Lewis’ Idea

One man band

(The cans are full of birdseed)

That morphed into jet packs 



That morphed into water cannons 

Elias’ Ideas

Lifeguard at the pool

Outdoor procession 





Indoor chapel





Flowers with roots 

Curb Appeal

I’ve been looking for a long bench for the front deck so we all have a place to porch sit in the evenings, and one fell in our lap! It’s like another room in our house and a dream come true!

We went to our old house in the blistering heat because they’re going to demo it soon and I wanted all my hostas from the front yard. Logan worked tirelessly digging them up and transplanting them at our new house. The boys had fun helping too. 

3/4 of my car was full of hostas. Next spring will be so fun as the new hostas fill in holes in my gardens!
Both sides of the deck are filled in with hostas now. I’ve thought a lot about adding variety and height and color on either side, but nothing sounds easy to maintain so I’m just going to stick with hostas bc they’re easy and I can keep them alive. The planters on either side of the steps were a solid effort this year but I never got them planted. Maybe next year. 

Debbie made me a summer wreath because every time I see hers it’s my favorite. It looks so cute on my door!

Even at night!

Levi Graduates From Speech

The other day this conversation happened:

Levi: I need to tall Lellow. 

Me: you need to call Yellow?

Levi: Les. I need to tell her “one two fee”!

Me: ok you can call Miss Holly. 

Levi: yay! Yay! Yay!

Levi has loved his time with his SLP, Miss Holly, the past two years. She visited for the last time this week. Levi has graduated. 

We will miss Holly a lot! She was one of Levi’s only outside people when Covid hit, which is a big deal if half your life at the time was Covid lock down. He didn’t talk much when she first started working with him and he couldn’t say her name. On one of her first visits she wore a yellow shirt and he started calling her “Lellow” because the color yellow was one of the words he could say. She loved her nickname. 

Since the other boys were home all through 2020, they’ve come to love her too. 

When I asked Levi what gift he would like to give to Holly on her last visit, he was VERY specific. 

“I div her a red tar, a firefighter book, and a cake. Da cake is chocolate with red fosting on da inside and lellow fosting on da outside wis a *liddle* red fosting on da outside. Da cake say ‘You my best fend, Lellow” on da top.”

Miss Holly LOVED her cake. 

It was a fun way to celebrate her last visit!

Moments of Summer

Levi is the first Burda boy to rock food therapy! He tried pears, almonds, dried cranberries, apples, pudding. He loves almonds, but unfortunately more than two almonds at a time and he breaks out in a rash. 

Augustine finished up fencing for the summer. He enjoyed it and hopes to do it again next summer. 







We’re to that point in the summer where the novelty has worn off with water play, but they had fun with the hose for a while. 







Lewis hit his lip on Augustine‘a head and bit a pretty good chunk of his lip. Luckily, the ER doctor said no stitches, but he still got a smoothie for dinner. 

Playing Mass

Elias can’t get enough of the chapel he made in his room. He now has enough vestments to “shuffle through them” like real priests do, apparently. 

Msgr. Fuchinaro visited us one evening and got a tour of Elias’ chapel. 



He also taught Elias how to put on a stole without it getting all twisted up. 





Msgr also took an interest in the rainbow stackers which is always fun! 

You never know what creative ideas someone will come us with. 

Elias worked hard with Grandma Susan making his vestments and stoles. 


She said he’s very good at pinning.