Jill & Ryan's Wedding

I know, I'm way behind, but here are a few pictures from Jill and Ryan's wedding in June. (See Geni, you're not the only one who gets behind on the blogging!) Ava was the flowergirl, and I was a bridesmaid.

The beautiful bride with her mom:Ava waiting patiently for her turn in front of the camera. Doesn't she look pretty? She had her toenails painted the same color as Mommy's and her hair "done."Ava and Jill. Ava looks a bit skeptical -- she's used to seeing Jill in dirty jeans at the farm, not in a long white dress at church! I'm not sure if Ava even recognized her at first.Jill will probably have my head for this one, but I thought it was cute. This is Jill with her sister Aprill and brothers Curtis and Karl. The photographer told Aprill to give Jill a kiss on the cheek, and they all were cracking up! They're not exactly hugs-and-kisses kind of people, if you know what I mean!Ava did a fantastic job in her second appearance as a flowergirl (the first was at Uncle Charlie and Aunt Karen's wedding last May). She was funny though -- she didn't want to walk on the aisle runner, so she walked right on the edge of the aisle, off the runner, instead. She only required a little coaxing in the form of Spiderman fruit snacks (from the photographer) to walk to the front of church.

Mommy, Ava and Dane posing for a picture: Kiss for Mommy! Ava got to throw a mini bouquet to the little girls at the reception when Jill tossed her bouquet. That was fun! Ava throws a ball like a girl, but she can really hurl a bouquet of flowers!I didn't get any pictures of the bride and groom, but I do have a funny story that involves the groom. You know that ages-old excuse for not turning in your homework at school? Well, the dog didn't eat Ryan's homework, but she did eat Ryan's tie! When Ryan was getting dressed at church, he couldn't find his tie anywhere. After searching for it, to no avail, one of the guys remembered he had a silver tie, and fetched it for Ryan to wear. In the meantime, someone discovered the original tie (I'm not exactly sure how) all chewed-up and covered with doggie drool in Jill's parents' yard. Jill's yellow lab, Molly, had used it for a chew toy! Someone brought it to the church and the photographer took a few funny shots of Jill and Aprill with the tie.

Also, here's a cute Dane story from the reception. Not only was it apparent that Dane loves red velvet wedding cake (no pictures, but he must have been covered with the stuff), but he is also a huge flirt! He charmed all the ladies who were sitting near his table with his dimples and animated eyebrows. He must also have a thing for skirts. My one cousin's (I have like 20 cousins on the Kloppe side) girlfriend was wearing a dress with a swingy skirt, and Dane kept coming up behind her and swatting the hem with his hand to make it swish. Dane swished it several times before she figured out who was doing it!

Random Togetherness

They really do like each other! Pictures as we were leaving for church one Sunday:Before I hurt my foot, I took the kids with me for runs a few times. This particular morning we went about 3.5 miles. The longest run I accomplished pushing the kids in the stroller was about 5 miles. That was tough! The route we take is pretty hilly, too. They thought it was fun to kick their feet:C'mon Mom! We're ready to GO!

The Yogurt Incident

Okay, now for an explanation from a previous post regarding the refrigerator. As I said before, we were eating out of a small dorm-size fridge. Which was not childproofed in any way. And happened to be right at kid-level. This is what happens when you combine one container of Yo-Baby yogurt, swiped from the above-mentioned non-childproof fridge, and one very curious, very industrious 17-month-old boy:Looks guilty, doesn't he?He was using his pacifier to scoop yogurt off the floor and into his mouth:Or, he just ate directly from the container. Yummy!

Now, all this was rather amusing to me, otherwise I wouldn't have been in the mood to take all these pictures. However, the next day the incident repeated itself, only this time, the little boy turned into a mini-tornado and ran all the way around the house with the open yogurt container, leaving splatters of blueberry Yo-Baby on the carpet, walls, you name it. That was NOT amusing -- tornado boy earned a time-out in his crib for that one. But thankfully, it was the last container of yogurt.

Fun in the Sun

We try to get out and enjoy the warm weather as much as we can. Dane and Ava have their new playset, complete with swings, slide, and sandbox. They also had an inflatable wading pool that blew away in a storm one night. Oops. I retrieved it from the road ditch, only to have it blow away again in another storm, this time for good. I did go buy a replacement, but it's still in the box. Anyway, here's some pictures of the kiddos enjoying the backyard.

Picnic lunch:

Fun in the pool:Ava tried to teach her baby to swim:She also thought it might work to play tee-ball in the water. Nope. Plastic stuff floats.That's a BIG drink of water, Dane!

Future Electrician?

Apparently Dane has a wide variety of talents. First, mountain climbing, now fixing things. A while back, our relatively new refrigerator mysteriously stopped working*, and Russ attempted to fix it by replacing a circuit board. Dane attempted to help him.Can you see how intently Dane is studying the circuit board? He gets a pouty look on his face when he concentrates.

Dane's newfound interest in electronics tickles his Daddy to death. Russ is a self-taught, self-confessed electronics geek. Ask him about it sometime. Or not. My head spins, causing me to zone out, when he starts talking about microchips, capacitors, microcontrollers, and blah, blah, blah. But some of the stuff he can do with it amazes me.

*For the record, the refrigerator stopped cooling because the defrost heater stopped defrosting, resulting in the build up off a big block of ice behing the freezer. First, we tried replacing the heater element, then the circuit board in the pictures above, to no avail. Finally, Russ figured out the problem was a $4 part that controlled when the defrost heater turned on and off. This process somehow took over a month, and in the meantime, we were eating out of a dorm-size fridge. The relevance of this information will become apparent in a soon-to-be published post.

Eat & Sleep

Dane got a new booster seat, so now he eats at the table like a big boy. And, yes, he is willing and able to eat that whole plate of food!

I feel fortunate that both my kids are really good nappers. Dane sometimes finds some rather uncomfortable-looking sleeping positions, though:Check out his big, fat feet! He and Ava wear almost the same size shoe.

And Ava is just downright silly. She wanted me to take her picture, too, because I was taking the above pictures of Dane. I obliged.

Mountain Climbing

Dane has become an expert climber in the last month or so. He's conquered Mt. Table, as you can see here, and has also scaled multiple staircase hills, along with Toilet Peak and Couch Mountain. He tells me the treacherous King Bed Range is up next.

First, I climb up one of the chair foothills, piece of cake.Then, stick out my tongue at Mom, for good luck.Okay, here I go . . .Almost there . . .I reached the summit! I am the King of the World!Now for my oh-so-graceful descent:I'm so proud of myself!Mountain climbing makes me so hungry, I could eat the table!

Picking Strawberries

We couldn't resist the early summer taste of fresh-picked strawberries! There's a berry patch and orchard near Marthasville, about 30 minutes from our house. We met our friend Margaret, her dad, Aunt Karen and baby Kyle there to pick strawberries one Saturday morning. We hope to go back later this summer to pick peaches. Yummy!Dane made a new friend! Have I mentioned he loves dogs?Kyle was kind enough to flash a smile for me. Isn't he adorable?