Super Man, bike rides and Go Far Races!

We had a severe weather alert and tornado warning last night, major rain came down, it was almost scary to watch.  After the storm Eric got on the roof to clean the gutters and left the ladder up.

Superman visited our house, and because he had his cape on, he felt comfortable climbing the ladder to fly down.  Luckily Mama spotted him from the kitchen window.  He simply explained that "It's okay, cause me superman, me go up and me come back down".

Well, he was right about going up and coming back down.

Our first family bike ride with Ruby! She did great! And Elias was a good sport about riding with her (rather than taking his own bike). Elias has become quite the cyclist. And loves riding his bike.

Elias LOVES his pillow case.  This afternoon during story time, he took the case off his pillow, crawled in and fell asleep.
We have really enjoyed reading a LOT lately!  Elias loves being read to.  He brings me books and, if I can't read right away,  he reads to him self.  Our goal for the summer June-August is 1000 books.

We had a fun time in Fargo Saturday.  We rode the Ferris Wheel.  I love the fear on Elias's face in this pic.

I ran the 1/2 Marathon.  It was a fun race.  I thought the Kansas City Marathon was huge...The GoFar, Fargo was Enormous.  Over 20,000 participants plus thousands and thousands of spectators.  It is definitely a race to be ran!  I beat my previous time and came in at 2 hours 5 minutes only 6 minutes from my PR.  I was happy..and tired.  Can you see sleep settling in my eyes?  I woke up at 4:45 to drive to Fargo, and retired to bed that night at 6:37pm...no joke.

~Majora Carter~

Majora Carter is our only chick this year. It is sad because she doesn't' have any play mates. She wants to be held and runs to me every time I put my hand in her box. She is absolutely delightful. Elias and I have been playing with her all day. She cries when we leave her in her box. So we just let her hang out with us! Here she is enjoying some green grass and sunshine and resting my kitchen window.

Thursday was Parents day at preschool~ Good times!  This is the last week before Summer Vacation~

A compost bin even a mother could love

I finally found a compost system that I like. I found it on P. Allen Smith's website. Elias helped me build it. I filled it with old leaves and straw bales that we used to insulate the chicken coop. I also used the old straw as mulch around the strawberries and in the herb garden to help keep weeds down. Hopefully when we are gone for the summer the straw mulch will help the plants survive without additional watering.



I recently saw that Elias and his friends removed a length of bark along one side of my apple tree that has 15 different varieties of apple grafted onto it (aka very special tree!). I put on my surgeons hat on and did a little bridge grafting to try and salvage what I could. We'll see how it takes.

Mother's Day~

 

The happiest little princess 16 weeks on Mother's Day~  

I had a great Mother's day.  Elias sang "Mother I love you" at church...and all the way home too.  I loved it. He also gave me flowers that needed to be planted.  So while Eric made dinner Elias and I planted the flowers.  Delightful Ruby sat on our swing and watched.  I went inside for a minute and when I came back out Ruby had an earth worm laying on her.  I looked at the worm, and then looked at Elias. This is our conversation.
Me: "Elias, there is a worm on Ruby".
Elias:  "yep".
Me: "How did your baby sister get a worm on her?"
Elias:  "It jumped on her".


So, if  any of you were wondering if worms can jump...now you know. 
Also, Elias's new favorite food is worm soup.  Here is a pic of him making it in our backyard.


Eric and Elias made these wonderful new composting bins. 

It is baby chick time again!  Our first hen Majora Carter hatched today!  She is beautiful.