Flash Floods are so much fun.

I know I've been absent this summer. Now that none of my kids take naps during the day anymore I don't find a whole lot of down time for blog writing as I used to. (I'm hoping that will change when school starts.) I found a few minutes tonight and thought I'd share some fun pics that are about a month old. 

During June SW Kansas had about 11 inches of rain which was delightful! One such storm brought 3 inches alone! And there is nothing quite as fun as playing in the flooded street after a storm...especially when you know all that glorious water will be gone by the next day. All that rain has literally transformed Kansas into a green carpet that, honestly, confuses me! I was driving down a back road just the other day that I barely recognized because it was so green!

Anyway, when it rains we take full advantage of the flash floods to play in the streets!! 

Riding in the Rain!

I told you in yesterday's post about the wonderful 100th Anniversary celebration our town enjoyed on Saturday. By the time the bouncy houses shut down we were all exhausted from being out in the 100 degree heat all day. So it was no surprise that we were crashed in front of the television enjoying the air conditioning. I was laying down reading a book when I heard an odd noise outside....and what do you know...

...it was raining...HARD! 

I kicked all my kids outside and we enjoyed the rain and puddles for a good 45 minutes. What a blessing the rain was! 

Boy did the kids enjoying zooming around in the rain on their bikes...and I enjoyed following them around getting wet too! 

We had rivers of water flowing down the sides of the streets after the rain stopped. In fact there was a river of water flowing down the street right by our garden and DR was happily filling buckets and soaking our garden. What can I say, it was free water!! Way to go Honey!! 

That rainfall was enjoyed and very much appreciated...what a wonderfully unexpected blessing on an already fabulous day! 

One Last Hurrah

The big old snow we had about three weeks ago has just about all melted away......except for a few piles left on street corners or in shadows. 

Last week five little boys spontaneously converged on one of the last snow piles on our block. One last hurrah!

I love watching little boys play because there is some sort of unspoken order among what looks like chaos. There were toy guns, shovels, bikes, wrestling upon the pile of snow. But never one fight or disagreement. 

From my untrained eye, it seemed like there were three or four things going on all at once on the snow. Girls don't play like that. Girls are much more soap opera-ish. Boys seem to be a lot more flexible in their play. I was wishing I remembered more from my college Child Psychology class. Girls and boys are so different it boggles the mind that they can survive in the same room for ten minutes. 

Have you noticed though that the youngest boy who was probably 4 or 5 years old (striped shirt on the right) didn't hardly move in five  pictures? I imagine he must be soaking it all in, everything those big boys (ages 6 and 7) said and did. 

There was some friendly competition; racing and jumping. 

Coincidentally my boys are both gone tonight (Sat.) at a sleepover at a friend's house as I write this post. My evening has been spent playing games and eating dinner with only DR and Yahoo. 

My house is so quiet..unnerving really...but I'm enjoying the silence nonetheless. 

This evening is making me look forward to the day they both leave for college. Just kidding..kinda...

The Cool Ride in Montezuma, Kansas...

Settling into a new community is always challenging especially when you are working to get into the "cool crowd". That's us all right! DR and I, we are social ladder climbers, yessir! Have to keep up with those Joneses next door you know!

Well getting in the cool Monte crowd means bike riding. Oh, I don't mean any old kind of bike boy. You want to make a social statement in this here town then you need one of these babies!

A three wheeled bike. I have never seen a bike like this anywhere. Have you? These bikes are custom made right here in town...and there's a waiting list. Even with a price tag of $900, yes that's right $900, they are in high demand and rightly so. Most of the folks riding these bikes are older and retired and in many cases in poor physical condition. One gentleman from our church who rides his all over can hardly walk because his feet are in such bad shape. Another woman who diligently rides everyday, and she is pretty quick, needs to walk with a cane. I have to say that these bikes seem to have done wonders for this community. There are dozens of theses bikes around! I have no doubt that without these bikes there are many elderly who would rarely exercise or leave their homes. Of course I did see two high school football players riding around the other day, not sure what that was about. LOL See? Everyone wants one of these bikes!

I know quite a few older folks around the country who would love to have one of these bikes! I'm not sure if the guy who builds them would ship em' out of state but you never know. Are you interested in one? It's the cool thing to do!! (At least here anyway!)

Marker Monday - Bike Baskets on the Cheap

After buying laundry detergent from Sam's Club for a couple years, I had a few empty buckets lying around. As we were packing up the house to move, I was throwing away or giving away stuff we really didn't need. I'm so happy we didn't get rid of these buckets though, they have made great (and cheap) bike baskets for Yip and Yap.

We headed to the hardware store where the boys picked out some spray paint. Gold and Neon Green? Interesting color combination. They drew up some skulls and crossbones and I made up some simple stencils from cereal boxes. Then with sharpie markers they added the details.

After drilling a few holes in the back of the bucket we used some cable ties to attach them to the front bar of the bikes. They are great and they hold so much stuff. Yap even brought home a tumbleweed the other day in his bike basket!  (Yep, we have tumbleweed here in Kansas!)

I don't know about you but I get a thrill everytime I can recycle an old item into something useful! Besides, the boys are already known as the boys with those creative bike baskets here in our new town! How great is that??

Breaking out the bikes with help from brother.

Last fall Yip and Yap were able to take the training wheels off their bikes shortly before it became too cold to ride outside. This spring when we got the bikes back out again Yap took off as though a day hadn't gone by when he wasn't on a bike. Yip though has been kind of hesitant and needs to relearn. He's been nervous and I haven't been able to help him as much as I'd like.

(Because every time I do Yahoo screams her bloody little head off!! Can you say, "just a little jealous"??)

 

Cooking dinner yesterday, I peeked out and caught them doing this.

Yap was holding the bike seat for Yip and keeping it steady until he could get the bike going on his own.

Everytime Yip was able to make it a few yards without help Yap would yell and cheer and tell his brother what a great job he had done!

I love twins! Every once in a while they even like each other and don't mind showing it.