We're Such Softies

We have two outdoor cats, but the kids have been begging for quite some time to get more kittens.  Johanna has been beside herself, greatly grieving the fact that she would have to wait ten more years (according to her when she's old enough to have her own place!) in order to fulfill her dream. 

Enter.....rescued kitties that a co-worker took in.  We took the kids out to see "a surprise" and were they ever surprised that Dad and Mom had agreed to let them take not only one, but two sweet kittens home. 

The kittens had been kept indoors, and due to the heat and wanting them to adjust, they have now been set up with much love and care in the kids' play room.  Hopefully they'll be outdoors soon with our other two cats. 

Johanna cried when we told her we could take home two little fluff balls.  (This grey one will go to another home.)

So far this is "Caramel" because she has a bit of caramel coloring on one ear.

So far this little guy is Snowball, although Johanna thinks he should be Mystery.

Um yeah, these kitties are being well taken care of!

Our little animal lover is experiencing heaven on earth!

More Ice Cream

This week Benjamin has been enjoying basketball camp in the afternoons.  We attended the final awards today and are proud of his Ambition award.

 
The kids have enjoyed playing games with G/G Wolfe.  A favorite is banagrams, but any game will do.

I think our kids are growing up thinking that grandparents and ice cream go hand in hand.  G/G Wolfe treated us to frozen custard tonight.  Yum!

With rain today, and temperatures that were 25 degrees cooler than earlier this week, the mild evening was a welcome break.  It was a beautiful evening to enjoy sitting outdoors with ice cream.

The Grandparent Switcheroo

This morning we sent off G/G Clark and Anika and Josiah.  Our summertime with them has been very special and it's never easy to hug good-bye. 

We headed home from the airport and pulled in the driveway right after Chris had arrived home from picking up G/G Wolfe at the train station.  There is no chance for a dull moment around here!  

Once our summer is over, we may have to detox the kids from so much activity and company!  It's a blessing to have this time with family though and we are thankful to be able to host them.

Last Day Together

Today was our last full day with Grandpa and Grandma Clark and Anika and Josiah.  It's been fun to have extra time with a couple of our cousins.  Tomorrow it's off to the airport, then back home to welcome our next guests!

As posted before, we often battle the coons that come into our garage through the cat door.  Dad always likes to join in on the thrill of the trapping.  A couple of nights ago it took four tries to finally capture our thief (of cat food, that is).  We caught this guy last night.  Don't let the sweet face deceive you! 

No worries, we treat the thieves humanely and Chris releases them a few miles away by the river.

We were also treated to a doe and her triplets in our front yard this morning!

Grandpa made neat keepsake frames for the boys that hold their Indian artifacts that they each found this summer....Elijah's spearhead from Lake Tahoe and Benjamin's arrowhead from Wolfe Creek.

It's Hot!!!!!

I don't think I ever remember temperatures this hot before.  With the humidity that we have in the Midwest, it really makes it even worse.  When you step outside from being in the A/C it feels like you've stepped into a blasting furnace.  Crazy!  We are so thankful for A/C.

These three are having so much fun together!

Anika had Ami try some sour Japanese candy.  Poor thing tried to be polite, but asked to spit it out pretty quickly!

Despite the heat, Dad headed down to the creek early to clear some area.  The boys had fun playing in the creek and exploring.  Benjamin even found his first arrowhead (we live on old Indian grounds)!

Yep, this was at 5pm.

We braved the heat to run some errands and have a nice dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

A Day Around Town

We like our little city, but there really isn't much to offer in the way of tourism.  When company comes to town we seem to take them out of town to do things like the Amish country, Central Dairy ice cream, etc.  Today we had to run some errands, so we made the most of it with our out-of-country cousins.  One stop was downtown at one of the highest spots in town.  We rode up to the top of the tallest parking garage, all nine stories, to get a view.  It's kind of cool, but nothing like riding up 30 or 40 floors of the buildings in downtown Osaka. 

This is looking out towards our house, a few miles south.

We picked up mail for Grandpa and Grandma at the post office.  Oooh, aaaah.

Seriously, the girls were begging to go to the library.  I love our bookworms!  It turned out to be a great stop for the boys too, as there was a four time state yo-yo champion giving a demonstration.  Great stuff!

Yes, Anika intends to read that stack of books in the next three days before she leaves!

These two have formed a neat bond.  Benjamin and Josiah have always enjoyed playing and emailing with each other, but it's been neat to see Elijah and Josiah hanging out quite a bit.  It's as if they've been buddies forever, not just meeting for the first time a month ago.  

We had made plans to make our own pizzas and watch a movie tonight.  I went against my better judgement and turned the oven on despite the 102 temperature outside.  Just as we were about ready to put the pizzas in, the electricity went out!  It was out for about an hour and the house started to get warmer and warmer.  Also, the pizzas were rising higher and higher!  We were all relieved when it kicked back on.  We enjoyed dinner and a movie just a bit later than planned, but it was all good in the end.    

 

Another fun day with the cousins!

Ice Cream

Some of our cousins are back!  While the rest of the family flew back to Japan, Anika and Josiah get to stay in America for a few more days.  We're excited to have them back with us in Missouri.  

As the temps read 102 today (feeling more like 112 w/humidity), we headed to our favorite local ice cream shop.  Well, it's not exactly local, but 30 minutes away in Jeff City isn't too bad.  We also took the cousins for a quick tour of the capitol building and enjoyed the museum inside. 

Fun with the dress-up clothes.

Great memories are being made with our cousins that live on the other side of the world.  We are so thankful for this rare time together.