Summertime Flowers!

Now it officially seems like summer -- we have no school, lots of sun, and flowers! (* sigh *) This is the life.

So many of our flowers are starting to bloom and everything is looking so nice! The kids and I went shopping and picked up a few flowers to add to our perennials around the house too.

We got some hanging baskets for the back:



We got a hot pink, white and reddish color -- very pretty! The kids highly approved of these.



Our hydrangeas are coming up VERY nicely -- we've had them a couple of years now. They are getting fuller every year. We love those plants that come up on their own!



Just starting to get some color...




Then we had three pots around the deck area to plant some flowers in -- and Delaney spotted these beautiful flowers and everyone heartily approved:

It was such a colorful set of flowers, which just HAPPENED to go perfectly with our hanging pots back there.

Then in front, most of the plants just come up on their own, with one hanging basket.



We have an individual hanger up front, so we can easily add a hanging basket.



The day lillies, as always, came up BEAUTIFULLY.

Just lovely...




And last, but not least, on the side of the house the tiger lillies came up too!

I think this turned out to be my favorite picture:

Enjoy!

Dani

Summer Fun!

It's hard to believe, but summer vacation is finally here! We're all glad to have a break from school and all the routines associated with it, but we're missing a member of our family now. Delaney went on a vacation with her aunt and grandpa to Cancun, Mexico. She left the last day of school for a week -- she'll be back this Wednesday. While we're all missing her (she's having a blast), we've been enjoying the summer schedule and doing fun things with Kyle.

We've been eating out a lot, playing Monopoly Deal tournaments (I can't seem to win one lately), playing board games, and OF COURSE video games -- and we took advantage of the beautiful weather and took Kyle miniature golfing a few days ago. He had a blast!



I even started out with a bang! My first shot was a hole-in-one.

I ended up getting three holes-in-one, but it wasn't quite enough to let me win. :-( Kenny was the miniature golf champion of the evening.



And Kyle snapped our picture together, didn't he do a good job?



And here are my two favorite guys in the whole wide world!!!



Afterwards we let Kyle play a few games at the arcade. He loved being "in charge" and playing Deal or No Deal.



He even won 50 tickets! :-)



Kyle and I played some ski-ball...



And Kenny and Kyle got to go racing!



All in all, it was a GREAT evening out with Kyle.

Last night, Kyle got to go spend time with his Grandma -- while Kenny and I got to go out on a "date night"! Woo-hoo! We got to do a little shopping, eat out, and go see the new Star Trek movie. I know it's been out a while, but we haven't found the time to see it yet. In fact, we can't remember the last "non-family" movie we got to see together before this one.

Kenny is working his summer schedule, so he has long days Monday through Thursday -- but then he has Friday off and we have him for three-day weekends! It was an awesome weekend, and we're so sorry to see it end. We can't wait for Delaney to come home this Wednesday and to enjoy more of the summer!!!

Dani

Back to soccer again!

Yes, I realize that many of our posts are about soccer -- BUT, that just seems to be the norm at the Benich household. Last Saturday both kids had a soccer game. Kyle's was at 9:00 in the morning while Delaney's was at 5:00 in the afternoon.

Kyle's game was pretty chilly. The rain pretty much stayed away (THANK GOODNESS), but jackets were definitely required.

It's such a different game watching the 5-6 year olds play vs. watching Delaney's team play. But they sure have a lot of fun!



Kyle is learning to dribble, pass and kick the ball where he wants it to go. And sometimes he does still have the occasional tumble (but NOTHING like last year!)

And Delaney's spring season is officially over. Their last tournament game was oh-so-close, but they just couldn't quite seem to make the win.



Same day as Kyle's game, but by the late afternoon the sun had come out and it was VERY WARM!



The girls were hustling, passing and playing well. They just couldn't get the ball in the goal. Not for lack of trying though -- there were quite a few attempts! :-)



And there was a lot of direction coming from her coach! LOL

And Kyle wasn't the only one heading towards the ground as Delaney didn't give up on getting that goal!

The final score was 2-1, with that second goal scored by the other team RIGHT before the game was over. Tough loss!

Kyle still has a couple more games, and then we're off to summer activities!

Dani