Summer 2014

 Pinkies up Uncle Nolan for our tea party!

I wanted the mouse in the window-well dead.  But after the kids named him Ronald and fed him and were entertained by him all afternoon, softie Chris helped them set Ronald free.   

Marie even painted a rock in memory of Ronald that she keeps in her room.  As a neighbor said, I'm sure there will be many more Ronalds to visit as the field behind our house is developed.

 I'd say ol' swoosh-Hanson has a slight addiction....   

Lounging in the pool by 9am.  Rough life. 

One day, I jokingly called her "hurricane Marie" because I could walk through the house and tell every spot that she had decided to play something; make-up, beads, puzzles, ponies... each in a different room.  She says later to me "it hurts my feelings when you call me a hurricane."  Well my dear, take a look at how you do art. 

Hurricanes strike often on this desk.  In this photo, the desk is an airplane flying her tigers to Florida.

 We had some fun kid-guests stay with us this summer.  Andrew Evens came for a week before the 4th of July.  Who knew boys could have so much to talk about?    

 Marie makes Bison horns anywhere, anytime; 

Her daddy could not be more proud.

Chuck and Sue came for the 4th.  In classic Chuck style, he was way-fun doing synchronized swimming with the kids in the pool.   

We ate all our meals on the patio for the 4th. 

I don't often take pictures of food.  But, could this be a more perfect 4th of July meal?  Wine and beer (just couldn't decide), ribs that Chris smoked all day, corn on the cob, grilled asparagus and macaroni salad.

And we ended the weekend with a dual-family game of kickball!

Marie is a imaginary-player-type-person like Travis was at this age.  She is holding her tiger family of Jingle, Bell and Stripe and Luke brought Orangey to the party: It was Jingle's birthday.  I made a cake and we sang so I can look back at pictures some day and say "see what a fun mother I was?"  Ha!!!

Halle Buckhouse also came and stayed with us for the week before the wedding. They road these stick horses around non-stop.  These stick-horses are difficult to find.  If anyone ever finds good ones, please let me know.  The brown one was bought for me by my mom when I was 18 because I would complain about how I rode a broom around as a kid because I didn't even have a stick horse: my brothers would tell you the broom was a better fit.   

They were playing Sheriff Callie and these dance ribbons were their magical weapons to catch bad guys....
(look in the window-well)

And they caught a bad guy and put him in jail; complete with handcuffs! (or a ring from the swing-set.)  

Oh Lukey Hanson.  This trip for ice cream occurred with the rule that you had to ride your bike; I was pulling Halle and Marie in the trailer.  The boys had just finished up a 2 hour football camp; Travis was out (more physical activity for sweet stuff I don't even like? No thanks.)  Luke still had his training wheels on his bike because he refused to take them off and this was a long ride; But, he was determined.  So the picture in front of me as I'm laughing hysterically is this: an 85 pound six year old, riding a bike so small that his knees are hitting the handle bars, shirt off (of course) because it's so hot, knocking the training wheels off with every bump he hits because I couldn't get them tightened anymore than they were, I'm having to kick the training wheels back into place with each bump.... he's putting in the full effort to get there.  When he got to the check-out, the cashier rudely said "his cup will be a pound of ice cream."  Well, I think he earned it.  He ate every last drop within 5 minutes.  

Oh Lukey #2.  Luke has had some poop problems.  At least he has a good sense of humor about the entire thing?  This is what he wrote on the chalkboard at the gastroenterologist.

Six people camping for 2 nights and traveling 
in a mini-van is a very tight fit.  

Are you ready for the most genius cooking ever?  I forgot the oil + bacon for breakfast = popcorn over the fire fried in bacon fat!  So delicious!  

I don't like frogs.  I don't mind bugs. But amphibians, reptiles, worms; these are not things I am fond of.  So, I was very happy that the Bevil boys have taught Marie to pick up and hold toads and not be scared.  Here is her beloved toad in the house she made for him. 

Iron chef judge Travis critiques Carson and Luke's smores....

Pictures like this fool us into camping again and again.  As Fred Bevil says:  "Why do we camp?  We go back in time to a place without amenities that we are lucky to have.  Running water, electricity...we pack up all our stuff, eat food with dirty hands, pack up all our stuff again and head home."  Ha!!!!

 Travis says to Marie "hit me!" the first time in his FB pads.  I said he looked so cute; He told me "there's no cute in football mom."  

Chicago/Ben and Abby's wedding

Had a great time touring Chicago, current home town of my cousins Abby and Liz Althoff, in preparation for Ben and Abby Mark's wedding.  I guess our party was larger than this place was used to?  They set us on the stage!  Moms, aunts, cousins, grandmas, in-laws....all one big happy Althoff family.  

I had a difficult time determining if I was closer to the age of these girls or their mothers.  I think that was my last cousin-shot.  As I said later that night, "this night was one drink away from disaster."  Instead, it was just fun!  

And the mothers are just as fun, so it doesn't really matter who I'm closer to in age.  

Tree has a studio?  Maybe they practice not tripping over sidewalks at Tree Studios?  

I had no idea why the young'uns do this hand-on-the-hip thing.  So we asked them and I guess it's to make a skinny arm?  I asked if they fight to be on the end of pictures so they can do this pose?  

Young'uns in the city.  Abby Althoff (Ben's wife), Liz and Abbie

And then the wedding day arrived!  Marie and Halle referred to Abby as Queen Elsa all day. Why?  "Because she was so beautiful and had a cape."  Halle's not letting go when they finally got their chance to hug her and take their picture with her. We were recently at another wedding and Marie said that she DID NOT look like Queen Elsa like Abby.  

Eva wants Paul and Rose to adopt her.  

Adam says "Do you know how fun my cousins are?  Just think of how many more years of fun I have with these cousins!?!?!?"  

Cute cousins.  

  Chris and I were host and hostess at this wedding.  I thought that called for getting my hair done professionally with the bridesmaids.  The stylist was sweating when she was done and said "this is a masterpiece."  I loved it.  Seventy-some bobby pins. 

A family picture in a hot pool of mosquitoes.  Only one thing Chris Hanson likes better than family pictures:  Heat mixed with bugs.

Bison vs. Iowa State

The Syllings and the Hansons traveled to Ames Iowa for a fun filled weekend of beating the Cyclones at Jack Trice stadium.  

We arrived to tailgate at 5:20am.

 Fun tailgating time!

 Luke made this sign and he and Tee carried it into the stadium like this.  I guess Travis was irritated about something?  In my extreme attentiveness to his needs after tailgating for 5 hours, I didn't notice until looking at the next 3 photos.  Not that I would've been attentive at all to this bad attitude without tailgating.....

 I spy bratty Travis.....

Getting happier with each photo op on the way
 into the stadium is Travis.

 Popsicle-stick Bison sign?  The best!

Can you imagine Bison fans just letting a group of fans from another school take a picture in our section without

 photo bombing?

 Her finger dexterity from the years of
making Bison horns is amazing.

Patio

Okay, I made all of you listen to me whine and whine and whine about this patio project and how badly it had started out.  Then I didn't bother to show you the finished project that I made you listen to me complain about!  Sorry for the whining and complaining; thank you for listening.  Really unnecessary whining in the end is what I must show you....I may be known as the project-doer-that-cried-wolf from now on.  

I told you it was REALLY YELLOW after the first stain color.  

I had a vision for this backyard; I just didn't know how to get there.  Luckily Chuck Evens landscape-architect-extraordinaire knew how to get us there!  We can never thank him enough! 

Chuck loaded a Uhaul with plants and brought them to us and we planted them where he directed us to plant.  

Seriously, he gave up his entire Memorial weekend to help us....

Here's the corner that we didn't know what to do with after the structure got a little bigger than we expected.  Chuck had the perfect idea.

Coffee on the morning of the second day of working.  

The second day of working ended in some rain and some shots from the neighbor Jerry.  Jerry and Chuck, along with Beth K and Sue E and Greg L, kept us from tearing down the entire thing this fall when we didn't know how we were going to get from park shelter to what we have now.  Thanks for the encouragement all!

Enjoying the rainy rest.  

Chuck came with Andrew and Norah; Sue had to work.  The kids were pretty much unsupervised most of the 3 days.  Particularly the last day when I had the flu.  Some of the things they did:

Norah and Luke threw some kind of food all over the kitchen (they at least told me right away they did it.)  So, as punishment I had them clean it up; 

Which led to more giggling than throwing the food all over the place!  Good attitudes I guess!?!

The swing is a fave among the kiddos.  

They even did their own hair!  And ate freezies all day because they'd ask us and we'd just say "sure, whatever."  Those freezies disappeared after that weekend after I picked up snips of plastic and wiped up drips of juice everywhere after coming out of my flu-ness.  

If you build it, they will come...

Ahhhhh....

dinner alfresco in the shade.  That's what I was hoping for!

Perfect spot for cuddle-fun!

Finished project:

We hope to put in a bar with a fridge at some point where the old, outdoor table is next to the garbage can. 

We didn't let Chuck do any work while he was at our house for the 4th of July!!!

If you give a mouse a cookie....

I saw a take on "If you give a mouse a cookie" today that made me laugh and laugh. I thought about it in my afternoon adventures. If you didn't know I was crazy, you're about to....but I think many of you can relate? "If you take the seats out of a mom's mini-van, she's going to want to clean it. When she starts cleaning, she'll decide that every floor mat should be removed and sprayed down. Since she's hosing down floor mats, might as well get after those recycling containers. The seats are out of the van, so it's easy to haul in the recycling. Since the vacuum is out, she'll decide to clean the garage. While cleaning the garage, she notices how bad the dog beds stink. Those get taken apart and washed also. The seats were out of the van because she got a new table for the patio. She'll ask you to help her move it in, and help move the old one out. The old one would make a perfect planting station for the plants she can easily go get (because the seats are out of the van.) Raspberry bushes, strawberry plants, flowers, herbs....she'll be a gardener for the first time ever. As she finishes and all is back in place, she glances at the new table on the patio. Boy, those old chairs look horrible. Time to shop for new ones. If she finds new chairs she likes, chances are the seats will need to come out of the van...."

Erika

Let it go Luke and Marie

How can this kid frustrate me as much as he makes me laugh?