Our House in the Middle of Our Street

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 For the last three years our family has loved going out to PrairieLand Dairy's huge carnival in Firth, Nebraska. It always amazes me how much time, money, and energy go into making this day a success. There are volunteers all over the farm either serving food, helping with the petting zoo, leading tours, or helping people with directions. There are 6 buses that run continuously the entire day, shuttling people from a high school to the farm, and back. Literally every 5 minutes a bus leaves! They must have at least a couple thousand people come out, and it seems bigger every year. The food is great (chips, shredded beef burgers, carrots, and ice cold Chocolate, Strawberry, or 2% milk, and then Ice Cream!), there are tons of things for kids to do, and the farm tour is always interesting.  Here are Ani and Lukka (and dad taking the picture) inside the haybale maze/mountain. Pretty fun!  Here is a smaller green house of theirs, where they have loads of their own composted

This year was a 'birthday party' year for Lukka, and it seemed he was able to stretch his birthday out over a couple of days pretty easily. Every other year, each child gets a birthday party, with family, and on the other year, they get a special date with mom and dad. Remember Ani's Paint Yourself Silly day? This was her off year. Next year she'll get a party, and we'll have to think about something Lukka would enjoy more one on one.  For his birthday this year, I sent out invites 3 weeks in advance to let family know we'd have a backyard bbq to celebrate. Almost everyone was able to come, the kids dug in the dirt and got messy (which they of course loved), and the adults were able to hang out for 2-3 hours and chit chat, in between mouthfuls of pulled pork, baked beans, cold fruit, chips, and finally some delicious gluten free chocolate cupcakes !  Each birthday, the kiddo gets 2 special dates along with a party or a 'date out'. Stefan cont

photocredit Oh people. Oh DOG people. Dean Koontz who? Trixie, the Koontz family dog definitely stole the show on this one. That is sort of the point on a memoir about man's best friend. I can't remember why or how I found this book and added it to my 2012 list late last year, but this was a good one. An easy read at 270 pages, this book made me think that I really need to read some more of Koontz's work; his writing is wonderful, and that I miss our dogs, or having a dog, a lot. I love dogs, and even though our family doesn't have any dogs currently (we lost both 2 years ago and our living situation prevents it), all four of us talk about 'when we have our next dog' and 'we can't wait to take our new pup on walks' and on and on. We love dogs. Our kids love dogs, and some of our happiest family moments have happened with our playful pets around to share them. Dean Koontz and his wife Gerda never had children and after many decades o

*Oh gosh, I love the Pacific Northwest...

Join others remembering a sweet moment from the week. Photo taken with dad's iphone near Jazz in June.

camping self-portrait Happy 5th Birthday, Lukka! Today we celebrate you being in our family and prize the years we've been blessed to call you our son. You have taught me so many things, including what it means to be humble, apologize, and ask for forgiveness. I am often reminded how tender-hearted you are and think it's one of your best traits. You often grab your sister a teddy when she falls and hurts herself, and you're always thinking of how to comfort others when they need it. You're still inventive as ever, although this past year you've focused more on practical joke inventing than anything. You still make mini machines, forts every other day, and plenty of stories, but your true love is laughter....even if no one else shares in the joke! I often regret how unwilling I am to laugh at your tricks, but to tell you the truth I'm just downright dull and too serious for my own good. You bring out joy and belly laughs when you've hit your funny no

photocredit Of course back to the regular routine means lots of film-watching for the husband and my downtime. We almost always spend 30 minutes an evening watching part of a movie, or at the very least, an episode of one of our favorite Seinfeld seasons. I had wanted to see this movie for a number of months, when I believe, I first saw a preview for it in theaters. I love any type of true stories, add in the  fact that it is about a famous couple from England, in an era (30s-40s) of great style, and that it was directed by Madonna and I was pretty much a shoe in for liking it.  W.E. stands for "Wallis, Edward", and this is the true story of the King of England who abdicated the thrown for the love of his life in the early 20th century. Wallis was a loud, twice married, and incredibly witty American woman who eased her way into the heart of womanizing and partying Prince Edward.  The other part of this movie is the present day story of a woman named Wally, of cou

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Source: google.com via Andre on Pinterest This week we're travelling to Vancouver, British Columbia for 6 days. We haven't been back there in about 2 years so we're looking forward to some down time exploring, resting, and seeing Stefan's friends. I'm taking a blogging break from now* through next week. I'll be back on Monday, June 18th. 

One of these places we're travelling to over the next week. Can you guess which one it is? Source: media-cache3.pinterest.com via Sarah on Pinterest Source: sunsurfer.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest Source: sunsurfer.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest Source: sunsurfer.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest Source: Uploaded by user via Sarah on Pinterest Source: sunsurfer.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest

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