Old Thresher's Reunion

Double click on these photo collages to see them better.

Grandpa Dale restored this 1948 John Deere tractor, which even went through a barn fire in the process. For 5 days over Labor Day weekend, the Old Thresher's Reunion occurs in Mount Pleasant, IA. Farmers and/or antique enthusiasts of all types join in a festival which includes "browsing" through litterally over 800 antique tractors. In order to show your tractor, it must be at least 50 years old, unless it's the "featured" brand of the year... those can be newer. This year Madison and Quinn took turns driving Grandpa's antique tractor in the parade. I've got to say it was like no other parade I've ever been to. Tractor after tractor after tractor!

Special visitors

My mom and dad came out for a fast weekend, arriving at 11:30 on Friday night. We had a lot of fun during our weekend though. We watched Quinn score the winning goal during his soccer game on Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market and went to Antonios for supper on Saturday night. Yum! They had to leave today after church and lunch. Mom and Dad, thanks for driving all the way out here for a short weekend. I love you both so much!

Deer

OK, so I can't count. The doe and her twins returned after the kids got home from school. I never saw a third fawn so there must have only been 2. I'm telling you, there were a lot of legs running through our yard at the moment! The kids and I stood on the deck for a long time watching them. I wonder what is bringing them out of the woods twice in the middle of the day? The river is the direction they came from. Quinn and Nate are putting out a bucket of water and sweet corn to try and luer them back! Ha! Who knows, it may work!

Cocoa's "find"

This afternoon Cocoa was at her usual post, on the corner of the couch, looking out the window. Suddenly the hair stood up on the back of her neck and she started growling. I went over the see what she was looking at. There was a doe and 3 fawns in our back yard! Cocoa started barking and she scared them off, but not before I was able to snap this picture of 3 of them in Buzz & Ellen's yard (our neighbor's). It's a little blurry because I took it through the window. Isn't it unusual for a doe to have 3 fawns?

Happy Birthday Beppe!

This is a little late but Beppe had a birthday on Tuesday. We celebrated by going to the Texas Roadhouse for supper after Quinn's soccer game. Quinn's team won 1-0 and he scored the goal tonight. For those of you that don't know (I know I have a new reader... Hi Kristen!) "Beppe" is pronounced Bep-pa and is the dutch word for grandma. Beppe lived in the Netherlands until she was 7 years old so that's one small way to remember her roots. Happy Birthday Beppe!

Back to School Today!

...Just a few minutes ago...

Does anyone else find this funny?

This morning...

Quinn's CYS team won 3-1 this morning. It was a beautiful cool summer morning. This was only their 3rd game but already I can see improvement. They are 2-1 now.

Early afternoon...

Madison played in a scrimmage for the U-13 Flames team (one age level up). It was HOT. The sprinklers would periodically come on for about 20 seconds. In the middle top picture you can see the water spray. No one seemed to mind. The Flames team lost, "A lot - 2". Madison was happy to be playing again.

Mid afternoon...

The U-12 Flames team (Madison's regular team) had a swimming party at Mariah's house. 11 of the 12 girls were there. They had a great time doing something together other than soccer. These girls are from multiple different schools and several school districts. Their common denominator is soccer. The dog, "Sophie," on the far left cracked me up. She is a miniature collie which is a "herding" type of dog. She circled the pool for basically the whole 3 hours, trying to herd the girls into the pool. Most of the time, barking! The only time she was totally quiet while circling was during the time that this picture was taken, and all of the girls were in the pool! It was so funny! Mariah's mom said that she has lost a lot of weight over the summer, herding all of the kids into the pool constantly, running miles and miles around the pool edge!

This evening...

This evening we went to Beppe & Pakka's for a bonfire in the back yard. The river is really, really low which means we need rain badly! For the 2nd time in 2 1/2 years it was shallow enough for the kids to wade across to the other side. Cocoa would get in to her stomach and then turn around and run out and then RACE around the yard as fast as she could. She was so funny to watch! Later on in the evening, Madison noticed something in the knot of a tree on the other side of the river. We watched it for a while and eventually saw some beady little eyes. There ended up to be 4 small raccoons in that tree knot. By the end of the evening 2 of them had crawled out and down the tree. They were really fun to watch but hard to get on camera because of how dark it had become and how far away they were. (Dbl click to see them better).

In the top left picture, the kids are yelling because Tony started throwing big rocks to land in front of them and splash them.

Back to school haircut.

Madison got about 5 inches of her hair cut off on Friday. Angie from church cuts her hair. Angie is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. Madison is having a hard time getting used to her new cut, thinking it's too short. She wanted it to her shoulders, and that's where it's at! I think it's really cute! She wears it behind her ears so I wish I would have had her quick fix it like that in the middle picture. Keep reading for more pictures with the updated "do".

Reunion Pictures

Every year for 10 years now Tony's mom's side of the family has gotten together at Lake Doniphan in Excelsior Springs, MO for a weekend to reconnect, so 2nd cousins can learn to know each other even though they don't live close together and to celebrate the 4 generations that are present. This year there were 39 in attendance, coming from Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Colorado. We've been there 8 of those years.

There are always lots of hugs and immediately everyone picks up where they last left off... Tony and Allison start picking on each other right away... Great Beppe tells all the kids how much they've grown...

There is always swimming ... and we usually have the pool to ourselves.


This year there was Corn Hole. Allison, Johnny and Quinn had some grueling competition.

There is a lot of food... afterall it's the "American way" to celebrate Dutch roots. These pictures were taken in the cafeteria. I think everyone brought enough snacks that we wouldn't have needed the cafeteria foods! The picture of Quinn is of him looking unhappy that Monty stole a big bite of his bread with apple butter on it. How do you like that pirate's tired eye?


John Nicholas' wife, Vi, is an art teacher at Wheaton HS in Chicago. She brought a variety of Dutch crafts for us. She actually was able to walk us through making origami tulips. After our table made them we presented the bouquet to Great Beppe.



Of course there were lots of pictures. According to Quinn "this is the worst part of the whole weekend!" Julie's family all matched and I got to take some pictures of them for hopeful Christmas cards. These were some pictures to check on the lighting. Someone needs to send me a copy of the whole family picture because mine is too light (hint-hint Jenny).



And it wouldn't be Saturday night without the talent show. Madison brought along her bells and played a few lines for us. She was soooo nervous... "hot and sweating" she later told me. Ha! Kennedy and "Farm Beppe" (Hennie) and her Beppe Julie sang a song from VBS. Cole and Quinn raced their turtles that they caught in the pond so that involved some outdoors talent. I've never seen a turtle sprint down the hill like Cole's did. Quinn's just totally sat there... not taking a step. Every once and a while he tried to help it along with a couple of inches. Yah, it was a paper weight.

Saturday morning brought golfing at 7:30am. There is a course right next to the conference center. Quinn was thrilled to assist with driving the cart. I was told several times by different people that he never stopped talking the entire morning! He doesn't understand that golf involves some quiet times. He has too much to say and is a morning person.



The kids always go fishing. This year they caught fish, a couple of frogs and two turtles. Wow... was really exciting fishing!


Here are some pictures from the camp itself. The top left is the lodge where we all stay. It holds up to 64 people. The building that Madison is standing in front of is where we eat our meals. It's just a short walk away.

Of course there was the usual boating too... paddle and canoeing. Jade drove us over to the pond. It's kind of a long walk... when you have LOTS to get in over one short weekend. Tony & Madison canoed all over, looking for the "shark" that she and Darian were convinced they saw earlier in the day...apparently it circled their boat multiple times.



Have I mentioned the games yet??? LOTS of games... until the wee hours of the morning. Rook, Euchre, Pinchole, Sorry, dominoes. Hey... there wasn't any Wayfarers (sp?) this time...!


Always time for silliness.


On Sunday morning there is singing and a devotional. Jenny told the kids to let their lights shine for Jesus and gave the little ones flash lights. Mark showed them a wooden "TV" that he made as a kid... after he saw his first TV in New York City. His "show" was about the story of Joseph.

A large circle is made, hands are held, a prayer is prayed and the reunion sadly comes to an end for another year.

Last pictures...

One of the last things we do is take a picture of the girls near the same set of trees. You really need to double click the picture to compare them. The top left is from this year. The top right is from 2007... only one year ago. Look at how much they've changed! The bottom picture is from 2006. Wow. Time flies when you are enjoying life and having fun!

Does anyone have a hard time believing that we did all of this in less than 48 hours? Yep, we did! It was an 11 hour ride back home, highlighted by the fact that Quinn got car sick and threw up in the van and in a restaurant. A fast trip to Walgreens for Dramamine helped ... a lot... but boy was he green for awhile. The poor thing! We arrived home at 11:30pm. The morning Beginning Band at 8am came awfully early. Whew! ...and then back to work to rest up!

1st Band Program

Hi Everyone,

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth as some of you have begun to think. I've been too busy to blog! Can you believe it? We were gone last weekend for a family reunion and have lots of really really good pictures but I'll have to post about that weekend gradually. It feels too overwhelming right now. On to something easier...

This summer Beginning Band has met Monday through Friday for 5 weeks. Madison's percussion section has met at 8am each day. Today at noon was their 1st band program. I had no idea what to expect... what can you learn in 5 weeks? They did a really nice job though. Now, it's important to remember that most of these kids have never read a piece of music of any kind before, let alone learn a new instrument too. They learned 5 notes total and were able to play the simple songs like Mary had a Little Lamb etc... Madison's percussion section did a great job of playing with the rest of the band but also they played to a CD. They made it fun by calling themselves the "Kings and Queens of Percussion" for one song and had them wear Burger King crowns and sunglasses. In the last song, they all wore fun hats or were to use duck (duct?) tape in a creative way. The percussion section has been working on the snare drum and also the xylophone, 2 instruments. Madison had quite the number of "fans" there today. Tony and I went on extended lunch breaks, Beppe and Pakka, and Abby brought Quinn, Ben and Grace. Thanks everyone for coming. Enjoy the pictures!

An introduction of the Beginning Band. Madison is just over the instructor's shoulder, on the left.

Madison and Alexa show their rhythm during the King and Queens of Percussion piece.

The duct taped hat involved a trip to Wal-Mart at 9:15 last night because apparently no one in our neighborhood keeps duct tape on hand. I bought the biggest roll I could find because this was the 2nd time she had to go door to door to try and borrow!

Someone told me today that drums/percussion is the perfect choice for Madison. They couldn't see her playing any other instrument and that it fits her personality perfectly. I think I agree with that.

Here is Dylan playing the Mary had a Little Lamb solo. Good job Dylan!

"Teaser" Pictures from the Reunion

Quinn reeling in the "big one"... look at his bowed rod.


He caught this wide-mouthed bass... the biggest fish of the weekend.


I LOVE this picture of Cole and Darian running up to show the adults the huge frog that they caught. I've got several more really good pictures of this subject.

Madison and Jade were on their way to serve lunch. Look how cute Jade looks in her Dutch apron... and Madison still squeezes into her's year after year. Ha! She was Jade's age when she first started wearing it. : )

LOTS MORE TO COME!!!!