Catapults and water balloons.

Ok so someone had the fun idea for letting the kids design wooden shields and the "adults" build catapults to launch water balloons at the kids and their shields. So this is what it looked like...

Most of the grandkids painting their shields!

Peter-Leo and the back of Anna's head painting.

Kody painting her shield.

All the grandkids (minus Chandler) with their shields.

The water war ensues..

Kody with her finished shield, protecting her baby doll.

Peter-Leo mid battle.

One of my favorite shots of Peter-Leo and his cousin/buddy Isaac.

Family & the Fourth in Denver

So, every fourth of July, Grandpa & Grandma & Great Grandma have a family carvinal.  They set up a few games and of course the fishing booth. Which all the grandkids love!

The Bean Bag Toss, with Peter-Leo and Cassandra as leaders. You can see how thrilled they were.

Grandma Penny helping Kody with the BB toss.

One of my favorite shots, Uncle Jared stepped in to help Kody with the Target Shoot.

Kody got a pretty shell necklace & baby doll too.

Kody and I wenting her turn at the fishing booth.

Peter-Leo runs off with his star wars light saber & earlier he got a chemistry set.

stay tuned... for more from Denver..
michelle 

Catching Up & Denver Beginnings..

Ok, so last month something wonky happened to my laptop. blue screen of death, weird pop up window and my entire user profile gone. But all the OS still on my laptop and usable. ARGH!  All my photos, music, etc gone! I think.. but if you look at the space on my hard drive... still there.. just can't access it! UGH! 
Anywho. So needless to say I have been down in the dumps.  But the good news... The kids and I flew to Denver for a month! And yes, we are still there! Enjoying Grandma & Grandpa Ranisate!!  Seriously.

I will post some photos of our adventure so far... we got off the plane and a couple hours later.. we were at the zoo! We were so lucky to be able to use Abram & Leah's family zoo pass to get in. And spend time with them!

Here are 4 of the 6 kids (peter-leo, isaac, kody and ann)

Uncle Abram talks shop (aka mating calls) with a peacock.

Peter-Leo and Kody on the bronze ape. Yes I know Peter-Leo is a clown.

Uncle Michael is a favorite with Kody. He is like a big toy!

After a fun afternoon at the Denver Zoo, we went back to Grandpa & Grandma's to crash. Ok, it was just me who crashed. Meanwhile...

Grandma took Peter-Leo and Kody for a spin around the yard!

This a favorite thing for all the cousins! I don't know why.. but they all love it!!

Oh, one more thing... this is for Audra... DO YOU WANT SOME MORE WATER??!!
lol,
Michelle

how my computer crashing (sort of) ended my life as I once knew it...

Yes, that's right people. my beloved Sony Vaio crashed. big old fat BLUE SCREEN! here is the twist.. it's only on my profile (I am the adminstrator and hubby and kids have a separate profile & log in).. anywho. mine.. gone. no OS, no photos, no music, nothing. However, hubby and kids are fine.  It is weird. Although I can still see all the memory on the hard drive is still there I JUST CAN NOT ACCESS IT! From any of the profiles. IT IS WEIRD.  Back to my life ending...
All my photos are not there.. or I can't access them! You must understand that I haven't backed up my photos since before Christmas...and people my camera is my third arm. So. This. Is. Life. Ending.  My photos of my kids are like being held hostage by my laptop who is being told what to do by gun point by some type of virus or defect! Where is the mentalist? Where are any of the CSI peeps? Monk? Shawn or Gus? At this point I would even take Scooby and Shaggy! SOS!! HELP!!!

Ok... enough of the drama.. just waiting until payday and we are sending Vaio to the Geek Squad and hopefully recover my photos... and figure out what the heck is going on! So, until then.... as the Soup Nazi would say... NONE FOR YOU!! except we aren't talking soup.. but photos. (insert fake smile)

peace.

I love this lemon tree...

..while I don't have any actual usable lemons yet.. the tart little tree is giving me the sweetness of watching nature (and God's creations) at work!

Oh, isn't she soo pretty!!

What a lovely blossom!

Summer Science Camp Week 1 Robotics

What a great opportunity for Peter-Leo to take part in! Our school district offered 3 different weeks (M-Th) of science geared camps for the gifted students.  We got into 2 of the 3 and we are soo blessed! He had a great time this week. Of course.. legos + motors + computer software = GREAT TIME!

Today all the parents were invited to come into the classrooms and see what they've been up to so just a few shots.. and one video. hee-hee.

 This is the robotic creation and the computers they used to program it. It's software that Lego makes. Despite the odd face.. he loved it!

And of course, his robotics camp teacher, Mrs. Moody. Who was just awesome!

And of course, a short video of him showing us how to make it work!

photos from the veg garden

The other day I was thinking about how glorious the small & simple things are.. whether you believe God or science created them is not relevent. Just enjoying their simple beauty is enough.  So, out to my small back patio 5 gallon bucket garden I went..

This is the first little pink flower bud on my Lisbon Lemon tree.

 It is soo pretty.

 ..water for my squash...

I love how you can see the veins maginfied by the water drop.

 The sweet smell of my tomato plants is intoxicating..

but these precious yellow flowers reaching toward the sun is equally pleasant to see!

Ah, basil.. my old friend that I hardly know what to do with..

someday I will figure something other than spaghetti sauce and pesto..