Let's get this (summer) party started

A glimpse of our busy and fun summer so far!

4/24 - school program - Josiah's class dressed as farmers.  I even had him wear his dad's real farm hat.  Complete with authentic farm sweat stains.

 4/25 - Josiah's soccer game.

 Also on this day our first calf of the season was born!

 4/29 - Levi and I had a great time at the zoo with friends - it was gorgeous weather and all the animals were really active.

 5/1 - Our second calf of the season!

Also on this day I took the boys to Sky Zone - the new indoor trampoline park in Springfield.  They loved it so much that all the pictures were blurry!

5/2 - took the boys to a friend's birthday party at the YMCA, and had to share this pic of Levi and his friend Miles.  :)

5/5 - We started this calving season with 6 pregnant cows and 2 pregnant heifers (read: 2 first time moms).  As of this date we had 2 healthy calves, 4 pregnant cows and the 2 pregnant heifers.  Jason had me checking on one of the heifers (#13) during the day for the past several days because she looked close to delivering.  On this morning he went to check them as usual, and 13 was in labor but was not doing well.  He called the vet but they could not get there until almost 2 hours later.  They attempted to pull the calf, broke the OB chains, used bigger chains, and were still not able to get the calf out.  [Stop reading here if you have a queasy stomach.]  The calf was already dead, and the vet ended up having to cut the calf into pieces to get it out.  By this time, 13 was still alive but not doing well.  So we ended up calling a local butcher that will come kill your animal on site and then haul the carcass to the butcher shop.  The butcher confirmed after he killed her that she had a lot of internal bleeding and probably wouldn't have survived.  It was not a good day to be a farmer.

5/6 - After the events of the previous day, we decided to sell our remaining pregnant heifer, as well as one of our pregnant cows who has always been a really big cow (read: harder to work, eats a LOT, and higher possibility of birthing problems).  The remaining 3 pregnant cows were normal-sized experienced moms, so we lowered our risk considerably by selling those 2.

Also on this day, Levi and I went with Josiah on his school field trip to a Springfield Cardinals game.  It was rainy and I don't think the boys actually watched any of the game, but we had a fun time!

5/8 - Third healthy calf of the season is born!  I didn't get a picture, but will post some current pics of all the calves soon.

5/9 - Josiah spent the previous night with a friend, so before we picked him up Jason and I took Levi to a local strawberry farm.  The berries were huge and SO delicious!

5/10 - Mother's day breakfast in bed :)  They (mostly Jason - thank you honey!) made me from-scratch pancakes, bacon, and fresh strawberries.  Then the boys had to eat in bed with me!

That afternoon we went to see Jason's mom and wish her a happy Mother's day!

5/11 - This is my Monday morning moms bible study group - love these ladies and have learned so much from them!  This pic is from our last meeting for this school year.  

5/12 - Fourth healthy calf is born!  Again - pics coming soon.

5/15 - Josiah's last day of first grade!

5/16 - Jason and I went to my 20 year (yikes!) high school reunion.  It was a good excuse to visit my family, and it was fun to catch up with people that I haven't seen at all in 20 years.  We left early and got ice cream in Columbia.  :)

5/18 - I took the boys to glow golf for their first fun activity of the summer.  Levi mostly just carried his ball to the hole and dropped it in, but we all had fun.  Then we went to Pineapple Whip - a Springfield tradition of some kind of amazingly delicious frozen pineapple concoction.  

5/19 - Some of our hens had gotten broody, so we got a rooster.  Meet Henry.  He's still scared of us which is great because he hasn't tried to attack us like our previous roosters did.  We're still getting used to the crowing.

5/22 - I took the boys to Silver Dollar City with some friends.  Two moms with six kids - we're either brave or crazy, but we didn't lose anyone!

While we were there, we ran into some other friends!  It was a fun day!

 5/24 - Jason found this snake on the tree in our backyard - just feet from our house.  It was at least 4 feet long.  I'm very proud of my snake-hating husband for getting close enough to take this picture.

 5/25 - Josiah had so much fun at glow golf that he wanted to go back and take daddy along!  Also he wanted to try out the lazer maze.

Then we stopped for some ice cream.  Check out Levi's impressive chocolate mustache.

 5/26 - We went with friends to the George Washington Carver national memorial.  They had fun walking the 1 mile trail, although Levi dropped his pants in the middle of it and peed.  I guess if you gotta go, you gotta go.  They got those booklets they are holding up with challenges in them, and if they completed the challenges, they earned a junior park ranger badge.

Here's Josiah with his junior park ranger badge and hat.  It was fun and educational!

5/27 - strawberries from our garden!

5/29-31 - Our friends the Hardins came to visit from St. Louis.  We had a great time at Silver Dollar City and goofing off on the farm.

This is Josiah riding Outlaw Run with his daddy!

 The afternoon of 5/31 we went to Webb City for our nephew Bryan's graduation party.  Congrats!

Then we went out to dinner with Jason's mom.  They boys are enjoying being spoiled.  :)

6/1 - I took Josiah to a Springfield library event called super STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) where his team had to take straws and build 2 structures, hypothesize about which would be able to hold the most weight, and then test them.  Josiah & his team did a great job!

6/3 - Just hanging out at home doing some painting.  They are painting pieces for an art project that we haven't finished yet...soon though!

 6/4 - We took some friends with us to the library for a fun event called "Where in Mt Vernon is Superman?" (think Carmen Sandiego), and then spent some time at the park.

6/5 - had fun at the Mt. Vernon pool with friends and realized how badly the boys need swim lessons!

6/6 - I won this men's XL ultra-flattering (ahem) t-shirt at my reunion because I traveled the farthest to get there (which is kind of crazy). So I decided to re-purpose it into a dress I can sleep in.  Plus I needed some practice with my sewing machine.  It's now a lot smaller but still super comfy!

 6/7 - Our good friends the Huggins' are moving to Florida this summer.  Boo!!!  A couple of pics from their going away party.  We will miss them!