1st Day of Kindergarten

Madi started Kindergarten!! Doesn't seem possible that she is old enough to be in kindergarten this year! But she is. She was so super excited for school to start. 5 weeks before she started her own countdown. "How many more days until school starts?!" And then when we enrolled, she got an advent calendar that counted down the last 14 days and had getting ready for school activities each day. So that made her even more excited.

Everybody told me to be prepared, it's going to be hard leaving her. I got a little choked up on the way there, thinking about her being gone all morning. But I held it together so she wouldn't get upset. Luckily I had Evan to take my mind off of it. He did enough crying for both of us. He was pretty upset about leaving Madi behind.

But she did great! Went right into her classroom and was all smiles when I picked her up. She had a wonderful first day! I am so proud of her and the big girl that she is growing up to be!

I love you Madi!
Mommy

1st Day of School Picture at Home

Out in front of the school

Finding her name tag

Another Update

I can't keep up!!  So much stuff going on.  Plus, I get depressed when I sit down and try to put a post together only to find that I don't have any photos.  It is so hard to take photos of the kids anymore.  They are both running in different directions at a hundred miles an hour...I just don't have enough hands.  I saw a facebook comment that said "if evolution were true, moms would have more hands."  Agree!!

It has been super hot this summer.  Most of our activities have been centered around water or it is just too unbearable to be outside.  We have made several trips to the water park with friends and family.  Madi also completed her first swimming lessons at the end of last month!  She had fun but not sure how much she actually learned.  The class sizes were a little big and when I asked her what she did, she only told me about the games they played.  But she loves the water and we have been working with her in our own pool.  Which we have used a lot this summer also.  Both kids are fishes, very tan fishes!!

Cousins hanging out.  Jaxson, Madi and Evan.

First of August is fair time!  We were in the parade again this year.  Chris with his tractor pulling a wagon load of kids and three mommy's walking, handing out candy.  Last year we ran out of candy early so we bought extra.  But half way I was wishing we had run out.  It was so hot.  This may be our last year to hand out.  Very expensive and people really don't pay attention to what you are promoting, they just want candy.  I think I will just drive my own tractor in the parade from now on :)  But the kids loved it.  We had 9 kids riding this year!

My little cowboy!

And the cutest cowgirls I have ever seen!

The wagon load!

We opted to not go to the actual fair this year.  Madi had fun the past couple years riding rides and having fun with her cousins.  But Evan is so aware of everything that Madi does and has to do what she is doing at all times.  I knew that there would not be any rides that he would be big enough to ride on and it would be torture on him to not be able to go.  But really, she didn't even miss it.  She asked about it the first night and then didn't say a word about it again.  We did enter items again this year for judging.  And did a great job!  Our Sand Plum Jelly received 2nd place!  I can now say that it is prize winning jelly when we give it away!  Unfortunately, our bushes didn't produce plums this year.  Madi entered a ceramic dinosaur that she painted at On the Pot.  She got first place!  She also painted a wood heart and placed second!  She was so excited seeing those ribbons.  Daddy made her a shelf in her room to put all her breakables and trophies.  So they are proudly on display now!  I also entered a quilted tree skirt and Christmas table runner that my mom made.  And she placed first on both!  I was so shocked and happy when I went to pick up our items and saw two blue ribbons!  I think I have her hooked now and she is working on items that she may want to enter next year! 

We also made a trip to Goessel earlier this month for their tractor show.  The first one we have been too so far this summer.  We had a great family day.  Evan is so into tractors right now, he was on cloud 9 seeing all those tractors.  We saw the tale end of the parade and he was just in awe.  They have great kids activities.  Madi enjoyed making all the crafts and Evan had fun playing in the seed tables.  Madi also placed first in the pedal pull for the 5 year old group.  She was super excited about her trophy and it is also proudly displayed on her shelf!

Feeding the baby goat!

We acquired a couple more tractors and began restoring one, celebrated Raelynne's wedding (Chris' cousin), we had a pool party with friends from church, made a trip to the zoo, spent the weekend at the lake with friends, celebrated Nash's 1st birthday (my cousin's little boy), went shopping for school supplies and clothes for Madi's new adventure to Kindergarten, and started planning Evan's 2nd Birthday party.  Lots of fun and getting to spend time together.  It's been a great summer.  Lots of changes with the both of the kids too.  I'll update later. 

Have a great week!
Love, Amy

Harvest and Fireworks

At the end of June we enjoyed all the wheat harvest around us.  The kids love seeing the tractors and combines out in the field and were constantly on the lookout when driving between the house and town.

On Saturday, June 25, we went out to the Flywheels to watch the cutting and binding of the wheat.  Chris and Dan helped load bundles on to the hay racks and Evan and I watched.  Madi was at a friends house spending the day.  She lost out on all the fun.  Evan was so cute because he wanted out there to help.  Him and I caught a ride on the hay rack for awhile while the guys were throwing bundles on.  But he got to help Daddy with the last bundle!!  Unfortunately, it won't be too long and he will be out there working too.  I can't think about that though, makes me sad thinking about how fast these two are growing up. :(

The rest of June was spent getting everything ready for the big 4th of July Party!  The Sunday before the party Chris and I took a trip down to Pittsburg, KS to pick up all the fireworks.  Of course Chris went overboard again this year.  But he did find a really good deal on fireworks.  I just can't divulge (here) what we did with all the extras without getting into trouble!! 

Sunday, July 3rd was the big day!!  I did make it a bit easier on myself this year going with the potluck instead of making all the food myself.  Good thing we went with the potluck though, we had 135 adults and kids come out!!  It was a grand time, but very tiring.  And unfortunately I was so busy running around for everyone else and keeping track of my two, I don't have any pictures of the festivities.  And I also forgot to take pics of the decorations and all the food and everything else.  I hate that I don't have any.  One of these days.  Maybe I should hire a photographer to come out and do pictures for me :)

We had lots of food, really good food!  Everyone sat around and ate and visited.  The kids ran around and played.  Dan drove the tractor and gave rides.  I think he did 6 trips with full loads each time.  The kids had a ball!  We also had ladder ball and horseshoes along with all the other toys.  I even saw a game of basketball going at one point.

We started fireworks at 9:30 and ended at 11:00.  And Chris still has fireworks in the trailer that they didn't get too.  They were getting tired and half deaf, so they called it before getting them all done.  Crazy!  We had one mishap this year.  One of the multiple shots fell over and shot into the crowd.  Thankfully no one was hurt.  And to my surprise, no one left.  So scary to see and I was ready to be done.  I just knew that everyone was going to leave after that.  But we have some ideas on how to improve it for next year already!!  We hope everyone enjoyed themselves and will come back out next year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!  Thank you to all the soldiers past and present who have fought for our country and for our freedom.  GOD BLESS THE USA!

Love, Amy

Update from the Last Month

So much has been going on this last month since my last post.  I have to play catch up and try to remember it all.

The end of May we celebrated Madi's 5th Birthday.  I guess we started something new this year.  What ever age you are turning, that's the number of birthday parties you get.  Madi had 5 birthday parties this year, she is so spoiled.  First she celebrated her birthday at school, we then had a family birthday party on the 22nd because Uncle Jon was going to be in town, but since Uncle Jason and Aunt Tabatha and Jaxson couldn't make it that weekend, we had another birthday party at the lake the following weekend.  (That takes us up to number 3 if you lost count.)  We celebrated just the four of us on her actual birthday with a supper out and then we had a friends party on June 4th, which was her Princess Party.  Yikes, lots of running around and lots of cake!

Luckily the Princess Party was all planned, put together, executed and cleaned up by someone else.  Now that was a party!  The girls had so much fun getting their hair done, nails polished, lipstick applied, tiaras placed, fairy wings adorned, all topped off with a princess fashion show from five of the cutest little girls I have ever seen.  Thank you to Carolee Jones and friends from CAPS who put on an amazing party.

The week of her birthday we also made a trip out to Rolling Hills.  It was a gorgeous day.  Not too hot so it made a very nice morning out.  We wanted to go say goodbye to Robbie, the orangutan.  This was his last week at RH before moving to the St. Louis Zoo.  We have been visiting him for the last four years and is always the highlight of our trips out there.

The first week of June we had Vacation Bible School.  It was an amazing week and we met lots of new friends and got to do some really cool activities and crafts.

June 7th, Chris and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.  The four of us went out for supper and had a nice evening together.

Wednesday, June 8th, first thing in the morning, we got a call that Grandpa Tom had passed away.  He passed away from a blood clot that had developed after having heart surgery the week before.  At the same time, Grandma Betty was being admitted back into the hospital with severe stomach pains.  She has been very ill as well since February after having her third bypass surgery.  Her kidney's and liver were still not right and she has been having complications with all of that since.

We left Salina at 4 pm Wednesday evening and headed to Mobile, Alabama.  We got into town at 8:45 Thursday morning after driving straight through.  We went up to the hospital and we got to go in briefly and see Grandma.  She was in a lot of pain and just didn't look like herself at all.  They were getting ready to take her into surgery to have a pacemaker put in, port for dialysis, and to repair the blockage in her colon.  Surgery went well but they would have to go back in the next morning to finish the repair on the colon.  Unfortunately, she didn't make it and the next morning (Friday, June 10) while we were all at the hospital, she passed away as well.  It was so very sad losing them both so close together but also grateful knowing that they are both in heaven, able to walk together and speak together again.  No more hurt and no more pain.

Sunday June 12, we had a memorial for them both.  It was a wonderful tribute to their lives and to the wonderful family that they raised.  They will be sorely missed.

But along with the tragedy of death we also were able to spend some wonderful time together as a family.  And I know that Grandpa and Grandma got a kick being able to watch all of the little ones playing together and having a good time.

We left Mobile on Tuesday morning and took our time getting home.  We were going to spend some extra time in St. Louis.  Have a little family vacation.  But after one day, we were all done and ready to be home.  We toured the Budweiser Plant and went to Grant's Farm, which was a little zoo.  Free and a wonderful place to go.  And we were home late Wednesday night.  It was time to get back into our regular routine.

We had a lot at home waiting on us to get done.  Work, house, fields and now we are getting things planned and ready for our big 4th of July party.  Madi has gymnastics, nature center and art center next week, sleep over Friday night, harvest at the Flywheels Saturday.  Back to our busy, busy lives!

I put a slide show together from the last months activities.  Too much for single photos.



It was so great seeing all of our Helm family and a big thank you to Aunt Linda.  For opening up your home and everything you did for all of us while we were there.  I hope that we can all get together again and have more happy times together.

And for anybody in the Salina area, come see us Sunday, July 3rd for the big fireworks show.  It's going to be great!!  Chris spent all of last night watching video clips of fireworks and making a huge order.  Can't wait to see it all!

Love, Amy

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

Our Weekend

I am loving this fantastic weather we have been having!!  This is my favorite time of year, being able to play outside, have the windows open, everything is turning green again!  Love, love, love it!!  We have been thinking and planning about our garden the last couple of weeks.  We really haven't done anything yet.  It's been so stinking windy lately that I suggested that we don't get crazy and till yet.  We would lose half of our dirt.  And then this morning I heard that you aren't supposed to put anything in the ground until Mother's Day.  I guess by Mother's Day all chances of cold weather or unexpected overnight freezes are gone.  Yay, a couple more weeks to get the ground ready.  Chris went out last night and harrowed the corn field though.  Getting ready to get it planted too.  Madi was a little upset that we are planting the whole field in corn again.  It's supposed to be pumpkins so that she could invite all her friends to our house to pick pumpkins this year.  The kids and I went out and rode around on the golf cart and watched him.  Madi drove and she was so excited.  "Mommy, I can drive now!!!"  I had to stress to her several times that she is not allowed to EVER drive without Mom or Dad on with her.  I can just see her hoping on and taking off by herself, SCARY!!  Or scarier yet, with Evan, AAAHHH!

Here is some pictures from our weekend.  We did a lot of family time this weekend.  The kids stayed a couple of hours Saturday with Dan and Jane while we went to a funeral and they had a great time playing.  Then we went to my parents and had more fun playing.  Madi spent the night with them Saturday night.  And then Sunday we went to church and after naps we met Chris' parents out at Bennington Lake and did some fishing.  Evan's first fishing trip (not in my belly)!  And Madi caught her first fish!!  And we left luckily with only one foot falling into the lake!  Shocker, because we saved Evan from falling in several times.

Watching Grandpap mow.  It was mesmerizing, I don't think they had ever seen someone walk and mow at the same time, good job Grandpap!!

Evan "fishing"

I love Madi's fishing attire.  Good thing she had those boots on, saved her foot from getting all wet when she fell in the lake!

Didn't take him long to trade the pole for some snacks.  Now that's fishing!

Madi's first fish!!

Her pole wasn't in the water 5 minutes before she caught her fish.  Madi pulled that fish out of the water and she went running.  Took some prodding and promising that it wasn't going to get her for her to come back and get her picture taken.  She still didn't want to touch the fish though.

Evan's new fishing pole.

 Evan caught on real quick as to what we were doing.  I helped him cast a couple of times and reel it in.  He loved it.  So much so, that he didn't like that little blue fish being out of the water.  I had so save him and the pole a couple of times from going into the lake.  He kept trying to throw the whole thing in.  Plus I got smacked a couple of times by that blue fish with him swinging it around, it hurt!

Checking out the worms.

 He had no fear with the worms.  He picked it up with no problems and like everything else, it went straight to his mouth!!  A little worm goo and dirt never hurt anyone, right?  Such a boy!

Evan and Madi cruising this morning.

Love that smile!

Evan didn't like Madi hitching a ride with him!

My poor boy is always surrounded by pink.  I even bought him that new Diego fishing pole so he wouldn't have to use one of Madi's Barbie poles.  I hope he doesn't get a complex!!

Have a great rest of the week!!
Love, Amy