The zebra room

Hunter and I put the bunk beds together last night and C put all the zebra bedding on. She slept in the top bunk last night with all her stuffies. Right now she is in a tent she created out of the bottom bunk.

Mmmmmm SPAM

I brought a can of spam with jalapeños back for hunter's dad from Minnesota. Caroline was upset because she doesn't like spicy. So, I purchased my first can of Spam ever and we are having Spam cubans for dinner!

GB& PM part 5

St ansgar: on our way home from Austin we drove over to Grace and Norbert's farm to see the water levels in the fields. Unfortunatly it was too wet to climb apple trees or run through the ditch with the power of greyskull ( yes a he-man reference). As we pulled through town ( a one stop light kind of place), we met my grandpa at an intersection!

GB & PM part 4

The birthday party: most summers we are home, my mom puts on a party for caroline. This year the boys (parker is 3 and brayden is 4) picked out a theme and all the supplies. GG grace and G G Norbert came over for lunch and a great time was had by all.

GB & PM part 3

Family picture:  we had to take our annual family picture in front of Mom's bushes.  This time around we of course had more issues to deal with- more kids then laps, nap schedules, hungry kids and redneck tooth (c has a snaggel tooth that refuses to fall out, but sticks out enough to gross you out).   For the most part everyone was really good, but toward the end c got silly and this is the pic we got.  Be on the lookout for good pictures from Holly's camera.  For those of you that knew my sisters when they were little, I bet you can guess who belongs to whom!  

GB & PM part 2

Spam museum:   A trip to Iowa is not complete without a swing through Austin.  We went to the SPAM museum first. Caroline of course wanted to make SPAM and even with Papa Marc coaching and a practice round she still lost to the amazing mommy.  However at the SPAM exam quiz show, Grandma Becky kicked all our buns. C discovered she was old enough to enjoy the humor of MontyPython's  flying circus with the spam, spam, eggs and spam skit.    The spam food truck was parked out front so we taste tested spam curds-batter fried spam and cheese sticks.  Everyone agreed they were awesome. Of course we had to spend a few of Papa's points in the gift shop and I got a tin side spam lunchbox and a new long sleeve spam shirt.  We even found a mike the knight look a like in sir can a lot and purchased Parker a magnet and tattoo.

Of course we had to have lunch at Taco Johns and introduce c to potato oles!  Jeanne Tomlinson met us there before we drove by our houses (there is too much "town" between our house and the corn fields now) and schools (Shaw has been gone for a long time, but it is still disorienting when trying to find Putt's house). 

Summer at Grandma Becky and Papa Marc's lake

Crazy games with auntie Jill: Jill brought 45 glow sticks!  We broke them all and headed to the basement after dark for an hour of craziness.  Parker and Brayden wore their bracelets and swung their arms around to watch the glow.  Brayden rolled hoops down the hall.  Amy and C played ring the gak.  C and Jill pretended they were a circus act and tossed them back and forth until Parker came running through yelling "pause!"

Coffee with the big girls: while mom took the boys to get party supplies c got to have coffee ( ok, hot chocolate) at the chocolate season with the aunties.  She was not impressed that Landon was on the girl team.  She wanted her aunties to herself!

It's just a few blocks: from the coffee shop we walked over to the pet shop and then decided to go to a local park.  It would have been a few blocks to walk back to the cars and then a struggle to get the boys in car seats so Jill and I walked with the boys ( I held L, she skipped with P and B). While everyone else went to move cars (c went with Holly of course). Our walk was a bit further than we expected, but the kids were troopers and we even got to stop at a fire station along the way.

How does Mrs Dugger get anything done:  As we attempted to sit down to our first meal with all kids and grand kids it seemed like a three ring circus of needing more milk, I want to sit there, I don't need a booster seat, where are the napkins and yes you do need to take no thank you bite.  But by the time my sisters left, we were a well oiled machine.

Water balloons: we forgot to blow up the balloons the boys had picked out for c's party, so we decided to let them toss water balloons instead.  Of course they weren't meant for water so we had some close casualties.  Brayden squeezed a little too hard and had one explode all over him.  His face was priceless!  Of course when his mom asked if he needed dry clothes because he was wet, he thought she meant he had had an accident and was adamant that he was not wet and would not be changing.  

Fishing with Uncle Brian:  kids went crappie fishing off the dock and caught close to 20 fish. Brayden caught his first fish and carried it up the hill for us to see.  C had a blast sight casting.