The Muench Bunch

Just a few things I missed posting for the month of April; Easter egg decorating, Jake enjoying his new favorite sport with Dad-baseball and Luke learning from his big sis. The boys posing for Jayden with the camera while looking cool and trying to jump.

Its been a busy week for our family. There was talk of rain so Mark would run into the midnight hours planting, then it wouldn't rain.  Thursday was 4-H horse project meeting in Ft. Dodge. Jayden rode a lot and her horse did good for her. Friday we had some storms in the night with wind that blew down a large limb of our apple tree. The kids helped Dad clean it up.

The AWANA year has come to an end. It is also our last year of participating in the AWANA program. I have been a leader for 9 years. This was Luke's first year as a Cubbie and he loved it. Jacob completed his last year as a Spark and finished his 3rd Spark book receiving his Sparky plaque. He was so proud to get it. He is kind of a funny kid, he tries to hide his pride and hide his smile, but it still shows through. He worked very hard memorizing some tough scripture. Jayden compelted her 4th and final year as a Truth in Training member. She has completed all 9 years in the AWANA program. She finished her 4th and final book which was a ton of verses and a lot of work, earning her the Timothy award. This is the highest award and a top honor in the program and the only one recieving it this year. Her good friend Hannah went with us several times this year and worked to complete her first book and get her award too. Her It was great to see the kids get their award

I got to join Luke for his field trip. The pre-school class went to the Olsen Park petting zoo in Ft. Dodge. It began to cloud up in the morning and a sprinkle hit our wind shiled as we drove to school. I told Luke that we should say a prayer that it stays dry and sunny for the field trip and so Daddy can keep planting. There was a chance of rain today, but we never got more than the sprinkles on our windshield. The petting zoo was small, and stinky, but the kids loved it. They had lots of goats to feed and follow them around. There were a few exotic animals, like a lemar and sloth.It turned out to be a nice warm day and got up into the 80's. After the petting zoo, the kids had a snack then ran and played on the playground.

. First day of spring planting. By the time Mark got all the technical issues figured out on the planter, he got about a half day planting. He got a new track tractor this spring with big tanks on it. Now it is a rush as there is a lot of rain in the forecast.Today got up to 80 degrees. It was also a super busy day for mom. I had morning bible study. Then Luke and I picked up our new set of wheels, Wow! I really love my new Tahoe, it is so sharp looking and I am excited about it. The color is just what I wanted, no more drab colors. 90% of the vehicles today are black, tan, white, or silver…boring! I love the bright burgundy color of mine. Had lunch in town, got some groceries, and planter parts, headed home, and got ready for swim lessons. Kids got home from school, saw Mawgee briefly and wished her happy birthday. Swim lessons for Luke and Jake, their last night. Got Jake out of his lesson 10 minutes early, ran him through the shower and headed to Jayden’s school. Ate sack

The weather has been so rainy and dreary, overnight it gets down in the 40's. Mark has yet to get started planting. Jayden went to her friend Hannah's birthday party. They were being surprised by going to a big water park hotel in Storm Lake. They had a great time! Jake and Luke got to spend the night with grandma.

The weather has been real cool in the evenings, down into the 30's a few nights. We have also been getting rain. We needed the rain and now we need to dry out to get in the field. Today Mark took me to Ames to look at a new vehicle. He has been watching the lots in Ames. We have had our Chevy Tahoe for 7 year and it has 182,000 miles. We are planning a big road trip this summer and Mark decided this was the time to purchase. They had a Tahoe in the color I like, there are too many neutral colors, I was ready for some flash. The Tahoe we test drove and ended up buying was a 2011 with 10,000 miles. We made the trade, signed the paper work, and was set for me to pick up on Tuesday. Wahoo! I was super excited. There are 2 big features that I am going to enjoy, blue tooth hands free phone usage, and key remote start. Mark and I went out to eat to celebrate and head home. We told the kids about our surprise, but kept the color a secret. Love it!

After church we headed to Wade and Carina’s to celebrate Alivia’s 5th birthday. Carina had the garage all decked out in rainbow decorations and food the color of a rainbow. She had rainbows and unicorns for a theme. She went all out with rainbow everything even dyed ice cubes. Alivia was pretty wild and had two of her friends there. There was food and games, presents and a seven layer rainbow cake. The kids had fun and went home with goodie bags with rainbow goldfish crackers, crayons, notepads, slinkies, and unicorn duckies. I got a chuckle out of Luke that night when he said his bedtime prayers. He said” Thank you for Alivia who turned 5 today,” then he whispered to me “Who was naughty” and then he went on with his prayer. She did throw some screaming fits at her party and my boys are noticing her behavior more. It was extrememly windy today. They said the wind gusts got up to 52. It was kind of a strange day, kind of humid and warm up to 70.

Today was the big try outs for serpentines. I was nervous, in fact I was stressing and nervous all week. Not so much worrying about whether she gets it or not, but whether she is ready. Today she tried out on her horse Jessie. I just wanted her horse to behave and for her to do well. She hasn’t been the best this week. Once we pulled in ,she whinnied, realized her buddies were not there, she dropped her head and was perfect. Jayden got along on her just fine. There were 14 girls competing. They were all very good riders on very nice horses. Jayden had to perform in two groups to even out the numbers. In one of her groups, there was a little girl that’s horse kept getting out of control and take off running. At one point, she ran right into Jayden’s horse. Jayden and her horse responded ok and nobody got hurt. Jayden did an excellent job. The girls started out walking the pattern, then trot, then lope with the flag. The arena was very sloppy, muddy and wet. Every girl did a goo

All week Jayden has been up at the arena riding horses getting ready for serpentine try-outs on Saturday. . We took her horse Jessie to the arena and we took Tex with too. That is one of her biggest problems, the mare worries about her buddy at the trailer. Jennilee worked with Jayden riding Jessie showing her how to handle her when she is misbehaving. Jessie whinnies, tosses her head around and dances her feet around. She is basically naughty when her horse buddies are around. She even crow hopped a few times for Jayden. I was pretty discouraged. Jayden rode Monday night, Wed night. On Wed the arena was full of people with horses and flag carriers everywhere. Jessie acted scared of the flag even though we carried flags with her last summer. Jackson had to gradually get her used to the flags. At the end of that night, we had to re-evaluate our plan. Mark, Jayden, and I all talked things over and we aren’t sure if she would be safe or comfortable on Jessie and maybe she should wait a

4/9/12 The kids had the day off from school and Grandma Karen planned a clean day for the new shop office area. It is near finished and everything is covered in dust from construction. Jayden, Janie, the boys and I got started around 9:30AM. Jake, Luke, and Rylie ran their remote controls around the shop while us girls worked. Karen brought soup for lunch. We wiped down walls, cleaned tile, mopped floors, and vaccumed. We stopped at noon for lunch and the guys had lunch with us. Our first lunch in the new shop. The Anderlik girls finally came after 1, had lunch and helped. We were finished by 2. Next on the list was to take Jayden up to the Dayton arena for a practice ride with Jackson and Jennilee. I hauled Tex for the purpose of having Jayden know how to handle her horse when she is acting up with her buddy tied at the trailer. Sure enough, she acted like a different horse. Jennilee worked with Jayden a lot showing her what to do. In the mean time Tex was at the trailer, pawing th

 Easter morning the kids were up around 8 looking for eggs in the living room. Jake wake up a little bummed and it took him awhile to get excited. The night before he was asking a lot of questions about the Easter bunny and insisted he know the truth. Luke was so excited to find his eggs. The kids each had a clue and had a lego set hiding for them. After breakfast and candy eating, we went to the church in Stratford for a service celebration of the resurrection of our savior Jesus. We have been talking to the kids a lot about Christ dying for our sins. Luke has a palm leaf he made and sings Hosanna, blessed is He show comes in the name of the Lord". It is pretty cute to hear him say it. The kids were all dressed in there Sunday best, Luke and Mark were even matching. After church we went to Karen and Orrie's for dinner. The original plan was to have an outdoor picnic at the park, it was much too windy for that. The kids made there way out in the wind f

My Uncle Dean Laugerman went to be with the Lord on April 3, 2012. He was my mom’s triplet brother. He was my Uncle and my dad’s hired man for several years when I was growing up. I spent a lof of time with my cousin Angie and have many memories. I remember my Uncle Dean’s artwork. He had a talent for drawing cartoon’s that were so awesome. He drew many large drawings with a black clear sheet with the outline of his drawing and the paper under it colored with special markers. On occasion Angie and I got to use these markers and we thought we were really special to get to color with them. Throughout high school I had a knack for drawing and enjoyed it. Everything I drew, whether animal or a vehicle, it always looked a little like a cartoon. I discovered that I did my best work drawing cartoon characters and filled many artbooks with looney tunes characters and percious moments characters. I think that some of my talent came through my Uncle Dean. I recall Dean’s sweet tooth. I knew he

Today is April 1st and it got up to 87 degrees. It would be interesting to know how many records we broke for weather since 2012. On the news I heard that we broke the record for the average high for the month of March. The old record was set in 1910 at 51% average. We broke that by a lot with the average for March at 55 degrees, when the norm is 37 degrees. We have had some of the nicest weather ever. We don’t usually get so many nice days in Iowa. It either gets too cold, windy, rainy, or hot. This has been great. After church Jayden, Mark, and I rode horses and roped the hot heels in our new arena ground. We don’t have the actual arena panels up yet. The boys were still with grandparents. Jayden had a 4H meeting while I ran to get the boys. At bedtime Jake told me he never played a trick on anyone all day for April Fools. Quickly he and I came up with a quick one. He told Mark that he saw an Elk at Grandm and Grandpas, that it came right up in the yard. Mark fell for it and was wo