Summer is here!

 

With graduation behind us, it is officially summer here at the Mitschke house!  The boys' last day of school is this Friday, and then we'll be in full-fledged summer mode until August.  We took our longest road trip with 3 kiddos yet to Lubbock this past weekend to celebrate Amanda's graduation from Texas Tech.  It ended up being a great trip--fun to see Amanda and the rest of the family, and also fun to spend the weekend in "the best hotel in the world" (Pla Shee's quote).  Apparently the Red Roof Inn in Lubbock ranks highly in the mind of an 11 year old boy because: 1) there is an indoor pool in the lobby; 2) said pool has a huge hot tub; 3) our hotel room window overlooked said indoor pool.  Not exactly the criteria I would have considered in my ranking, but Pla Shee was absolutely thrilled with it.  While I don't have pics from the Lubbock adventure (I left the photography to my extremely talented photographer uncle Lyndy), I do have pics of the kiddos splashing around in our new "dragon" pool and last year's slip n slide.  Hooray for summer!

Ruby is not as thrilled about summer as the rest of us.

 

Uncle Lyndy and Aunt Sara came for a visit from St. Louis!

Easter and April happenings

We've been super busy, as seems to always be the case, this Spring.  Farm updates include the fact that we've managed to keep a baby turkey alive for almost a month now, which is a bigger accomplishment than you might think on the surface.  Baby turkeys, in general, seem to have a death wish.  Whether it's trying to drown itself in a puddle, trapping itself in the garage, or knocking over its water dish and dumping out all of the water 10 minutes after we fill it, this turkey has 9 (or more) lives.  So, as of tonight, it's still kicking.  We had two lambs born yesterday, and both seem to be thriving, so that's great news.  We had several lambs die shortly after birth last month because we were at work when they were born and their mothers didn't seem to know that they needed to take care of them.  So we're very thankful that these lambs are doing well and have attentive mothers.  Spring means gardening, and this is the first year since we've lived here that we didn't start any seeds in the fall.  So Aaron bought some tomato plants at the farmer's market and we've planted about 20 of them.  Hoping to have time in the next week or so to plant some seeds for summer veggies like squash, cucumbers, melons, etc.  We'll see...hoping to have time and actually having time are very different!

Kiddo updates include the exciting news that Kai is officially potty trained.  Hooray!  We took the slow and steady approach, which involved buying a TON of big boy underwear and tolerating frequent accidents for weeks, but it finally clicked, and he's figured it out.  Pla Shee's doing great--playing soccer with a church league here in Venus which is both convenient and non-competitive--both big positives in the craziness that is our life right now.  He's also doing really well at Venus Elementary...he really seems to be thriving academically and socially.  Ruby went in for her 6 month check-up this week and weighed in at 16.8 pounds.  I'm feeling good about the bet I made with Aaron that she will surpass Kai's weight (currently 23 pounds and holding) by the time she turns one.

Here are a few pics from Easter weekend:

Visiting Karen refugees in Garland on Saturday evening.

The kids at church on Sunday morning.  Kai forgot to smile.

 

 No one looks thrilled to be in this one.

The boys and their "cousins" decorating a bunny cake.  Well, by decorating I mean they're mostly eating candy.

New bicycles and new teeth!

The boys got new bicycles today to celebrate Spring, and they were absolutely thrilled.

Ruby joined in the fun in her stroller and was happy to show off her two shiny new teeth!

More Bluebonnets

I can't get enough of the bluebonnets this year.  They are just amazing.  And the fact that they're growing right on our property is just so cool.  I think Pla Shee, Kai and Ruby about ready for bluebonnet season to be over, as posing in itchy flowers is not their idea of a good time.

I love this one of the three of them:

And these of Kai:

This one of Pla Shee turned out cute:

Here are some from last week--I love the sunlight in these:

Small town fun

First, a photo of Ruby and Kai at the Venus ISD Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning.  Kai is literally rolling his eyes at the camera, and Ruby looks confused.  I can't say that I blame her.

Immediately following the pic with the creepy bunny, we were headed back home and noticed lots of excitement at Whataburger (one of our two "restaurants" in town).  When we saw that "Whataburger Man" (?) was in town, we had to stop for a photo op.  I think Aaron's expression is priceless.

Bluebonnets

One of the benefits of living on a farm--bluebonnets as far as the eye can see! Just an amazing sight right on our property. Things like this balance out some of the headaches that come with living out here.






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Rest in Peace, Miss Mabel

We had to have our sweet Great Dane, Mabel, put to sleep today because her poor old joints just couldn't support her big lanky body anymore. She was a fantastic dog, and we will miss her a whole lot. We adopted 2-year-old Mabel in 2006, shortly after moving to our farm, so that she could scare aware would-be robbers and offer some security out here in the country. She was a good actress, because though she may have looked intimidating, she would never hurt a fly (or goat, lamb, chicken, turkey, etc.). She was the perfect farm dog, and a perfect family pet as well. We will miss you, sweet girl.