even an old barn looks better painted

or, how to spend the most wickedly awesome 4th of July ever, complete without purchasing one little iota of fireworks. I love the possible titles for this post. Yep, we know how to have a good time! Seriously though...our house has been in bad need of a paint job, so we finally got with it over the weekend. And much to our boys disappointment, I totally forgot to invest in any fireworks. (We did however, head over to the neighbors house to enjoy some very good ones and went to the community fireworks display, so I'm not feeling that bad!)
Love the frog tape. Love the high ceilings, but hate trying to get up there!

Gotta love the dissheveled mess that a paint project makes.
We love the new color and it turned out well. We still have half the trim to paint and the doors, but getting all the walls AND ceiling done was a huge improvement!

jacob had a birthday

Jacob recently had a birthday! Wa-hoo! He woke up early to open a few presents from Mom & Dad. He got a badminton set and...
a personalized bicycle license plate and...
a ginormous box of crayons! Who knew there were actually that many different colors??
Jacob invited his friends Colman and Stanton to go see the movie Cars 2 on opening day, followed by corndogs and birthday cake.
Jacob requested chocolate cake and I must say this cake turned out PERFECTLY!!


Following cake, the boys tried out the new badminton net. Fun times!
Happy Birthday, Jacob! We love you!

take me out to the ball game

Jacob loves playing baseball!

He's also getting very good at riding his ripstick -- he rode it to and from the games, and even managed to eat a popsicle while staying upright! I love this picture!

The view from the bleachers.

On duty at first base.

A great batting stance! Be ready outfielders!

Jacob's team did really well during the season -- they were ranked #1! Things didn't go so well in the tournament however and they ended up somewhere in the middle. Jacob got hits everytime he was up at bat and improved in his fielding ability this year. He had a very patient coach and really enjoyed his baseball season!

6th grade promotion day

I'm about a month late getting these posted, but that's how things work sometimes! Above is Ryan and Jacob heading out for the last day of school.
Wow -- Ryan's last day of elementary school. Lovely picture here of him walking across the stage to get his certificate.
After the "graduation", everyone mingled outside the school. It was a beautiful day! Here's Ryan with Mark and another picture with me.
The kids were all over the refreshments -- lemonade and cookies!
Ryan with a few friends from school. I'm really glad they make the kids dress up for the occasion -- they look really nice and it helps them remember to behave as well!
After the graduation, the kids headed back into the gym for a dance and lunch. Ryan had a good day, despite the dancing, and is definitely looking forward to junior high!

eagle!

Yes! Jared has an eagle project! And it needs to be done ASAP. He'll be collecting data for our city administrators concerning the use of one particular park. They are considering making BIG changes to the property. This project will give Jared some good missionary experience -- he's going to have to talk to a lot of people as well as knock a few doors. I just hope he'll be able to get the other scouts (and adults) to help him.

let summer begin

School is out and summer is underway! The weather has finally cooperated this week and has begun to warm-up. However, Jacob's baseball game was rained out on Wednesday when the clouds and wind rolled in. Our seeds, tomato plants, pepper plants, and flowers are finally in place. Ryan has been in basketball camp all week and Jared & Mark have been at Youth Conference. Next week there's a boatload more stuff on the schedule that we're looking forward to :)

i can't stop laughing

Jacob was helping Matthew say the family prayer recently. Jacob would whisper the words, and Matthew would repeat them aloud. Here's how one phrase of the prayer turned out:

Jacob: Bless the people in Missouri that they can recover from the tornado
Matthew: Bless Missouri to recover from the tomato