Track N Field Day!

 Mike made me another small raised bed and we filled it with top soil and then mushroom mulch and now its ready for seeds!  And we replaced all four of our red raspberry bushes because I didn't know that they do not like manure around them as fertilizer.  Now we know.

Out of all the foods we grow in the garden, Ashlyn goes straight to this little herb that came up from last year.  Fennel!  We love fennel, black licorice tasting!!!  We love the bulbs that grow in the ground and slice them and eat them.  I could not figure out why the past two years our fennel plant got as tall as me but no bulb in the ground.  Just roots.  I know now that there are different kinds of fennel and this time I planted a few packs of Florence Fennel Seeds and hope they will be shooting out of the ground soon!  For now, Ashlyn loves to eat the fennel leaves off of this plant and it will clean any mouth pallet as soon as you start chewing it!  It's strong and delicious!  Right now we are also eating butter crunch lettuce, kale, radishes and herbs.  We are waiting to see the sugar peas grow into pods and the strawberries turn from green to red!!!!  Should be happening soon!

May is packed full of so many fun events and its good to be back at this ballpark again!  Matthew played here many years and now its Austins time to shine!  We had a beautiful night at the park earlier this week!

The Lilie of the Valleys are still blooming and smell so good at my kitchen sink!

I've said so many times that Track N Field days are usually cold or wet but not this year!!!  We had a beautiful day watching the children do relay races in the AM and then races and long jump and softball throws in the afternoon!  It was a great day to begin our summer tans as we sat outside and cheered!  Many of my family go to Linville Hill School and it was a great time at lunch to all sit together and eat subs, pizza and soft pretzels my mom bought for the kids!

Afternoon races!

Long jump!

Relay races in the morning!

Doing school with some of the best friends makes it so much more fun!!!!!

See what I mean?  

And of course we found each other!!!!  Miss Zayla is just the cutest little girl ever right now!  She loves us and we love her!  She cries when we leave her house.  Ashlyn said this morning, after hollering out hello from the car window, when we picked up Hunter and Adrian for school, "I'll just get to see Zayla once today."  It's the sweetest to see Ashlyn and Zayla be such good little friends!  But's it's no wonder!  We do so much of life together with these cousins.  We car pull each day to and from school.  We have field lanes to take four wheeler rides out to their house during the summer nights.  Lena watches my kids and I babysit hers.  Some are in the same class at school.  We blend so well!  It reminds me of when I was a kid and we lived right next door to cousins.  We saw each other every day.  Rode the school bus together.  They swam every day with us in our pool.  It was life blended well!

We came home from track n field day with a little tan and tired from the activities and sun!  Ashlyn and I got some lettuce from the garden and made a refreshing salad!  We love garden lettuce right now!

We are at the end of another school week and the kids are counting down the days left of this school term. Each year I think, "Wow, how did this school year go by so fast?"  And I'm hearing myself ask the same thing this year.  Finishing fifth grade and first grade are big accomplishments and Austin is now reading and Ashlyn just complete her last book report for elementary!  Next year she moves up to middle school.

The house is quiet on this Friday morning.  The windows are open and the breeze and birds chirping are the benefits!  I'm enjoying the slow pace because the last weeks of school are usually crazy busy with all the end of the year things!  We do have a busy weekend coming up but it's going to be so much fun!  By the looks of the weather forecast, we might even be turning on the AC?  

Just another reason why I love May ... it doesn't take much to add some beauty to the kitchen with fresh branches or flowers or hosta leaves!!!  It's been fun all this month to create a fresh display of flowers for the weekend!

It's May!  We are busy but we are loving life and thriving to finish up school strong and then start the lazy summer mornings!

Happy weekend friends!

It must be May!

 The saying that keeps going through my head is "It must be May!"  I love this month and here are some reasons why!!!

It's time to work in the garden and get all those seeds and vegetables in the ground and watch them grow!  I have all our veggies planted but last week, I made some rows behind the garden beds and planted sunflower seeds from last years flowers and some new zinnias seeds!  I can't wait to watch these grow tall!

And just like that the kids have the sprinkler under the trampoline and loving the warmer weather that did decide to come!

May brings lots of school events and on Friday, Ashlyn and I went with the fifth graders to Gettysburg!  Austin's class went to Strasburg Railroad.  It was a long day but full of history and cool views of where battle took place long ago.

While Ashlyn and I were on our way back home, Mike took Austin and some cousins to the Barnstormers Game!  They had a blast with free tickets from Upward and a free basketball!

My 41st birthday was last week as well and even though I don't like getting a cavity filled, it was on my calendar, on my birthday to do so.  I sat through Linville's Spring program with a numb month but loved all the songs and was just so blessed again!

We went as a family to Iron Hill Brewery to eat on Wednesday night to celebrate my birthday and we then tried rolled icecream for the first and it was delicious!

I have a birthday buddy ... my niece Skylar was born last year on my birthday!  She's so cute!

I had a teeny bit of time between the dentist and the school program, so I got my nails painted!

And then that night, we also attended the Upper School Spring Program!  It's May and it's crazy with school events but again we were totally impressed with the singing and message Linville gives off!!!!  Their programs are always the best!!!!

Mike treated me to my favorite .... Lavender Blackberry tea with black tea from Latte Luv!

Mulch is kinda a big deal around here the end of April and May.  We did get the garden mulched with mushroom mulch on Saturday and it's looking pretty good!

The sugar peas are climbing up the wire I secured beside it.  The lettuce is soon ready to pick!  Radishes were pulled and washed!  The strawberries are in full bloom and starting to hang!  My cucumber seeds are peaking through the dirt!  Everything seems to be doing great ... except the raspberry bushes we planted a few weeks ago.  The neighbor said we could use some manure from his property for our garden if want extra fertilizer and I think I put it too close to the raspberries because the bushes died.  We replaced two and maybe will need to replace the other two yet????

Fresh radishes and we found us some egg rolls Saturday morning!  It must be May!

I tried making homemade Sourdough Pizza the other night and it turned out delicious!

Saturday night, Mike and I attended a very rainy, wet wedding!  Justin and Lexie got married at Dave and Suz's house and it was beautiful except that it started to rain during the ceremony and then poured during the outside reception.  Everything, yes everything, got wet!  It was hard to keep our seats dry when we needed to get up for our food, or for sweet or for a Beiler's donut for dessert.  We laughed and made the best of it but I was never at an outside wedding like this with the rain raining so hard!  We did have an umbrella and we were sure to use it!  Congratulations you guys!

We ate salad and fries and then dumped off the rain water off of our plates when the burgers were ready!  Crazy!

Another proof that it must be May is we have fresh lettuce and kale from the garden!  And the Lillie of the Valley flowers are in bloom!

Last nigh, we attended a pizza party at Uncle Alvins that was just fantastic!  Homemade pizza in a brick oven pizza cooked and made by family!  The whole evening was so fun!!!  It's important to gather with friends that love Jesus, have the same kind of family goals and laugh!  We are incredibly blessed to have so many good people around us!  Just the night before, the bride and groom had a blast on their wet wedding day!  They made the best out of it!  And then we were blessed with yummy pizza and good friends and even some gifts!  

May is only half over and there's much to still do at school and finish out the year strong!  This is gonna be another full week of activities but that must mean ... IT MUST BE MAY!

Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was so special!!!  Mike blessed me with a gift, a brunch at the Club and any day spent with all the kids is great!!!!

We went to church and heard a message on how Moses's mother saw that he was a special child and hid Moses for three months and then his parents decided to put him in a basket and take him to float on the Nile.  So much of this story isn't written in the Bible but it must have taken a lot of faith and love to be willing to try your very best to save your child from the kings orders that all the baby boys should be killed.  Moses was saved and drawn out of the water by the kings daughter and the rest of the story of Moses is so incredible!  Go read it in Exodus!  Mother's have such a mission field right in our homes!

We took some photos at church before heading to LCC for brunch.  We were hungry and excited to eat good food!

Hadassah gave me these flowers!

 

I was asked to buy flowers for all the mothers at church and now the left over flowers get to be in my kitchen!!!!  Win, win!

Jeremiah and Hadassah met us at the Club for brunch!  I love it when they hang out with us!!!!!  Such a sweet photo!!!!!

My family!!!!!

We came home with full belly's and took naps.  We woke up to sunshine after so, so much rain the past two days!  We stopped by to check up on Matt and his kiddies and ate some homemade ice cream!  Then we drove down to my parents to give mom a flower and say Happy Mother's Day!!!!

This was a fun, fun day!  Thank you so much for the flowers, the sourdough baking gifts and necklace!  So thoughtful and I love you all so much!!!!!

HAPPY Mother's Day to all the momma's out there!

Days of May.

Things can change so quick right?  Easter weekend, Mommy D. was along at the cabin and she helped us put a puzzle together!

 

Two weeks ago, she tripped and fell and broke her shoulder in two different places.  She's got a lot of pain in it and really can't do too much.  She suddenly needs help with just about everything!  You try to comb your hair with just a left hand.  Or do puzzle left handed.  Or go to the bathroom.  There's so much that she needs help with suddenly!  I sat with her the other afternoon and we finished up the puzzle in her living room.  We sat on the front and back porch.  She just needs to let this heal and get well!  I love her so much!

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National Day of Prayer is such an important day to remember to pray for our nation!  For our leaders in government, in church and in school!  I'm thankful we still have this a nation wide day to remember God and ask Him for guidance and peace and revival in our land!

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Lena got to go to Waco, TX, to visit the Magnolia Silos and she left her hubby in charge of the kids.  We stopped in to check up on them all weekend and they all did so good!  Matt made ribs on Saturday and as it rained the entire day, we played some Uno with Bryce after we housecleaned church in the AM.  He made homemade ice cream Sunday night and we all scooped ice cream into cones and doesn't this look like summer is on it's way!!!!  I love these kids!!!!!

May is such a wonderful month!  Spring is here and we are loving it!