All In One Day!

It's Homecoming Week around here--so things have been added to our already busy lives.  Today--all in one day

Emmie dressed up for 70's day at school.

Olivia (and Mom) spent an entire day hiking around the Iowa prairie at Kuehn Conservation on a field trip.

Josh marched in the Homecoming parade

And Jack played a soccer game.  (OK, this pic is from a different game he played.  But you get the idea.  I couldn't make it to his game that night, but I didn't want to leave him out of the picturefest.  Check out his high kick form.)

It's been a busy day and we are all ready for bed.  Good night.

A Little Field Trip

My kids are always so excited for their field trips--and totally bummed when they get cancelled or postponed.  Now I get why.

When a friend asked last week if anyone was interested in a little field trip during the day while our kids were in school, I said "Count me in."  I have always wanted a quick jaunt to England.  But since time and money don't allow for that trip right now, we did the next best thing.  We spent the afternoon at the Salisbury House here in Des Moines.  It's an old English estate right here in the middle of Iowa.  Thanks to the rags-to-riches life of a couple here in town in the early part of the twentieth century who had this place built as a step up from their story and half bungalow, we got to explore a fun hidden treasure straight from the old county.  Who knew there was such a thing.

We spent a delightful couple hours with (for a time) the curator and a docent, hearing fun stories about how materials were brought over from Salisbury England, among sundry other locations around the world, to build and decorate this home.  Among the finds were 1830 and 1874 editions of the Book of Mormon, other rare books in the extensive library, rare pieces of art, including signed prints by Renoir and Matisse, and a one-of-a-kind Steinway grand piano with detailed panels around its exterior.

What a fun idea.  Now I'm looking forward to our next outing--whatever it is.

Seminary Rocks!

That's what we reminded the kids on an invitation to seminary that was attached to a couple packets of Pop Rocks!  And it does.  We have had a great beginning to the year.  Never mind the fact that we are all--teachers and kids alike--exhausted from trying to adjust to waking up at 5 a.m. every day to get there on time.  {That part will come soon enough.}  Seminary really does rock.  We have such a great group of kids in class this year.  It is going to be a great year!

We are missing a couple here--two left early for other activities before I took this pic and two didn't make it.  Were they sleeping in? :-)  Hope they come tomorrow for treat day! We'll get them in more pics throughout the year. 

Hopes for Things to Come!

See these beautiful peaches?  They are the product of my very own peach tree.  I am super excited about it.  Granted, they are few in numbers.  And granted, they didn't taste all that good.  And granted, they were a little bug eaten.  And granted, they didn't even make a dent in this year's peach raspberry (and new trial batch of peach strawberry) jam that I made a couple weeks ago before seminary started.  BUT--they give me great hopes for things to come when I can make my jam out of my own harvest of peaches and raspberries instead of having to buy the ingredients at the store.  So excited!

And speaking of this year's batch--Here it is!  We are back in business for hopefully another full year of jam on homemade bread.