The Muench Bunch

Our sprayer is what I call ginormeous (Gigantic and enormous). It is also quite impressive to see it fold up. This time of year our hired man Mike is seen zooming through the fields in this big sprayer.

Memorial day I took Jayden to the Dayton memorial service where she marched and played with the band. Cousin Kelly was back for the weekend so she joined us along with Grammer and Po. From there I took the kids and went to my parents, stopping at the cemetery on the way. Jayden and Luke got to have their turn staying with grandma and grandpa for the next few days. 

 Mark and Jayden went to the Ranch Rodeo in Dayton while the boys and I went to church. The boys made little thank you’s for their teachers as Jake was graduating out of Sunday school and Luke was moving into the preschool room. Jake had two men teachers that were so neat, funny, and good at what they do. Jake was so timid to go to the class in the beginning, but the two guys made him look forward to going each week. They always greeted him with a high five and something funny to get him smiling. This was Jake’s last day of Sunday school, now he will sit in the service.  We ate lunch, got Jake a  hair cut , and grocery shopped. Jayden and Mark were at the ranch rodeo, 92 degrees and hot.  When they got home they told me all the details with excitement. They had a good time, did well, and even won the team doctoring event winning a couple muck rakes A.K.A poop scoopers.

 Luke has been a big superman fan ever since Jacob was superman for Halloween in 2010. He loves everything superman even though he has no idea who he is or watched a show. He likes the fact that he wears a red cape. :Luke has his own cape that he wears to all MOPS meetings and sometimes he wears to town. He really likes to wear his pajamas with attached cape, he is on his third set. Luke has a neat red shirt that says”Jesus is my super hero" that he wears too.   Recently, he chose a superman shirt out of his prize box over toys. He wore it two days in a row. He also likes to run around in his superman pajamas and purposefully wears them backwards having the picture of superman on the front where he can see him. Makes more sense to him. If they are on backwards, they don’t exactly cover the rear very well and one cheek is always showing, cracks me up!! Luke still tells me "I love you" multiple times a day. Months ago I started singing it back to him holding the wo

 It has been so neat to see Jayden improve her horsemanship. I know that serpentine riding has helped with that. She rides at least two nights a week sometimes more and spending so much time in the saddle helps too. Her horse has a job and really works well for her. The two of them have really improved by leaps and bounds this year. Lots of prayers have been answered with her horse. Tonight was the 4H horse project trail course. The obstacles were hard at first, but with patience after a couple times through, Jayden was able to get her horse to do them all. Comparing where Jayden was a year from now, it is amazing how far she has come. Now she is finally enjoying herself and often has a big smile. She also has a good friend, Cheyenne that she rides with. Last year at 4H meetings I saw frustration and often times fear in her face. I am so glad she is confident on her horse and her horse is behaving. 

 We had a 24 hour camping trip to Webster City Briggs Woods. Mark was in the field, so it was the kids and I. Wade had his camper set up for the week and offered us the chance to use it. We jumped at the offer. In the morning the kids and I started gathering up all the things we needed and loaded them into the truck. Jake had been at Grandparents and met us there. We had to pack clothes, food, sleeping gear, and bikes. There is so much stuff involved in camping. I guess that is why Carina won't camp, she says it is too much work. Wade plans on camping alone for the memorial day weekend surrounded by campers full of friends he knows. With all our stuff loaded we barely had room for us in the truck. The camper is so nice and roomy. Wade and Carina met us at the campground to show me some things and had it all cooled off for us. The kids and I took walks, rode bikes, played at the beach and just did a lot of nothing. It didn’t take long to hear “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do” fro

 Jayden and I had been planning a fun girls day. Each year we do something at the end of the school year with friends. This time we planned out a fun day that ended with a mother daughter spa.  I picked up the girls at 1:00- cousin Jaynie, Maggie, Hannah, and Karhyn.One friend Carson was unable to come. The girls played outside, saw the animals, played silly doctor in the basement, then I had some activites for them to do. I printed out photos for them to make mini scrapbooks using brown paper bags. They also added fabric tyes to a plain pair of flip flops. In the evening we had a mother daughter spa planned with a Beauticontrol consultant. The consultant pulled in driving a mustang convertible. Wowza! The girls and I were oohing and awing over it. She insisted I take the girls on a ride in it. I was not comfortable driving it at all. Stick shift, convertible, gravel road, I was nervous. The spa was super nice and the girls loved it. We only had two moms that could come. Thankfully A

Jayden, Luke and I went to Ft. Dodge to do a little shopping. Ft. Dodge is not my choice for shopping and I have never cared much for the town at all. However, since the got a new Kohl's store, it has been worth my trip over. In the evening Jayden had serpentine practice. Jake went to stay with his grandparents, Mawgee and peepaw. He had a nice time at their house going to several parks in Iowa Falls, fishing with grandpa, and making cookies with Auntie Alice. He also discovered the typewriter, which to him is way cooler than a computer. He is anxious for grandma to find some tape to get it working. He loves having the individual time and not having anyone to disrupt his play. I think he wishes he could stay all summer. 

 Today was the Youth Rodeo in Dayton. The serpentine girls had to be to the arena by 7:30AM, so it was an early morning for us. The rodeo started at 10AM. Daddy came with the boys, both Grandparents, Aunt Alice, and cousin Jaynie.  The serpentine performance went well. Jayden also competed in barrels, poles, and flags. She did well but has a long ways to go with Jessie.  Luke got to participate in the little kid events,  stick horse race, goat tail untie, and dummy roping. He was pretty proud of his ribbon. The day started out nice then a little rain shower, then the sun came out making it very hot, and the day ended with a lot of wind. After Jayden rode she had to work in the cookshack a few hours for 4H. 

Today was the last day of school for the kids and it was out at 12:30. In the morning Jayden had an awards assembly and celebrated graduating from middle school! She got several academic awards, band, and others.   We had a fun day planned special for the boys. I had invited Jake’s good friend Soren and cousin Rylie. I had emailed Lori a couple times and talked to her at the track meet. Never did hear from her. Grandpa said he had talked to Rylie and he was coming today. Afterschool, there was no Rylie. I was very disappointed and never did get an explanation. Jake was pretty sad too. We weren’t going to let it ruin our day, so the kids and I headed to Des Moines for our fun day. We were going as a reward to Jake for finishing his AWANA book,  he also missed his school field trip, and we were going to celebrate Rylie’s birthday. We went to a big indoor inflatable land. The kids had a great time. They just ran, jumped, and had a blast. We went for pizza on the way home

Things are getting busy as summer approaches.  Monday was serpentine practice, Wednesday we rode horses at home in our arena, we set up barrels and poles.  Thursday was a 4H horse meeting on reining and our whole family went. A lot of time spent in the saddle for Jayden.

Today was Luke's last day of pre-school. He had a great year and here are some of the many photos his teacher took and shared during the school year. I love teachers who take the time to take photos and share them.

We took Grammer out for a little Mother's Day out to dinner.

 It was a beautiful day to celebrate Mother’s Day. I am thankful for my mother and all the wonderful things she does for me and helps me with. This week she came down and filled my planters with flowers in front of my house. My kids get to enjoy her so much too. We went to church in Ames , then went through and got some lunch to go at  KFC . We headed to  Ledges park in Boone, had our lunch on a blanket, did some hiking through the trees, played a little ball and took a rest on the blanket. The entire time I layed on the blanket, I had giggly kids climbing all over me. The sun was shinning and it was perfect out.  The road into Ledges park was closed, so we only got to enjoy a small corner of it. Back at home, Mark and I took a horse ride to end the day. What a great day. I am so blessed to be a mom and have such a great family.