Elder Family Blog Book

The Elder Family | Make Your Own Book

This is our Mother's Day gift for Mrs. Elder.  It is mine and Fran's blogs combined into one book.  Since Blurb produced and shipped it very quickly, Mrs. Elder received it last week.  Now that it's no longer a surprise, I'll share a preview here for anyone to see.

Garden

 We're getting a late start planting are garden this year.  John tilled the soil a couple of weeks ago but we just planted this morning.

 Ben is planting the first tomato.  Mr. Gerald came out and gave us advice about fertilizer and adding calcium to the soil.

Mollie planting the second tomato.  We planted four tomato plants, one hill of cucumbers, and one hill of squash.  Since we are planting late, we planted cucumber and squash plants rather than seeds.

Train Trip

I have a pile of pictures from our train trip Saturday but I can't get them to upload.  This is the only pic that would upload, but it's my favorite.  We don't take many family pics where everyone is looking.

 I was able to get the rest of the pics to load today.  Mollie is covering her ears as the train comes in horn blaring.  She does not like loud noises.

 Getting on the train.

 John and Ben on the train.

 Ben took this picture of Mollie and I relaxing after we had been on the train awhile.  Not much actually happens while you're riding the train.  We read several books and drew with crayons.

 Mollie in a paper conductor hat at the train museum.

 Ben was fascinated by the model trains.  He liked all the details of the houses, businesses and cars set up around the track.

 Mollie was interested in watching the trains pass by on the track.

 She really enjoyed walking on the railroad ties.  These were a new addition since the last time we visited and we thought they were a great idea since most everything in the museum has a sign stating "Do Not Touch."

 Picnic lunch at the park.  I forgot to bring a blanket for our family to sit on.  John sat on the ice chest, Mollie sat on Blankie, and Ben and I sat on the ground.

 Having fun at the park.

 Riding the Dentzel Carousel.

 This was Ben's moment of independence.  After he, Mollie, and I had ridden twice, he made once last ride with Callie and Zaidee while we watched.

Mollie's tongue is nearly black after eating a red and blue ring pop.

Caterpillars

Ben and I  think this is so cool.  We couldn't find one of caterpillars yesterday and realized that it had formed a cocoon (in the bottom left corner).  

Random Pics

Ben up to bat at his game Friday night.  We also had a game tonight.  I haven't taken many pictures because Mollie and I have been helping in the dugout.  He doesn't have another game this week.  

 

Can you tell these are muffins?  I tried to turn my usual coffee cake recipe into muffins Saturday afternoon and it failed majorly.

 Ben has been using my camera a lot.  He thought Cat looked really funny upside down.

 Ben took this picture inside his bug cage.  We currently have three caterpillars.  We're excited because we finally found leaves that they would eat.  I had no idea caterpillars were so picky.

 Ben fixed his own breakfast this morning.  Mollie also ate at Ben's table but I had to fix her breakfast.

Mollie helping me unload the dishwasher this morning.

Pictures

Ben's new crane has many uses.  He constructed this "Clean Water Machine" to change the water in his fish bowl.  We didn't try it to see if it worked. 

 His crane can also work as a mic stand.

 He's been very into race cars this week.  He took this picture of a terrible crash.

 Ben and Sam constructing a machine to get water out of the refrigerator.

Mollie was being very quiet one morning.  I found her in her bed reading wearing Ben's cleats.

 Mollie took this picture of Kitty Cat.

 Wednesday morning Mollie was Tinkerbell.  She used her magic wand to remove all the color from our house.

 Ben has been printing race car coloring sheets from the internet and coloring them.  He wanted me to take this picture.

Yesterday afternoon while I was talking on the telephone with Fran, Mollie fell asleep on the living room floor.  I didn't want to try to move her and possibly wake her up so I just covered her up with her favorite princess quilt and turned off the light.  She slept there all afternoon.

2012 Blog Book

I ordered my 2012 blog book today.  Here is a preview:

Our Growing Family by Rena S Elder | Make Your Own Book

Celebration

 We finished off the morning with a birthday celebration for Ben.  According to Ben, any day other than your actual birthday that you have a party, it's just a celebration, not a birthday party.  We invited Ben's friend Sam from down the street to come over.  We started by opening presents.  You can see the paper flying.

 And a flying shirt.  Mama and Daddy bought Ben a collection of Duck Dynasty shirts (He loves Duck Dynasty) and a pair of jeans.

Nana and Grandaddy bought Ben this cool crane.  I had to drag Ben and Sam away from it to eat cake and ice cream.

Candles lit.  Singing Happy Birthday.

 Blowing out his candles.

 Changed into a Duck Dynasty t-shirt playing his Paper Jamz guitar from Sam.

Soccer

From tee ball we went straight to the park for Ben's last soccer game.  We were thankful that the times worked out so that Ben didn't have to chose between going to his first baseball game or to his last soccer game.

Always have to check to make sure they knew which direction their is in.

 Waiting for his turn to play.

 Running hard.

Running to get a high five from his coach after scoring a goal.  His second this season.

 Kicking off.

 Trying to steal the ball.  He has a mean, determined face when he is playing.

 Good job to the other team.

End of season trophies and water bottles.

 Final team cheer.

 Ben with his trophy and water bottle.

 Family pic.

Sam, Ben, and Mollie