Go Fish

Piper and I were playing "Go Fish" one evening and she made this face...silly girl!

Seven's Blue and Gold Ceremony

Seven had his Cub Scout Blue and Gold Ceremony and went from a Tiger to a Bobcat. A parent gets to go up front with the Cub Scout. I let Jeremy go so I could take pictures. He did this with Finn, too. Jeremy is drawing on Seven's face with different colors. 

The blue symbolizes the spirit of the bobcat. It is to remind him to always do his best on the Cub Scout trail. The yellow lines under his eyes (you can barely see them in this picture) represent the sun. They are to help him see the light of Cub Scout trail and they symbolize the spirit of scouting. The white line symbolizes purity. It is to help the scouts remember right from wrong as they go along the scouting trail. The red line is for courage. It is to remind them to always speak the truth. The green line stands for the spirit of nature. It will guide the scout to live in harmony with the great outdoors.

Seven got to mark a white line of Jeremy's nose next, it stands for purity, love, and guidance. It is to remind them that their parent is always with them in their heart and their spirit and that they will always try to guide them to do the right thing. 

After all the awards were given, we got to eat cake. Jeremy made the cake, but I didn't get a picture of it before it was cut.

Rilian played on the iPad while he waited on his cake.

Waiting on his piece of cake...

World Thinking Day

Piper's Girl Scout Troop recently participated in World Thinking Day. World Thinking Day is when the Girl Scouts get to learn about other countries and their traditions. Each troop picks a country to learn about and then share what they have learned about it. This year, Piper's troop picked India. Here they are around the display they made about India.

Piper's Girl Scout Troop did their version of India's color festival, called Holi. They were originally going to use silly string, but there was carpet, so they decided to use streamers instead.  

The girls were responsible for doing research on India on their own. Then they put together all their research. Also, one of the girl's moms knew someone from India and she came to tell Piper's Girl Scout Troop about India, before World Thinking Day. I don't remember her name, but she said that her grandma used to ride an elephant to school. Someone would come by on an elephant and pick up kids for school. It was like their school bus. The elephant could carry ten children. Another thing she said was that there are peacocks everywhere and they are loud and annoying. She said they will make noise outside your bedroom window and wake you up in the morning. She said the peacocks in India have a much wider tail feather span than the ones here in the zoos. She said they are very pretty and the span is probably about four feet. I really enjoyed listening to her speak about India!

Showing the Way

At night, chickens go in their coops and are protected from predators. Usually as it gets dark, they go in on their own. Well, when we moved our chicken's coop, they didn't exactly understand that their home was in a different place. So one evening, we waited for them to fall asleep and we carried them to their coop. 

As it started to get dark, they started roosting on some branches and we were able to pick them up from the branches.

These chickens ended up staying the night in the tree because they were too high for us to reach even with a ladder!

The guineas are VERY loud! Check them out up in a different tree...Finn is yelling at them to "be quiet"!

Here's Finn carrying a chicken...

And Seven, you can barely see him...it got dark, but I still managed to get a picture.

We had about 40 chickens that we needed to show where their home had moved to. After carrying 10 or so, we got smart and loaded up some cages onto a trailer and let the tractor do the "leg" work. Then we had to take them all out of the cages and shove them through the door on their coop. Finn's job was to block them from coming back out...

Some tried pretty hard to come back out their door, but Finn did a great job at not letting them!

This video never gets old! I laugh at Finn every time!

Stopping the chicken from coming back out...

I tried to get a picture of the chickens settled in for the night, but it didn't turn out so well.

Why is it Always About Poop?

I was checking the kids' backpacks after school one day and when I got to Finn's, I found this paper in his folder...

Apparently, he was learning about soil and was listing what soil has in it. What is the first thing he listed? Poop! Yes, poop! He is correct, but why is it always about poop with kids? At least he got a 100%, right?

Kitty Kisses

Mingus likes to lay in our bathroom sink. He was in there one day and Seven went in to pet him. I was able to capture this cuteness. 

Mingus isn't the most affectionate cat. He likes to be petted, but not as much as some cats and it is usually on his terms. It is an honor if Mingus lets you pet him. So, this picture is extra special. 

Rilian's Valentine's Day Party

Remember, in my blog world, we are still in February...

At Rilian's class Valentine's Day party, they had a red piece of paper and were tearing it up into small pieces and gluing it on a heart on a piece of paper that said "I love you to Pieces."

I think Rilian takes after me and likes to make goofy faces when someone is trying to take his picture.

There's his sweet smile!

Here is a closer look at Rilian's Valentine's Day project.

And the completed project!

After Rilian was done gluing red pieces of paper to the heart, he got to do another fun Valentine's Day project...

He had a paper heart and dripped purple, pink, and red paint on it.

Once he was done dribbling paint on the paper heart, his teacher helped him put the lid on the tin heart and he shook it, with his paint dribbled paper heart inside...

Voila! Look how cool his painted heart turned out!

When I came back later that afternoon when school was out, Rilian walked out of his classroom with his socks like this...

I asked him why his pants were tucked into his socks. He said his pants were cold. Funny boy!

13 Years, not 13 months

I walk Tymbre regularly and it never fails that people ask me if she is a white German Shepherd. I proudly tell them, "No. She is a Siberian Husky." Many times after I correct them, they notice her blue eyes and realize they were wrong. But there are definite differences in the two breeds. 

Tymbre turned 13 years old on February 11th. (The weeks have started to fly by again and I am falling behind again on posting.) On a recent walk, two ladies were standing on the corner chit chatting as I was walking Tymbre. One of the ladies made the comment about her being a white German Shepherd. I corrected her and she said that her friend had a white German Shepherd that was 8 years old and she had to put down about a month ago. I said that Tymbre is 13. She replied, "13 months?" I said, "No, 13 years." She was very surprised. But if I didn't know any better, I would never think Tymbre is that old. She is in pretty good health for a 13 year old dog. Plus, we walk 2 miles almost every day. The other lady that was standing there said she had a friend that had a dog that lived to be 17 years old. I wish I could remember what kind of dog she said it was. So...it is possible that Tymbre could be here for quite some time yet! I took a picture of Tymbre on her 13th birthday.

This is Tymbre when we first got her. She was 9 weeks old and ADORABLE!

Another 9 week old picture. I think she was just bathed here. So cute!

Who knows, maybe Tymbre will set a record for being the longest living Siberian Husky.

A Boy and His Dad

Finn is a "Daddy's boy". There is no doubt about it. I know he loves me, but he LOVES his dad! I captured this moment one day. So sweet!

I remember a few years ago when Finn was in preschool, Jeremy usually picked up him from school. One day Jeremy couldn't, so I did. I saw Finn as I pulled up into the school parking lot. As soon as he saw that it was me, and not Jeremy, his body sank. He was upset that I was there to pick him up and not Jeremy. He even said something to me about it. I replied by asking him, "do you want me to leave you here?" After a little bit of back and forth talk between us, he decided it would be best to come with me, since Daddy wasn't able to come get him that day. Oh, Finn...

Pinewood Derby

Seven joined Cub Scouts this year, so this was his first year to participate in the Pinewood Derby. He was very excited! Here he is working on his car...

This is Finn's 3rd Pinewood Derby. You can check out his 1st Pinewood Derby here and his 2nd Pinewood Derby here. He was hammering in his axle to his car here. 

Seven painted his car to look like a cheetah. Check out his car winning. It is the one on the far right, yellow with black spots.

Seven's name was spelled wrong on the screen. I'm not sure how that mistake was made since it was just his troop and everyone knows who he is and what his name is. They corrected it later, but for this race and the previous race, he was "Seren." His car is on the far right again.

"Seren" wins again...His car is in the second lane from the right.

After all the Cub Scouts are done with their races, family members and siblings can race. Jeremy made a car and entered it. Piper was at Girl Scouts that day, but Jeremy also entered her car into the race. Jeremy's car is the gold one in the second lane from the right. Piper's car is to the left of Jeremy's car. She made her car to look like a tiger. It was a really close race between Jeremy and Piper, but Jeremy beat her...just barely!

Another close race...Jeremy's car is in the far right lane and Piper's is in the lane right beside him. This time, she beat Jeremy AND everyone else in this particular race!

Piper, Finn, Seven, and Jeremy raced each other. From left to right, the cars are Jeremy, Seven, Finn, and Piper. The results of this particular race were 1st = Jeremy,  2nd = Seven, 3rd = Piper, and   4th = Finn. 

Finn wasn't happy that he didn't get a ribbon so he really didn't want me to take his picture, but I needed a picture of him with his car. So, this is what I got.

Seven got 1st place for his level, which is a Tiger. He also got 1st place overall, which means out of all the levels, he beat them all! You can see what his cheetah car looks like. 

Jeremy and his car with his 1st place ribbon. He got 1st place in the family and siblings category. Way to go Jeremy!

Piper got 2nd place in the family and siblings category. Pretty good for not even being there, huh? When I picked her up from Girl Scouts, she was proud to see her ribbon.

Concert and Thunderstorm

Granny has lots of stickers! My kids love making artwork using her stickers. In fact, they are very creative with it and make great pictures.

Seven made a concert. I am very impressed at his creativity and imagination! His piece is very detailed. I'm sure you can see for yourself, but the band is on stage. The little arches below the stage are the audience. There is a singer and a guitar player. Flowers are even being thrown onto stage by the audience! And what concert is complete without the 2 guys at the back of the stage spinning disks?

That same day, he made a picture with two people splashing in the puddles made by the storm cloud.

I love seeing what stories my kids tell using Granny's stickers!

Rilian's 5th Birthday!

My baby is NOT a baby anymore! On February 2, Rilian turned 5 years old! If you ask him when his birthday is, he will tell you "Groundhog's Day," which is in fact February 2nd!

Rilian wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday this year. I set to work on making his invitations for his party so he could hand them out to his friends.  

Rilian was one lucky Texas boy and got snow for his birthday!

We celebrated Rilian's birthday the following weekend because Jeremy and I were out of town on his actual birthday. So, by the time his party came all the snow had melted and his friends were able to come to his party without any travel problems.

Before the party started, I took some pictures of the set up...they got to walk the plank...do you see the sharks in the water down below?

I put a Jake and the Neverland Pirates tablecloth on the table...

Of course, we also got Jake and the Neverland Pirates plates...

And each of Rilian's friends got to take home a Jake and the Neverland Pirates cup...

We played Pirate Bingo...Granny made the Bingo cards. There were a few different cards. What did we use as markers for the cards? Gold coins! It was actually chocolate wrapped up to look like gold coins.

I served the birthday boy and his guests "ocean water" to drink. It was blue Hawaiian Punch. Below the ocean water is sand with sea shell on top. I placed the chocolate gold coins beside the ocean water until we needed them.

A Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday banner...

After everything was set up, it was time for the guests to arrive...my children watched at the front door for the first guest to arrive...

When the guests arrived, the first thing they did was become Jake. Rilian didn't want to, so he just stood beside Jake.

Piper, as Jake...

Seven, as Jake...my mother-in-law also made Jake for the guests to put their face in.

After they became Jake, they walked the plank...

While we waited on more guests to arrive, they got to make a pirate face. There was a choice of a bandana or a pirate hat. You could also choose to put an eye patch on and eyes. I had markers for the guests to draw the nose on and mouth and scruff, if they chose for their pirate to be a scruffy pirate.

Rilian's pirate face...

Finn's pirate face...

Piper's pirate face...

Jeremy is the cake maker for our kid's birthdays. He did an awesome job on Rilian's cake! It is all edible, well, not the characters or the candle, but the sail, mast, and everything else are! 

Singing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy...

Not sure why Rilian chose to smile like that, but he's goofy sometimes!

Seven decided to dress up like a pirate! Rilian got this "costume" as one of his presents.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, silly baby boy! You may not be a baby anymore, but you will always be MY baby! I love you, Rilian!