More Splash Pad Pictures

Swimming lessons are going well. Yesterday they used the kick board and Reeve really loved that part. Kyle is getting better about relaxing when he's floating on his back. It's hard for me to take pictures during the lesson because I'm in the water with them. Each day it is just a tad warmer, and each day they seem to enjoy the lessons more.

Last caterpillar to make chrysallis

We brought the first caterpillar to make a chrysallis into the Elroy Public Library where he will stay until he hatches.
We now have 3 at home and this is the last caterpillar made her trek to the top of the net yesterday to form her chrysallis.
The whole process constantly amazes us. When they are in this stage they look like they are in a deep prayer before their next transformation. They kind of bob their head, and the way they are curled up really makes it seem like they are chanting.

Swimming Lessons

The boys started swimming lessons Monday. They really love them so far, but it would be 10 times more wonderful if it was just a tad warmer. The pool is heated, but not that much. For their lessons it's been in the low 70's and cloudy when they're in the pool. We're hoping today will be a bit warmer.


This waterworks area will be very enjoyable when it warms up, but yesterday the water was chilly coming out. Kyle didn't even want to take off his towel to go in. Reeve really wanted to try it out, but didn't really want to get wet.

Blow Out on The Ride Home

On the way home we wanted to test if I could ride the bike with Reeve's trail behind bike and the bike carrier attached to the trail behind. It was too much for Tom's old tires and shortly after we got rolling we heard a very loud bang! My rear tire blew out. Tom rode my bike back to our house to get the truck to come pick us up. Luckily we were by an intersection. You'll notice it's the same Cty Hwy H rode where we saw the wandering cow on Friday. The kids and I waited a timely 20 minutes which was not bad at all and saved me from treking up the huge hills on the way home. Next time we'll make sure to bring the patch kit, tubes, and pump.

Reeve said it was the best day he's ever had riding the bike and he can't wait until we do it again. He was so good at it we're considering taking a 3day weekend bike trip. We can bike from our house to Sparta in less than a day. Camp in Sparta, and then bike home the last day. We've heard the campground in Sparta is really nice. By car Sparta is about 40 miles from our house. We just have to work out the logistics of what to bring and how to carry it. The trail behind can hold a lot of gear and Kyle.... we'll see!

They set the Fair up in the Elroy Park, which is a huge park with soccer field, tennis courts, slides, swings, and the swimming pool. This is where the kids will start their swimming lessons tomorrow.

Animals & Rides

The Elroy Fair is one of those quintessential small town fairs, complete with farm animals, horse pulls, and kiddie rides.

Bike Ride to the Elroy Fair

After we wore ourselves out with the dogs Reeve and Kyle really wanted to go for a bike ride. Tom and I decided to surprise them and ride to the Elroy Fair. It's about 8-10 miles by bike from our house, and the majority of the way is on the Omaha Bike Trail. It connects with the Elroy-Sparta bike trail which is famous for being the Nation's first Rails-to-Trails bike trail. Meaning that they converted the former train route into a bike path. It's extremely easy to ride with no hills, and it is fairly well maintained.

Reeve had a blast riding the trail behind bike that started out attached to Tom's bike. It was Tom's new mini-motor. Everytime I'd look at them Reeve was the only one peddling!

Dog Sitting

Our friends Lisa & Wally asked the boys to take care of CharlieBrown & Gilligan for a day.

The boys had a lot of fun, and took their responsibility seriously. The first thing they wanted to do was take the dogs for a long walk.

Reeve's watch was CharlieBrown and Kyle handled Gilligan. Both boys and dogs were very well behaved.

Jazzy (our cat) wasn't too thrilled with the lovable doggies, so we took the dogs back to their house to run around. They were very happy to be around familiar surroundings. After a few laps around the house we gave them some yummy treats and let them get some much needed rest.

Monarch Update

Well I never did get that picture of Monstro... He's already molted into his chrysallis. Now it will be 9-15 days for him to transform and emerge as a brand new Monarch butterfly.


These two were the next to make their chrysallis. This is what they look like before they make the chrysallis. They stay like this for less than a day.

Now there's just one more to feed. He was a bit smaller than the other guys, so I imagine he'll be ready to form his chrysallis in the next day or so.

Friday Library Storytime

On Fridays we love to go to the Elroy Public Library for storytime with Ms. Mary. Every year they have a different summer reading theme. This year's theme is "Paws, Claws, Scales, and Tales," so the Library has many visiting guests. This is Iggy the Iguana. He's very friendly and the kids get to pick dandelion flowers and greens for him to eat.


Ms. Mary always includes something hands on and educational in her story hour. The Elroy Fair has started, so Friday's story hour was about animals. Kyle is petting some sheep's wool that Ms. Mary brought in for the kids to feel.


The kids always have a fun time. Here they're participating in a hand puppet story.


Reeve's favorite is when Ms. Mary tells a felt board story. He's helping her take the story down.


Near the end of the story hour the kids get to pick out a pop-up nursery rhyme.
Kyle loves this part.

Local Wildlife

Normally we see these guys on the other side of the wire fence. This one just decided to go for a walk about on the road. This is on CtyHwyH on our way home from the Elroy Public Library. It's a really nice drive with no traffic other than the occasional bovine escapee.

The Garden

The garden is in desparate need of weeding. Despite the weeds it's keeping us well fed with lots of cilantro, salad mix, lettuce, spinach, beets, basil, and dill. The garlic in the raised bed is about ready to harvest. The early cabbage is ready too! We have lots of tomatoes, mostly plum variety.

The birds are very hungry. We just filled these feeders a couple of days ago and they're completely empty. You can't see him, but there is a beautiful purple finch on the feeder. We have lots of gold finches, rose breasted grossbeaks, indigo buntings, zebra woodpeckers, chick-a-dees, sparrows, downy woodpeckers, doves, and... well that's enough!

Hungry Monarch Catapillars

Here is a picture of one hungry catapillar. We pick fresh milkweed leaves for them everyday. This isn't the largest catapillar... Monsto was too busy eating. I can't take a good picture of him in the net house.

We are currently feeding 4 Monarch catapillars. I'll try to take pictures of them before they make their cocoons. Bear with me as I try to get this site organized and updated :-).

Anyway they befriended this friendly moth mistaking it for a Monarch.




Next week we start swimming lessons!

New Blog

Well I thought I'd start a blog for our family. We live so far from everyone that I thought I would use this place to post recent pictures of the boys and what we are doing with the house.

I thought it would be better than innundating everyone's email with a ton of pictures and this way you can check in when you want.