Rainy sunsets

We've seen lots of pretty sunsets after recent thunderstorms. Also note the hanging pots, which we got to replace the ones whose bottoms fell out as we were hanging them up earlier this year (giving us quite a shock!).

Father's Day

The boys and I got up early to make orange rolls for Sam on Father's Day. Yum!

We also got Sam a new baby seat for his bike. We really like it (Beth recommended it to me---thanks, Beth!) because it sits on the front of the bike, so it's great because you can talk to the baby and he can see the scenery and everything. Malachi already loves it. He says "Un! unn! unn!" ("Fun") and "Eeeee!" ("Whee!") while he rides along.

Update: Here is the recipe for the sweet rolls:

Cinnamon Rolls (or orange rolls)

3 c. hot water
1 c. instant pwd. milk
½ c. potato flakes (not pearls)
2 c. flour
2 eggs
½ c. sugar
1 ½ T. yeast, or 1 T. instant yeast
½ c. butter or marg. (very soft)
2 t. salt
4-5 c. flour

3 T. melted butter
½ c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon

OR

3 T. melted butter
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. grated orange rind

Frosting:
4 T. melted butter
pwd. sugar (1/2 bag or so? just add till it looks right)
vanilla
cold milk (again, add till consistency is right)---or if making orange rolls, add orange juice instead of milk

Combine first 5 ingredients. Add sugar and yeast. Mix well and add butter and salt until smooth. Add flour, enough to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth, at least 5 min. Place dough in greased bowl. Cover with tea towel and place in warm oven. Let rise 1 ½ hrs. Punch down. Let rise 45 min. Punch down.

Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a large rectangle. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with mixture of sugar and cinnamon (or orange rind and sugar). Roll up from long side. Cut each roll (I use dental floss to cut) into 3/4-inch (?) slices. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise 30-45 min, or until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Frost while still hot, using pastry brush.

Wildflowers, and two fake smiles

Abe and Seb spent the night with my mom the other night, so Malachi and I were all by ourselves the next day. We felt a bit lonely without the others, but we were able to go on a nice walk and enjoy all the wildflowers. We haven't had as much chance to do that as we'd like, with all the rain, but it has also made for some really pretty green fields and flowers.

Ky has a new trick: he "smiles" when you take a picture of him. Other than that he shows absolutely NO interest in looking over at you, or the camera, or anything---just a brief obligatory grimace in your direction, and then he's back to his own devices. Which means several pictures that look like this:

Here I told him, "Hop like a bunny!" He's doing so, and saying, "Opp! opp! opp!" (Although it looks like he's about to chomp down on that flower)

Here he is pleased because he saw a bee.

I need to get a wildflower book from the library or something so I can learn more of the names of these flowers. I think the pink are primroses. Maybe the yellow too?

Purple---looks like larkspur. There are also pink flowers that look like snapdragons, or a relative of them.

Bright, bright oranges and yellows! Don't know what they're called.

"Bachelor buttons"

This part is more cultivated, so not really "wildflowers," I suppose---but beautiful.

Soccer

Just a few pictures to document Abe's participation in Soccer this year. I don't have much commentary. He learned to run the right direction, stop the ball, and (sort of) pass to his teammates, which is a great improvement from the start of the season. And he really loved it (he said he wished he could have a soccer game every week for the rest of the year). Yay, Fire Dragons! :)

Not one, one and a half

You men will be happy to know that I finally got around to clipping off those long curls at the back of Malachi's head, just in time for his halfy birthday. He looks even more like a little man now.

Before

After

Other things this guy is doing at 18 months:

• Trying to walk downstairs standing up
• Enjoying wearing Philip's old railroad cap
• Saying millions of words, many of which would sound to the uninitiated like "ock" or "guck" or "gook" or "cack" (and many of which would, in fact, BE "ock" or "guck" or "gook" or "cack;" meaning rock, truck, book, and cake, respectively)
• Asking unintelligible multi-part questions ending in a rising, plaintive squeak
• Going to nursery at church
• Commenting on everything: airplanes, backhoes, the moon, bumps on the road ("mup! mup!")
• Helping Daddy mow the lawn
• Wanting to hug Abe's bear, Honey ("Unn-eee!")
• (Still) shaking his head "no" when he means "yes"
• Refusing to sleep without his birdie
• Playing outside
• Looking pleased with himself
• Getting things
• Laughing obediently whenever his brothers try to be funny
• Climbing things
• Falling out of, down from, and off of things
  

We love our Ky-guy!

Ladybugs

Our community association released a bunch of ladybugs (108,000 of them, to be precise) into the community gardens last week, and they had a coloring contest to choose which kids got to let the ladybugs out. Sebby got chosen (the lady on the phone said, "His name was drawn," but I'm sure she really meant that it was due to his excellent coloring) and had been looking forward to it for quite a while.

I was afraid he might get nervous about it when the time actually came, but he didn't. He loved having the bugs crawl all over him---as did we all (I like ladybugs---even crawly ones), except maybe Malachi.

The little bugs were so cute, crawling all over the place. All the kids had fun picking them up and putting them in different gardens (hopefully there weren't too many bug casualties from this). I guess now we will see if they do a good job of keeping the garden pests out. So far, all my plants look intact and uneaten. :)

Update: Seb's prize-winning picture (for posterity):

Irrigating

The boys had a good time, as always, helping Grandma irrigate (we missed having Grandpa there splashing around in his rubber boots and checking the water levels, though!).

Malachi is old enough to get himself dirty this year. Although he thought the water was a bit too cold.