Did you ever hear the story . . .

of the lady and her chickens?

Once upon a time there were some box elder bugs . . .


Well, "some" isn't an accurate count . . .

Once upon a time there were A LOT of box elder bugs and they were everywhere. There were so many that they drove the lady kinda crazy . . .

She came up with a plan . . . that included a very innocent looking shop vac . . .



and a bunch of chickens.

You see, the bunch of chickens LOVE to eat the little bugs. It's like candy to them. Such a treat. Since the lady loves her chickens . . . she vacuums up as many bugs that she can find . . . and she spoils those chickens by feeding them the little nuisances . . . I mean bugs. It makes both of them very, very happy . . .

. . . well, happy until she carries the innocent looking shop vac filled with bugs into the chicken pen.

Here is where the story gets a little fuzzy.

The lady claims she just carried the vacuum into the pen . . . but the chickens tell a different story. They squawked and fussed at the sight of that shop vac entering the pen - it was terrifying - and so they went right over the fence . . .



I think I overheard one of those chickens claiming that the lady had the vacuum over her head and was going . . . blllttttllllblttttt . . . as she came into the pen.

I just don't know who to believe . . .

But now there's a problem . . . the chickens are on the wrong side of the fence . . . and the lady ain't too happy anymore . . .

She called in reinforcements . . .

Be vewy, vewy quiet . . . I'm hunting chickens . . .

armed herself with her professional chicken catching tools . . .


and went chicken hunting.

Oh, how I wish I had video . . . to watch 3 grown men (Buff and his dad were in on it too), a grown woman (armed with a laundry basket), and a 10 year old boy get outsmarted by a chicken . . . I bet it would have won me money on AFV.

Unfortunately, I was being shadowed by this guy who turned out to be terrified of cockleburrs. Talk about a chicken . . .



and so I missed a lot of pictures of the chicken running through the woods this way . . .

and this way . . . (I know it's the same way . . . but that's what made her so tricky to catch.)



but in the end . . .

The hunt was successful and everyone is back on the right side of the fence.




The moral of the story . . .

Don't count your chickens . . . before you feed them box elder bugs from a shop vac.

This is what my kids did this summer! :o)

Summer is over . . .

I miss you guys. I miss telling you guys about our insane life.

So . . . I think I am going to ignore the fact that I have a house guest coming in 10 hours and that I will have a whole house full of people tomorrow (to come hang out with the house guest). Instead I am going to sit and talk to you for a while.

Of course, I am going to do what no gracious hostess should do . . . and go on and on about my life and my kids . . . but I'll never know if you click that exit button up in the corner . . . so feel free . . .

Summer. It finally arrived in Wisconsin - now that it is September and it's time to get back to school. Not that I'm complaining . . . I loved the cool nights and comfortable days. My garden complained quite a bit . . . but that might have been the gardeners fault . . . but she's blaming it on the weather.

It was a good summer to be busy . . .

Owen played t-ball . . .



and had the time of his life . . .



his energy level was amazing . . .

he had an absolute blast . . .

Yes, I believe she is doing what you think she is doing. He didn't even know her name.

Like I said . . . he had an absolute blast.


Carra got to play soccer . . .

And she was the star of the team . . .

Here she is keeping the grass warm . . .


Guarding the goal . . .


And holding up the goal post . . .

I don't know what they would have done without her.


In case you were wondering, this is what she would look like if her head were a ball . . .


And this is the only proof I have that she touched a ball . . .


Mikayla was in a play during summer school . . .

She LOVES the drama . . .

She is supposed to look scared here, but saw me lift my camera and is actually saying to the girl behind her, "Oh, great, my mom is taking a picture of me . . ."

I think she missed the class on staying in character.

And then there was Brice . . .

He did summer school too.

He built rockets. Something he was NOT at all excited about.


Rocket 1 . . . had to be built exactly as instructed. They could paint it and name it whatever they wanted.


The Black Knight . . .

Blastoff in 3, 2, 1 . . .

Guess what he is doing while waiting for launch . . . yep, he was jumping - and the countdown started at 3.


Blastoff!Success!

Rocket 2 . . .

This one they could build anyway they could imagine . . .


The before rocket . . . The Silver Dollar . . .

The after rocket . . . all the kids in the class thought Brice's was the best and he was soooo lucky . . . because his caught on fire!

I fear for our future flight programs if these kids are left in charge.



And so now summer is over . . . and we move on. Thanks for sitting and listening to me ramble on about my kids. I'll be back eventually . . .

What did you do this summer?