Battling the bunnies, etc...

I got my tomato contraption put up last night. It was designed and conceptualized by Dennis Neil.


It'd better work, Dennis.


Here are a few other random pics I like from the last few days, including this one of Jaime and Lexi's pretend sleepover tonight.


Here we are coming home from Carthage. Norton has really become a cooperative passenger. Lexi, not so much.


Lexi, Joe and a big ole bowl of noodles.

The calm after the storm

Annie and the boys just drove away, and already, things are 1,362 percent calmer. Note to self: Never have boys.


Annie asked me to take some pictures of the three of them in their white shirts. I did my very best, though it's absolutely impossible to get them all to smile properly at the same moment.


And sadly, Aunt Jaime, we were working with high-noon light.


Got one of mom, Annie and Aunt Margaret while I was at it.


Photography by Alexis A. Jungman.

Fighting back

We're in Carthage, and mom and dad just took me to a very cool nursery that sells big, healthy, rabbit-proof tomato plants at 1/3 the price of the Evil Lowes Home Improvement Center in Wichita.

I bought four new tomato plants, a pepper plant and three very healthy huge herbs for a mere $15. Dad helped me get the materials for some sort of chicken wire/stake contraption he's dreamed up, so if I can pull it off, I'll have a new garden -- with security -- by tomorrow night.

Bad bunnies

The extension agent told Annie it was either deer or bunnies.

And since Delano isn't home to a lot of deer, I think I have my culprit.

On Mother's Day, I planted four tomato and one yellow pepper plant. They were all growing nicely, bulking up and starting to fill out.

Then, a couple of days ago, I noticed that my fat plants had suddenly become bare twigs. SOMETHING devoured every leaf on every plant.

This happened to me one other year, and it was infuriating. I'm bummed that I have to start all over, that I'm now three weeks behind AND that I have to devise some complicated method for keeping those friggin rabbits away.

Heinous hares!!!!!

Go fly a kite

Maddy and Harrison spent the afternoon with us while their insane mother ran up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs at Cessna Stadium in the name of "training."


Instead of eliminating calories like Amy, we opted to add them on with a picnic lunch in the park.


Afterward, we decided to try out the kite Lexi's grandma gave her for Easter. We didn't have a lot of hope since it wasn't too windy.


But we got that thing way up there, and all the kids were all able to handle it on their own. Here, Lexi demonstrates that it's all in the wrist.

That's CRG, Steve and me

Yes, I know this photo is a week old. But it only recently came to my attention that Jaime had captured me selling a button to my most enthusiastic customer of the day.

Zoo Day

I'm not easily exhausted. But then, I had never before today tried to herd eleven 3-year-olds at the zoo. This morning was Lexi's school field trip, and I went along as a parent helper.


Here was my view most of the morning. A bunch of 3-year-olds running away, as fast as they could. Yes, Ames, that is Capt. Harrison leading the charge.


Here, Lexi and her two boyfriends, Cameron and Jack, (she choose them to ride in our car) see how they measure up against the penguins.


Group pic at the beginning of the day, lots of energy and fight left


Group pic at the end of the day, exhausted into submission

The rest of the weekend

Well, I'd planned these pics to go into several posts, but let's just wrap it up, shall we?


So Monday, I went to my sister's optometry office in Lenexa to pick out some new glasses, which I hope will arrive soon. This is it, by the way, for all you JoCo.-ers who need an eye doc.


The doctor and her tools.


Later that morning, we took Jack, Lexi and Joe to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, a place I highly recommend if you have kids to entertain in the K.C. area. It's fun, and it's FREE!


Lexi got to brush a calf. I think she got her second tick of the weekend at this very moment.


That evening, we were off to the concert, which was the point of our weekend. Took Jaime and birthday boy Carter to an Irish pub beforehand. Here is a 366 Image in the making.


It was a good show, though, as Jaime said, a little talky.

Now THIS is where I draw the line

The maple bacon bar...

Ticked Part II

Here's Lexi, avoiding the camera again, this time at the park.

Ticked

We're in JoCo for the weekend, and today's activities included some fun in the park with cousins Joe and Jack. We came home from this outing with three tired kids, a few grass stains, and as Annie discovered at bathtime tonight, TICKS!


Here's Jack Cheeser.



Lexi warming up for her senior portraits.


Dis kid nuts.

Born to run

Let Norton out this morning. Went back to check on him about 15 minutes later. Gate open. No Norton.


This was the SECOND time this had happened since we got our little runner (who came to us as a stray...runner.) The first time, a contractor left our gate open. This time, it was... well, it wasn't me or Lexi, if that narrows it down.

Thankfully, as soon as I realized Norton was gone and ran outside in a panic, he was running down the sidewalk back toward home. Who knows where he'd been or what he'd been doing.


I truly hate to think of a life without Norty. And so does Lexi. Here she is demonstrating how she would have felt had Norty not come back home.