Football and Fall

We spend the majority of our evenings at either football practice or football games. This is my son's second year playing and he is really getting the hang of it. I can see improvement as the season goes on and he seems to enjoy it. It is a juggling act keeping my 3yr old plus my 8yr old entertained for the long hours of practice and even longer games. We just make sure we pack lots of snacks and some fun toys and they seem to be content. I enjoy watching him and cheering him on when he is out on the field and his 3yr old sister enjoys cheering for him too, regardless if he is on the field or off on the sidelines. :) She is a good little cheerleader. If another dad hollers out at his son she will holler to her brother. It is funny at times. She will not even be looking at the field and still yell out to him. She is so cute. It makes our evenings hectic and we often eat out of the crock pot, but it is all worth it in the end. Here are some pictures from tonight's game.









Here is my son in all his gear. Sweaty, tired, and happy after his game. He should sleep well tonight!





Here is my silly little girl making faces during her brothers game. She is quite the comedian.

Busy Fall Season Has Begun

It has been awhile since I blogged anything about our days. That is because once school begins our lives kick up into high gear. Our days are filled with school, football, dance, and church. There is little time for other extra curricular activities. It is a short season of busyness, one that I do not especially look forward to, but tolerate due to the shortness of the season. So in the midst of all our busyness we decided to take a break after dance class the other day and go hiking. This is a great way for us to spend time together while enjoying nature. It is one of our favorite ways to regroup. We love to stroll along at our own pace exchanging stories and commenting on all God's beauty that we see. We decided to take a different path than we normally do and our "short' hike ended up being 3 hours long! The only downside was I had to carry my tired little 3yr old over half the way as she was tired out from all the dancing she had done earlier. Thankfully there were not a lot of hills to contend with along the way. We enjoyed our new trail and have agreed that we need to go back to check out the other trails that we have yet to explore. So here are some pictures of our travels.



This tunnel was hidden behind a bend in the trail. My kids love to go through these tunnels and call out to hear the excellent echos they produce.


This is what most of the trail looked like. It was a wooded trail with very few open meadows. We saw only a few people jogging along at the start of our hike and then we saw no one. It was like we were the only ones in the woods. This was peaceful yet a little unnerving being we did not know where we were going and time was moving along toward darkness.


Thankfully we made it back out of the woods before it got dark. My oldest daughter lined up this shot and took it of her siblings. I thought it came out rather well. She enjoys photography and usually I just hand her the camera and let her do her thing along the way.




I wanted a picture of all of them so I lined them up and snapped this shot. I have a lot of appreciation for photographers when it comes to lots of children and getting there picture taken in a group. :)




We have also enjoyed doing some of our school work outside so we can enjoy the sunny autumn days. What you cannot see in this picture is the leaves that were gently falling to the ground. My 3yr old loves to run and catch the leaves as they float down. She amassed quite a pile of them on this beautiful afternoon.



We have also enjoyed the peaches, pears, grapes, and apples that grow in abundance in our yard. Here she is enjoying a juicy peach. You can see the telltale signs of the juiciness on her shirt. It was very "yummy" :)



Here is my little stinker bug making a yogurt mustache. Oh the things she thinks up....She is such a silly girl. Her favorite saying has become, "MOM! YOU 'CARED ME!" whenever I catch her doing something she is not suppose to be doing and yell out her name. She says this while holding her chest with one hand and laughing with her hand over her mouth with the other hand. She is a mess. Literally. :)





She also is a wonderful creator of play dough food. Here she has made a tray full of food for me to eat. It looks yummy doesn't it?


So that is a small snapshot of what we have been up to. So until next time...Bye Bye!

Playground

We spent the morning in church enjoying a great message and then helping out in the infant room. We then spent the afternoon together at the house. This evening it was back to town so my oldest could attend her youth meeting at church. My youngest two fell asleep in the car on the way to town so my son and I parked in the back parking lot at church and proceeded to use my handy dandy new phone to browse the Internet for how to make a boomerang. We found instructions and then found some cardboard in the trunk and something to cut it with (don't ask) and made our boomerang. Guess what? It actually works, well sort of. We plan on actually printing out the template now that we are home and trying it again. It did fly up and come back to him, but I think once we make it more specific (as in having actual scissors to cut the boomerang shape out of the cardboard) that it will work a lot better. My youngest two woke up once we finished flying the boomerang and we went on to the playground. It had been a rainy afternoon but had cleared up this evening so we had the whole messy playground to ourselves. It was great. We played some and then I walked around the walking track while the kids played in the sand box. As I walked I thought of how someday they will be all grown up and I will not have these wonderful evenings at the playground to hear, "Mom look at this!" or "Mommy, here are some flowers I picked for you!". I watched them playing and I thought of how hectic life gets and how sometimes I get focused on things that take my attention away from them and how I can't get this time back with them. Sometimes it takes quiet introspective moment to make you see just what is important in life.

Here is my 7yr old after she made her crab house in the sand. She was covered in sand and had a wonderful time creating this. It was worth the vacuuming it will take to clean up the mess in the car.



Here is my 3yr old enjoying the slides. She found a secret way to get up these slides and enjoyed going up and down them for most of the time there.

Here is my son holding his boomerang. You cannot see it in the picture very well as it does blend in some with his shirt. He ended up walking around the track with me and then decided to run around it.

We decided to make this our Sunday playground time every week. Sounds good to me!

Summer wrapping up

This is the last week of summer for my oldest as school starts back up for her next week. She is so excited. She has a new school to attend complete with a new laptop which is mandatory for her to have. I am not so excited about the mandatory laptop that they are giving all the students. I do NOT want to have to pay for the thing if it gets damaged, but it is not optional so I guess there is not much I can do. The school is beautiful and should be large enough for everyone and is more out of the town so I like that. She only has 3 years left. I cannot believe it. It will fly by I just know. She is already telling me how she will be old enough to get her permit soon. I told her its Daddy's job to teach her to drive. Good luck honey! heeheehee

We have been busy harvesting more of our garden. The corn is delicious and I have already put up 50 ears and we have many more to go. We will be putting up more tomorrow as we are trying to put it up as we go along. I also put up some sweet pickles which my 3yr old says is "yummy".

My son is officially signed up for football and is already practicing. He wants myself or his sister to go out and throw the ball with him each night. Luckily the younger 2 girls can play outside together while we do these "practices" as he calls them. I am sure we will be getting a call next week telling us practice is starting up. Then the following week my 7yr old will start her ballet/tap class. I had to put her tap and ballet shoes up as she was putting them on everyday practicing all around the house. I told her she was going to wear them out before she even starts! She will get into her dance outfit and put her little sister in one and they dance all around the house. I feel like I have Angelina Ballerina living with me!

My hubby has been busy looking at trucks to buy. I guess the correct term would be "tractors" as it is a big rig. He finally found one he likes and will be making his purchase in a few weeks. My son cannot wait to ride in "daddy's new truck!" I am just looking forward to him coming home!


Now here are some pics.


Here is my son throwing his football around with his sister and I. He has grown over the summer!


Here is my 3yr old riding around on her 4-wheeler.

then:

I look behind me to see her doing this!

"Look ma, no hands!" No wonder I am tired at the end of the day!

Ramblings

It has been a busy summer. The garden is doing well so I have spent time canning beans, relish, and now peaches. Next week I will be freezing squash, picking blueberries to freeze and hopefully putting up some pickles. Soon the corn will be ready and that will mean a corn shucking party in which my kids all shuck the hundreds of ears of corn and have some friends over to help with it. I have taught another VBS in which I had 12 3yr olds and they were the best. This was a church that had VBS for the first time and they were very successful and had 146 kids attend! It was the best VBS I have ever taught at. They were very well prepared and the kids all had a great time. I have also been busy getting my school supplies for homeschooling. Ebay has become my good friend in that I am able to get the kids books sooo much cheaper this way. I finally have them all gathered up and we are looking forward to starting back to school next month. My oldest is looking forward to going back to school and they have a new HS that they finished so it will be all new to her. Exciting to say the least. We attend orientation next week for it as she starts back the week after. Next month will be the start of school, football season, and dance classes. Whew, fall is a busy time for us but it will be a lot of fun. Now for some pictures.

"Peek a boo, I see you!" My oldest took a pic of her sister hiding in a tree.


Here is my 3yr old swinging in her new pretty little dress. I love hearing the swish swish of her dress brushing against her legs as she runs through the yard. We have been playing outdoor games in the evening after it cools down and she looks so cute running around with her pig tails flying out behind her!



This beautiful butterfly was found after he came out of his cocoon. They had discovered the cocoon and had been watching it and came out one morning to see the butterfly had emerged from the cocoon and was drying out his wings. He jumped right on my sons finger when he put it down beside the twig the butterfly was on.

This was the last picture of him before he flew off to join the rest of the butterflies flying around the gardens. My son went and took the cocoon so he would have it for his collection of nature items.

Tenth Avenue North Concert

Tonight we attended a Tenth Avenue North concert that was in town. They are a Christian group that I hear a lot on K-Love and other Christian radio stations. They are an excellent band and play some of my favorite songs like "By Your Side" and "Love is Here" and many more. If you are not familiar with the band you can find them at: http://tenthavenuenorth.com/

They really performed well and their songs have great messages behind them that really move you. Even when they spoke to the audience they had a message for you. It was just a very good concert. This is my second Christian concert and I prefer them over any other concerts I have been to. The kids all were every excited to see them including my 14yr old. They got up and danced and clapped and sang along to the music and had a wonderful time. Even my 3yr old enjoyed it. My oldest took her brother and cousin up front so they could see the band up close which they really loved. It was a wonderful way to end the day!

Pool Time!

A friend of mine who has two children that I used to babysit and our good friends of ours invited us to spend the day with them on Tuesday at the local pool. We had never been and we decided to accept her invitation and go. It was excellent! The pool had many fun things for the kids including a water slide! We spent 4 1/2 hours at the pool just enjoying each others company and the lovely cool water on such a hot and humid day. Everyone went down the water slide including me with my 3yr old as it was the first thing she wanted to try. It was a big hit with all the children. Here is a picture of my son splashing into the pool after coming down the water slide.



There were a lot of people, but you still had plenty of space to swim and it was not too crowded. I was greatly pleased with this new fun outing and will be taking my children back soon. It was a great inexpensive way to enjoy a hot summer day. My kids are already asking to go back. Here is my daughter and her friend enjoying the shower tower in the pool. It also had buckets on top that would fill up with water and spill over onto you as they became full. I discovered that the hard way while I was following my 3yr old out of the pool. It was a shocking yet pleasant surprise! It definitely cooled you off. You cannot see the bucket tower in this picture, only the shower part. This whole area was enjoyed by young and old alike.


We had a great day and look forward to returning for another day of fun in sun! Especially since we are in the middle of a horrendous heat wave.