All in one post.

Just a random bullet point list of things going on around here...

* We spent the weekend with Kevin's family at the Amana Colonies, Iowa last weekend.  Will post pictures soon.

* Almost ready are the beach pictures in a way that others can order prints.  =)

* While on our beach vacation our calico mama cat died. The mother of our two litters of kittens, last year's and this year's. I was sad to hear the news from Kevin.  Didn't realize I cared about those cats until then.

* Then about 2 weeks later Eli's kitten Meesa also died.  She'd had eye goopies, as most cats have at some point, but then the next day Kevin found her on the sidewalk lifeless.  Still not really sure what happened, and I was sad about that one too.  But I told the kids what happened, not sure of Eli's reaction but wanting to be real with them, but he was actually fine about it and just replied, "Oh it's okay. I didn't really like it anymore anyway, it always scratched me." Alright then.  He's since adopted our littlest kitten as the new Meesa, though he doesn't pick the kittens up much anymore.

* Kevin and I ran a 5K race for our town yesterday. My first 5K. More thoughts on that HERE.

* We're just starting to build Eli's (and Carter's) bunk bed for their room.  A big-boy room is sort of the gift we're giving Eli for his 5th birthday next month.  And I'm so excited to get the project started!  While Kevin works on his projects, Eli builds nearby with all the scraps.  And boy, it's my FAVORITE thing to watch Eli build!  He's so good!  He mentioned also that he doesn't like to play trains anymore, he just likes to build the tracks.  Can't wait to see what he becomes in life! I sure am proud of him.

* Speaking of Eli, I never mentioned it, but he's big into super heroes now.  Even though he hasn't seen any of the shows or anything to know really WHO they are.  And he's asked for a Superman birthday party. And then when I went to confirm that with him, he said Spiderman instead.  

* I've been working with Hannah to get her to pronounce the "th" sound correctly instead of substituting "f", "d", or "s" in its place (like "sank you", and "wif" and "udder") and she's actually GETTING it!  Kind of makes me sad at the same time.  She's growing up.  She's also really improving her handwriting and starting to write parts of her name by herself now!  When it comes to writing, she's a natural!

* And Carter, growing up so fast, as you've been reading in his monthly updates!  =)
* Remember the story of our baby pool blowing away last year and many months  later finally being spotted out in the field? Well, we lost our new baby pool this year to another night storm Friday night.  This time it was a big inflatable one that we had tucked under the porch swing.  Somehow the big thing got free and up and over the porch rail and off it went.  We've driven all the nearby mile roads and searched all the fields, but it's nowhere to be found.  And surely if we ever do, it will have been popped by the barbed wire fences.  So, there goes another pool, darnit.  Sometimes the country winds are really irritating.  Just a tad.

'Spose that's all for now!  More posts coming soon!