The weather around these parts has just been SO gorgeous!

Cool. Blue. Sunny. Breezy. Perfect!!

We could not pass up the opportunity to sleep under the stars on such a cool night last night – especially since no one had to be at work today!

So after we arrived home from church, we set up the tent.

We all played out front while Blake grilled some chicken for dinner. It was so yummy!!

These two. Addie Mae had Tate laughing SO hard! I can still hear that giggle that comes all the way from his toes just by looking at these photos!

Sadie and one of our cats, O’Malley, have the cutest relationship! There are always together! It is hilarious. Right down to having their dinner.

Isn’t Sadie getting big!!??

After dinner, as the sun started to go down, the guys made a great fire to sit around.

The kiddos played in the tent!

We had some special visitors for awhile!

It was such a great night for sleeping outside!

We each had a sleeping bag and a fleece blanket! Besides having sweatshirts on!

Morning came, and we hung around the fire for several hours – sipping coffee, having breakfast, laughing till our sides hurt, and letting the littles play in the tent!

Memories in the making!

So much I never want to forget!

Especially as we enjoy things that we love on the farm!

It has been a GREAT weekend so far, and we have more friends coming over this evening to eat with us and then we will all head to the fireworks!

We are also looking forward to the kiddos Grandpa and Grandma’s visit! They will be here tomorrow!!

Hope you all are having a great weekend too!!!

What a very fun weekend we have had – and there is still more fun on its way!

A visit from Blake’s sister and family yesterday was definitely a highlight of our summer so far!

They spent the day with us on their way back home to North Dakota from Illinois!

We had SUCH a GREAT day of fellowship!

And lots of talk about getting them to move to Wisconsin!

Auntie Gail joined us too!

In the late afternoon we started the long process of goodbyes!

They had a nine hour drive home yet!

Once they were ready to pull away, we all lined up on the wall like we always do to say goodbye to anyone visiting us on the farm!

I am going to miss this wall!

As soon as they headed up the driveway, Chad turned and said, “And now Mom is going to cry!”

Maybe Mom had a tear. Or two! Happy ones though, as I was feeling SO blessed with such a great extended family! And one that has always given us tremendous support throughout our adoptions of Tate and Eliza!

It was such a blessing for the kiddos to be surrounded by their Aunt, Uncle and sweet cousins! And a blessing for Blake and I too!

We hope it won’t be long till we see them again!

Thanks for visiting us you all!

Our weekend this past weekend was consumed with getting ready for an open house here on the farm.

We are not afraid of work, and work we did!

The kids and I got a head start on Friday, and conquered the upstairs.

Chad pulled apart all the windows and screens, washed everything, and got them all back together.

The windows are sparkling!

Lane did anything and everything I asked him to!

The bathroom sink needed a shine.

I was getting a little crazy, moving furniture and cleaning under and behind it all.

It was SO needed though! And we will be glad that was done when it is time to pack up this place!

The littles love to help too, and did, but then they played in the loft while we worked.

We don’t play upstairs very often in the summer, so they really enjoyed having us all up there with them!

We did many others things on Friday, like getting in to the pool to cool off.

It was starting to heat up around our neck of the woods!

Then Saturday came.

It always comes after date night on Friday night.

Blake and I have been getting an iced coffee on date night every week lately.

We always double, triple check that they make mine decaf.

Someone obviously made a mistake this week, as at 2:23 a.m. I was STILL awake, and writing down my goals for the next 365 days in my journal.

I felt very weird on the way home from date night, and now we think we know why!

Yikes!!

SO, Saturday morning was here, and we had a lot to do to have the whole farm and house ready to show!

Grant and the boys had been taking care of the buildings throughout the week, so they were very close to being show ready.

The guys needed to mow and trim, but first I needed some muscle in the basement!

Hello muscle.

I had Chad do “Chad time” with the other kiddos, and Addie was at work.

We had this mess to deal with.

I would like to mention that I don’t go in the basement usually!

Our home is 150 years old, but there are two parts of the basement that do have cement instead of dirt.

So we use it for storage.

My muscle was down there helping for over and hour, and I was down there for two hours, because I vacuumed all the cobwebs and dirt away!

Grant filled the van to the top with stuff for Good Will.

I found many more things to sell on Craig’s List.

And we got very dirty in the process!

But the basement looks amazing!

Let’s hope it stays that way until we move!!

In other words, no children, boys, or grown men allowed – ha, ha!

When I came up from the basement and saw the time, I set my camera down and never took another photo all day.

I was just a smidge busy!

Our open house yesterday was very encouraging!

We are excited to see if one of the family’s that came through is who the Lord has for our farm!!

Time will tell!!

Until then, I see more cleaning, mowing, swimming, and playing happening around this amazing place we call home!