Lots of stuff to blog about

First of all....my baby boy!! Ryan finished his first year of preschool. On Monday night, we went to Ryan's preschool program. All of the preschool classes joined together for 30 minutes of singing and then presentation of preschool diplomas. I am a very proud mama because Ryan did an excellent, prefect, magnificent, super job at his program. He stood up with 75 other 3/4/5 year olds in front of a packed church and sang, behaved wonderfully, did the motions for each song, paid attention to his teacher and waited patiently for his diploma. Of course, I didn't expect anything less of him but I think every parent has a secret fear that their child will be the one who is disruptive, doesn't pay attention, and misbehaves through the whole program. There were a couple of kids who were being naughty but not Ryan. Ben and I were 20 minutes early for the program, the church sanctuary was already packed so we had to sit up in the balcony. Ryan found us though. But our seating arrangements explain why my pictures aren't very well. I am just lucky I had my zoom lens otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any decent pictures of him.

Ryan is waving at us

Group shot: Ryan is the 4th child in the second row from the top

Ryan and his friend Curtis

Ryan with Grandma Donna and Grandpa Brad

Ryan with Nana and Papa (my grandparents) - We appreciate them coming from southeast Iowa to support Ryan in his first school program

On Wednesday was Ryan's end of the year preschool picnic. We played at the park, rode the carousel and ate a picnic lunch. 2007-2008 school year is officially over.

These boys really had this seat thing a'spinning

Ryan's first day school - Sept 2007

Last day of school - May 2008 During my grandparents visit Papa put a floor on the tower unit of Ryan's swing set. Ryan and Papa were discussing their plan for the floor.
OH the fieldwork. What an awful spring. The rain just kept coming. Ben got in the fields one day during the first week of May, two days during the second week of May then finally last week got everything planted. Ryan helped out almost everyday. He chose to do fieldwork over going to the zoo with friends. Must be a true farm boy.

AND here is Ryan today...SICK SICK SICK!! He woke up around 5am with a fever and throwing up. It has lasted all day. We cancelled all of plans for today and tomorrow in hopes to get Ryan feeling better by this weekend.

Our weekend

and boy it was a busy weekend.

Saturday morning we had preschool round-up for next year. In case you are confused, in Story City the kids can go to preschool for two years. So Ryan went at age 3 and he will go next year at age 4. He loves preschool so that is okay with him. Anyway, at preschool round-up we met all the kids (and parents) that will be in his class next year, filled out a bunch of paperwork and officially registered.

After preschool round-up we drove to Grinnell for my cousins graduation party. My family filled Ryan up with sugar - cake, brownies, cupcakes, juice and ice cream. Good thing that doesn't happen very often. We spent all afternoon and evening in Grinnell. It was a great party. Of course, Ben had to miss it all. Because of the crazy spring rain, he now has to be in the fields pretty much around the clock so he can get all the crops in the ground before the next rain.

Ryan and Jereyl -my cousin
Ryan and my other cousin, Cody, caught a baby rabbit. He thought that was pretty cool!

On Sunday morning, I had a few minutes to get some housework done while Ryan helped grandma bake cookies. Then in the afternoon, Ryan and I met Erin/Matt and the kids at Little Wall Lake for a boat ride. It was a blast and Ryan had so much fun. I am looking forward to many camping and boating trips this summer.

Aiden, Ryan and Natalie

Don't those lifejackets straps look comfortable??!?!

Going fast! I think they were getting water sprayed in their faces

Poor Aubrey couldn't even sit upright with that lifejacket on

When we got home from Little Wall my grandparents were here. They came to visit for a few days and to go to Ryan's end of year preschool program tomorrow night. We headed to Lowe's to get some supplies to work on Ryan swingset. Came home and got right to work.

Check back soon to see how Ryan does at his program tomorrow night...should be interesting. 3-4-5 year olds perform in a singing program.

Rhubarb!!

The rhubarb is ready for picking! We love rhubarb at our house. Our favorite rhubarb recipe is called Rhubarb Custard Cake. I got the recipe from my stepmom, Mardi. I want to share the recipe with everyone. Warning: this NOT a healthy recipe. Unfortunately, we can't make this very often because we eat way to much of it.

1 Yellow Cake Mix

4 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup sugar (I only use 1/2 cup and it tastes fine)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

~Make cake mix according to the box directions and pour into a 9x13 greased pan

~On top of the yellow cake spread rhubarb and sugar

~Pour heavy whipping cream over the top

~Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes

Before baking

Yummy, right out of the oven

Next rhubarb recipe will be rhubarb/raspberry crisp but that recipe is pretty well know so no need to post that one.

Look at our cherry tree! It is full of blossoms. We should have a tree full of cherries this year. We barely had any cherries last year due to a late spring frost. I love spring!

Wordless Wednesday

Occasionally, I will be doing a Wordless Wednesday (stole the idea from Lisa) or a Photo Friday. We have been pretty busy lately so I have lots of pictures but I don't really have a story behind each activity. We will see how this works....

200 more chicks arrived May 1

The other chickens are getting big - Ryan choring

Ryan last fieldtrip for this school year. We went hiking with a naturalist at McFarland Park
QUIT taking my picture! Forgot to edit out the red eye, oopps.

Weekend in Washington

Ryan and I spent the weekend in Washington. We went to Washington so we could attend Maddy's 1st birthday party. We had great weather on Saturday so we were outside most of the day. Saturday they got 3.25 inches of rain. The creek by dad's house was really flooded out. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

Grandpa Randy and Ryan blowing bubbles

Ryan and Myles eating lunch

Ryan's turtle

Uncle Alex and the boys

Myles and his big catch. Ryan caught a fish too but I was up at the house so I missed the photo opp.
Ryan HAD to roast marshmallows

Birthday Girl - Maddy turns 1

Beautiful girl!!

New toys

Ben's new "old" tractor arrived from Ohio on Sunday. He has this fascination with old tractors. This tractor is a John Deere 4020. Ben immediately filled 'er up with fuel and took it out for a spin. I have to admit this 4020 is pretty clean for being so old. I am sure Ben got a good deal on it.

My new toy is a SLR camera! I got a Nikon D60 yesterday. I love my Canon point-n-shoot but I am very interested in learning the technical aspects of photography. So instead of using the auto setting, I can play with manual settings. Here are a few photos from today.

My favorite picture from today

Love this picture of Aubrey (Erin's daughter)

Ryan with the horses (Toad in back, Peach with her colt)

Donna's Tulips

Ryan's new cousin!

Colter Lars

7lbs 4 oz

19.5 inches

Isn't he just so adorable? We love him so much already! Colt was born on May 1st at 1:16am. His proud parents are Lynn and Michael (Ben's sister and brother-in-law). Everyone is doing well at home. Daddy cleverly chose the name Colt and Lars is an old family name on Lynn's side of the family. Ben's middle name is also Lars. Ryan really wanted his name to be Thomas. Ryan just informed me that he is going to call the baby Thomas anyway and only call him Colt sometimes. Funny kid!

Donna made the drive to CO on Friday so she is enjoying her new grandson. Brad couldn't go with her because of the need to get in the fields. Ryan and I have plane tickets to go to CO on June 5th to meet Colt. It is going to be so hard waiting that long. I had originally thought about going out there around May 22nd, why in the world did I change my mind???

Congrats Lynn and Michael!