Yes, I know...

On Friday we had to run some errands. I was hoping/thinking we might get some rain from Hurricane Alex, so I grabbed my umbrella. I got some funny looks as I was driving around town, as Sunshine rode with the umbrella part way open for much of the time. I should have taped a sign to the passenger's window that read "Yes, I know my daughter has an umbrella open in the back seat." This girl is so much fun.

Morning Fun

Today has been cloudy- a great break from the hot sun. We love to spend time outside, but usually try to be in by 9:30 to escape the heat. Due to the cloud cover, Sunshine and I enjoyed being out most of the morning. Here are some of the activities we did together...

We picked some cucumbers.
Sunshine enjoyed some cherry tomatoes from her plant.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles...

We also went for a walk and attempted to fly the kite she got T for Father's Day. We did have it up for a little while, but I spent more time untangling kite string than actually flying it. Hoping for some more mornings like this one!

Sunflowers, take 3!

The sunflowers have been blooming like crazy! I am amazed at how tall they are. We planted them on the west side of our tomatoes and they have worked out great as a shade and some protection from the hot sun. I think they are about done. We are hoping that they will reseed and will have more to enjoy later. Sunshine has really enjoyed them and talks about how tall they are.

Konza Prairie

Sunshine and I spent June 1-8 in Kansas visiting family and friends. We had a great time! It was so nice to have extended time with my family and catch up with some good friends. I have numerous pictures (I posted some on Facebook), but thought I would just share about our trip to the Konza in this posting.
I love the Konza prairie! T and I took many walks there when we lived in Manhattan. One of my favorite memories is when we hiked it in the snow. We took one of the longer loops, so we were pretty cold after we finished up. After we were done, we drove into Bob's Diner for some hot biscuits and gravy...they tasted so good!
This time around, it was definitely not cold. It was actually pretty hot and I was thinking that I had made a bad decision by deciding to meet my sister and her husband there at 5:00 in the afternoon to hike up the big hill. I wanted to hike the steepest part so that we could enjoy the view. I started thinking that Sunshine might end up thinking I was the worst mom ever or I might have a bad back from carrying her up the hill. Well neither happened. She loved it, and wouldn't let us really even help her on the steep parts. She wanted to do it by herself! Here are some pictures from our outing.

Crossing the bridge.

And she's off!

Uncle Alex showing Sunshine a toad.

Black swallowtail on butterfly milkweed.

Ascending the big hill- by herself of course!

We made it! Alex, Leah, and Sunshine at the top.

Funny Little Girl

So Sunshine is really making me laugh today- I love it! First of all she told me about what was ailing her baby. She named her baby Kate after a friend of hers. Poor Kate has an owie on her knee, bug bites (ant bites) on her ankles, AND a puffy foot. Sunshine had all of these recently. She had some ant bites on her toes that made her foot swell, so I commented to her that her foot was puffy. So now I think she thinks people get puffy feet just as often as they get a headache or tummy ache.

I think she wants to go swimming with her friends. Here are a couple of conversations we had...

Me: What do you get if you keep your panties dry all day long?

Sunshine: Ice cream cone and go see friends and swim

Well, she does get an ice cream cone but the rest is not part of the reward system.

Sunshine (with a bag over her shoulders): Bye, bye. See you later.

Me: Where are you going?

S: Go see friends.

Me: What are you going to do with your friends?

S: Go to pool.

Blessed

This morning as we prayed before breakfast, Sunshine bowed her sweet little blonde head and said "thankful for mama and daddy." It blessed my heart and made my day.

May happenings

May has gotten off to a fast start (just like every other month). I spent the first weekend in with T's mom, his sister, and our niece in Fredricksburg. It was my first time to go and I really enjoyed it! I found a few things to bring back and also came home with lots of ideas.

The weather has been heating up, so Sunshine has been enjoying the sprinkler and the pool. We've been to the city pool a couple of times with friends. Because school is still in session, there haven't been very many people there- it's been great. Sunshine and her friends have full use of the slide and they love it! I think they went up and down at least 30 times yesterday.

We finished up planting our garden and I think everything is up. We've been enjoying some of the cooler season veggies..like broccoli, onions, and a little romaine and spinach. Garden fresh broccoli is just amazing to me. It tastes so different from the fresh broccoli I have purchased at the grocery store....I love it and so do T and Sunshine.

The sunflowers have really taken off. We've been taking out a tape measure and having discussions about which sunflower is the tallest, which one is the shortest, etc. Here is a pic of Sunshine playing with the tape measure by her sunflowers.