Tri-Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Austin, and Anna, and Adam

OK so this may be the "lazy and cheap" way to do a birthday party but it works for us! My kids birthdays are two weeks apart, starting in the middle of October ending in the middle of November. My solution is have a party on the middle birthday and throw it for all three, only a small party and only family.

 It saves so much time and money by only having to buy food and cake and decorations for one party. Also  it is nice to only have one gathering with the family since Thanksgiving is in November too. Aside from the tri-party, on or around the actual date of the birth of each child we cooked them a big breakfast of their choice, take them out to the movies or someplace special, and out to eat and shopping to spend their birthday money, and I cook them a dessert that they choose. It is still easier for me to do it this way rather than a traditional "party per kid" way.

They all seem very happy with this idea and they all had a great birthday this year. I have some awesome kids. They were all patient and took turns blowing out their candles and opening presents. The way we do the candle blowing is I start out the cake with the fifteen candles needed this year for my oldest Austin, then I remove five and relight, and then remove two more and relight so each kids gets Happy Birthday sang to them and all get to blow out candles. Stewart cooked some burgers on the grill and we had cake, then the cousins all played and the adults set around and chatted till it was time to leave. A successful party for 2010!

Blackforest Walkabout

Blackforest Walkabout

October 23,2010

We was bored so we decided to go on another walk, just a short one because it was getting late. We drove down to the end of the road in the Black-forest community where the road dead ends into Lake Sam Rayburn. The lack of rain has left the lake really low so we had plenty of beach area. The sun was setting and was quite beautiful.



Anytime we go on a walk into the great world of nature we always carry our adventure science bags. They have containers and tweezers and magnifying glasses, paper and pencils and bug identification books. All the things a young scientist will need to take samples and investigate the world around them. I labeled these their S.C.O.U.T. bags...Science Class Outdoor Unique Tour..yes a bit of a stretch to get the name I wanted but hey it worked.




Anna and Austin with their S.C.O.U.T. bags in tow

Adam forgot his bag but that didn't slow him down any. He just had his loving family help keep up with his treasures he found along the way. Being a bit more free worked well for Adam, he was excited and full throttle the whole time.

 



We walked along the beach looking at shells, foot prints, feathers, plants, and crawdad holes. Every time I would stop to take a picture I would announce "Oh cool, check it out" and then to my surprise I would get the back of a little head in my view finder of my camera!

Above pic left to right: an emergent plant, raccoon track, mini sand dunes, Adam's curiosity, a feather, crawdad hole, a large dog or cat print, and a deer or hog print.

We came upon a very large dead fish which did not smell the greatest but it had large scales that became part of our treasures for study.

 


Adam "Eewww gross!!"

 

Once we got out to the point of the beach the wind started to pick up and blew the sand across the beach. A mini dust storm was the one thing we will remember the most. The way the sand slithered along the ground was almost spiritual. It reminded me of the plague in Egypt of the death of the first born that you see on shows. The way that it slinked and weaved in and around each bush and grass clump. It was a great lesson for the kids because last week we learned about the great dust storms the U.S. had back in the 1930s.




Anna got a bit far ahead and had to come back facing the storm.

 

The sun had set and it was time to leave. Though it was a short adventure, it was a good one!




The setting sun over the tree line. Simply Beautiful.

 



Boykin Lake Mini-Hike

Boykin Lake Mini-Hike

October, 17, 2010

A beautiful fall day we opted to go for a mini hike around Boykin Springs area. We love going walking in nature, I always try to print out a outdoor scavenger hunt list. Here is a link to one of many you can google online or make up your own if you have time of things in your area.  
http://www.campingtripfun.com/scavenger-hunt.html 
This time I printed one list and we all looked for the items but you can also print separate lists and do it as a race but I think that the kids get to caught up in "winning" instead of enjoying.

So I was the official list keeper and camera man (err... woman). We took pictures of flowers, and insects,

lizards, and minnows,

mosses and leaves.

We spent time discussing the items we have studied in our botany class and promising to Google the things we didn't recognize  when we get home. We walked investigating the wonderful world GOD created for us. If you can walk in nature and not see GODs handy work in every little detail then I feel for you, it is a solid reminder that the world was created by a Master Craftsman and there is no way possible we "evolved".

To watch my children completely engaged in nature and the excitement you never catch on their faces when in front of a TV screen, I am assured we are making beautiful memories.




Collage of our day

The top two pics to the left are of the dry creek bed we came across.

The two pics to the top right is some kind of wild wheat I presume.

Large pic to the left middle is Boutin Lake which we walked around.

A pic of me with the kids and a pic with my hubby with them.

A pic of changing leaves, purple flower, fence post lizard, yellow flowers, & a spiny orb weaver.

  We had a picnic lunch at the nearby picnic shelter.

An idea was brought up that we needed to build a shelter like this on our property. I quickly reminded them that we had an arbor that is much the same as this.

Adam is enjoying his turkey sandwich but would still like to have a BIG arbor like this. He tells how there would be room for a living room and bedrooms. Once again I have to say no.

Austin quickly reminds me that teenagers do not like pictures taken when they have food in their mouth.

Anna is enjoying her apple very much, she doesn't mind one bit that I take her picture.

We had a wonderful day on our hike and picnic. I can't wait to go again, next time we will go to a different place, just to keep it interesting.