She's growing up

My brain cells went to a good cause

In a stroke of humor genius, Toby has begun mixing Napoleon Dynamite with animated hits such as Cars, The Incredibles, and Madagascar:

• Nylon polymer is no match for Mr. Incredible.
• Ramón looks great taking Napoleon and Trisha to the prom.
• The penguins ask Napoleon to read the label on the crate to discover their destination, which he does in his endearing monotone.
• Napoleon talks to Pedro about a girl in the cafeteria... who suddenly disappears. (Not sure if that character would have hair covering her face, or a side ponytail. Not that it matters, since she's invisible in that scene.)
• On the kickball field, after an altercation involving illegal ninja moves from the government, Dash slaps Don and takes off in a blur.
  

A couple of Gracie funnies

I put in the Manilow Live DVD, and soon Gracie said, "He's good. He's gonna win the show." Yessir, an original American idol!

We were watching a dream sequence in One Night with the King and she asked, "Is that a wonder?"

She makes an excellent five year old, she really does.

Still here, still busy.

Lots of digging and planting and watering and mowing.

Lots of headaches and medication and sleep.

Lots of planning and scheduling.

Lots of pictures. Later.

Sitting down for a minute to share

We've been SO busy lately! Every day has been about as busy as my last blog entry. We got the chicks into the chicken tractor.

We got a few more garden plots dug up.

I planted hollyhocks and cosmos along the side of the house. We processed a bunch of produce. We found the grapevines and wove them onto a trellis. We dug a fire pit and roasted marshmallows. We mowed until we dropped each day, between lovely, gentle rain showers.

We wrapped up school for the year. We planned Toby's summer semester. We took a trip out to the old cabin and took pictures, but not many because the mosquitoes were vicious! (My mom planted all those evergreens.) It smelled like camping. It sounded like the middle of nowhere. And buzzing mosquitoes. It was just as it should've been.
We stopped to smell the lilacs every chance we got.

I've had entire days when I couldn't stop smiling. I'm thankful for this season. It's been a long time coming.

Our next plans are to finish putting in the garden, harvest some rhubarb, enjoy the three big kids' performances in Jack and the Beanstalk, put up a new clothesline, rework the shade garden and finish planting in it, roast marshmallows, celebrate birthdays and Father's Day and the first day of summer, start school again, sign the kids up for swimming lessons and summer classes at the school, mail school books to appropriate people, and stop and smell the roses every chance we get.