Newest neighbor

Izaac seems to be fascinated with cows (we don't see many pigs outside anymore), and the small group on our road has a new edition.

We're not sure if it has a name, or if it's a boy or girl calf, but it's small and cute. They were a little far away to try and take a close-up, but Izaac sat and looked at the new calf for quite a few minutes from the road in the big red truck.

Izaac in the garage & at Wed. night Stanhope in the Park

Izaac thinks he's pretty cool with (Uncle) John's hat and ears on, sitting on the mower. Bogie must not have thought he was actually going to mow or he wouldn't have jumped up there to join him. I thought it was a funny picture.

Stanhope has a summer tradition of "Wednesday in the Park", and food is served by various community organizations and an area musical group plays so after supper there is dancing under the shelter.

We went into town to the park and for the entertainment and Izaac played on this digger.

Bogie posing on the big red truck in the garage.

Izaac took a shower!

This isn't big news in most households. But for those of you who know my sister, Shirl,(Izaac's grandmother) know she cannot STAND to get her face wet!

Izaac was a little nervous about running water all over himself, but has warmed up to the idea. The other day when I got out of the shower, he wanted to get in, so I turned the head so it wouldn't blast him the whole time, adjusted the water to tepid, and he got in--fully dressed.

Then last night, for some unknown reason, he decided he'd take a real shower, sans clothes, and even got a washcloth and soap to scrub (I helped in that department). I had to take pictures because I didn't think his grandmother would believe me!

Deja Vu-all over again??

Wednesday we travelled to Lake View (stopping in Ft. Dodge first to pick up a clothes dryer) to install a dryer at Mary's. It was a nice day for weather, so Izaac and I went to the park while John and Mary's handyman worked on the installation.

We've been taking kids to this park for more than 20 years, and it hasn't changed too much. Above is the twirling tube that's fun just to be in for smaller kids.

This is the new piece of equipment added since my kids were younger. It's got a wiggling bridge, a couple of slides and a tube to tunnel through.

This is the small (but quite slick) slide disguised as a big red rock. Izaac went down feet-first the first time and then saw this little girl demonstrate the tummy-down style, so he tried that, too.

Izaac at CampStanhope this week & weekend happenings...

Below are Ross and Missy. Ross is my friend, Kim's, son. My kids know Missy because she was a 'camp kid'. (camp counselor at Wesley Woods in Indianola, IA, where my kids dragged Ross one summer to be a counselor also.)

A few of us who know Kim threw Ross & Missy a wedding shower at our church.

Saturday morning our team leader (Miriam) and her daughter (Sarah) rolled out of bed extra-early and sat all morning in Webster City at the Farmer's Market trying to raise money with bake-sale items for our Team Hope for Relay for Life for Hamilton County! So I was baking double-time this week and made old-fashioned cream cheese mints for the shower, too.

**Above are two other pictures from the wedding shower. I didn't take any pictures at the bake sale, and I haven't had time to take pictures of Izaac yet, either. He's a busy guy and we played outside the remainder of the afternoon until I couldn't stand the bugs any longer (even after spraying both of us).

Rainbows and freaky clouds

This morning at 6:30am it was so humid outside some of the windows were steamed on the outside. Then, about five minutes later, I could hear thunder approaching, and even though it wasn't supposed to rain, about 6:45am it started raining, and rained pretty steady here for about 15 minutes! The rainbow was prettier from the driveway (than it shows in this picture--right down the middle of those two pine trees).

These are some freaky clouds that tried to scare us Tuesday evening before we were pummeled (again) with wind and rain. Sunday evening there were tornadoes just a few miles northeast of us, but no major damage or injuries.

Recycling--and tomato plants!

Well, I didn't think of it, but my hubby wanted something to keep the young tomato plants safe, so cut off some empty cat litter containers and covered them.

This is the soybean field across the road from our house. Unfortunately, the puddles will get bigger today because John took this yesterday and we've had another half-inch of rain this morning during two thunderstorms, and possibly more to come later today (Wednesday)..... Enough already!!!