Birthday Celebration!

My sister-in-law Tiffany had her birthday in February.  She wanted to go to 6 Flags to celebrate since it's been forever since she's been on a roller coaster and we are really close to 6 Flags :).  It has been great having her close again!  Both of our hubby's don't like roller coasters so it's great for us to get out and enjoy them together!

Here we are in front of the batmobile with the batman ride behind us ;)

The first ride of the day ;)

Posing at the end of our busy day!

Tiffany with Marvin the Martian.  We saw tons of characters since it was opening weekend ;)

Ready to ride!

Coaster!

We ate a pretzel for dinner ;)

It was a great day and we had a blast!  It was crazy to realize how we aren't 18 anymore, but that we can still enjoy a day at a coaster park!  Mr. Freeze was probably the craziest ride!  It took about 34 seconds but you feel like you are going to fall off and it's just crazy!  
Looking forward to more birthdays celebrated at 6 Flags :)

Spring

Our Texas weather has been so crazy this year!  It hasn't felt much like spring since the tempatures have never stayed that high.  We do have blue bonnets blooming on the highways so I guess the weather has been good enough, but it sure is unpredictable.  

Last weekend we were out shopping and Hobby Lobby had their silk flowers on sale.  Jeff mentioned we should update our flower arrangements in the house (we have had the same ones since we were married).  It was a fun project and I think it adds some spring to our house, even if the weather doesn't always cooperate.

In the family room :)

The nook kitchen table

On the dining room table

Happy Spring Flowers!

Oliver Nature Park

There is a new park in Mansfield that just opened a few months ago.  It is a nature park and doesn't have any playground to speak of.  There are lots of benches and walking paths etc.  I had wanted to take my kids there, but hadn't made it yet.  They did a Homeschool nature class the other week and we decided we needed to check it out!  The local Community Center has a naturist who puts on classes and walks the kids around the park.  There was a great turn out from the community and all of the kids really loved it.  The cousins to joined us too which is always fun :).  

Here are Grant and Owen trying to answer on of the Sam, the naturist, questions.

Sam in the group of children

Teaching the kids about mistletoe and how it grows

The windmill

Small amphitheater that Sam showed off some cool animal skulls and Sandra even got to show off her piece of shale rock she had brought from home... Oh our kids love the outdoors ;) 

Sam was too funny.  He dealt really well with a huge group of interactive homeschooler kids.  I think he reminded me of Steve from Blue's Clues, in a good way :).  It was a great break to get out and be involved in nature during our school day!

Happy Pickle Parade!

We have an annual Pickle Parade here in Mansfield during St. Patrick's day festivities.  Best Maid Pickles originated here and they sponsor the parade.  It is a fun little home town kind of parade.  We attended last year and had a great time.  This year we are part of a 4-H club and they walk in the parade ;).  Jeff stayed home with the little ones and I walked the parade with the bigger kids.  The weather cooperated long enough for us to walk (not sure how long it held out afterwards) and it was a really great day.

Here we are hanging out by the Hawaiian Falls float waiting for the parade line to start moving.

Our Spring Lake 4-H club

Mhari passing out candy

Sandra passing out candy

Grant, Talmage, and Sandra

The downtown main street.  It was really pretty cool!

The pickle!

We even saw some friends in the crowds.  This one we knew from our Fort Worth days ... small world :)

Happy Pickle Day!

Thunder

The boys are playing this soccer this spring!  They are both on team Thunder and are even playing against the older age group to have enough teams to play for the season... that just means that our boys have to work that much harder since it's been a couple of years since they have played and they aren't part of a returning team.  

For the first game the boys were all still figuring out how to work together and what positions everyone was.  We lost 2-0, but our goalie really did a great job and saved us on quite a few attempts on goal!

Here is Grant and Talmage walking out for the beginning of the game.

Half time talk with coach

The girls have made friends with the other little siblings on the team.  They had a great time riding and pulling this wagon during the game. 

Jeff had to go help with a baptism so he didn't get to stay the whole game.  Here he is giving some advice before the boys go out for the second half. 

We will have many a Saturday at the soccer fields this spring.  It will be fun to see the boys progress in their soccer skills ;).  Go team Thunder!

Castle Park

On Thursday we met up with friends from Fort Worth at our old "Castle Park."  I didn't realize there was an obstacle course there too!  The older boys were organized and running through the course.  It was fun to watch them :).  Oh and they were timing each other too!

There was this monkey bar set that was part of the course but none of the kids were tall enough to get up it.  After we (the mom's) bugged the boys about it, Talmage went up to get up them :)

After making it to the top he went across!  So cool to see my kid working it out on the obstacle course!  Way to go Talmage!

Grant's timed run...

Over the walls

Around the poles and then through the cement tunnel and back to the start to end the timer!

Talmage's timed run...
Over the wall

The tall wall :)

Around the poles and through the tunnel and then back to the start!

Clark and Lorna playing on the playground.  Sarah was such a good friend to my babies :)

Sandra and Cherilyn

Lorna likes to be like the big kids

Slide!

Feeding the ducks :)

It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time!  The mommy's had a great time too!

First Speech

Our spring break was so busy this year partly because we had a 4-H speech competition to prepare for.  We had been preparing for it for about a month, but getting everything ready was very tedious, especially with everything else we had to keep up with during that time.  

Talmage gave a speech about raccoons - how they have migrated from the rain forests to the cities, how you can tell if you have a raccoon problem and then how to safely remove the raccoons.  He did a lot of research on it and put his speech together really well.  He helped make the poster boards and really did a great job.  He is a confident speaker and does well interacting with adults, which is great because the judges are adults and they get to ask questions at the end of the speech!  For the county competition no one was competing in the same category as Talmage so he took 1st place, but I think even if he did have competition he would have done well!  He got a score sheet from the judges afterwards and it was scored really high :).

Grant gave his speech on super powers.  He identified real people with real super powers and talked about different types of powers people can have.  He then taught how to develop 3 different types of super powers.  He was really interested in this topic and did a lot of great research on his own.  It was fun to see him excited about something like giving a speech :).  He had a girl in his same category and she took 1st place, but he also did really well!  

Next we go to district for the next level of competition!  That will be an exciting experience!

Congratulations to our awesome 4-H kids!

Refashion day

Wednesday of Spring Break I hung out with Tiffany and we had a sewing day.  I refashioned each of my girls one of their pair of jeans into a skirt.  It was a fun idea off pinterest.  I think the adult version probably looks better (since women have more hips than girls), but the girls love them and it was a pretty easy sewing project - especially by the third one!

Here they are modeling their skirts...

Lorna, Sandra, and Mhari

working the poses

Mhari

Sandra

Lorna... not quite so good with the posing

Tiffany got a pair of pj's made, a skirt for her and a hat too.  It was a pretty productive day all around :).