The Shape Game

I made up the shape game one day last spring. Mr. Handsome was mowing the yard, and we wanted to be outside.

Cupcake has known her colors for a while now, but she was working on the names of shapes.

I drew a bunch of shapes in different colors on the sidewalk, like this:

Then I would yell out something like "blue square!" and she would run and jump on the blue square.

And then we would cheer for her sheer genius.

The first time we played this game, it lasted for almost an hour! This, friends, is a record for our little one. She is not one to get bogged down with a single activity for any length of time.

This time, the game turned into "take my picture, Mom!". And then, "Mom, can I take YOUR picture?" I still don't know why I agreed. I instructed her to sit here carefully and keep both hands on Mama's camera. . . . I think she did a pretty good job.

California!

Mr. Handsome and I enjoyed six whole days together in California in July. Child free. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! We were there for our church's North American conference. We sat through some boring meetings.

We also accomplished some fun goals:

Like eating food we don't have readily available at home.

And driving our car onto a ferry, and walking on the beach.

And, one of my lifelong dreams, visiting the Ronald Reagan museum.

This may be a weird lifetime goal, but I guess I was a weird kid. My parents liked Ronald Reagan, and I can remember sitting in the living room watching TV with my Dad on election night. If I could have met any famous person when I was a kid, age 4 - 12 or so, I would have picked President Reagan.

California was beautiful. We were blessed to have the time for just the two of us. 

And then coming back home to our girl? Priceless. 

4th of July 5K

I was so excited for this year's 5K! I was hoping to set a personal record. Mr. Handsome was running, too. My sis Annette, her husband Doug, and nephews Dakota and Kale were running as well. Grandma Betty was walking the 2 mile.

This is Kale. His goal was to beat me. He didn't do it in 2012, but I am certain it is only a matter of time.

Dakota was gunning for Mr. Handsome. 2012 was not Dakota's year, either. But the Mr. better watch his back in the future.

And Cupcake had a great day just being herself.

When Grandma Betty came in from her walk, Cupcake couldn't resist helping her to the finish line.

Corn

It sounded like a good idea at the time:  Annette and Mom and I will pack up and go to Sandy's house. We will pick a bunch of sweet corn straight out of the field. We will husk it, bring it home, clean it, blanch it, cut it off the cob, and freeze it. Then we will eat yummy fresh corn all year.

So that is what we did.

Just a fun family corn-picking party, Kansas style.

The processing alone took five hours. At the end of that, we each carried home 22 quarts of corn. That frozen bag of corn in the grocery store will never look the same.