Tyler turns eight. Wow.  And this one started out a whole lot like the last two parties… raining.  But that’s par for the course lately.  Lots of rain this month.  But before the day was out, there was some go-kart riding to be had.

[PHOTO GALLERY]

Happy Birthday Tyler

Back by popular demand.

One more cleansing for the ants and earwhigs. Jess saw an ant and the phone was handed to me. (I still haven’t seen one). But we can’t take chances when we live in a log home.  So Orkin was called in… he did his thing and was gone, taking our money with him.

Hope thats the last we see of him this year

Well, I think I finally have my answer.  All that green stuff I’ve been cultivating on the rock wall at the edge of the property *is* poison ivy.  I knew I had some on the west end of the wall (see photo). But the stuff I’ve been watching grow into small trees near the house.. well, it just didn’t look right.. and I had someone tell me it wasn’t poison ivy.  I’ve walked through it more times than I can count and recently I helped Nathan pick a large cement block out of it for one of his projects.  Soon enough, he was itching and scratching.  We thought it was Childrens Shingles that he’s suffered with twice already this year, a discouraging thought.  But I mentioned it didn’t look the same, so we (read: Jess) took him to the Dr.

Poison Ivy.  Give it ten days and try not to touch it.

The real deal... don't even think about touching it.

I’d be more shocked if I didn’t see tractors driving up and down the road in The County.  But I guess today was a bit different, we drove through a small town that was having some tractor festivities.

Drive them tractors

The older twins celebrated a birthday today.  Not much different than the younger twins recently.. raining!  It was good to be together as a family again and to be entertained by “Aunt Sharon”.. what a hoot!

A nice different approach to a birthday cake.

I’ve probably seen these before, but still not sure what it is.  Some part of the ladybug family I presume.  This was one of my “smell the roses” moments.  I was walking around the yard with my camera.

Any guesses??

A strange patterned beetle

We finally broke down (been doing that some lately)… and bought a new bed.  We’ve had the previous one for nearly 15 years.. so I guess its safe to say it was time.  We did some homework and ended up picking the Sleep Number Bed.  We went completely overboard and bought the adjustable frame.  Yeah, think hospital bed or Old Person bed.  Now we can sit and read or watch TV in bed!  (I’m officially old).

I'm looking like a 60

The Libby boys were over this afternoon and were playing on the back lawn when a mother woodchuck came barreling across the lawn.  One of the boys pointed and I just happened to be looking out the window.  She ended up dropping something that was in her mouth and we went to investigate.  Yup, she was transporting a baby like a cat does.  Never seen that before.

How many babies can a mother woodchuck, chuck?

The last day of school is tomorrow.  And Nathan has set a lofty goal for himself.  To read a book a day.  These are the real deal.  Nothing like the Dick and Jane books I struggled with. [smirk]  These are three, four, sometimes five hundred pages long.  Have at it boy.  It’s good to set goals and challenge ourselves.  I do it all the time.. sometimes too much.

We were in SAMS today and grabbed a few to get him started.  Lawhead has a handful of series, so it’ll be easy to get 10-12 books right from him. (I already have a few).  But he’ll need approximately 75 55 books to get him through the summer.  Can anyone say Library?

[UPDATE: We've slightly modified the goal, to weekdays only.  That gives him a break and a chance to make up lost ground on the weekends]

Some of the few he has picked out