Tea Party Guest

The kids and I are tired of being stuck in the house due to all the smoke in the air. (LOTS of fires in the northwest (and a rather large fire only 30 miles away) and our air quality is terrible!)  School starts next week and we wanted to come up with something fun to do on one of our last days of summer.  

We tossed around lots of different ideas and finally settled on the idea of having a tea party!  Yes, my kids are a little older than they were when we had our first tea party, but you're never too old to have a little fun with tiny tea cups and funny accents!

We've had many tea parties over the years.  Usually they include wearing a proper tea party hat. Yesterday, we decided in addition to a hat, everyone must put on a crazy outfit.  Sadly, pictures of were not allowed due to my propensity to put all photographic evidence of our lives out on the interweb for the world to enjoy.

But pictures of our special guest were allowed.  His wardrobe is limited to this sweater and witch's hat, so that's the outfit he chose.

He was a perfect gentleman.  A lovely tea party guest.  He sat there quietly taking it all in and looking around at us like we were completely nuts.

He was rewarded with his own little tea party biscuit.  He was a little skeptical of eating off the table, but got into it quickly.  After his biscuit, he was excused to get down, but stuck with us.  I think he was hoping for another biscuit.

Crazy humans.

Family Seamstress

Glenn's dear sister, Nancy, helped Ellea sew a denim blanket this summer.  Ellea has done a little sewing, but this was the first pieced quilt she had ever put together and she did a wonderful job.

She spent hours sorting through all the denim squares to put together this cool diagonal pattern.  And her attention to detail was impressive in her assembly of the quilt.  It turned out beautifullly.

She entered it into the county fair and got a blue ribbon and third place against all the other youth entries!  Not bad for her first time!  She's taking a sewing class at school this year, so it will be fun to see what else she creates.

Dog 4-H

The first day of fair included the dog show.  Nicole has shown our Schnauzer, Zip, in the dog show several times, but had taken a break from it over the past few years.  She decided to give it a try again this year.

She's grown up a little since the early years of dog 4-H.

They did great together.  They brought home the Reserve Championship ribbon for Fitting and Showing.  Didn't do quite so well at obedience.  What can I say?  He's stubborn and full of himself.  He's pretty obedient, but not that obedient!

Idaho County Fair, 2015

Sorry for a lack of activity last week. We we busy with our county fair.  We camp at the fairgrounds (even though we live 10 miles away!), so the blogging time was zero.  With two pig projects, a lamb and a dog, it was a very busy week!

This was Ellea's SEVENTH pig!  She's a pro by now.  They did great together.  Her pig was so heavy that he couldn't walk very well, though.  Hard to show an animal that won't move!  In quality showing, the judge said her pig would have been top in her class (and called back for the grand champion round) if he wasn't limping.  He was a great looking pig about 20 pounds ago, but that's how it goes, sometimes.

Morgan did great with his pig, too.  And he had lots of fun running around with his friends between animal duties.  It's nice to have the camper down there, because we have a home base of sorts, and we have a place we can go sit.  And the air conditioning is very nice!

Nicole had another great year with her lamb.  She was called back for fitting and showing and did great.  Seems like she always get so close to that grand champion ribbon, but doesn't quite reach it.  Maybe next year.

And then it was time for the sale.  Always sad to say goodbye to the animals, but it's gotten a little easier for the kids over the years.  And the money softens the blow a little. :)

Another Horse Show

Took Nicole to a fun horse show in Lewiston yesterday.  It was a beautiful, not-too-hot day of fun.

This show was put on by a 4-H club run by a good friend of ours.  It was a Ranch Horse show, which means it was about moving cattle.....  (And the calves don't always cooperate!)

Roping...  (Tricky to say the least!)

Showing off your ground work skills....  (Here, Nicole is backing her horse away from her as she stands in one spot.  Harder than it might sound.  And he did it!)

And playing fun games with your friends!  (This is the "Ribbon Race" where you and your teammate hold a two foot piece of crepe paper and if it breaks you're out.  They had to trot and lope and change directions and stop and back.  They did great.  So great in fact, that they were the winning team!)

This girl came home with lots of medals and that big ribbon represents her win of Grand Champion for her age group (which also included a $75 gift certificate!).  Good job, kiddo.

Peach Picking

I cajoled, bribed and generally guilted my kids into coming along with  mom and I to go pick peaches at a local orchard yesterday.  They were good sports and it was easy picking.

I wish the fruit showed up in this photo better.  The trees were loaded!

The five of us picked 170 pounds in less than 45 minutes!!  What will we do with all of it, you ask?  Well, eat a LOT and make the rest into fruit leather and maybe some freezer jam.  Yummy!

What a great fruit picking crew.  Thanks guys!  I'll be happy to guilt you into lots of other fun activities in the near future!

Selfies and Friends

This sweet group got together on the last day of Jordan's visit for a fun swim.  We had to take one more group picture for posterity's sake before they said their goodbyes.

Oh, and they needed to take a selfie, too.

But, it's hard to take a selfie, sometimes.  Who has the longest arms?

Why, that would be Morgan!  (Notice the lurking photobomber on the right!!)

Good friends are a gift.  We hope to hang on to this one despite the distance between our homes.  Thanks for a great visit, Jordan.  Come back soon!

Minecraft Birthday Party

Morgan planned a late birthday party last week that coincided with when his good friend, Jordan, was going to be visiting from Pocatello.  He did a great job planning all their activities and all his friends had a fun time.

He had a Minecraft theme (a popular video game).  This is supposed to be a spider from the game.

A Minecraft cake that Ellea helped me out by decorating.  If you don't understand minecraft, don't try.  I barely understand it.  I just smile and nod.

Morgan made his own pinata (starting with a box).  He did a great job.

Freeze dance became a balloon war.  Fun for all.

And we wrapped up with photo booth props.
 

This group has done lots of fun stuff together over the past couple years and they a great time last weekend spending time with Jordan while he was in town.  Hopefully, Jordan comes back again soon!

Jet Boat Stops

Our first stop on the jet boat trip was a stop at a place called Buckskin Bill's where we ate a lovely picnic lunch courtesy of Nancy and her family.  This place is  a home and museum along the river and is only accessible by jet boat.  Buckskin Bill moved to this location in 1936 and lived a very rustic life until he died in 1980.

This is the Buckskin Bill Tower.  This website says this stone gun tower was built in defiance of the forest service which was threatening to take away his right to live along the river.   Lucky for them, they let him stay.

Check out this site for a virtual tour of the museum.

Our next stop was Mackay Bar which is a beautiful guest ranch located on the river not far from Buckskin Bill's.  The kids were offered horse rides and said no at first, but why not?

Riding with a halter, bareback and shoeless on a sweet horse out in the middle of nowhere.  It's a good life.

The beach at Mackay bar was covered in beautiful butterflies.

So pretty!

Selfies on the Boat

Love these kids!