Check out the size of that thing!

The city park in Hartford recently received some new additions! The new playground equipment is HUGE!! This thing has at least 6 slides and all the climbing area on it that you can imagine. Benjamin has been patiently waiting for it to get done. We visited the "new" city park playground shortly after it was done. I have a nice picture of the playground equipment (notice that my children are nowhere near there) but my son preferred to play on the dirt piles near by. In his defense he was being "Sher Khan". Ada liked to just sit back and take it all in. She enjoyed watching the other kids play and watching Benjamin have fun in the dirt. Hopefully, the weather stays nice so we can come back.

Nature Lover

While at grandma & grandpa's house, Benjamin went outside exploring with his Auntie Carrie & Uncle Matt and they found a little frog. Somehow, they convinced him to hold it. Dave and I cannot believe he held that frog for as long as he did. It even jumped and he still held it! What a brave little boy we have.

Bridal shower crafts

For the bridal shower we asked each guest to provide one of their favorite recipes. We then took these recipes and made a cookbook. Everyone got to make an accordion cookbook. It was fun to see how every one's cookbook turned out and came together! There were some that caught on right away while a few others struggled but I think overall everyone had a great time doing their "arts and crafts" project. I also made a decorated cover for post-it notes that everyone received as shower favors.

This is the cover of the cookbook

This is an example of what one of the cookbooks looked like when finished (the insides)

Here is a post-it note favor

Overall, I think the bridal shower turned out very nice and that everyone had a great time--I know I did.

Steph's bridal shower

Now only have I been busy with work, I was also busy helping plan and put together a bridal shower (with my sister) for my future sister-in-law. The shower was a lot of fun but it also was a lot of work. My sister was in charge of the food while I was in charge of the cake and crafts. We decided to have more appetizer type food than the traditional "meal". The food was good and everyone seemed to like it. My mom was quite concerned that we were not having a "meal" but after much reassurance I think she was happy how things turned out.

Benjamin is providing quality control with the cucumber sandwiches

Here is the "new" member of our family, Stephanie--Craig's soon-to-be wife

The bridal shower cake

Field-to-Table

Keith & I worked together explaining how soybeans grow & develop

Leah in the corn classroom discussing corn by-products
Mark & Anthony using a football field to show a big an acre is
Dennis & Kevin were in charge of popping an ear of popcorn & talking about novelty corn

Well it has felt like forever since I have made any additions to my blog. I have wanted to but just have not had the time or the energy. This summer has been really busy with work. It just seems like I have had one project right on top of another with not much of a break in between if at all. With September starting to wrap up work has finally started to let up some. Immediately following the SD State Fair I was in charge of a program called "Field-to-Table". We had 362 third, fourth, and fifth graders come out to the field where we taught them about agriculture. We taught them about corn growth & development, soybean by-products, corn by-products, soybean growth & development, wheat & oats, combine, planter, popcorn/novelty corn, and an acre comparison/explanation. We held the program just outside of Gayville, SD. The cooperators that I worked with really support and value Extension so I felt very lucky to work with them.

I have also spent a lot of time out in my sentinel plots scouting for disease and counting soybean aphids. If I am not in my sentinel plots than you can find me in my on-farm research plots. My plots involve counting soybean aphids in a soybean aphid resistant line and a non-soybean aphid resistant line. Let's just say that this project SUCKED!!! I hate counting soybean aphids and here I was counting close to 1,000 aphids on each plant. I had 150 plots in this study! I kept hoping for an isolated frost or mis-application of round-up but neither happened! I was selected as a leader writer (sounds glamorous but way more work than it was worth) for our impact statements. I will also be working the Extension Booth at the SD County Commissioners State Convention. I can't wait to just be in my office for a few days--I really need to clean it!

SD State Fair

Since I didn't have any work responsibities on Sunday, Dave and the kids drove up to Huron to spend some time with me. We had a lot of fun checking out all the animals especially the exotic animals. Benjamin really liked the Zdonk and the monkeys. I couldn't believe the size of that ostrich! It was HUGE!! Ada enjoyed walking around looking at all the people, puppies, and animals. When Ada would see a puppy or dog walking around the fair (believe there were alot of them) she would get so excited and try to dart after them. Benjamin liked playing in the corn play box but he prefered to stay outside the box away from the other kids. He gets so shy around other people and kids that it is hard to believe that he is my son! Benjamin loves looking at animals but not touching them. He put his fears aside and touched some kittens and he even fed the sheep! This was a big step for him. What intrigued Benjamin the most was watching a chick hatch out of an egg. He really was interested in that. It was a long, hot, windy day but we had a lot of fun. We even took an icecream break.

Stow Away

Part of my responsibilites as an Extension Educator is attending the South Dakota State Fair every year. I brought up my suitcase from the basement and starting to gather my clothes and necessities. While organizing my stuff I realized that it was exceptionally quiet. I started looking for Benjamin and couldn't find him right away. I was beginning to get a little nervous when I started to hear a giggle. He climbed into my suitcase and was hiding. I couldn't believe it. That little Stinker!! He wanted to go with me to the State Fair. How sweet!