Game Time!

I kept hearing the kids talking about a game they were playing.  After hearing more and more I figured I should investigate... with the camera!  They were playing a settlers game.  I wasn't sure what it was, but in my head it sounded a lot like Settlers of Catan.  They were building up their little settlements, trading with each other, and worried about hazards.  

When I saw the game it all made sense... they had the pit cards out and using them.  They also had out the Lincoln log set to actually build their little settlements.  Talmage (the mastermind of the game) had created different types of cards that would be disasters and such.  I love how real they made the game! 

This is the mess of the game....

But, on closer inspection you can see how great this game is :)
Sandra and her settlement

Grant with his settlement

Talmage and his settlement

Clark with his settlement. 

I love our kids and how creative they are.  I love that the games they create become real things that they can interact with!  I also love that they do a great job of including the little kids and helping everyone have a good time!  We have amazing kids with amazing imaginations!  Playing games with them is always an adventure!

It's a Whale of a Tale to be 40!

Jeff's brother, Nathan, turned 40!  Tiffany was going to throw him an awesome party and host it at the church.  Well, Nathan nixed that plan and so the party was off.  Well, about 2 weeks before his birthday Nathan said he did want a party, just not as big as Tiffany was planning... so the party was back on!  

Tiffany asked me to help with decorations. The theme was whales.  It was fun to create awesome sea decorations!

Here is the front door!  It's supposed to be a big whale... with baleen teeth!

Pin the blow hole on the whale game.  I made the whale and holes ;)

The underwater scenery!

Too fun!

We decorated by the front door with bubble wrap.

At the end of the time Tiffany let all of the little kids get a small animal for a prize.  They were so excited!

Lorna got a sea horse.  She fell asleep on the way home, but she wasn't letting go of her new sea horse.  They napped together!

That night we went back for the party and played the sign game with friends from their ward.  It was a fun night!  Aunt Michelle offered to watch all of the kids so they did a Lion King marathon at her house.  It was a great night for everyone!  Too bad I never got a picture of the birthday boy!  We even had him over for a Sunday birthday dinner.  I guess we were just too busy enjoying each other to remember to grab the camera!

4-H One day ... tree planting!

4-H does a one day of service every year.  This year it was on the 10th of October.  It also happened to coincide with 4-H wanting to plant a tree in every county in Texas.  4-H donated the tree and we worked with Mansfield to decide where to plant the tree.  There was a small tree planting ceremony and then the kids got to help plant the new tree.  This was planted at the soccer fields where the boys play.  It will be cool to get to see the 4-H tree keep growing as we attend soccer in the future!

Here is Talmage and Aaron reading about the tree project. 

Planting time!

Grant getting into it!

All of our awesome kid helpers!

Yay for 4-H and service.  It is great for our kids to get to participate in service to our community!

National Night Out

Every year our neighborhood participates in National Night Out.  We get together at the neighborhood park and enjoy getting to hang out with the neighbors, as well as meet local police, fire, EMT's and such.  They have a petting zoo set up, free hot dogs, popcorn, drinks, bounce houses, drawings, and contests!  Seriously, it is a fun night :).  

This year they did a special back the blue promotion where we all got blue and black reminder bands in support of our police force.  The kids even got to get into a fire truck and a police car!  

With everything going on I didn't take photos :(.  

However Jeff got some pictures of the kids doing a hula hoop challenge.  They did good, but didn't win.  

Here is Sandra, Talmage, and Grant!

Happy National Night Out!

Girls Night Out!

Tiffany, Brandy Meyers, and I got to get out and have fun together.  Brandy mentioned we really needed to get out together so we made it happen!  We went to dinner first and then walked a local shopping plaza.  We had a lot of fun in Half Price Books, until they closed :).  After that we enjoyed hanging out by the water fountain until it was turned off too.  Sometimes it's hard to go home when you are having so much fun! 

We love Brandy and are so glad she is part of our friend group!  She makes our homeschool co-op group so much better!  She has a great sense of humor and her girls are awesome!  Here is just some of the fun we had!  Looking forward to more fun nights together!

Brandy finding some good reading!

A little religion sharing ;)

Hard at working reading

Selfie by the fountain!

Our view for the evening!

Happy Girls Night Out!

Keeping up with the boys!

Sandra loves her older brothers and often would rather be a boy than a girl.  It is funny to see how easily she fits in with them.  Jeff and I often forget how young she is because she blends right in.  Well, first thing she ended up following the boys... or boy, was getting an expander, like Talmage had to do, on her upper teeth.  She has had a cross bite, since forever, so it was time to get that sorted out.  The tooth actually bumped out within the first month or two.  Her mouth is looking amazing!  You can see that all of the top teeth in the photo are on the outside where they belong!  She got her expander in August! 

The other thing that Sandra has been trying to follow the boys with is having glasses.  She has been getting her eyes checked over the last few years, and really has been bothering me about how much she can't see.  Last year her eyes weren't perfect and the optometrist said she would need glasses in the future, but she was fine for now.  Well, it was time for her to join the older brothers in the glasses club!  She had fun picking out her first glasses and has really enjoyed seeing things that are far away.  Her eyes really aren't bad, and she still could get away without them, but if she complains that much, then she can have glasses. 

I think it only took her a few days before she decided she didn't love glasses as much as she thought she did.  Well, isn't that the way life goes ;)

She looks so grown up now!!

Homeschool Zoo Day!

As homeschoolers it is always great when museums, zoos, or other places do a "homeschool day"!  Then we get to go out on a field trip and join hundreds of other homeschoolers!  We saw several families that we knew at the zoo and had a great time.  One of the fun parts is that they do special education things when it's homeschool day! 

Here are some of the highlights of the day:

The cheetah!

The kids watching the meerkats :)

 Clark watching the giraffes

Talmage and Ella looking through the photos on the "kid" camera.

The hippos were out of the water!  This is the first time I have ever seen that!  They were eating.  It was so cool!  

Then one started to get into the water!  I was so excited to get the big splash on camera!

Man, for such a large creature she sure is graceful...

She just slipped right in... no splash or anything!

One of the education presentations.  Our group had lots of questions about animals and zoo degrees etc!

Check out that turtle!

Snake petting time!  Grant

Lorna wasn't sure at first, but she did it!

Our beautiful Williams kids!  We counted to 9 a lot!

Jump!

The baby elephants taking a dust bath!

White tiger!

Baby Lion cub... getting bigger!

Clark and Sandra trying to feed the birds

Talmage taking photos :)

One of the baby jaguars.  She was so pretty!

We had a great day at the zoo!  It was a nice break after so many weeks at school!  We love field trips, but homeschool days are awesome!