An Early Fourth of July

Some friends of ours were going to be gone over the Fourth of July and wanted to come over to set off some fireworks. It was a fun evening watching the bright showers of color and listening to the loud pops and screamers of the fireworks. I wonder how they get all that fun stuff to come out of there?? We're glad they offered to share their fun with us and we really enjoyed the show!

Happy Fourth of July - in advance!

Behind the Wheel Driver's Test

Macy took her behind the wheel driver's test for her farm permit on Wednesday, June 25. The first picture is of her and the instructor going over the "equipment test". The student has to know how to turn on lights, brights, wipers, defroster, ect.

After they finally pull away from the curb, the driving part of the test begins. They need to make left and right turns, stop at stop signs, parallel park, 90 degree corner back (whatever that is - never had to do that in the 70's!) and all sorts of other things the instructor tells them to do. During this time, the parent waits patiently (and nervously) on the lawn of the court house. Many people drive by and look at the anxious parent sitting on the grass and hopefully feels sorry for them. My hands were shaking by the time Macy pulled up to the curb again. Did she pass??? Did she fail????
She passed!!!!!!!!

The next step is to go into the Court House to the license center and fill out the form, pass the eye test and have her picture taken. By this time my hands were steady again. I was so proud of her! I was so glad that she passed! She turns 16 on November 1 and was afraid she would forget all that she learned in behind the wheel training and wanted to do her test right away. She still has to have a driver with her that's over 21 when she's just driving around town but is now allowed to run farm errands within 20 miles of home. She can take dad or grandpa to a field to do farm work and then drive home again by herself. She may or may not ever do that but now when she turns 16, we re-visit the license center in the court house, pay an extra fee and have the farm restriction taken off of her license.

Way to go Macy!!

Pee Wee Baseball

Daniel started playing Pee Wee Baseball last year and really liked it so I signed him up for it again this summer. The coach is a high school graduate that works with me at the library. I warned him that coaching Pee Wee's is kind of like trying to get an octopus into a bag. He just smiled. I wonder if he knows what I mean now that he's been doing this for about four weeks....

Su Fu Du

Su Fu Du is a parade favorite. They are a percussion unit from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and make any parade fun to watch! They also usually perform after the parade is over and always draw a big crowd. They recently started selling "Du" wear, t-shirts, sweatshirts, drumsticks, hats, tattoos, you name it, they have their signature on it and sell it!

Pow Wow

Mt. Lake, a small town about 25 miles west of St. James, celebrates Pow Wow every year with a parade and carnival in the downtown park. A lot of my family still lives in Mt. Lake so I try to take the kids there every year. We sit close to my aunt and uncle's house which is at the end of the parade route. Sometimes it works out quite well for the candy that's left over at the end of the parade! My cousin, Kevin, had a lot left over this year and scooped hand fulls onto our laps! Yum! I love Tootsie Rolls! After the parade was over, we enjoyed music in the park, carnival food and wristband specials in the midway. We managed to find my cousin's son, Isaac, and he and Daniel went on a lot of rides together. We ran across Macy and Courtney throughout the evening and they were also enjoying the rides and food.

Macy and her friend, Courtney waiting for the parade to start.
My sister and my mom
My Aunt Faye and Uncle Dennis
Dad and me
Daniel and the parade candy!

More Pictures from Father's Day

I love pictures of Jenna and Emily together - just as much as I love pictures of Emily and Macy together. They seem to belong together. During supper, my sister-in-law and I had the same thought at the same time. Looking at them sitting next to each other and admiring how beautiful they are - beautiful young ladies. Seems like such a short time ago that we were at Marlene and Loren's house with a two week old baby and Marlene was announcing that they would be having a little one in April. Emily and Jenna growing up together at family gatherings and, of course, the center of attention once they arrived on the scene.
My mother-in-law and sister-in-law. I love capturing this picture as they were relaxing and just having a conversation. Just an everyday occurence.

Daniel - bored at Grandma's house. He wanted to climb the tree but no one would get a ladder for him. (good call, right Nick?) Finally he went back in the house, made a paper airplane and everyone got a chance to fly it.

Happy Father's Day!

Jenna, Grandpa Coleman, Emily
Grandpa Coleman and Daniel
Me and my dad

Daniel, Grandpa Ratzalff, Emily

I know this post is a little late and I had good intentions of doing this on Sunday but sometimes life has other plans. Any way, here are some pictures from Father's Day. We celebrated with supper at my in-laws house and here are picture of Grandpa Coleman and Emily, Jenna and Daniel. Then we went to visit with my dad and here are pictures of me and my dad, and Grandpa Ratzlaff and Emily and Daniel. Macy is missing because she had captain's practice for tennis at 7:00 and the pictures were taken after that. We'll make it up to her, though. Macy's mom loves to take pictures!

Elmo

This is our new cat, Elmo. Since Maddie died, our plan was to get a cat, have kittens and then get a puppy. Hopefully they would grow up together and be happy. John's sister, Marlene, gave us a seasoned mother cat who she suspected was pregnant. She was right. Enough time has gone by and the cat has gotten large enough that my father-in-law felt she should be delvering soon. What does he know.... she's been penned up in the barn for two weeks now and so far just getting larger and more annoyed with us. She's a pretty independent cat and has gone on "walk-abouts" for two or three days at a time. I didn't want her to have her kittens hidden somewhere and we couldn't tame them so I went along with the plan to pen her up. Boy, do I feel bad for her. Being pregnant with who knows how many kittens and now her freedom has been taken away. I let her out once or twice a day to give her fresh water, scratches behind the ears and more food. She's really going through the food. Maybe that's a good sign. When I open the barn door, I listen carefully for any sounds of lamaze breathing but so far, none. Just a side-note. We didn't name her. Apparently when she was born her gender was in question so they named her Elmo. It wasn't discovered until later that she was a she and by that time Elmo seemed like a fine name for a girl!

Pee Wees

Summer Rec Pee Wees started last week and Daniel has been getting up at 8:30 a.m.! to go play. The coach is a high school graduate that happens to work with me at the Library and I'm not sure if he knows what he's getting into! From what I've witnessed, coaching Pee Wees is kind of like trying to get an octopuss in a bag! Too many tentacles going in different directions at the same time! I hope the coach has as much fun as the boys do!

Macy's Pictures

Macy has quite a talent for taking photographs and here are a few of hers she took lately. She's our "artsy" child. She loves art in school and is doing very well in it. The teacher gave her 15 points for one of her projects; the assignment was worth 10. When I have a "scrapbooking block", she's the one I turn to and she selects the colors and embellishments and we work out an idea for a layout together. It's going to be fun to watch her grow and I'm sure she'll do something wonderful with her talent!

Guitar Hero for the Wii

Daniel begged and begged. I told him to do chores and save his money. Finally, he had enough money to buy Guitar Hero III for the Wii. We checked weekly at Pamida and they hadn't gotten any in yet. Finally, the opportunity came to go to Mankato and of course Daniel came with his money ready! Target had it. It was even discounted from $89.99 to just $85.00! What a lucky break! He only had to borrow $1.00 from his mom to pay the total amount, including tax! He had to have the stickers put on the guitar while we were in the van and I told him he had to wait until we got home. Macy came to the rescue and while they were waiting for me to come out of Wal-Mart, she put the stickers on. Naturally as soon as we got into the driveway, he was out of the van in a flash and down to the basement he flew, plastic guitar in hand! I let them play it for a while and now it's bedtime. I don't know who won, but he has already asked if I would buy a second guitar. No.... do chores and save your money!!