Memorial Day in Dorrance

This is where it all starts in Downtown Dorrance, Kansas. Our town population is less than 200 but we have an amazing crowd for Memorial Day. The festivities begin on the street in front of the American Legion. Bicycles, strollers, dogs, ATV's of all shapes and sizes and those walking on foot gather for the parade led by American Legion members and Sons of the American Legion. This year we were lucky enough to have Sam & Stan Langhofer from Topeka play the bagpipes. I just LOVE the sound of bagpipes. We walk from the legion to the city cemetery. The parade is amazing, there is no candy thrown and hardly any spectators, we ALL walk or ride in honor of those who served our country.


Garrett is ready to get the parade started with his decorated bike.



Anna has recently learned to ride her bike without training wheels so she loved showing off her new skills in the parade. Please notice the yellow bicycle horn on Anna's bike. My Mom thought that would be fun for the kids. I am wondering what I ever did to deserve the pain of listening to 3 kids honk bike horns non-stop.



This is some of the family walking in the parade. In the stroller is my newest niece, Avery. This is the first of many Dorrance Memorial Day parades for her. On the right you will notice Jody's "baby bump," next year she will also be pushing a stroller in the parade.


This is Garrett entering the cemetery.



As we arrived in the cemetery we were greeted by a flyover of a WWII replica bi-plane that was built by a local Dorrance resident. Thanks, Tom for the special treat.


The ceremony includes a firing squad made up of Legion Members and Sons of the Legion Members. My brother-in-law is the one wearing the sunglasses.

Sam and his Grandma listened to the ceremony. Sam's Great Aunt, Mary Kay is wearing the red shirt.


This was our scheduled flyover by a KC-135 tanker out of Forbes Field, Topeka, KS. We really are lucky to have local connections to get these things lined up for our small town.



Sam also had a sweet ride for the parade.

Anna and her cousin Hallie in the cemetery.

KSU Baseball

OK, so I am a little behind. Here are some pictures from several weeks ago. We went to the KSU vs. Texas Baseball game in Manhattan on a Saturday afternoon. My Dad really thought Sam needed to go to a baseball game. Sam is currently 2 1/2 years old and his favorite thing to do is play baseball. He is forever saying, "Mom, where my gwub, I can't find my gwub." Then when he finally locates his glove he says, "Mom, you play ball with me?" It is pretty hard to say no. I usually get the bat and he pitches the ball to me. He has developed quite the wind-up when pitching. I think he gets his technique from the kids on the movie "The Sandlot." It is comical to watch. I hope his passion for baseball sticks around.

Grandpa can't say no to a trip to the concession stand. The problem is he only sprung for 2 slushes (hello Grandpa, we have 3 kids).

You can't go to a baseball game and not have peanuts.

We had great seats in the front row behind the K-State dugout.

Grandma Reilly, Sam and Dad.

Sam and Dad taking in the baseball game.


Garrett and Willie

When the kids got tired of sitting still we went behind the stadium and played.

Saturday morning soccer

One of the great things about our small town is the recreational sports. We play football in the fall, basketball in the winter, soccer in the spring and baseball in the summer. Garrett plays soccer with a group of Kindergarten and 1st grade boys and girls. This season when the kids show up for the game the coaches just divide them up into teams and we play. The kids love it and we don't keep score. This last Saturday there were not very many kids so several of the younger siblings joined in the soccer game.
Garrett is in the green shorts and Anna is the little one in the purple.


Taylor and Garrett going after the ball.


Garrett and Taylor hit the turf.

Anna is the short one on the left in the purple shirt. She was not afraid to get into the action. She even got rolled down the field once but she popped right back up and took off. She might be our only girl but she just may be toughest one in the bunch. She had a great time.
Poor Sam didn't get into the soccer game but had tons of fun playing along the sidelines with this ball.

Weekend around the Farm

Our favorite home-away-from-home is the farm. There are all kinds of fun things to do and that is about the only way we get to see Dad this time of year.

Of course Tuffy is Anna's favorite. Notice he finally got a haircut. We need to get Papa out here to make it look a little better, but for now I think Tuffy is just glad to be able to see.


Sam has a favorite place on the farm. In fact one afternoon he disappeared and we looked everywhere for him. He was finally found in the barn with his favorite playmates, the bottle calves. Their names are Red, Red 2 and The Other One. He just loves to spend time with them and they chase Sam around the barn.


Sam and Red

K-State Open House

The weather was beautiful for KSU's open house a few weeks ago. We had a great time walking around campus playing games and looking at all the fun stuff.


Anna rolling out dough to make her own pretzel while visiting the Bakery Science kitchen.


Sam, proud of his pretzel.


McKenzie with her finished product.


Did you know K-State has an Insect Zoo? It is over near the greenhouses on the NW edge of campus. We caught a very exciting giant cockroach race while visiting the zoo.


The kids took a break to enjoy a honey straw.


It's Willie!!!!!!


There is a great tree in front of Umbuger Hall on the North side of campus. For those of you who don't know, the blond little girl is my niece, McKenzie. My kids got my dark hair and Kate's daughter has her blond hair.


Have I mentioned that I now live with 2 KSU celebrities (no, it is not Bill & Frank). The photo behind Garrett is hanging in the brand new Leadership Studies building. It was just dedicated a few weeks ago. This photo of Garrett and his Dad was taken last summer. They are checking the wheat to see if it is ripe and ready to be harvested.


A trip to Kansas State University would not be complete without stopping at the Call Hall Dairy Bar.


Garrett enjoyed some mint chocolate chip ice cream.


Anna wore just a little bit of her chocolate ice cream.

McKenzie enjoyed some chocolate as well.

We had a great time and can't wait to go back next year, hope you will join us. There are activities for the whole family.

Saving $$$$ and the Earth

If you follow my blog you must not have much to do because I have only posted 2 times in the last 4 months. So, I bet you are shocked to see my 2nd post this week.

I guess my post is in honor of Earth Day which was almost a week ago. If you know me very well you probably are not shocked that I am late (because I am ALWAYS late). Anyway, I felt compelled to share with you how I have reduced the amount bright orange Tide containers I use. It actually started out as a way to save money but then I realized it was also saving the Earth.

I make my own laundry detergent. I found the recipe on the Duggar's website. Yes, that is right the people that have like 18 or 19 kids. It is pretty simple to make and seems to work just fine. I highly recommend checking it out. http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html.

Horses and House

Meet Tuffy, the latest addition to our horse herd. He arrived last week and the kids (especially Anna) are crazy about him. It appears he needs a bit of a haircut. We hope to get that taken care of real soon.

Our House Lift

Before

After