End of the Year

Madi wrapped up her last year of preschool on Wednesday.  The last two weeks have been pretty fun for her at school.  They had a class picnic with a sack lunch with their families and school friends, they had pj day and got to wear their pajamas to school, on water day they got to wear their swim suits and play in buckets of water at the end of the day, and the last day of school was wheel day.  Everybody brought their bikes or scooters and they rode around the circle drive most of the day.  Madi also got to celebrate her birthday.  We were going to bring popsicles since they were outside anyways but her friend Kenley convinced her she needed to have cupcakes.  So instead she picked out strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and then picked out strawberry juice boxes.  I like strawberry, but that's a lot of strawberry!!  She said everybody LOVED the cupcakes, except one of the boys who said PINK, I'm not eating anything PINK!!  Boys!! :)

Later Wednesday evening was graduation.  They each walked in on their own with their construction paper mortar boards.  They did a little program and then they each got their diploma.  It was so cute!  They had cookies and punch and the girls played together and had lots of pictures taken and then we all went out to eat afterwards.  It was a fun evening.

Madi is so excited about going to Kindergarten next year.  She will get to make all new friends.  But she is not looking forward to shots this summer.  If anyone asks her if she is excited about Kindergarten, she says yes, but I don't want to get shots.  Then they look at me with a questionable look.  I'm just preparing her for her next doctors appointment knowing she will have to get all her shots up to date before going to school next year.

Now we have a couple of weeks off to play and do whatever we want.  June starts off with all of her summer activities and I have her booked solid for the summer!  VBS, swimming lessons, gymnastics, Nature Center, and Art Center.  Plus we will throw in some trips to the zoo, library, movies, some lake trips, and a couple of tractor shows.  Should be a fun summer, busy, but fun!

Love, Amy

Tractor Drive

Last weekend was the Flywheels Tractor Drive.  We had five tractors in the drive.  My dad went along this year and the manager at Tractor Supply (who donated all the parts to restore the show tractor) drove the show tractor along with Chris and I and Dan (Chris' dad).  With a total of 32 tractors, the biggest drive yet.

It was such a gorgeous day.  The morning wasn't cold like it has been in the past so we didn't have to worry about all the layers.  By afternoon, the sun was beating down and not much wind and it was almost too hot!  But still a wonderful day.

We left the Flywheels at 9:00 and made our way east over to Old 40 Highway.  We made our first stop at the park in New Cambria.  I hopped off the tractor to go check on my dad (bad back and was worried about the long day for him) and he was all grins and ready to buy himself a tractor.  It was a cool sight to see!!  Everybody visited for awhile and then we headed back onto Old 40 for our lunch stop and turn around in Solomon. 

The traffic down Old 40 was pretty sparse which I was happy about.  I was a little nervous traveling down such a busy road with as many tractors as we had and only reaching 8-10 mph.  We were all at the front of the line and several turns we made and could look back at the rest of the line, we had spread out quite a bit.  As we traveled, the vehicles coming in the opposite direction would wave and slow down and some even pulled over or off the road and watched and waved as we passed.  Others would get out and snap pictures.  I often wondered what we looked like to the vehicles traveling on I70.  Old 40 runs parallel to I70 and only a mile apart.  And we actually passed over or under 3 times on our return trip.  That would have been interesting to see!

Right outside of Solomon, we passed a train headed towards Salina.  He was moving pretty fast but he was blowing his horn all the way past our procession.  It was loud but really cool.  Evan would have loved it!  I can't wait for the kids to be old enough to go along with us!  And then as we were coming into Solomon, Jeff Cooper with the Salina Journal was waiting for us to snap some more pictures.  He was at the Flywheels before we left and then we saw him two other times along our route to Solomon.  My dad ended up in the paper on Monday along with two other pictures of other drivers.  He's a celeb on his first time out!!  I was joking with the guys that surely I would make it in the paper since I was the only female driver!!  But it didn't happen :(  Maybe next year :)

When we arrived at the park in Solomon, there was a huge layout of food.  Hamburgers, hot dogs and everything that comes with it!  All generously provided by the family of one of our organizers.  It was wonderful and they totally out did themselves.  I hope they are prepared to do it again next year because I am sure everyone will be requesting.  Made it much easier on all of us not to have to bring sack lunches with us.  Not a lot of room on the tractor for a cooler.  We had a nice time to eat, stretch, visit, and hear stories from some of the "old timers".  After lunch we took the scenic route back to Salina, winding through the dirt roads and farm country.  I like this route much, much better than taking the black top.  Much more to see, no traffic to tie up and way more relaxing.  We ended up back at the Flywheels at 3:30 and then the four of us continued on back to our house, ending about 4:00.  We traveled 38 miles total as a group and an extra five or six back to our house.  Awesome, awesome day.  I am so glad my husband got me a tractor so that I could do this with him.  It really is a lot of fun.  It will be even better once we can all do it together one of these years!

Enjoy the pics!
Love, Amy

Fun, Fun, Fun

That's us lately!  Fun times and looking forward to more fun and busy times this summer.  We made a trip to the circus this month, had a wonderful yet busy Easter, lots of family time, field trip to the zoo, and more tractor fun!  And then we started May off with delivering our May Day baskets and having a great time in Valley Center for Jaxson's 2nd Birthday!  Life is Wonderful!!

Waiting for the circus to start!!

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Easter weekend was a busy time.  We spent Saturday at my parents' house and had a great time watching the kids hunt for eggs and play together.  And of course had some wonderful food as well.

Easter Egg hunt at Nana and Papa's

 Saturday evening we had family from Kansas City come and stay with us.  Cathy and Dino and their 8 kids along with Dino's mom Roxanne met with Jane's Uncle Mark (Cathy's dad) to visit family for the day and then stayed with us and had a wonderful Easter Day!  After finally getting all the kids settled and into bed, the adults stayed up and filled probably close to 200 eggs with candy.  Craziness!!

Easter morning, we all dressed in our finest and headed to church.  Came home and had a wonderful meal and then let the kids loose to find all the eggs!  It turned out to be a wonderful day (a little windy, but it is Kansas) and the kids had so much fun together playing outside, having tractor rides and eating LOTS of candy!

Easter Dress!

To make up for all the candy, all the kids got toothbrushes and toothpaste!  It balances out right?

Half of the Durando kids enjoying their Easter baskets!

I love all the kids running out of the house, so cute!!   And I missed the older ones!

Easter egg hunt at our house.

Checking out their loot!

Bernadette and Madi

Easter day tractor ride

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 Last week Madi's preschool had their Rolling Hills Zoo field trip.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to go through the zoo.  When we arrived, an animal had gotten loose inside the zoo and they were working on getting it contained.  And since we had just a little time we went through the museum instead.  Still a wonderful trip and the kids had a blast.

Friday, we were among the 2 billion that tuned in to watch the Royal Wedding.  However, we did not get up at 3 am to watch.  That's a little too early to be a functioning Mommy for the rest of the day.  The power of technology allowed me to record the event and we watched it later in the morning!  But as we were watching, Madi fell in love with all the hats.  Especially the ones with feathers.  But since I didn't have any feathers, we made our own flower hats and joined in with the others in attendance!  It was fun!




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We spent all day outside Saturday, it was so gorgeous.  The kids played and entertained themselves for the most part.  Madi dog sat our neighbors dog this weekend.  So she had a little friend following her around all day.  It was so cute she would be walking along with him talking or singing.  And Evan also enjoyed him.  I would love to get the kids a dog, but we are just too busy anymore and I'm afraid the newness of a dog would wear off quickly and I would be stuck taking care of it myself.  Chris worked on getting the tractors all ready for next weekend's Tractor Drive.  (I jumped back in forth helping him and watching the kids and the dog.)  I can't wait, I'm so excited!!  We should have 5 tractors in the drive this year.  Chris and I, both of our dads, and the manager out at Tractor Supply is going to drive the Show Tractor.  Lots of work but lots of fun!

Sunday morning we delivered our May Day Baskets to a couple of friends and family and then made our way down to my brother's house in Valley Center to celebrate Jaxson's 2nd birthday.  It was a little chilly yesterday but the kids had a blast playing on Jaxson's new fort.  It was a wonderful day!

I have more pics to add from Chris' phone, check back later and I'll update next week after the tractor drive!  Have a great week!
Love, Amy