Julia with the camera

Before Tim's wedding, we took the kids to a local nature preserve.  You should have heard the whining, especially from Julia.
It's hot.
I'm tired.
It's boring.
Can we go back yet.
I can't walk another step.

As we started to return, I handed her the camera.  The whining stopped.  The following resulted.

My girl does okay.

Cat

We picked up a cat last month.  This sweet little black kitten was hanging out at the door of the elementary school where our church is meeting.  It kept trying to get in the building, and was behaving nicely with the children.  I don’t think of myself as a cat person, but I was pretty quickly attached to the kitten.

At church, Sarah H pleaded with me to adopt the cat.  “I’ll buy cat food for you each month.”  I think she would have taken it home herself, but she had a couple of cats already.

I told her I would have to ask the boss.  Sunday’s sermon included male headship of the home.

As we were walking out the door I hollered across the parking lot to Steve, “Hey Steve – can we bring home a barn cat.”

“Um… okay.  Do you have some way of bringing it home or is it just going to be loose in the car?”  (We were driving separately.)

“Your mom will hold it.”  Mind you, I hadn’t asked my mother-in-law if she would like to hold a strange kitten for the 35 minute car ride plus stop at a gas station, but I was had a suspicion that if left to her own devices the cat would have found a permanent home in her house.

So we have introduced Midnight to our barn and the kids have been giving her about as much attention as she will tolerate.  They asked Steve for some rope at one point so that they “could teach the cat to climb up into the loft.”  Steve explained that No and cats don’t really need help learning to climb.She was getting fed milk and leftover meat until Steve made it to the store for cat food.  She continues to be friendly.  I don’t know that Maggie has made eye contact with Midnight yet, but Midnight saw Maggie and arched her back exquisitely.

Next week I will see about getting her to the vet.  If she has a computer chip in her we may be returning her to a previous owner.  At the very least we’ll see about getting a checkup.

Company Picnic

The day after Paul’s birthday we took the family to my company’s annual picnic.  Even though I have been working there for 12 years, this is the first picnic I have made it to.  Ahem.  Since we weren’t recovering from a short term mission trip or c-section this year, I thought it might be the right time to go.

As we approached the table to sign in we saw that they had set up a bouncy house and inflatable slide for the children.  I don’t think I had even finished signing in, when Paul came up to me and reported in an awed voice, “Mom!  The popcorn is free!”  I laughed.  It is so nice when the kids see something that they really want and MAY have. 

We set up camp at a picnic table near the bouncy house.  Paul, Julia, and Petra spent most of their time on one or the other of the inflatables.  We called them out to get our food from the nearby shelter house.  Paul and Petra got their shoes and joined us, but we didn’t see Julia.  I knew she had come off the slide; I had told her to get her shoes.  We looked here and there.  I finally saw her walking out of the shelter with a plate of food in hand.  I told her to come out for supper, and by golly, she went and got her supper.

There was a live band and I enjoyed the music they played.  My children had a blast, and I had a nice time chatting with people.  

PJ's B-day

Paul celebrated his 9^th birthday last month.  I guess that means he halfway to college.  Yikes.

He asked for hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for his dinner.  We added watermelon to the meal.  This year he asked for the tick-tocking crocodile from Peter Pan on his cake.  He had an alligator on his cake a couple of years ago and to do something different I tried making the crocodile 3-dimensional.  Closest I’ve ever come to train wrecking a cake.  Paul came up with the idea of how to put irises and pupils on the crocodile’s marshmallow eyes.

It was Lego kind of birthday for Paul.  Now, something you have to realize about Paul, is that if something interests him, it can really absorb him.  Paul got a Lego City set, Lego Star Wars set, Lego MineCraft set and a large Lego Chima set.  Once he starts itching to put those sets together the first time, it is hard for him to think about anything else.  So it wasn’t really a big surprise to me that at 3:00 a.m. after his birthday, I had to come to his room and tell him to turn off the lights and go back to bed.  (He might have been gotten away with being up longer but he has not figured out the subtleties of closing his door and being quiet.) 

A couple of our friends were able to come and join us for Paul’s birthday.  They helped Paul on his scavenger hunt to find his gifts.  It was a fun way to launch a new year.

Yes, you may

We've told our children to ask before getting food.  It is a safeguard against their eating junk food or eating just before meals and spoiling their suppers. 

I harvested a bunch of really big cherry tomatoes and had them sitting in a box in the kitchen.  I was wondering if we would be able to eat them before they went bad because Steve doesn't care for raw tomatoes, and I'm limited in how many I can eat.

Paul: Mom, what are those tomatoes for?
Mom: Eating.
Paul: Can I have some now?
Mom: Please do.
Paul: Can I have four?
Mom: You can have as many as you want whenever you like.  I'm not going to say, 'No.'"

I have decided that I am not bothered by them "spoiling" their suppers with vegetables. 
A little while later -

Julia: Mom, can I have one of these tomatoes?

What good little children.

On the other hand, Paul was grounded from eating blueberries for a while after single-handedly wiping out a pint of them in one sitting.

More wedding pictures

And then there are the pictures I'm missing - 

Little red-headed Rachel with spaghetti on her face, and later snuggling her great Aunt Lynn.

Petra trying on a big floppy hat.

Emma and Petra holding hands.

The little boys playing games in the grass.

Julia dancing.

Tim & JessieMarie's Wedding

My youngest cousin, Tim was married to the beautiful Jessie Marie in Fox Lake, Illinois.  Tim’s eldest sister, Becky officiated.  She gave a very good message, including a passage from Matthew 19, which Steve and I had read in our wedding nearly 12 years ago.  She advised them to treat their marriage with the same perseverance and teamwork as they approached sports.

They observed the veil and cord ceremony.  The veil was to remind them of Christ’s love over them, and the cord of the Holy Spirit intertwining them.

Paul, Julia, and Petra behaved very well during the ceremony.  Our secret?  That morning we let them spend an hour and a half at the hotel’s pool and then took them on a 2.5 mile walk through a nature preserve.  We topped it off by having lunch at a McD’s with a playland. 

Jessie Marie’s sister, Rachel, and Tim’s brother, Nate gave toasts.  Nate talked about how he and Tim didn’t always get along well when they were younger, but how much he valued their relationship now, saying, “Even though I don’t always take it, I often ask Tim’s advice.”  He also shared the words Grandma and Grandpa Stumpf gave him: Be kind to each other, and Tim needs to learn to say, “Yes, dear.”

Julia and Petra tried to wear out the dance floor.  Paul was too embarrassed to dance.  After his grandma dragged him out there for a while he went into hiding had a good time playing with some boys in the yard.

Cousin Liz was one of bridesmaids.  I asked her and her new husband to sign my kids’ National Parks Passports in the Ranger Autograph section.

I haven’t seen these cousins in so long.  My Aunt Lynn, Uncle Doug, cousin Steve and his wife Carrie were there.  My sister, her husband and adorable daughter were there too.  It meant so much to me to be there and be there with my family.  

The Wedding Review from the Kids - 

Paul: Mom, I thought the wedding was going to be in a church.  I like that it was outside.  It was more lovely, and I didn’t have to sit so much.

Julia: I liked the mashed potatoes.  I like that I could pick what I wanted to eat and I got mashed potatoes and bread and a little meat.

Paul: I just don’t like dancing in front of people.  That’s why I ran away.  I got to play with my new friends.

Petra liked the balloons.  She liked the ducks, the roses, and she was intrigued by the hats in the primping station.

Voigt Photos

Veil Ceremony

Annie & Nate

Becky, the back of Hunter's head, Liz
in the back Tim and groomsmen

Aunt Barbara and Uncle Carl

Nathan and Nate (a.k.a Big Nathan, a.k.a. Nathan the 1st)

Tim & JessieMarie

Jason, Becky, Luke, back of Hunter's head again (sorry), back of Liz's head