Owen's got his trailer all set for bringing his mower to jobs...but with the road construction, he hasn't had drivable roads to take it on! One perk to that is he's got a beautiful clean trailer to take to the County Fair for 4H.
Both Owen and Leah are playing soccer again this year, and Rinnah's going to try it, too!
It's always hard to get an action shot of Owen because he's so...active!
And 4H project day - Reuben had a board about his maple syruping with Dad that Owen teamed up to help him present. I should have made it simpler, but it was still neat to see Owen rise to the occasion and help his brother out.
Owen's trailer was a hit - he got a "Reserve Champion" ribbon, which only a few of the finest projects are given (only "Champion" is a higher award.)
Here's Leah showing her quilt. She's a little less confident in speaking with the judge, but by the end, she had earned herself an "Award of Excellence" on top of her regular ribbon. (This is the category lower than "Reserve Champion." We were very pleased - this was her first year to be old enough to get different level ribbons on her projects!)
Owen had a great time talking with this judge about his gear-operated Lego tank.
Rinnah and Grandma waited outside in the grass with Krassimir and built acorn houses.
Our full day ended with what has become an annual Kelbe family tradition - dinner at a restaurant local to our family and that of many of my cousins. This year even the New York family was able to make it! We were only missing Sara, Joel, and Gwen, and my Dad.
Linse meeting Gloria. Living so far away from my sister, it's a really unusual experience to have a conversation with my female cousins - I feel like this is what it must be like to have a sister - it's odd (in a good way!) to be talking with someone who has mannerisms and physical features that have a resemblance to your own.
Owen, at Opa's request, brought his guitar and played a bit for us, much to Opa's (and the younger second cousins') delight.
My silly girls teasing Kain.
Evania sitting proudly with her order. That's quite the spread for a two-year-old!
And, as usual, a beautiful cake, though I think this was the most showy one yet!
Even leaving was fun - neat to see the whole tribe swarming the parking lot!
It feels like we've taken a lot of family photos this year! This one, though, our annual anniversary photo, was not one we wanted to skip even if we'd had other photos already this year. Sixteen years! Looks a little different than the one eight years ago.
Owen followed all that up with a week at camp. These photos were downloaded from their website, thus the logo at the bottom.
These are the boys from our church.
And these five were all the kids from church. Leah's friend, on the right, who is a year older than Leah, was brave enough to go without an automatic friend in her cabin!
There's my Owen again.
And another cute one - especially when you can't see it close enough to notice that he hasn't brushed his teeth much this week!
Meanwhile...girls on a blanket!
And Krassimir, too.
Evania's still a good helper. She knew just what to do to help Daddy.
Dress rehearsal at the county Fair for our club's production of Peter Pan! (Leah is the dog. Reuben was a lost boy (Leah was, too), and Krassimir was the crocodile!)
Leah, with her Award of Excellence.
Little 'Vania face.
Reuben wears out easily, so the wagon was a good choice for him!
He loved the rabbits! See how he's sharing his Bible?
Looking back at the parade following behind me and Gloria.
This is by far the funniest of the series of these that we took. Sure makes you wonder what Mrs. Peanut Brittle sees over there!
And THIS was the crowing highlight of our day at the county fair. A corn pit! Gloria wasn't so much happy about the corn as much as she's still just always happy. And corn is fine, too.
Here's Rinnah and Evania diving in it.
And Evania again.
Even Krassimir thought it was fun. You never know with something like this if he'll like it, or if it will be too much.
You can't tell from Gloria's face, but by this point, pretty much everyone (Dad included) was pretty Fair-ed out. But Gloria's happy!
One of Rinnah's goals for the Fair was to see a horse. We were grateful for the miniature horse we saw on our way back to the corn pit so we didn't have to walk to the opposite side of the fairgrounds to get to the horse barn!
And back in the corn. Check out the hand-action on Krassimir!
Try to picture how dusty...and corny...everyone was by the time we got home!
Oh, happy boy!
And I've learned something new, so I'll be linking to some YouTube videos here and there as well, now, too! Here's your first one:
Well, if that wasn't enough for one month (and we're not even halfway through it yet!) we got a visit from my Dad's parents the next day!! They drove up with her cousins to visit another cousin in MN, and made a long way detour to spend an afternoon with us. Reuben got to show them his fountain, since it was partly from them.
Here I am with (Great-)Grandpa and six of the seven kids (since Owen was still at camp.)
Happy baby with Grandma.
Krassi's got his new stander! He enjoys it, and regularly crawls over to it and "asks" to get in. It's nice having a regular way for him to get a more age-appropriate perspective on his surroundings, as well as all of the physical benefits of being upright and bearing some of his own weight.
The girls have set up a drawing studio!
One crazy hot day I went out with the little boys and a bunch of water balloons. We all came in soaked. ;)
Reuben likes to throw them at Big Blue.
Krassi just squeezes them until they burst, and then splashes at the remains in the frisbee next to him!
Oldest and youngest crawling around on the floor.
Silly face! This one reminds me of my third cousin Katie H. Gloria often reminds me of Katie in her facial expressions!
Sleepy baby. And Daddy. And so K's in on the fun, too.
We tried out a new library - always fun to do - and summer Tuesdays have been a good chance for that.
Rinnah was not with us because she was busy having outpatient surgery to get tubes put in her ears and her adenoids taken out. Here she is, home again, and all in one piece. (Minus the adenoids!)
She wanted to snuggle Gloria a bit.
Gloria's first venture into the world of food! What IS this stuff?
She seriously never stops smiling! This is kind of just the way her days go!
We finally had a "friends" birthday party for Rinnah. She loves to invite all the same girls Leah does, and play a lot of the same games, too. ;) But everyone was fine with that!
Instead of a cake, we did strawberries. ;)
Watching Owen's soccer practice one night.
The hills between fields were just right for rolling. And Krassi made it evident that HE wanted to roll with Rinnah and Vania, too!
Here's another attempt at a video link:
Each of the kids has a tree somewhere in the yard. This Japanese maple was given to us by Matt's second cousin who lives two houses down and works at a garden center. All of the less-than-sellable items that she is given she shares with us. We'll see how it does - it's technically for one zone warmer than we are, but hopefully with the bit of shelter we gave it here, it will do okay. We'll see!
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