Grandpa's Surprise 70th Birthday Party

 

Thursday we threw a surprise 70th birthday party for Grandpa at the Bomberger Farm.  We are so thankful to have Grandpa with us!  Seven years ago he was in the hospital and we almost lost him twice.  It was a very hard year but we are so thankful to have our awesome Grandpa still with us!  We love you Grandpa!  :)



Aunt Jennifer, Aunt Rebekah, Zoe, and Abigail decorated the tables with "Dad" quotes and pictures of Grandpa...
 

 While we were waiting for everyone to arrive the kids went down to the pond...

 Cousins Elainah and Bethany

 Surprise Grandpa!!! :)

 

Uncle Steve rented an ice cream machine!

Grandpa's siblings shared memories about him and the funny things he did as a kid! :)

 Uncle Jon read a letter from Bro. Billy Paul to Grandpa.

Grandpa with two of his three brothers.

Uncle Joe passed away two years ago from a heart attack.

 

 
Uncle Butch, Grandpa, and Uncle Eddie
Aunt Carol and Aunt Jeanette

Grandpa and Grammy with 3/4 of their family

Levi, Bethany, Joy, Rachel, Elainah, and Roseanna

 

 

 Massage line :)

 ...the line grew! :)

Debating who got the most whippings when they were younger :)

Who do you think it was Daddy or Steve?

 

 

 Joy and her buddy Rachel

 

Happy Birthday Grandpa!  We love you so much!

 

60,000 Onions Later =P

Onions, onions, onions, and more onions....and then some more!!! =P
 

 

You are probably wondering where in the world we got 60,000 onions, right? :)

Well, technically they really aren't ours, they were grown by the amish neighbors who let us swim in their pond.

 

 

Chris and Katie planted 60,000 onion bulbs and harvested over 36,000 lbs. of Sweet Onions.  Chris built these large wooden crates during the winter that each hold approxiamately 1,000 pounds.  The company they grew the onions for rejected 13 of the 36 full crates.  If they found one bad onion in a crate the entire crate was rejected.  We've been helping them sort the bad onions from the good onions and then selling the good onions.  Chris and Katie have a few pigs and they were throwing the bad onions to them.  Now the pigs are so sick of onions they won't even eat one! :)

 We've been selling them to restaurants to try to help them out. 

Need any onions? :)

 

 We've been chopping and freezing many bags of onions!
 

 And we've enjoyed eating the onions!

One of our favorite ways to eat them is in the crockpot with zucchini.

When they're done sprinkle feta cheese over it all and it is delicious!  :)

 

In the grocery store my mom noticed a sign above their onion display that stated onions prevent heart disease, cancer, and cataracts.  Now the question is does actually eating the onion prevent cataracts, or is it from SLICING them?!

 

 



Chalk Talk - Keepers

          

  Keepers At Home, our homeschool club, has started again and we are all so excited!  Our first meeting was led by Sis. Melissa.  She chose for us to attend a chalk talk by Elva Hurst in her Lititz Studio and to have the opportunity to make our own chalk drawings. 

A chalk talk is where an artist creates a picture while telling a story. 
Elva prerecords her stories in a studio then plays them while she draws.  This chalk talk was titled "School Days".  Elva told about her school day as a little conservative Mennonite girl.

 

It only took her about 20 minutes to complete the whole thing!

 

Hope and Lincoln played some checkers before we had our art lessons.

 

 

 Joy and Mrs. Scarecrow :)

 We used glow-in-the-dark chalk so it glowed under a black light.

 Under different color lights...

Elva has a book series called "Farm Life" for children, describing daily adventures as a Mennonite girl.
The children really enjoyed these books so we had her autograph them.

 This old bike was up against the barn so Hope, Lillia, and Faith all climbed on for a picture :)

 Cousins Forever! <3

This beautiful horse used to pull carriages in New York City. 

Because of his size his name is "Goliath".

 He is now retired and enjoys his days in the meadow at Shady Lane Farm.