Summer Happenings...the first half....

Our summer started off as a busy one.  Both the girls were in ball this year.  We did not have very many games that overlapped each other, but at Haley's first game she was chasing other kids, fell, and broke her arm.  She had to play in the outfield and could not bat...she was pretty bummed about that!  Rachel this year moved up to where the kids pitch to themselves.  This was hard as the balls came in there very fast, but she adjusted and did a great job at swinging and hitting the ball.  Here are some pictures of our first half of the summer.

Haley sitting in the dugout...3rd one from the left

Haley doing some sort of dance while in the outfield and with her broken arm.

Haley after getting her splint...she broke her arm at her 1st game before the game even started....running around and fell on it.....2nd time she has broke an arm...thinking she is going to be accident prone!

Rachel down and ready...actually I was taking a picture of her in her stance before her ball game for a project :)

Rachel and her team during a game...Rachel is on 3rd base

Getting ready to bat....she struggled with this, but by the end really improved...this year they pitched to themselves and those balls came in fast!  Note I am in the background coaching 1st and Haley is cheering Rachel on!

Lots of swimming this summer...between rain storms, but the girls have really got some good use out of the pool with friends and family!

Rachel, Haley, and Ann (my niece) at the Ottumwa Beach...Ann stayed with us for a week.  The girls had a lot of fun with her, enjoyed making things in the EasyBake, and really did not want her to go home..We will have to have another play date! 

My other niece Ashley at her graduation party...she graduated from high school and it makes me feel old as I can remember her taking her first steps and now she is taking a big step of going to college.

Rachel and Haley in the red shirts waiting for the race to start....there have not been many races, but the girls are right there to cheer their dad and Uncle Mike!

First day of summer school...the girls did not make it very long with summer school...decided they had had enough school...cannot blame them!

Both girls have lost teeth this summer...kind of funny as Rachel pulled her own tooth at Haley's ball game and if you know Rachel she has no pain tolerance!

Playing in the small pool (as the girls called it) at Gma and Gpa Chidester's house!

Science Project...

Rachel had a science project....the solar system. After planning out what she wanted to do and what sizes the planets were, we started constructing the solar system...

Haley was operating the camera...

Haley was so excited to help paint...They started on the sun and Haley was booted after painting the sun.

The finished project....Rachel is pointing to Earth!

She labeled and numbered each planet so everyone knew which order they were supposed to be. We used some stars that we had for a little extra touch...

Easter Happenings 2010...

Easter started off with the Easter parties at school. This is Rachel's class getting ready for their egg hunt. Rachel is in the pink dress with the white tights. They had some eggs with candy and some eggs with money in them. With they money they had to count how much they had to how many prizes they could buy out of the prize bag. A learning experience while having fun!

This is Haley's class getting ready for their egg hunt. They all knew they had 6 eggs they could collect and they were very good about counting to 6 eggs and stopping. They really had fun and I really enjoyed watching the excitement as they picked up their eggs. Haley is to the left, in front, with the pink skirt and white shirt.

Grandma Eggers hid some eggs for the girls to find around her house.

This is Easter morning playing the waiting game....

Rachel after she found her basket....

Haley after finding her basket....

Girl Scout Cookies....

Tis the season for Girl Scout Cookies!

I could not resist taking a picture of our pile-o-cookies. Rachel spent most of the afternoon after school bagging the cookies, then we double checked them, and tied the bags. This is her 3rd year of selling cookies and every year her enjoyment order gets bigger. This year it was can we get these, and these, and those, and this one too! So I give in as she has done very well with going around and selling cookies....A very good learning experience!

Snow, Snow, and more Snow...

So this post is for those of you that have not had enough snow to be tired of it....I am tired of snow, but the girls still love it that I can pull them around behind the 4-wheeler...Hope you enjoy the lovely winter scenery!

These pictures were taken 3 days after the last snowstorm...we have had it seems like a snowstorm once a week for the last 4-5 weeks.....the kids have missed enough school that they having to make up days that they were supposed to have off through the rest of the school year and then they have added some days on the end of the year....hopefully March will be kind to us and no more snow!

The front view....notice my landscaping light around the front sidewalk.....oh that is right they look like black dots.....seriously enough snow already....where is the green grass to mow.......

The push pile between us and the neighbors.....note the boat to the right and how high the pile is...it is also about 10 feet wide......nice pile for the kids to play on......I am thinking a ice hut would be fun.....may be this weekend we can work on that as it has melted some and hardened enough to dig in now.

The path out to the garage where the wood stove is....Chris plowed us a path as it was pretty tricky walking back and forth in the snow without tripping...especially at 6 a.m.

The view straight out the back door....the snow is about 10 inches deep. Notice the John Deere tractor in the background....Chris traded a race car for this......it will come in handy when we start putting up a privacy fence around the pool....

Oh our pool how I want to swim in you.....I am so ready for Summer!

Birthdays....

Birthday parties and more birthday parties....it is that time of the year for birthdays and birthday parties for the girls.

Rachel had some friends over and we went to the movies and played some games afterwards...

We then came home to enjoy cake, presents, and just play time....All in all it was a fun time...

Rachel with her friends Chrissy, Kaleigh, and Olivia

Haley and her friends enjoyed some games with their balloons, pin the diamonds on the crown, and then they designed their own tiara...it was interesting to see how each one of them designed their tiaras...




Here are the princesses with their own personally designed tiaras...

Left to right: Sylvia, Haley, Lillian, McKinley, Traylon, Tinley, and Emma

Couch tipping...

This is what the girls love to do while I am deep cleaning my floors....