Our three little monkeys have been upgraded to five this week. My brother and his ladies are here visiting for the week. All five little monkeys are having a grand old time playing in the mud, befriending bugs and frogs, and eating lots of food. Christopher and Angelica are inseperable little buddies.

The plan was to go to the Fiddler's this weekend, but the rain kept the weak and pregnant (Anna's prego, I'm weak!) away, so we went to the Bistro instead. We were warm and dry and had some great conversation. We missed the music, but sometimes warm is better!

On Sunday the Hatke's went off with the Hatke Majors while we Antonio's headed out to the Thistle Byre Farm to visit with the lovely Rider family. What a great time! Their farm is beautiful!! The kids had a really nice time running around outside and playing with the other young children. The grown ups had a wonderful visit and ate lots of yummy food fresh off the land.

Normal mothers would rejoice and enjoy the peace when their yound child took a nap on her own. Not me . . . I freak out and call 911. Gracie entirely covered herself with the pillow shams and fell sound asleep on her bed. In the shams, she was completely out of sight, save one timy lock of hair. Christopher and I called and called through the house for her, checking every nook and cranny. We searched outside, employing the help of some kindly strangers, I called my dad, got the neighbor . . . I was in full flip-out mode by the time Rita found her sleeping peacefully. I feel like a dope, especially since the police man had to come in a check on her, but adventures such as this make you realize just how much you children mean to you, and that is a good thing.

Speaking of peacfully sleeping children, little Zita, stark naked, is snoring at me feet!

I spent the day at odds with my sewing machine. Seems the darn thing has decided that it is angry with me. Probably mad because I have neglected him for so long. I can't blame him, but really, does he have to be so mean?

What a busy wonderful weekend!! Saturday was Father David's ordination, which was fabulous. It was such an amazing ceremony. It was not the first time that I had attended an ordination, but I don't remember the other one being so ceremonial. The reception afterwards was great too. I got all the kids clean and dressed well, and of course we were late. Grace fell asleep in the car, so I scooped her up to go inside, only to discover that she was not wearing underwear. I about died. Thanks be to goodness, for some reason completely unknown to me, there was a clean pair in the car. (See, it pays to have a car that looks like you live in it!!).

Father's Day was a wonderful day at the river. The Weeks family came up to join the fun. The kids had a great time -- the river level was perfect! The girls got a bunch of muscles and cooked them on the fire. Then tried to eat them. In all the many years that our family has been going to the river, never once have we tried to eat the muscles. (Although Ben and Denver did eat crawdads once). I think the girls prefered the s'mores.

This is hilarious!!! What kids doesn't want a live in playmate?

Every once in a while, Christopher goes on a special "date" with my sister, his "Nana". I am so glad that they get this time together. Christopher can be a sensitive little man, and being the oldest of three so close together, he needs one on one times to remind him how special he is! And whenever they have these dates, he remembers how much he loves his Nana andwants to spend the whole day with her! So today, after their breakfast date, Nana came to swimming lessons and then to the park with us. I am certain that we wore poor preggy Nana to exhaustion!

Later in the afternoon, my mom picked up the kiddos so I could get some things finished (my house is clean! It's a miracle!). Later we went swimming at the Reifenrath's. Christopher is getting a little too confident in his "swimming" abilities! He paddled on his little noodle all over the deep end of the pool! And Grace, the princess, just let Jack push her all over in her raft. That's my girl!

The Corpus Christi celebration at St. Boniface was a HUGE success. Mainly due to the fab food, I am sure (kidding!). The procession was the best yet, I think. Beautiful Mary Grace Rudolpf, having celebrated her First Communion that morning, sprinkles rose petals for Our Lord as we took him into the streets of town. All of the kids of the parish waved banners for Jesus and were SO EXCITED to be doing so! It was great. We were doing exactly what we should have been doing in order to celebrate the magnificent gift Christ gave to us. It was a perfect balance of prayer and reflection coupled with feasting, dancing, and just the right amount of alcohol!! It was a wonderful Catholic celebration. I am sure that God was happy and the Church Triumphant was rejoicing with us!

My little kiddos have been going to swimming lessons this week. It is one of the first times we have done any organzed activity, and the very first where I can not be right there with them. They are doing a wonderful job. Especially with Christopher, I can see the "attachment parenting" paying off. He is sweet, confident, and obedient. By the end of the two weeks, he will be swimming, I am sure.

Grace is enjoying her self. She is younger and a bit more shy that her brother. I think that if they were in the same class, she would have no problems. As it is, she is enjoying herself and that is all that matters!

After lessons, we stopped at the shop for a drinks and to say hi to the WONDERFUL and LIFE SAVING Cynthia!! Thank goodness for wonderful friends who need jobs!!

Yesterday, someone told me that wine at Meijer was only two dollars. So of course, being a self proclaimed wine-o, I made a beeline for Meijer. It was probably only the second or so time I have even been in this store. Why would anyone want to drive fifteen miles into no man's land for some pseudo WalMart? The real one is bad enough. Anyway, I went to Meijer. For the last time. They have taken our technologically dependent, material driven culture to a whole new level -- grocery carts with televisions. I am not making this up. Oh how I wish I could be so creative. For only one mighty dollar, you can "hire" a grocery cart to babysit your child as you blissfully glide through a mecca of sweat-shop made crap. I honestly wanted to vomit. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. What is our society becoming when we cannot even break from our TV induced stupor in order to restock our beer supply? We can't even put up with our children long enough to buy their diapers? Oh no, toss them into the cart and sedate them with the TV. I can just see the whole senario. Kids watching TV at home, Mom needs more frozen pizzza so she throws kids in the car, turns on the DVD moniters attached to the back of the driver's seat, cruises to Meijer, "hires" a TV cart for only one dollar (what a steal!) . . . you get the point. The media is infiltrating and taking over every single aspect of our lives. You can no longer get away from it.

It just makes me sick that their is no escape. We try so hard to shelter our children from the evils of the world, but we have to buy groceries! Any thoughts?

In other news, Farmer's Market was this morning. A cheerful reminder that we are not alone in our quest to raise our family with the best of the simple life. Like the happy Thistle-Byre family in their matching green shirts. My wonderful hubby bought me an adorable purse from some girls who make cute "clutch" purses and sell them at FM. And the kids ate enough flavor ice to last another week.

Happy 30th Birthday to my

Big Brother!!

Silence. Not something you hear to often in a house full of monkeys. I wonder how long it will last? All three kids and Andrew are sleeping. We have had a full weekend and everyone is mighty tired. One of the best things about summer is that the kids play out side almost all day long and then they sleep as hard as they play.

Friday night we went to the Klein Brat Haus the see Annie and Kim play. It is always so fun to go up there. I just love the local, laid back atmosphere. Jerry gave us these cute drinks called "Little King". It is a type of beer, but in super cute mini bottles. So neat!! The kids loved dancing to Nana's music and climbing all over Uncle Mart. (I think they should start calling him that.)

Saturday was the farmer's market. It must have been a hundred degrees out. PeterXavier played in the drink cooler the whole time and the nice man from Cleaver Farms (Mr Cleaver? I don't know his name.) kept us cool with flavor ice. And I bought some cute little plants for my sorry attempt at a garden. I planted it when we got home and let's all pray that something actually grows.

Good night!