Dienner Reunion with a feel of Fall!!

We love the Dienner family!!!  Daudy Dienner passed into eternity a few years ago and we miss him like crazy but Mommy D. is still here with us and it was a great evening spending time with her and extended family!


Uncle Alvin's planned this reunion at their beautiful farm!  They are the best at hosting people and the kids had SO MUCH FUN!

 Barrel rides are always a great ride!

This is the first that a Rita's Italian Ice Truck came!  This was also a big hit!!!!  The kids love these treats and they all went running as soon as it pulled in the driveway!

COUSINS!!!

Mommy D. got to enjoy some too!!!

Then, then Dave Zook took his parachute plane in the sky and dropped candy down for the children!!!  Alvin's passed out donut bags and let the children grab some candy that fell to the ground!!!

"What color is my tongue?"

Mommy D's sister Annie and her husband and family also came to the reunion.  I love watching these two ladies side by side!

Oh you know, just waiting to see that plane in the sky!  Then the baker mans hats will be turned into candy bags!

The weather was perfect!  The tempts went from 90 degree days to upper 70's!  It feels like Fall and we are grabbing for pants instead of shorts and long sleeves instead of tank tops!  Thank you Alvin and Ruth for the fun night!



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And I'm a mess!  The weather changed SO MUCH the past few days!  I was just not ready to give up summer and the warm pool days but suddenly I find myself thinking fall!!!  The AC is turned off and the windows are open!  The days and nights are much cooler that just a week ago!  Last Friday was a cooler, rainy day and Austin and I went upstairs and pulled out some fall décor!  I do know it's still August and I'll take any warmer summer day that we still have but I think I'm ready for the season changes!

And on Saturday I went out to make some stops and swung by Dunkin Donuts for a Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Latte!  It tasted so good!!!!

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We are counting down the days until we go to the cabin and "move in"!!!!  Do you remember back in March when I posted pictures of my parents cabin up in flames!!??!!  It was emotional and not fun making a very fast trip up to the cabin while the firetrucks wrapped up their hoses and we all walked around just looking at the disaster!!!  It was an accident and sad to see it all burn down to the ground.  Everything was a loss.

BUT ... Dad has been working his butt off to getting the cabin rebuilt and ready for the upcoming hunting season!!!  Plans are that we help move things into the new cabin this coming weekend!!!!!

I went out the other day looking for bedroom furnishings!  Dad has a bedroom for each of us siblings and even though he bought us all our bedroom furniture, it's up to us to restock it!  I stopped by MOD pizza for a small personal pizza as I went to HomeGoods and then to Costco!  This will be fun to give it all a new home and see the brand new cabin in the woods!!!

This is how we spend some of our afternoons now that school began!  Austin is back to taking naps!  It was cute to see him play fireman and go water our pumpkin plants in the garden!  He's really hoping to get some orange pumpkins from these plants!

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And by the looks of things, Austin is VERY EXCITED to meet his new cousin!!!  Weston Tate was born on Friday and we couldn't wait to finally go see this little man!!!  He's got a head full of hair and we couldn't be more happy for LaVern and Fanny Lynn!!!!  Congratulations!!!!  You have a very beautiful family!!!!

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One more thing here before I go fold some laundry and get some house work done!  I did another batch of refrigerator pickles! 

We loved the ones I made a few weeks ago from Busy Mother's 2 Cookbook!  I filled a gallon glass jar with freshly thin sliced cucumbers.  Add some onion pieces, 3 1/2 cups sugar, 2 cups white vinegar and 1/4 cup salt.  Mix cucumbers, onion and salt and let it set for 1 hour.  Then add the sugar and vinegar.  Let these soak all together and put in fridge!  They make a great snack or a side with a good sandwich or just eat them alone!  I love these!

I also made a batch of Dill Refrigerator Pickles.  This is the first time using the recipe I found from my Dorcas Stutzman Cookbook.  This time I kept the small cucumbers whole and packed them into a gallon glass jar.  I boiled 6 cups water, 2 cups white vinegar, 1/4 cup salt and 1/2 tsp. alum.  After it cooled just a bit I poured it over the cucumbers, fresh dill, onion slices, 3 whole cloves and 6 garlic cloves.  Let the jar set on the kitchen counter for four hours and then put in the fridge.  I'm excited to try these and I'm pretty sure Hadassah will love these!  She is always looking for a healthy option with no or little sugar!  These have no sugar and she loves dill!!!!

They are now both setting in the fridge and have those cucumbers soak in the juices and spices!!!

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It's still feeling a lot like fall here!  The farmer started to cut down some corn from the field right next to us.  This has me thinking maybe fall is here to last?!?  Also, the hydrangeas outside are changing from lime green to tones of pink.  Another sign of fall.  I even found myself pulling out the sunflower stalks and some petunias that weren't nice anymore.  I love September weather and this last week of August is giving all the feels of a gorgeous fall ahead!!!

Are you excited for autumn?

Day at the beach!!!

We spent the day at Cape Henlopen last Sunday with some friends from church!!!  It was perfect weather!  It was also perfect to spend one more long day in the hot sunshine and splash in the ocean waves before school began!

Dave and Darlene invited us and Merv's to go with them to the beach.  Darlene planned our lunch and the men grilled cheeseburgers beside the beach while Mike finished up his 25 mile bike ride!  Austin wasn't a huge fan of the sand.  (I think he has to be the mode for it because just on Monday when we were at another beach, he loved it!!!)  It took him a little while to enjoy it but when Jeremiah and Matthew started helping Austin build a sand castle, that seemed to help!!! :)))

Ashlyn absolutely loved the ocean again!!!  She's such a water duck and spent the entire day in the water or collecting sea shells!!!

There were so many little sand crabs that the kids kept catching!

And here is our set up!!!!  It looks like we had the beach to ourselves but truth is, this was after 6PM that I took this photo!  There were plenty of people just up from our set up earlier in the day.  And the reason this was taken at 6 PM is because it was that late before we gave one thought of wrapping things up.  The day was so gorgeous and we all had a blast and the day went by way too fast!!!

The men had a great time too!!!

And look at this cute couple and our lunch set up!!!  What could beat hot burgers with fresh toppings all served on surf boards on the beach!!!???!!!  Add cold drinks and some fresh salsa and watermelon, it was just so fun!!!!

 I grabbed Austin's kite before leaving early this morning.  When we went to fly it, it was missing a stick but we found a piece of drift wood from the ocean that worked well!!!!  :)

We are calling it a day but I'm convinced that the best "beach hours" might be in the evening.  The sun was not so hot and the sky was this gorgeous blue and the landscape was down right beautiful!

We got all packed up and washed off in the public shower houses before stopping at Grotto's Pizza for a late supper before driving home!  We were all tired and hungry and by the time we arrived at Grotto's, Austin was already sleeping.  The pizza was good and the home was long!  All I wanted to do was close my eyes.  The kids all feel asleep and Mike was fighting sleep too.  We turned on YouTube and played some of our favorite dating songs.  That's one way to keep us two awake!

Thank you so much Dave's and Merv's for the fun day!!!!  Now we move on to school and many sporting events.

Back to school.

We just had our first day of school!  It's now back to the books, early morning schedules, packing lunches and having three out of four of our children in school.

I was just not ready for this about a week ago.  I wanted to say NO to everything about school.  I was not ready to give up our lazy, non alarm clock mornings.  I wasn't ready to have a early to bed routine again.  I filled in my calendar with all the golf and volleyball events only because if I don't, someone, sometime will be missed.  And that would not be good.

But, I hoped it would be like this.  I knew it would!  Last night when I told the children that it's time for bed and Ashlyn wasn't in the mode for bedtime yet, it did feel good to have them tucked in before 9 PM!!!  This morning when my alarm went off, I felt like waking up and ready for this new day.  A new school year.  The sunrise was beautiful!

This is what I posted yesterday on my Instagram post:

"Am I ready?  YES and NO. YES to not wiping the kitchen counters a hundred times a day because with three kids back in school, the crumbs will be less.  I try to embrace the dirt but I just can't handle a dirty house and so when school begins, it stays a bit cleaner every day!  However, I am saying NO because then it's back to better sleeping times. (But not all bed!!!)  But then less evening hangouts.
And less lazy mornings.  And back to packing lunches.  But YES to a better schedule with brushing the kids teeth and eating scheduled meals instead of whenever they thing they need a snack.  I'm say NO because then that leaves only Austin and I at home.  All his playmates will be in school. (Wink - @ lena.)  But YES to back to nap times.  YES, because the house needs a cleaning up in places most people don't see.  I call it Fall cleaning.  NO because summer is ending too quickly but YES because then fall begins.  Is any of this making sense?  Ready or not, it will be school tomorrow, alarms will have to be set and the pantry is now organized and restocked for lunches that will need to be packed!!!  Let's march on!  Cheers to another year of school just ahead!"


The house was bustling with the kids getting dressed and breakfast ate and the chores completed but I was waiting for it!  Matthew is the one that gets up and does his thing but Hadassah is always telling him to get out to the car.  He had to grab his golf clubs and load them in the car when she threatened to leave without him.  :/  Then he ran back inside to grab his golf clothes.  This is going to be interesting with these two this year but they all posed for a quick photo and off they went!!!

He will miss her so much!!!!  These two played so much all summer long is this was my number one reason for still not being completely into school beginning.

We have a 9th, 12th and 3rd grader this year!

And after the school kids left home, this kid wanted to play catch right away!  I was into it because it will be adjustment for us both but a good adjustment.  There just comes a time to get back into studying and learning new things and I have one more year with Austin hanging out with me at home!  Next year, he starts kindergarten.

I had a meeting at school to discuss hot lunch duty and after that Austin and I went to visit Ashlyn's classroom.

Her first day of school went well!

We got to take Hunter along home with us because his mom was out cleaning and then bringing us all Chickfila!  Hunter just lives out the road from us and so it's nice to be able to carpool with Lena!!!  Hadassah is our transportation in the morning but then when she has volleyball practice, Lena and I will have to pick them up.

Happy First Day of School!!!

School was only until lunch time and then we all came home.  The short day is always a good way to unpack the heavy backpacks that were loaded with all the school supplies needed for this year.  It gives the kids a short day to see their classmates again and meet their new teacher!  Ashlyn had a fun day and enjoyed a big dill pickle from her teacher!  Matthew went straight to golf practice.  Hadassah said school was OK.  I hope and pray that her senior year will be a year of fun, learning and excitement!!!  I can't believe she's in her last year of high school!

We are back to school schedules and packing lunches!

God, please keep my children safe in their schools this year!  May they learn and grow much for you!  Learning about the world we live in and planting seeds for eternal purposes is a huge privilege in going to a Christian School!!!!

Cheers to learning more!!!