Row, Row, Row Your Boat

The kids wanted to go for a ride in the boat last weekend when we were visiting our property. They all hopped in with a couple of oars and were off.

 They even brought the dog.  I think it was fun for a while, but I went down about 20 minutes later to check on them and all I could hear was Adam yelling, apparently Michael was not rowing to his satisfaction.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Camping at Brazos Bend

We just got back from a trip to camp at Brazos Bend with some friends.  We had a great time.

There were 6 families that camped with us and we all basically shared a cooking area.  Brazos Bend was fun because we were able to camp but also go on bike hikes and visit the nature center.  The weather was almost perfect, no rain, maybe a degree or two too hot, but otherwise perfect.

There was a park near the campground that the kids had a lot of fun playing at.

We also saw los of animals- a bullfrog:

An alligator:

Adam, Michael and I went on a hike around one of the lakes and counted how many alligators we could see.  We saw 37 alligators (Michael only saw 30) and 15 turtles.  By the end we weren't looking as closely to see how many we could see.  In this next picture, the log looking thing right over Nate's shoulder (the near one not the far one) is an alligator.

This is what the lake looked like.  Pretty swampy.  Anyone up for a swim?

Overall, it was much better than I feared it would be.  I think we may even do it again next year!

Cub Scouts

For the past year and a half, I have been the cub scout committee chair. When I got the calling, our ward had just been split and we were in the newly created ward so we were all anticipating what our new callings would be.  After I got my calling, I left the interview and got in my car and cried.  I knew that with three boys I would eventually get called to cub scouts but I didn't think it would be so soon.  Needless to say, I wasn't excited about the calling, but of course I was still willing to do it and figure it out, problem was, no one knew what I was supposed to do for my calling. I even asked the person who had my calling before me and they didn't really know what they were supposed to do.  So with that in mind, I tried to figure it out.  Luckily, I had a good friend who had the calling in another ward and she was very helpful in letting me know things that I was missing or telling me things that they did. 

 A surprising thing happened.  As I did my calling, the responsibilities changed from those of dread to actually enjoying what I was doing.  I learned to love the program (don't tell my husband this) and to love the boys in it.  I figured I would be in the calling forever since I felt like I was doing a thorough job and I had figured out the details and how to do everything.  Nope, to my surprise, (and a few other people's) I was released a few weeks ago.  I was surprised to find that I am sad to be leaving the calling.  Since I have two boys in cub scouts, I will of course be still involved, but since it is not my calling I will have to be careful not to step on anyone's toes.  Now I get to do Girl's Camp...I wonder if I will learn to love it?
Here are the pictures from last month's Blue and Gold Banquet.  Cute Michael led the flag ceremony.

 Both boys earned lots of awards.

 Michael played Darth Vader in a skit...

 And Joe was the special guest as Darth Vader at the end.  (It was Star Wars themed, obviously).

I am  not too worried, seeing as I still have Nate coming into cub scouts in four more years, I am sure that I will get another calling in the program, and next time I won't have to be sad about it, but instead I can be excited.

Pinterest Projects

 Last fall, I found pinterest.com.  It is quite a fun website, if you haven't found it yet you should check it out.  I have made several projects from it.  I thought I would post some pictures of the projects that I have made.

The first is roman shades. This tutorial shows how to make them using cheap walmart blinds as the structure:

They were relatively easy to make, but I learned that you can't line them because that hurts the mechanism.  Plus, when I was done, they didn't "pop" like the ones above.  I can't figure that out, any ideas?

I saw this wreath and just loved it.  It is from a different website, but the tutorial is here. 

I had to figure a place where I needed a wreath, but I found a place in my bedroom.  Here is how mine turned out.

This is how it fits into the room.

 Just for fun, and not at all related to Pinterest, I just got this couch for my bedroom too.  I can sit on it and read and look out the window (and watch the dog run in circles).  Cute, huh?

Back to pinterest...

I liked this wreath really well, so I made it for decor in our lake house.  It is all the time decor there, not just a Christmas wreath.

Here is my wreath.  It is in the green color scheme.

One more project.  I saw on the mantle of the girl that I VT a cute framed saying.  I had to make my own- so here it is with a couple of pictures on the wall at the lake house.

There were a few other projects that I started and they failed, but you don't get to see those.  It has been fun to try some new things.

The Rodeo

 Last week we took Wednesday off of school early and headed down to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  It was value Wednesday, so since we could get in for $5 for all of us, we thought it might be worth it.

 We saw all of the displays for the kids, looked at the newborn animals, walked through a little of the livestock show (the kids said- when can we get out of here?) and then went outside to the fair part.

 We got to try fried oreos and fried snickers.  They didn't taste so much like Oreos or snickers, but the fried part was REALLY good.

 We also got to see the pig races outside.  The take baby pigs and put them in a track and then have them race to the end.  The winner gets an Oreo.  There was even a baby pig that swam through a tank to race.  The kids enjoyed that.

 Only Nate and Adam would go into the petting zoo with me.  Right after I shot this picture, the llama started spitting at Adam.  It was pretty funny.

 Michael thinks he would prefer this tractor to the one daddy has, especially since they fit the front window with a 51" flat screen tv.

Ellie didn't feel well that day.  I didn't realize how bad until we were driving home and she seemed pretty miserable.  I still wanted to go to the rodeo, so I put her in the stroller and pushed her around.  She's pretty big for the stroller now, but she was a good sport about it.

No Training Wheels

 Guess who learned to ride his bike without training wheels today?  I can't believe how easy it was for him.  I took the training wheels off, held him for a couple of times, put the dog who was biting his heels away and then let him go and he could do it. 

 He stops great, he just hasn't figured out how to start yet. 

We even rode to the park and back- him on his bike, me on the Xooter.  It was the easiest trip to the park since I had Adam.

Flag Football

Adam and Michael just finished their first season of flag football.   They did amazingly well.  Almost all of the kids on the team were playing for their first time, and yet the team won second place out of the whole league for their age division!  It was really fun to see the kids play, they actually completed real plays.  In the league we played in, every kid had a chance to play every position so that they had experience and could figure out what they were good at. 

Adam did especially well, he often caught the ball and had several touch downs over the whole season.  It was fun to watch him develop.

Michael became more and more interested in the game as the season progressed.  He got great at pulling the flags of other players.

Adam's best friend Jack was on the team and Michael's best friends Shane and Logan were on the team. We also had another friend of both boys- Nathan and our neighbor, Isaac that were on the team.  It was fun as parents to sit on the sidelines and talk with friends. Sharon and I.

Or sometimes be a little silly:

Carol, me and Sharon

We will definitely be doing it again in the fall.