  We also walked through the 4-H building and scouted out the amusement rides.

On Wednesday night all four of us headed over for our free hamburgers from the Bremer County Cattlemen Association.  Then each kid got to pick two things to do on the midway.  Lincoln went first on the airplane ride.  Emily chose a really lame fishing game with a guaranteed prize of a stuffed snake (woo-hoo!).  Then they both went on the mini Ferris wheel together.  Lincoln had been talking about nothing else since fair week had begun.  He was a little hesitant when it first started, but was smiling big at the end.

 Then it was time for my favorite part--big ice cream sundaes from the Dairy Producers booth! :o)

 

We finished up the evening by going back to the petting zoo and walking through all the animal barns.  It's a fun little county fair to have so close to home!