Brunch in the Country

The ladies I work with were invited to "Brunch in the Country" at Kathy's farm. We have heard so much about her different gardens, lily pond and the dairy farm. The morning was perfect - just beautiful to be outside.

(back left) Gillian, Sharon, Lesli, Cindy, Judy, Kathy, and Me. Debbie and Melva were not able to make it.

We had two breakfast casseroles, fresh fruit, homemade (huge) cinnamon rolls that were baked that morning by her neighbor - Nancy, and chocolate cups with custard and strawberry to garnish it. I forgot to sneak a cinnamon roll home with me.

Then we took a tour of the farm. Everything looked beautiful to us and made me miss my home in Ohio. Wonderful trees for shade and flowers everywhere you looked. Kathy said in a few more weeks the flowerbeds would be blooming more.

The entrance to her Secret Garden

Okay, I thought this was cool - Ivan (Kathy's husband) carved this "John Wayne" from a tree. That is right - this is a tree trunk. Pretty cool and he had done another one and just left it where the tree had been growing. You know people pay a lot of money for these type of carvings.

This Bert - the ox - last time I saw him he was half this size

The ladies - they are Brown Swiss, I believe Ivan said they have 40 that they milk and I know he has named some of them, Kathy said so. When he was asked about this he said some days they share the same name and it isn't always a nice name. Ha Ha

It was a wonderful morning, I could start every Saturday out this way. We even offered to bring our work gloves and help her in the gardens for labor costs. Thank you Kathy for having us out. I know we all really enjoyed our time and I hope to be back again - to bring the kids, sledding in the winter, and possibly taking pictures in your yard.

I had to take off a little early for my next adventure of the day . . . . . .

Rich in Silver. . .Streakin Mr Red. . .

If ya wondering - horse names. Our next stop was Eureka Downs (about 1 1/2hrs from home). We left baby woo woo at home with Aunt Shanna (thank you so very much). The kids and I had never been to a horse race. There were 7 races that day. Keyton and Kassade getting ready for afternoon events and a little overwhelmed on how to bet on the horses. Russ explained several different ways we can bet and different things to look for. I was really proud of them because they took time to look at different things before giving us their bets - oops I mean their choices.

Waiting for the jockeys and horses.

One really nice thing here at Eureka is that you can watch the horses and jockeys as they are getting ready for the race. To watch the races - you can sit most anywhere - even right down at the fence. Good viewing for all. This is so much better than greyhound dog races.

This was a jockey that we favored.

Okay, so we didn't win anything but we had a great time - cheap entertainment - and learned more about horse racing. We did very well though. We kept placing the top three but not in the right order. The kids said they were addicted - when can we go again.

last stop . . . Carnival

London's daycare was having a carnival for the kids. We made it back in time to spend the last hour there. They had large bouncy things, bean bag toss, ring toss, cake walk, cotton candy, silent auction and much more.

London, Russ, Keyton and Kass doing the cake walk

getting her face painted

bean bag toss

London rocked at the ring toss. You have four tries to throw the ring on a bottle of pop. She won twice and during one try she got two rings on the pop. We decided to get her ready for the State Fair games.

her prize and she also got a Mt Dew for her sister

Kass and Keyton had to give it a try also

what a great sister, helping her with games and also painted her face

and a great brother helping her down the bouncy slide

one item I came home with from the silent auction

We had better luck at the carnival than we did the horse races

3 liters of soda

9 cupcakes

basket of chocolate

basket of movie candy, popcorn and video certificates

smiles on our faces

Mother's Day Weekend

We went to Garnett for Mother's Day weekend. Russ and I went early and he did a few projects for his mother, there was a craft fair, bridal shower, bachlorette party, fishing, picnic, and time spent with family.

This is North Lake in Garnett, KS. Russ' mother lives here, his parents grew up here, and we also got married in Garnett. North Lake is so pretty and peaceful. Every time we go to Garnett we have to spend some time at the lake. They also have a lake on the south side of town.

London waiting for Russ, he was running around the lake.

There is a little trail that we like to go down by the lake. Usually the overflow behind him is just a little trickle, but this day it was a waterfall. We had a thunderstorm early that morning.

Bridal Shower

Russ' cousin, Casey is getting married! They had a bridal shower for her Mother's Day weekend. Her wedding is June 13th and London gets to be the flower girl! I am so excited but also apprehensive how she will do. Here are a few pictures.

Tiffany (Maid of honor) and also hosted the shower

We had the usual contest to make a wedding dress out of toilet paper. I think this is very becoming dress for aunt Jackie and so nice of Dylan to help.

Girl's Night Out

Later after the shower - we went out for a bachelorette party.

Won't she make a gorgeous bride!

This is Jay and Barb - Casey's parents. Later in the evening the guys (our husbands) joined us for a few drinks. Good times together.