Dwell together in unity...Psalm 133:1

Goldilocks turned 2 on Saturday. 

In the few weeks leading up to her birthday she has been gearing up for what many call the "Terrible Twos." She is a wonderful, sweet child, but she does have her moments of testing her independence and limits. Fortunately for her, we won't have any of it. She has tried, without success, to share her obstinate attitude with everyone. She is learning that it is much more fun to sit pleasantly in her highchair and eat than to sit on her bed during suppertime. The consequences for hitting, biting, and (a new one this week) pinching aren't fun either. G was having a hard time with her pinching the other night and I had to explain to him that even when Goldilocks chooses not to be nice to him, he still needs to be nice to her.
 
Home/office schooling is going.  I'm not sure how well, but we're plugging along. Even though The Man wasn't in the office here in town today, the rest of us went in so I could take care of some things. Before lunch a child wandered into the office area quite offended. Someone had not been nice to the child. Poor child. G overheard the lamenting and went over to the child.

"I want to tell you something," said G. "Mommy said when Goldilocks is not nice to me, I can still be nice to her. I think you should be nice to ____________." Offended child and I tried hard to keep our faces straight while offended child nodded and agreed with G.  

G will turn 4 at the end of this month. I am so happy that he was not only listening to me, but he remembered and was able to apply the principle to another situation!

Bear ye one another's burdens...Galatians 6:2

We are home! The weather was perfect for the church backpack trip.  G walked the entire two miles to the campsite.  Goldilocks was carried most of the way, but she did enjoy getting down and walking with The Man.

She chose her own outfit, by the way.  She convinced someone to put the orange one-piece romper on her when everyone else was getting dressed.  Before long she was back with the denim jumper on asking someone to button it for her.  A few minutes later she returned with a pair of jeans.  I drew the line there.  We are still potty training, and I didn't want too many layers to deal with!

The Man's pack weighed over 70 pounds, but that was before Goldilock's pack was tied on there (G had a backpack, so it was only fair that she also had one).

Not only did G walked the entire way, but he became an expert at pointing out the horse poop along the trail.  In case you are wondering, his pack contained a pillow, a blanket, Curious George, a toothbrush, two pairs of underwear, and a harmonica--all important wilderness essentials!

Don't feel too sorry for The Dog, he practically crawled from the vehicle to the trail head with his pack of dog food.  After showing off his puppy dog eyes, the pack was removed from him and put on Painter, with J carrying the chain for Painter.  The Dog is no dummy. 

Especially since once the dog food was eaten and we were ready to come home, the pockets on the doggie pack were the perfect size to hold the diapers and underwear of Goldilocks that didn't stay dry.

It was a beautiful trip, but I was glad to get home, and Goldilocks is happy to always be within a 10-second sprint of the bathroom.

An image in the bed...1 Samuel 19:16

Baby S is now a toddler, but she will always be the baby of the family. However, we've decided to dub her Goldilocks here on the blog...keep reading and you'll see why. Of course, she has changed the most since my last set of postings. Next month she will be 23 months old. Today she weighs 24 pounds and is 31" tall. 

Here are a few words that I can think of off the top of my head that I know she can speak appropriately on her own: kitchen, hot dog, apple, orange, (ba)nana, grape, rice, corn, milk, cheese, butter, bread, jam, cookie, popsicle, done, yummy, water, shirt, pants, shoes, socks, table, chair, plate, spoon, car, boat, video, doll, baby, mommy, daddy, recognizable & appropriate names for all the siblings, hold me, please, yes, no, bed, light, (out)side, (in)side, help, stop, please, (thank) you, eat it, I don't know, sheep, pig, dog, cat, horse, deer, fox, bird, fish, cow, rabbit, hair, story, Bible, Jesus, Elijah, diaper, underwear, potty chair, poop, and yucky. I know there are probably a lot more, but basically, I think she is right on target for language development. 

In addition to repeating most words, she knows the basic body parts and will point them out when asked. She also knows the basic animal sounds from dogs and cows to lions. I never thought of making a list like this for the older kids, but with G's challenges, I realized that it is hard to remember when the older kids met the milestones, so I'm recording Baby S's here. 

Goldilocks started climbing out of her crib early in the morning on May 31. She used a rocking chair to climb back in later the same morning. That night she slept on her mattress on the floor. Since then, she sleeps pretty well in her own toddler bed, but when we can't find her, we check out all the other beds that Goldilocks might be trying out. 

Sometimes in the middle of the day she naps in M's bed. That pillow can make his bed too soft for Goldilocks.

Sometimes she climbs in bed with a sleeping S.  That lumpy kid can make the bed too hard.

But most of the time she can be found with a sleeping Sacagawea. She thinks Sacagawea's bed is just right.

As you may have noticed in the picture above with S, and more of the photo I posted a few days ago of S's arm...

Goldilocks got an owie on her arm two weeks ago today while we were eating supper.  The Man, who was sitting right beside her, got up to get something from the kitchen.  She stood up in her highchair and I told her to sit down.  Instead she attempted to climb out of her highchair.  Before I could get to her side, she rolled over the edge and hit the floor. [Just a note that she does have an adjustable highchair.  We've since adjusted it down to the floor, which she dislikes because she wants to see everyone while she's eating, but that's just too bad.  Better safe than have another spill!]  Over the next few minutes it was obvious that she had hurt her arm as she refused to use it, but it looked ok, as in no obvious breaks.  The Man decided to splint it with materials we had on hand and just watch and see how she did.  She did fabulous with her foam/cardboard/duct tape/ace bandage splint, and we kept it on her for a few days. Whenever it would slip off of her itty-bitty arm, she would bring it to me ask for "help" getting it back on. 

A few days later she had an x-ray to confirm she "just" had a greenstick fracture like S.  On that day, The Man made her a professional grade splint that expanded Goldilock's clothing options. We will keep it on for at least another few weeks, although she really seems to like it and she may want to keep it longer.  It hasn't slowed her down a bit.

Here is a picture of her new splint...G wanted to get in the picture too!

I was going to put a new, clean bandage on before church today, but I was feeling yucky so she and I stayed home. It did give us another day to work on some new toddler skills.  Yes, those are training pants that she is wearing.  She's done reasonably well and I hope she is "done" before our church backpack trip next month. If she can learn to go potty by herself with one arm in a splint, that girl should be able to accomplish anything in life she sets her mind to doing!

A strong wind...Job 8:2

I'm in the middle of overseeing an SAT practice session for M, so I have a few minutes and a few pictures to blog!

We've had beautiful weather the past few days. The boys and Sacagawea have enjoyed relaxing in their hammocks. Three hammocks. One hammock stand. Sometimes they have hung up all 3 at the same time, but usually it is just one or two at a time.

Yesterday I was outside soaking up some sunshine and talking to S when a huge gust of wind whipped through our yard. Someone's hammock, which wasn't connected to the stand, got caught up in the wind. I thought it was pretty cool. S didn't. He might have thought it was cool if it had been J's or Sacagawea's, but it wasn't.

Fortunately The Man was at home, otherwise S would have had to wait for another gust of wind to loosen his hammock from the tree.

That tree definitely isn't strong enough to climb.This tree is strong enough, and S and J decided they wanted a tree house.

Originally, I heard that Sacagawea wouldn't be allowed, but since I saw her carrying boards up the hill yesterday while J & S nailed, I think she has struck a deal. I heard that even G and Baby S were up there yesterday with The Man, so I'm pretty sure it is safe.

We (not me) tilled the entire garden area (~150' x 150') a few weeks ago. So far we've planted potatoes, peas (actually planted a few weeks prior), onions, spinach, radishes, and turnips. Strawberry plants were put in yesterday.

We tried planting strawberries a few years ago, but something ate all the plants. The day The Man and boys tilled the garden, the Dog eradicated about a dozen moles from the garden area. We also just purchased one of these to try to get rid of more of the bigger rodents quickly. Hopefully it will be worth it and we'll get more than a dozen potatoes this year!

G and Sacagawea helped me plant some seeds and we have lots of baby seedlings soaking up sun during the day. We'll continue to have frosts through the beginning of next month so we'll be doing the daily seedling transport for a few more weeks.
Don't you just love his giraffe hat? It was made/given to him last winter by a friend and he adores it!

Here is a "just because" picture I took a few weeks ago. Have a great day!

Found him in the temple...Luke 2:46

We have often joked that now that we have more than 2.34 kids, we have to count to make sure we have them all with us. For some reason adding kid #6 seems to have made that a necessity.

This past week I took all six kids to the big mall in the big city. Whether that makes me brave or insane is still up for debate, but we spent 2-3 hours there. There are quite a few new stores since we were last there about a year ago, so we spent a lot of time perusing the new shops. As we wandered out of one store and down to the next store I looked over the children and realized that one was missing. Sacagawea wasn't with us! I remembered that she had been looking at the antique dolls so J ran back to the store to find her. She had just realized that we weren't with her, so she was starting to look for us in the store. Fortunately J found her before she realized we were lost!

Whew!

Today, as many Sabbaths, we were the last to leave church. M had been sent to the van to warm it up while I strapped Baby S in her car seat. The rest of the older kids got on their coats and headed out the door while I helped G get on his coat. Then I looked down the hallway and saw The Man's coat hanging on the rack. I went to retrieve it for him while he gathered up the rest of his things. I had my bag and J came back to the church to carry the car seat to the van. The Man locked the church door and we got in the van. M had only driven us a few feet when Sacagawea announced that we didn't have G with us. Oops. The Man went back to the church and found G playing contentedly in the Cradle Roll room. He hadn't had a chance to miss us.

I was stunned that we almost left a child behind, but I guess I'm not the first. Jesus' parents left Him in the temple for 3 days. I guess 3 minutes isn't too terrible! Hopefully that will be the last time!

And they built...Exodus 1:11

The Food Pyramid...Tree River Edition:
The oldest child started it.

The wheel...Isaiah 28:28

I was just looking at the pictures on my cell phone and decided to transfer these pictures from April and tell the story that goes along with them.

One Thursday we went up to the big city for M's music lessons. We got a rocky start as we were leaving the driveway and I noticed the turn signal sound sounded a bit odd. After a quick check it was discovered that the front left turn signal was not working.* I decided to drive the rest of the way since M still has his permit. When necessary, I rolled the window down and used hand signals, but we were able to get up to the city without further incident. We ran our grocery errands and then went and dropped M off at his piano lesson. As the rest of the children and I were leaving to visit the library, the ABS light came on.** According to the manual, that meant the brakes were still working, we just didn't have ABS capability. OK, I could deal with that as long as nothing else went wrong...

When we arrived back at M's piano lesson to pick him up, I got out of the van to go inside. Hisssssssssss. I walked around the van to verify that I was hearing what I was afraid I was hearing. (sigh) I did a closer inspection and saw a nail sticking out of the tread of the tire. I put my finger on the nail and the hissing stopped. I removed my finger and the hissing started again.

"Hey, boys! Would you like to change a tire?"

They've watched and helped change many more tires than I have. I got out the manual and read the instructions just to make sure they were doing it right.

This is where I'll say I'm thankful for my big boys who actually don't mind getting dirty.
By the time the boys got the tire lowered and released from the underside of the van, M's piano lesson was over and he and his teacher came outside to see what we were doing. Since we figured it would take us several more minutes (at least) to jack up the van, take off the damaged tire, and put on the spare, M's piano teacher graciously offered to drive him over to his violin lesson.

We got all the lug nuts loosened and the van jacked up by the time the piano teacher returned. None of us could budge the tire. Even the piano teacher gave it a tug before her next lesson. I walked across the street where two men were mowing the lawn for the university. They came over and tried to remove the tire. Then they insisted it was the wrong type of rim and it should have never been put on in the first place! Ugh.

I called the tire store chain where we purchased the tires. They said they would be happy to come over and remove the tire...for $80. Since we do have roadside assistance with our auto insurance (which we know to be very, very slow from experience), I didn't want to pay money for them to do it. The man suggested we hit the tire with a hammer to loosen it.

I finally got a call back from The Man. He said what the two men from the university had told me was ridiculous and just do what the tire store man said to do: Hit it!

So, I got the handle from the jack apparatus and started banging on the tire from under the van. Yes! I was finally able to pull the tire loose. Yay! The boys helped me lift the tire down and then they put on the spare. We made it over to pick up M just as his 1-hour violin lesson was ended. Whew.

The tire store fixed the tire for free, although we never put it on the van. It was late enough in the year that we went ahead and took off the studded snow tires and the regular tires went back on. M and J helped change those tires!

*Even though I bought a new bulb the same day, it took us a day or two to get around to trying to change it. Due to some creative auto repairs by the previous owner, it was determined that it was going to take a long, involved process to simply change that particular bulb. It spontaneously started working a few weeks later. Perhaps it was just a loose wire.

**Again, probably just a loose wire as it works fine most of the time now.

To every thing there is a season...Ecclesiates 3:1

We're busily getting ready for The Man, M and J to leave for a church mission project in Chile. This is the first time the boys will have used their passports for international travel, and they sure are excited. M bought a camera yesterday so they will bring back lots of pictures.

Out of all the exciting things they could be excited about, the conversation yesterday was all about the seasons. It will be winter when they leave here. They will arrive in Chile (in the southern hemisphere) in the summer. A few days later it will become fall, and then when they fly back here it will be spring. They will experience all four seasons in a span of 2 weeks. It doesn't take much to excite homeschoolers!

Melt with fervent heat...2 Peter 3:10

Hmmm...what shall I blog about? How about recent conversations heard in our house?

Sacagewea asked, "Can rocks melt?"

I replied, "Yes."

M added, "All the elements will melt with a fervent heat."

J said to Sacagewea, "Even you would melt if there was no oxygen and it got hot enough."

M concluded, "If there was no oxygen, melting would not be our biggest concern."

Nope, not much to blog about.

All pleasant pictures...Isaiah 2:16

Update at bottom!

Two weeks since my last post? No wonder folks are calling to see if I'm ok. We're just fine. Busy. Tired. Fine.
We did our school pictures last Tuesday. We made it to the top of the hill behind the house, down in the dry creek bed, and several places in between. I took just under 300 pictures. About 50 of my favorites (nice, silly, and a few Sacagawea may be embarrassed about in a few years) have been uploaded online (quite a feat, since it took nearly all day on Friday with our dial-up). Click on the link above on the right to send me an email if you would like to see them.

UPDATE: It seems the email with the link is ending up in some junk email folders. Try this: http://tinyurl.com/treeriversmith EXCEPT, take "smith" out of that url and enter our real last name!

The Lord went before them...Exodus 13:21

Yes! We are back! We had a wonderful time and I've spent the last 2 weeks recuperating and trying to catch up on things around the house. So sorry if I left y'all hanging.

Short story: We made it there and back all safe, sound, and feeling totally blessed.

Long, long, long story: Read on...

Our van was returned to us in working condition, so the kids and I used it for the four-hour journey to the airport. Coincidentally, Grandma was leaving that afternoon from the same airport so we got to eat lunch with her before our flights.

The flight to Chicago was interesting since we had to fly up through Canada and approach Chicago from the east due to storms. Our anticipated 3-hour layover in Chicago was shortened to just 1 hour. By the time we made it to Chicago it was just after 10 pm in Chicago. After we found our gate we ate supper and waited for our flight.

The flight was late in leaving, but at least it went. An earlier flight to our destination was completely canceled, so there were a lot of stranded passengers trying to get on our flight.

While we did experience some wet weather while at camp meeting in Indiana, we weren't in an area that experienced the horrible flooding. Lots of lightning and thunder, but we managed to stay relatively dry.

Between my parents, siblings, nieces, and us, there were 3 adults and 9 kids. The kids especially enjoyed their meetings with their aunt, uncles, and cousins. I think every day at least one of the kids brought a permission slip for a special afternoon activity such as swimming, miniature golf, or rock climbing. M's group spent one afternoon doing community service activities. M was assigned to weed flower beds at a care facility. The kid that was working with M commented on how fast M was weeding. I told M that he ought to be fast...he's a professional now! At the end of the week J and some of the other kids in his class were presented with Bibles. J also got a pocket-sized hymnal. I'll have to ask him again why they got them (I know he told me, but I've forgotten!).

Here is a list of the adult meetings. This was the first time the kids have been big enough to attend meetings without me. I actually got to go to the adult meetings, which were very good also.

Pictures? We were having too much fun for pictures? Do you believe that? No? OK. There were times I thought about going to get the camera to take a picture, but that would have involved 1) getting up from a comfortable chair, 2) walking to get the camera, 3) taking the picture, and 4) putting the camera away. I wasn't totally lazy the whole time. I did do a lot of walking to and from the meetings, but the times I was sitting in a comfortable chair, inertia won out most of the time.

Too soon the week was over and it was time to go home. The kids were anxious to get home, especially since it was Father's Day and it had been a whole week since they had seen The Man.

We got up about 5 am Indiana time to go to the airport. We were dropped off in plenty of time for our 8:30 flight. Once again, we ate at the gate while waiting for our flight. We boarded the flight right on schedule. The plane pulled away from the gate and we waited...and waited...and waited. Chicago was closed! Nearly two hours later, when the weather in Chicago cleared, our plane took off for the 1-hour flight.

As soon as we landed I turned on my cell phone and got the news that our flight back to Sacramento was delayed by 20 minutes. That was good news since it was supposed to have left just as we were landing. We got off the plane and ran to the gate. No plane. It was gone. Without us.

We joined the line of several dozen other people in our predicament and I called the airline. They were sorry, but the other two flights to Sacramento that day were already full. The nice employee suggested I just wait in line and work out something with the agent in Chicago.

The kids were hungry, but I thought getting home was a bit more important at that point. I doled out the granola bars I had in my carry-on and we waited...and waited...and waited. Two and a half hours later we made it to the front of the line. Whenever a child mentioned not wanting to wait in line any longer, I told him or her we could leave the line and go get more food, but we would then have to re-join the line later. I then allowed them to go and see how long the line had become since we had first joined. O'Hare was a mess that day!

After working with us 30 minutes, the agent was able to find a flight for all of us to San Francisco, where we would spend the night, and then a flight on to Sacramento on Monday morning. "I'm not supposed to do this because it is weather related, but here are some meal vouchers for you. Your kids have been so good!" Yay! I felt so blessed by such a small token. I'm not sure if she felt more sorry for the kids or me, the pregnant lady with four kids, but either way, we were extremely grateful for her thoughtfulness.

The kids were good, considering the circumstances. I must say that they handled the situation better than a lot of the adults in line. The agent told us take the "scenic" route to our new terminal and see the sites along the way since we had plenty of time before our flight. O'Hare does have plenty for the kids (big and little) to do.

A dinosaur (The camera was already with me and I wasn't sitting in a comfortable chair)...

The type of airplane flown by Butch O'Hare...
An airport just for kids (sorry, bad lighting and my battery was going). Sacagawea throwing handling the baggage...

S pedaling the copter...
Along the way to the new terminal we stopped and found some food. While waiting for the order a couple stopped to let me know that they had been behind us in the airline customer service line and they were impressed with my children and their behavior during the long wait. Awwww. Sometimes a mom needs to hear that, especially when fuses are short during such an ordeal.

Our flight to San Francisco was on a different airline. I found the seating much more comfortable. The boys were stopped by the flight attendant as we boarded to take a peek into the cockpit. I went on back to our seats and got Sacagawea settled into her seat and our carry-on luggage stowed. I made my way back up to the front of the airplane and took the boys' carry-on luggage back to their seats a few rows in front of Sacagawea's and mine.

The flight attendant escorted the boys back to their seats and told me what fine young men I had. How many times a day can a mama be told that without it going to her head? She then asked for my email address so she could send a photo of the boys in the cockpit that she had taken with her iphone. So, The Man did get to see the boys on Father's Day, if only through an email.

The flight was blissfully non-eventful, so Sacagawea and I were able to get a few hours of sleep. I went up to check on the boys before landing and found that J and S were also getting some sleep. I was glad, since I wasn't planning on venturing outside of the San Francisco airport that night.

A different flight attendant stopped and complimented me again on the kids. She said they were the best kids they had seen all day. I'm sure it didn't hurt her opinion that 3/4 of them slept most of the flight. I thought it was a good time to ask her if that was the last flight for the plane for the evening (it was) and I let her know that we would be spending some time in SFO before our next flight as I held up one of the airline's little pillows. "Oh, absolutely! Take a pillow and blanket for everyone!" Yay!

I was glad I'd "asked" permission. I stowed the blankets in one of our carry-on bags and told the kids to carry their pillows off the plane. One of the other flight attendants raised her eyebrows as we were de-planing and whispered to the attendant next to her. "It's OK! I TOLD them they could take them," I heard the other reply.

As soon as we arrived in San Francisco I found the terminal of our original airline, which we would be flying with to Sacramento, to obtain seat assignments for our morning flight. It was nearly 10 pm, but I found a gate where people were boarding a plane and an agent was present. I told him I wanted to get some seat assignments for our morning flight.

After getting the assignments the gentleman looked us over. "You're not planning on spending the night here, are you?" I shrugged my shoulders, too tired to say or do much else. "No, you have young children. I'm not supposed to do this since the delay was weather related, but you need a hotel." He soon produced a hotel voucher and $75 worth of meal vouchers for the 5 of us. Wow.

We followed his directions to leave the airport and wait for the shuttle to take us to our hotel. Soon a van stopped with our hotel's name on the side. We stepped aboard as I showed the driver our voucher with the hotel's address on it. "No, this is for a different hotel. Their shuttle should be along later." We got off the shuttle and waited some more. Finally I called the hotel's number printed on the voucher and was told that they didn't send shuttles to the airport!

I went back inside to the airline's main ticket counter and explained the situation. After a bit of back and forth amongst themselves, the employees who were there (and anxious to close up on schedule at 10:30) produced a replacement voucher for a different hotel. We went back out to the sidewalk until the van that we had originally tried to get on stopped again. This time the driver told us it was one of his hotels and we were on our way. "How did you get a new voucher?" he asked. "I've never known of an airline changing a hotel like that before."

We were checked in at the hotel by 11 pm and I requested a 4:30 wake-up call so we could be on the first shuttle back to the airport by 5 am. We used the airline blankets to make up a bed for S on the floor, while M and J got one of the beds, and Sacagawea and I shared the other. M's alarm went off at 4:20 am. I got up to take a shower and told him what to do when the wake-up call came at 4:30. M got a shower also and we were out the door by 4:55. We were soon back at the airport, through more security lines, and then we found a place to get some breakfast food. I wasn't sure how I could possibly spend $75 worth of food vouchers. Obviously I'd never bought breakfast at the San Francisco airport. For our breakfast I chose:
5 bagel, egg and cheese sandwiches
5 cups of cereal
3 small cartons of milk
5 yogurts

The total came to over $51. Since they couldn't give change on the vouchers, I added 5 juice boxes to bring the total to $60.02. That is more than half what I usually spend at the grocery store each week! I didn't use the last voucher since everyone was full with just that food.

After eating and calling The Man, we walked down the stairs, across the tarmac, and boarded a small prop plane. An hour later we were in Sacramento. After retrieving ALL our luggage from the baggage claim office (it seems that our luggage had a more diverse route than we did!) we drove HOME!

*******

The Man didn't spend all week at home without us. He had spent most of the time on a Wilderness Medical Society continuing education class/expedition. He did some rafting, mountain climbing, etc. while learning about emergency medical stuff. He had a good time also. Unfortunately one of the hoses in his pickup truck busted and he spent several hours fixing that before he was able to come home. I'm so glad he was driving it and not me since he knew how to fix it!

They shall run...Isaiah 40:31

Last week the church school up in the city had a track & field day. They invited another local private school plus some homeschoolers to join in on the fun.

M taking off for the long jump...
J going over the pole for the high jump...
S in the midst of his long jump (he won the blue ribbon for his grade category)...
Since the day was geared for grades 1-9, Sacagawea spent most of the day on the playground...
(This was when I noticed my camera is having problems opening the lens on its own. I had to coax it completely open with my fingernail the rest of the day. Anyone know of a quick and easy fix?)

They did offer a 50-yard dash race for all the younger siblings...
Crossing the finish line...
A good time was had by all, although they were quite exhausted from all that running, jumping, and throwing.

***

Do you know what this is a picture of?
It is deer hair. Apparently the deer know how to run also...right in front of trucks.
The Man couldn't find any other evidence or damage of the deer other than a tuft of hair. He did stop and look for it along the side of the road, but it must have run off somewhere. Probably to some alfalfa field where it will succumb to its injuries. There it will rot. Then a dog will come along and roll in the carcass. Speaking of which, the Dog REALLY needs a bath today.

Remember our van dilemma a few weeks ago? New/different van: $$$$$...new engine: $$$$...new seal: $$$. Fortunately it only needed the new seal. We were able to get it back from the mechanic last Friday. Hooray! No white 15-passenger van in our near future.

Hold fast...Proverbs 4:13

Last Sunday I took J, S and A up to the dog sled place on the mountain where they were giving free dog sled rides to kids 10 and under. The newspaper promised it would be an educational event. Free? Educational? We're there.

I got the kids up bright and early so we could eat breakfast, gather up all the snow gear, and be on the road by 7:00 a.m. We made it to the dog sled place by 8:20, parked, and got in line. We were the third family in line, which meant we wouldn't have to endure the cold for too long!

Sacagawea thought it was too loud with all the barking dogs. I thought it was kind of sad. The dogs that were pulling the sleds were obviously having a good time, but those that were left behind weren't too happy.

Here are some dogs being hooked to the sleds...
Here are some dogs that don't get to go yet...

Ready to go...
J and two others all loaded in the sled...
Mush!
The return...
Trading for some fresh dogs...
I'm not sure how educational the day was since the folks were trying to get the kids in and out of the sleds as fast as possible. They didn't leave much time for photos or asking questions. But, it was free! Right after S & A got back, the kids were ready to go. It was c-o-l-d! They were selling hot chocolate for only $0.25 a cup (When's the last time you saw it for that price?) so everyone got a cup before we headed home by 9:30.

There was one child there...his name was Chainsaw. That wasn't a nickname, but his given name. Really. Now I don't feel so odd about having a child who answers to Sacagawea.

The lizard...Leviticus 11:30

A few weeks ago we had a very sad event happen here. Tails (or Scales, we really aren't sure), one of the Green Anole Lizards we got for M before we moved here, finally died. I say "finally" because according to many websites, including this one, they are only supposed to live 1-2 years in the wild and 2-3 years in captivity. We bought Tails & Scales, ages unknown, from a local pet store in October of 2002, 5 1/2 years ago!

They had an interesting start since the kid working at the pet store didn't inform us that two males shouldn't share a cage. We took them home and set up the recently emptied fish aquarium. Since we were planning on moving again in a few months we decided that lizards might be more portable.

After witnessing some impressive and aggressive territorial displays by the two lizards, we put up a partition in the aquarium to give each his own space. The both thrived there until after our move when Scales (or Tails) met with an unfortunate lid accident. His smooshed body was found at the next feeding time and promptly buried under the oak tree out front. His loss was Tails' (or Scales') gain as the partition was removed and the lizard had more room to roam.

When M got his own room about 3 years ago, the lizard cage remained behind for the other 2 boys to enjoy. S is (was) the official lizard feeder. About four Sundays ago (I know, I'm really behind on my blogging) J came into our bedroom in tears. Tails (or Scales) was dead!

They weren't sad for too long. Later that afternoon S found the first lizard of the season outside.

This Blue-belly was a fat one. "Can we keep it?"

"Where?" I asked, "In the aquarium with the dead one?" Yes, poor Tails (or Scales) was still in the aquarium. His body wasn't even cold yet (ok, yes, I know they are cold-blooded, it is just a figure of speech) and S and J were ready to replace him.

I opposed the idea of taking on a new pet, especially a lizard, at this point. We think that lizard thrived on neglect since sometimes it would go several days between feedings. I suggested they plan a lizard funeral instead.

Nearly two weeks later I insisted they plan a lizard funeral. Ick. They finally built a cardboard coffin and buried Tails (or Scales) out front. RIP Tails (or Scales).

The flowers appear...Song of Solomon 2:12

We didn't do much crafting this week so I'm going to show the Valentines that the kids made last month. They used a lot of foam shapes and they did some cut-outs.

They traced heart-shaped cookie cutters (or some other shape) and cut them out.
Then they taped a flower seed packet ($0.10 at discount department stores) so the pretty flowers showed through.

That's it! The seeds can be planted by the recipient. They did something similar a few years ago for their grandmas for Mother's Day, and it could really be used for any type of greeting card.

Head over to Shereen's for more Sew Crafty Friday projects.

Rise up early in the morning...Exodus 8:20

It was that time of year again! The hot air balloon fair came to town several days ago (...and I've been too busy to post since then, blah, blah, blah, et cetera and so on...).

S, M, J and Sacagawea enjoyed taking Grandma along this year also. Here are the kids in the obligatory "turn your back to the camera for a picture for the blog" shot.
We got a slightly later start this year. I couldn't remember what time we left home last year. I had to check last year's blog post...I knew this blogging business was good for something, if only to help out my faulty memory.

We arrived right as it was beginning to get light. Perfect timing. Here's J getting a good look at the inside of a balloon.
The weather was perfect so all the balloons got to lift off on Friday morning. Here comes the sun!

Up! Up! And away!
The next day wasn't quite so beautiful. It was cool and windy. The boys thought it was perfect weather to bring the kites outside.
M got in on the action also.
Due to power lines, they couldn't put the kites up as high as they would have liked. Although it was breezy, the wind wasn't consistent enough to keep them up in the air very long.
They did get some air time in before the raindrops fell...although there was some "Ben Franklin" talk...hmmm.

Grandma brought the dirt babies with her for a visit and a hair/grass cut.
Aren't they cute?