Our Surprise Praying Mantis

We were outside with Grandma and Grandpa looking at our Zinnias when I saw this praying mantis.  He blends in so perfectly that I could have easily have missed him.  Later we went back to see if he was still there, and he was.  He has been living there all week!

Quotes From Our Founding Fathers

"It is impossible to govern rightly without God and the Bible."

George Washington

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity"

John Quincy Adams 

"In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed.  No truth is more evident to my mind that the Christian religion must be the basis of and government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people." 

Noah Webster

"And can liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction on the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?"

Thomas Jefferson

The Harper Family

On Tuesday we drove to Seward, NE because every year they have Seward days and the Wissmann Family sing.  This year the Harper Family also sang. The Harper Family is a  very good bluegrass gospel band from southern Missouri.  We really enjoyed their music!  Below are pictures of the Harper Family.

Broccoli

Our broccoli plant has produced its first head!  We read  that once we cut the first head from the center of the plant it should produce more from the sides.  It has been so fun harvesting and then enjoying vegetables that we have grown!

Summer Morning

This is a poem Ellen wrote last Tuesday for Grandma's birthday.

Every morning I wake up.

I see the sun and then I know,

It's time to feed the pup.

We feed our pup,

We water our garden,

And then we see a robin!

Mr. Robin is chirp, chirp, chirping.

I think he likes the morning!
                                                             -Ellen Vogltanz

Growing Celery

My friend Becca told me about a way to grow celery that she had read about on a blog.  She said that if you chop off the end of a bunch of celery (about three inches away from the end), and put it  in 1/8 inch of water for up to a week it will grow a celery plant.  Then after a about week plant in soil.  So I tried it with the ends of two bunches of celery.  I was so excited the next day when I saw that one of them had grown!  I planted them in our raised garden and both are growing nicely.

The second day

 

 This is after a couple days.

 

This is after almost a week.

Now this is what they look like.

Flower Pictures