We're still here

With no posts for the last several weeks you are probably wondering what is going on with our family. Rest assured, we are all doing well. Things have just been incredibly busy of late and we have found ourselves too tired to post to the blog at the end of the day. Here is a quick update on some of our recent events.

Jon participated in the pinewood derby for his cub scout pack and got 3rd place for speed. He also won the Mario Sunshine Shines award for his car. He was excited. The dad of the boy who won ordered special wheels for his car. That seems a little unfair, but Jon was proud that he mostly did his car himself. Mike cut it out and sanded the wheels, but that was it.

We planted 8 raised garden beds this year. Lena is happy to see that we are seeing some good growth already. We have been eating fresh salad from the gardens this past week. Take a look at our fresh spinach! Now we just have to figure out how to protect the gardens from animals.

Ethan did a little magic show for family home evening this week. He pulled quite a few items out of the magic top hat that he found in the attic (a.k.a. The Room of Requirement). Here's a photo of Ethan the Magnificent.

Alyssa loves shoes. She can regularly be found wearing any pair of shoes that she can lay her hands on. Ethan's had been left on the floor of the living room and she promptly put them on and walked around the room. We'll have to get more pictures of her with the assortment of different shoes she likes to wear.

Lena made a some batches of fig jam flavored with Jell-O. You can find the recipe here. The strawberry is one of our favorites. Lena also made raspberry and black raspberry. Alyssa found some and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Mike and the kids went fishing with Grandpa a couple times recently at a friends pond. The first time Kirsten caught a fish, but she didn't want to eat it. So we threw it back. The second time we didn't catch anything, but did get several bites that got away. The kids still had a lot of fun fishing with Grandpa.