Making pickles tonight. Learning how to pack the jars.

And a first, Amelia completely  loaded the dishwasher all by herself supper. She was so proud.

Today was the summer reading program party at the library. The theme was heroes and they had the sheriff, 2 firemen and 3 EMS there with their respective vehicles for the kids to check out. The kids each read over 60 books each. All the credit goes to grandma Pat for taking the kids to the library and making sure the books were read and counted. Thanks!

This week was the county fair. We were there every evening for the meals and to check out all the animals and exhibits. The kids did the turtle races and pedal pull. Both placed 2nd in their age divisions. Wednesday morning was kids morning at the fair. Amanda asked me to do face painting for the kids. It was a lot of fun.

Kayla nicknamed her pig Mayor Bob because he had a bob tail. Dad told her he was honored that she thought of him.

Stumpy aka "Mayor Bob"

Petting Kylie's sheep.

Adele let the kids get in the pen with her goats. They loved it.

The Hulk and Rarity (a my little pony)

Tonight as I was putting Amelia to bed, she told me, "sometimes I have good dreams and sometimes I have bad dreams. When they are really bad, they are nightmares." She touched her right temple, "there is a grey bug on this side that gives me bad dreams," touches her left temple, "and a yellow bug on this side that gives me good dreams. We can take the grey bug out and the yellow bug will move in the middle and I'll just have good dreams."

A child's imagination is a great and curious thing.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from Ray in the afternoon asking what I was doing that night. Well, it turned out he was headed home from the Chicago area for a week because work was rained out. He didn't tell Pat he was coming. He surprised her by showing up for supper with pizza.

 The kids had their second year of swimming lessons last week with Cindy Carson. In one week's time they improved alot.

 On the 4th of July there were alot of activities in town. The day started with bouncy houses and the firetruck on Main Street.

Thayer and Truman watching the bouncy house go up, and very excited about it.

 Then it was the grand opening of the new swimming pool. It was so fun to see all the kids (and adults) so excited about it.

Ribbon cutting speech by Mayor Bob.

 In the evening, we had a hamburger feed, ice cream, music, then fireworks at Big Well Park. It was so great to see so much of the community together.

Flying the new Media Center drone.

water balloon fight.

 Sunday afternoon Mom and Dad had a pizza party at their house with neighbors and friends.

Kids shooting fireworks with Rosa.

 Last week the kids went to VBS at the Methodist Church. As always, they enjoyed it.