Let The Summer Fun Begin

Well, Arkansas was good to us. We didn't have many more days left. Our youngest son and our daughter in law came to visit us. They were going to a concert and we were close enough that they stayed with us one night. We had a double date night and took the to eat at our favorite place. Dallas remembers this place because we use to come visit dad when he was there working and we had some days out of school. We would take road trips. Dad had to go to work the next day  but they took me out to lunch for Mother's Day. They had to leave to get to their hotel. They had a good little vacation time for themselves. 

School was coming to a close and it was Awards Day. Our oldest granddaughter received two awards. She got a Reading Award because she is in the 1st grade and reading on a 3rd grade level. We are so proud of her. 
 

We had just a week left and I was going to make the best of it. I love to go to Lake Dardnelle and take a picnic lunch. There is a secluded spot I love to get and I also swim there. It was still a little chilly to be swimming. This particular day, I just took a lunch and had some little visitors. I felt like Snow White because all these little animals kept coming to say Hi to me. I had a little young squirrel, blue jay,  and wood pecker. The little squirrel climbed up in the tree behind me and sprawled out onto a branch and took himself a little nap. He got up, came down to see me, and literally ate out of my hand. Later, he brought some of his friends. I had a blue jay that kept landing on a branch above my head. I could tell he wanted some nuts out of my trail mix. He came and sat on the bench beside me. I saw mom geese and they brought their babies to the water to splash and drink. Then there was a snake that kept swimming back and forth. I kind of didn't want him coming to see me, he could stay right there in that water all he wanted. I swim in that water in that very spot. The wood pecker never got too close. But it reminded me of Woody Woodpecker that I grew up watching and my grandchildren love to watch it too. Then it was time for me to wrap up my work and head back. I had supper to prepare. 

The next night, dear hubby let me have the night off and we had a date night. One last time eating at our favorite place. If you ever visit Russellville, AR you have to eat at La'Villa Restaurant. It is awesome. Check out CJ's Burgers and Umami Japanese Restaurant.

Our time came to pack up and head home and we could not have been happier. I was ready to get home and check on my garden to see if it survived a few storms that passed through. I wasn't surprised because I had planted, prayed and left it in God's hands. It did just fine. 

I had been craving homemade bread and I wanted it right then. So I got out my bread machine. It turned out delicious. 

Dear hubby wanted homemade pizza one night. This is an older recipe I used to make when I started learning how to make homemade pizzas. This time I jazzed it up and stuffed the crust with mozzarella cheese. 

It was Memorial Weekend an our granddaughters got to spend a night with us. I had some cake mix and icing on hand so we made a cake. Just let them practice decorating with your cake decorating supplies. You never know what they will create. And it was delicious by the way.

First outdoor picnic of the season. 

We don't have scones with our tea parties, we have cake. 💜💜

It's a farm. There's going to be farm chores.

Pick a chore. Any chore. Do they change their minds 50 times? Yep. Do they get tired? Yep. But they are pretty good little farm hands and are learning.

Sometimes you just need to build a fort, grab snacky snacks and watch a movie.

This summer we are going to work on our sewing skills. Oh the possibilities. 

One day our oldest granddaughter who is 6 found some old homeschool curriculum that I had for her daddy and uncle. We had a stack of cursive writing formation flash cards. She literally took every card, looked at it, and drew it on paper with no assistance from me. She sat right there and taught herself. This was her results:

She then started writing her whole name. I was so impressed. My boys started learning how to write in cursive in Kindergarten.  You can teach a child to write this way. 

We had one last little tea party with some cake. 

Then it came time for them to go home and get ready to go on vacation. It is going to be really quiet around here. 

However, we can make the time go by with staying busy. We have alot of projects to do around here. 

Since we are downsized in the garden this year, we have got some flower bed projects and a deck railing to fix that got damaged in a storm while we were gone. Dear Hubby has plans to extend out back porch and possibly start a small front porch. Later we will put roofs above. Baby steps I guess. 

There are alot of things to be done here and get ready for summer. 

We have a pool to put back up and an outdoor area to set up. 

Looks like we need to get busy. Until the next post. 

Sincerely and God Bless,

Tracy

Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms