Motor Cross Champion

Last Thursday, Luke entered his first ever Motor Cross Race. I was not in attendance, not because I did not want to be, but because we wanted Luke to have time without his sisters who would have 1. made fun of him, and 2. wanted to try it too. They each admitted that they would have. Emily may want to try in a few years when she is more experienced, Abby has no interest, but did tell me, "oh, yeah, I would have made fun of him". NICE.
In the end, I am glad I was not there, he fell on the first tight corner.
This racing on a track thing is very different than on the ranch. Rick said he was very "underbiked" which I think means that his really cool bike is not that cool. The age range was from four to eight. Luke is 6. He took 5th out of 8 (I think). So we were pretty proud. And the way he walks around with his trophy: he can't wait for the next race. Unless Rick makes it home tomorrow, we may have to wait until next Thursday. I have to work tomorrow night.
I am afraid he is HOOKED!
Ride on Man!

2nd Grade Reading Luau

In Second Grade, if you meet your year long reading requirements, you get to celebrate with a Luau. The Luau takes place in the back yard of my office (which adjoins the elementary playground). I took some time and traded hats, office worker to mom (my favorite of all hats). The kids played all kinds of games, ate fruit kabobs and celebrated their reading successes. Thank Miss K. and all the kids and teachers for making this a fun day! I had a great time.

Baby Horses and other Ranch Happenings

Baby Animals and other Ranch Happenings

On May 5, 6, 12, and 19 baby horses were born here on the ranch. They are adorable and so funny. The births do not take long, in fact, we watched 2 of the births. One even got video taped. Too cool. Last year the name of the horses were decided on by the theme "candy". So we had Starburst, Caramel, Snickers, and Mentos. A little silly, but hey, the kids chose the names. This year, we decided to go with a Biblical theme. And the names are cute, but most of the names are after the Bible "bad guys". So we have two boys and two girls. Cain, Jezibel, Delilah, and Saul. The photos may all be of the same one or all different. I can't keep track. We also acquired 2 baby chicks from Abby Jo's 2nd grade class who raised them. McKinnley Heights was the boy who we did not quite snatch from the clasp of our cat's jaws. May he rest in peace. There was only about and hour and a half of hysterical crying from two young girls. Rick was speechless and less than compassionate. Luke was scared. The girl chick is still the love of Abby's life. She treats it like it was her first born. Her name is Addison Jolee. Life is good here on the ranch.

Ranch

Where Did May Go? It's on to June :) and SOCCER

May was such a crazy busy month that I think I will just skip it. If I don't start my June, I will have to give up this blogging business. We will start with soccer. It was a successful season of learning the game. Emily and Luke were on the light blue team together. Abby was on a team of all girls, also light blue. Makes for an easy fix, when one shirt goes missing. This only happened once, but, wow!, it could have been THE END of the world.

All of the kids did very well and they each scored at least one goal. Those were highlights!

Happy Birthday Cary and Carly

Today is the birthday of my sister Cary (age 41) and Carly (age 21). They do have different Moms, but how cool is sharing a birthday with your sister who is 20 years different in age. I am 20 years and 27 days older than Carly's sister Kelcy. So we will be turning 40 and 20 in Dec, Jan. Super fun. There are two boys in between two sets of girls. Can't wait to see everyone on May 19. Photos to follow.
Happy Birthday Sistaz!

Broken Camera Sadness

Well People,
The camera is at the hospital. The flash fails to pop up, it won't turn on, and it is just dirty/sticky. Clearly I use this tool. I am always replacing my camera. This one was a bit more expensive than the ones before, in fact I could have easily bought a very nice camera for what its costing me to fix the one I have. I admit it, I am darn hard on cameras. And so are my kids. I hope to have my best friend back by weeks end, but if not, I will continue to write. I might just learn how to post video, and then you can watch a horse birth. Pretty cool. It all happened within about 7 minutes. Baby was walking within 20 minutes. We have 3 , almost 4 babies walkin' the ranch, come on out and have a look see. They are soooooooo cute.

Football Friends

Rick attended Northwestern College in Iowa. While he was there he played on the football team. He had a lot of fun and made great lifetime friends. This month one of his teammates/friends passed away. He was living in Sumas, so four of his friends came from Iowa for his funeral. The guys stayed with us and they used the opportunity to enjoy each others company. It was really nice that they could come out, it meant a lot to his family. Here are a few photos that were taken during their stay. I have not laughed that hard in a long time. All in the name of Robbie. He will be missed.