Zookeepers

We're moving!

2010-04-14T23:02:00.004-04:00

So just when I decided to start blogging again, life had to go and get extra busy.

We had been having some problems with the birds on base. They left shortly after we moved in, but recently came back. They messed up our backyard and made it quite unsanitary. So we decided to look into moving. We really wanted a good place for the kids to play outside.

After looking into living out in town, we found a great place. When I called to give notice to Lincoln housing they offered me a house in the new base housing. So we took it. Two weeks later, we are moving in.

The kids have been working hard helping pack. They have been packing boxes, taking apart beds, disassembling shelves, and all kinds of things. They are such big helps!

We stopped our hardwork yesterday for a birthday break. We took Emily shopping and out to lunch for her fourth birthday.

Here are a few picture highlights from the last two weeks.

Logan's Toe

2010-03-30T12:53:00.001-04:00

Last Thursday Logan went to the fridge to get his water bottle. This is a stainless steel kanteen, and it was very full. It slipped out of his hand and landed on his big toe. He screamed for about 20-30 minutes.

We put ice on it and watched it swell and his nail turn purple. The swelling went down so we did nothing. This morning when he woke up it had swelled more, a blister was forming above the nail and it was red around it all.

So off to the doctor we went. It is infected. So now I get to play doctor a few times a day. He will lose his toenail eventually. It will be interesting to see how he handles that.

So not that most of you want to see this or know about it but I know Russ does.

you can't see the redness in this picture. It is actually bright red all around the upper edge of the blister.

The Play

2010-03-29T12:49:00.003-04:00

Not quite ready for a performance.

Showtime!

changing the set between scenes

take a picture of me please!!

The End - take a bow!

All last week the kids worked on a play, Cinderella. Julie wrote the script and was the director. They all worked on props and costumes.
Cast-
Emily was Cinderella
Will - the king and the kings messenger
Logan - the prince
Camie - was Pricilla the ugly step sister and the fairy godmother
Julie was director and an extra, she didnt want to be in it

They did a very cute version of Cinderella. Will was very cute and did good as long as Logan didnt distract him. Emily remembered her lines very well. I was impressed.

I think my favorite part was when the prince was with Cinderella and it was almost midnight. The girls had unfastened Emily's shoe to make it easier to lose. Prince Logan noticed this and refastened it for her! LOL Made it hard for the shoe to come off!

They had a lot of fun.

Saturday

2010-03-28T00:33:00.000-04:00

We were very lucky to have some friends come visit us.

It was so great to meet Aidan. Tiffany and I have been friends since 3rd grade. She is the only friend that has come to visit it me in most of the places we have lived. She missed Hawaii, not sure why. :) We had a fun afternoon!

The day warmed up so we decided to get out the sprinkler. Aidan didn't care too much for it.

a water fight broke out using the sprinkler

Emily was drinking it.

They played in the sprinkler for awhile and moved on to chasing each other with squirt bottles. Fun Saturday.

Married?

2010-03-27T09:42:00.000-04:00

I have had a picture of Russell and I on our wedding day hanging in every house we have lived in.

The other day Logan walks by the hallway, looks up, and exclaims, "Mom, you're married?! When did you get married mom?"

I laughed and said, A long time ago."

He looks again,"you married dad?"

"yes, dear I married your dad"

He then just walked away shaking his head. Not sure what brought that on but it was funny.

2010-03-26T06:01:00.000-04:00

I was getting the kids to the table for dinner and I told them after dinner it was bedtime. Then I was going to watch a movie and eat M&Ms. So of course they all start asking for M&Ms. I pull out a big bag to tease them with.
Yes I know I am mean. Simple pleasures in life, tormenting children.
Julie, very confidently says, "mom will let us have some or she wouldn't have told us about them."
Camie is begging and Logan is grabbing at the bag. Emily starts pleading, then Will walks up to me, stands very firm and says, "mom, God says SHARE!"

Too cute! I can see the lessons are getting through to them, atleast when it is to their benefit.

We're Back!

2010-03-25T21:23:00.002-04:00

OK after a guilt trip, I mean encouragement from a friend, I am back to blogging.

I always thought it would be very cool to print my blog to have as a scrapbook. Guess what? There is a way to do it! So I am back to blogging to rid myself of the guilt trip of no new scrapbooks in the works.

I am abandoning all the "traditional" scrapbooking and moving fully into the digital age! So time to put up some posts so I can have something to print!

So all my adoring fans will be happy once again! Yes both of you!

The ZOO is back!

Semi-Retirement

2009-07-02T10:15:00.004-04:00

Papa Fox here folks, in case you hadn't noticed, the blog is a bit out of date.

As you know, we (Mama Bear and I) get a little busy running the Zoo and whereas Mama Bear was the primary caretaker of this blog, neither of us can seem to find the time to sit down for a while to prepare new blog posts.

So, Mama bear and I have both established Facebook accounts. It seems that we do have time to sit down and throw an update to Facebook when we check our e-mail, look at the weather or pay the bills online.

Seeing as how all personal information on Facebook can only be seen AFTER we confirm our friends, I'll go ahead and place the links to our profiles here for you use.

Papa Fox:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/deemwun?ref=profile

Mama Bear:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=1160632828

If you don't have a Facebook account, you'll have to sign up, don't worry, it's free!

I can't say whether or not this blog will come back out of retirement, we'll see...

in the meantime, hope to see you on Facebook,

Thanks, Papa Fox

Flamingo's Birthday!!

2009-05-02T19:38:00.003-04:00

Flamingo turned eight yesterday! Sorry I was too busy with the day to blog yesterday.

My beautiful princess!

Her Flamingo themed day. The straws were the biggest hit!

Josephina got some new clothes.

We had a special breakfast then headed to HM's Therapy. WHen we got home Flamingo disappeared for much of the afternoon. I downloaded my camera and now I see what Tiger and she were up to!
Here is a brief glimpse...

They almost caught him. He really doenst like his pic taken.

In the evening we set up the tent in the living room for the kids to play in and then the girls to sleep in after game night.

http://zookeepers-luv2bhsmama.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-birthday-flamingo.html

Check this link out for Flamingo's past birthdays

What can you cook???

2009-04-30T15:10:00.002-04:00

Today's post is again brought to your courtesy of my wonderful little man HM.

He runs in the house with a big bunch of weeds, plops them on the counter, tells me, "here is something you can cook for dinner tomorrow," and runs back outside. I told him thank you and was going to quietly dispose of them after he went to bed. It was just too sweet to tell him he couldn't eat that for dinner.

Papa Fox came home from work, found weeds on the kitchen counter, and threw them away. HM saw them in the trash and asked why. I quickly filled Papa in, and he proceeded to tell HM that Mama didn't know how to cook these. HM walks over to me looking totally perplexed, "mom, you don't know how to cook weeds?!?!" "no. sorry" He just walks away kind of shaking his head.

I guess I am no longer the world's greatest cook in his eyes, I can't cook weeds.....yet! :)

Artificial??

2009-04-29T15:04:00.002-04:00

As of the first of the year we made some diet changes in the family partly due to research on how they could help HM's SPD. One of the main things is following the Feingold program which cuts out all artificial colors, flavors, and some other chemicals. I thought we ate pretty good, but you would be surprised where some of the stuff sneaks in!

Anyway we have mostly told him he could not have things because they had artificial colors or flavors. Trying not to overwhelm him with information. Okay that was the background so you could understand the post.....

HM helped me plant "salad" in our garden. We was very excited that I let him sprinkle the mesclun mix of greens in the soil. He has been giving me reports on how the lettuce is doing and asking when he can eat it. A couple of days ago he noticed the small red leaves in with the green. "Oh no!" he exclaims, "we have artificial lettuce!"

Okay so maybe you didn't laugh as hard as we did, but Tiger and I got a big kick out of it. Not sure if he will willingly eat the red lettuce, but we have tried to convince him it is supposed to be that color.

TWO YEAR OLD FROGGY

2009-04-27T15:04:00.003-04:00

Isn't he just too cute??

Froggy's Birthday!!

2009-04-27T14:50:00.002-04:00

Froggy is two years old!! If you want to see his baby photos by month check out last year's blog. He was such a cutie! Oh, wait he still is!!
http://zookeepers-luv2bhsmama.blogspot.com/2008/04/froggy-through-year.html

Check out those curls!!! What a cute one year old.

Then Daddy buzzed him.

With his cake

YUMMY!!

My Boys!!

One year!!

The Big Birthday Bash

2009-04-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

Saturday was our big triple birthday party.

We started out with several helpers.

Thank you ladies!!! You help was awesome.

They did so good with the decorations and helping to get everything set up.

The weather was so nice we decided to play some games outside.

We had races with the kids pushing each other in boxes.

Then we did some crab walk races

Then regular running. We were really wearing the kids out!

Sorry this look was too funny, just had to put it in here.

And this one! A day for funny expressions.

And sweet ones!

HM is not too fond of having his picture taken right now.

Lunch!

We went back outside to play some more and then it was birthday song and cupcake time. Wanna bite?

Inside games, presents, and then pack up and head home. Papa Fox walked home with the 3 youngest while I stayed with all my helpers to clean up. When they walked in the door he had them sit to take their shoes off. He walked around the corner and came back to find them all 3 laying on the entry floor about asleep! Too funny. We had a great party. Thank you to everyone who helped and attended!!

Latin by Tiger

2009-04-19T20:41:00.000-04:00

I am learning Latin. I’m using Rosetta Stone so I can be fluent in it. When I’m finished with Latin I want to learn Spanish. Flamingo is learning Spanish right now. I want to learn as many languages as I can before I have to stop.

Rosetta Stone comes with cool headphones that have a little speaker thing so it can check your pronunciation of the words it teaches you. Rosetta stone has you listen, read, and then click on the right picture, and pronunciation, and typing the words. My favorite part is the typing. I have learned nouns, verbs, adjectives, and right now I’m learning numbers.

One of the languages I most want to learn is sign language. It looks so fun to me. I’ve already learned some signs; some of them are please, thank you, and milk. We have a neighbor who is fluent in sign language and I like watching her do it. Even if she’s talking out loud she does it; like when she’s talking to Mom.

I do my Latin on the laptop I use. We own 2 laptops and even though they belong to Mom and Dad we call them Flamingo’s and mine.

Crashing Therapy

2009-04-18T13:39:00.000-04:00

Home Therapy

2009-04-17T13:20:00.000-04:00

I posted awhile back with some pics of Hm at therapy. I thought I would show a few pics of us at home with therapy.

Froggy and Raccoon like to take part, too.

HM has made some wonderful progress. So much so in fact that by next month I think we get to go down to only 2 times a week! YEAH!!

"heavy work" is one at home thing we are supposed to do with him. So his new chore is to vaccuum.

He loves it. He gets pretty tired since it is so heavy but he does a great job.

He was insistent that I let him take off the attachment and get the edges of the buffet. Doesn't qualify as therapy, but hey it does qualify for a cleaner house!!

We do family exercises every morning which has helped him with his core strength a little. His supine strength has greatly increased. Other types of "heavy work" we do is have him push one of his siblings around our house in a laundry basket. Also taking baskets of laundry up and down the stairs.

We have a whole drawer full of activity bags for fine motor skills.

His frustration level has DRASTICALLY decreased. He can do buttons now. It is hard to remember all the ways he has improved. Of course we have improved in knowing what problems are sensory related and which is just behavioral. I am sure we still have a long way to go on that.

Keep a look out for some videos I will post that show our "crashing" therapy.

Random pictures from March/April

2009-04-16T12:57:00.000-04:00

Well since I was on looking through pictures for Raccoon's birthday I decided it was time to do another post of random pictures of what we have been up to.

My cheese making adventure!

Our "kite" flying day. Yes they are just grocery bag with yarned tied to them, but hey it was a windy day, we had no kites, and the kids had a blast for HOURS!! All five of them!

April Fool's day. They all dressed in half jammies and weird clothes.

Isn't he cute??

Decided to ride his sister's pink scooter instead of his Spiderman one.

Flamingo loves to play catch. Do you know how hard it is to take a picture while trying to catch a ball??

Even harder while throwing it.

Here she comes!

Hm loves boxes.

Family game night.

We love to play games together atleast once a week.

We have been starting to be able to include the 3 youngest.

So much fun! Froggy won!

Hanging out

Helping his sis make cupcake/muffins for Raccoon's bday

Tiger and I were snuggling and Froggy just had to join us. We became his roadway.

One by one they all joined until Papa Fox just had to get a picture.

Raccoon is 3!

2009-04-15T12:23:00.003-04:00

She was still a bit sleepy when she first came down and saw all her decorations.

Then she was amazed!

Then she decided to be cute and requested a picture of her being "so cute."

She chose her breakfast. We do not normally have cereal anymore so at her special request we bought Leapin Lemurs cereal for breakfast. We then cuddled on the couch and looked at her baby scrapbook. She was fascinated by baby raccoon.

We decided to break out the masks from HM's bday and it turned into a real zoo at our house!

We finally got dressed.

The kids had fun playing outside for awhile. Raccoon has been getting very good at riding a bike.

After dinner we had peanut butter chocolate muffins. Yum!!

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY RACCOON!!

Happy Birthday Raccoon!!

2009-04-13T13:55:00.005-04:00

Time for another picture blog. You will have to forgive me for starting at 1 & 1/2 months old. Long story but this is the earliest picture I have.

At the end of May 2006

June 2006 ( Iloved those children's place onesie dresses!! so cute yet so easy and comfy!)

June - her sister's were posing her and taking pics

August - she never would keep that hat on for long, but I loved the adorable outfit!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Two more adorable dresses courtesy of Grandpa and Grandma. this pic is Sept and the one below is Oct.

Sitting up!

Love the overall shot ( can you tell I miss all the cute baby clothes?? Most of my kiddos now have an opinion on what they will wear and I don't get to dress them)

The chair she is sitting in is the same one from Papa Fox's birthday photo blog. Yep, and OLD chair!

October

November

February

March

April - Dragon fly gave me a flood of memories by wearing this one a few weeks ago! I loved this dress and sweater.

Easter Pic

ONE YEAR OLD!!

TWO!

This birthday dress from last year fits her a lot better this year.

Stay tuned for pictures from the third birthday.....

My Dolls, by Tiger

2009-04-04T15:26:00.003-04:00

Today's post is brought to you by, TIGER!

Tiger’s Dolls
My dolls are named Kit and Rebekah. Rebekah is a Laura Ashley doll I got when I was 7 or 8. She is 11 years old. Kit is an American Girl doll I got Christmas 2008. She is almost 10 years old. Kit’s best friend is Ruthie. I haven’t got her yet, so Rebekah is her friend, but when Ruthie gets here then they’ll all be friends.

I don’t think people make Laura Ashley dolls anymore. We lived in Hawaii when we got Rebekah. We haven’t seen her brand since. American Girl is a popular brand that has better quality dolls. For example their hair is better, but it might just be that I’ve had Rebekah longer, and their joints can move more so they can sit down without their legs spreading out.

Even though I’ve had Rebekah longer and her hair is frayed and she has a few marks on her, I still love her just the same. I think I will love all my dolls whether they are old or new. They are a lot of fun to play with.

Here are some pictures of Kit and Rebekah in their pajamas. These aren't Kit's real pajamas; she's borrowing one of Rebekah's because Kit's ripped in the shoulder a little.

Also here's a picture of them in their clothes. Rebekah's cat is named Chloe and Kit's dog is named Grace.

February and March Madness

2009-03-24T17:15:00.001-04:00

So what's been going on with you??? Well it is total madness around here as usual!!

In February we had a hairdo afternoon. I bought a DVD of American Girl hairdos for dolls and girls. We had fun trying some out.

HM enjoyed putting together his new pirate ship. Thanks G&G!!

He also enjoyed torturing his little brother with his remote controlled Lightning McQueen. Thanks N&P. Yes Froggy is scared of it.

Daddy, I mean HM enjoyed his home therapy with his new peanut ball. Yes this is really therapy. You should see the squeeze machine at the therapy office! It looks like a medieval torture device. But it gives great deep pressure input!

Here are some pictures of HM at therapy

He was doing a game while sitting on the swing and then he did some swinging.

He then requested for MB to spin him. He really loves it!

You know how you get really dizzy from being spun and if you spin a little kids their eyes look funny and they can't walk? Well that doesn't happen to HM, that is part of his problem. He needs to actually get dizzy!!

Here he is doing some pulling exercises. They have all sorts of things for him to do. Lots of obstacle courses, climbing things, and he LOVES the zipline!

Papa's idea of a snack on a VERY snowy day!

Our new hammock, also for therapy purposes.

Lock of Love strikes again!

Ok sorry, I just have to take a second to brag.... Yes, I cut her hair!! And I didn't screw it up!! Yeah me! Okay back to your normally scheduled blog..

She had a ton of hair!

St. Patrick's Day

The girls making an Irish Lamb Stew for dinner.

Yes, our food choices were different this year. Very traditional and nothing with green food coloring!!! We had Irish oatmeal for breakfast, which means it was rolled, it was real oat groats. Yummy!

This was our lamb stew. It was so delicious!!

Bubbles!!!! And we have started the garden. The kids and I planted some things on Thursday of last week. I bought some herbs so put out after the threat of frost is gone, and I can not wait to get some fresh yummy produce going in my garden.

So that is about all for us!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA FOX

2009-03-23T01:40:00.000-04:00

***Sorry due to technical difficulties this posted early*******

Happy 36th Birthday Papa Fox......per a certain request, here is your life in pictures...with a 'few' years missing.

Doesn't that look kinda like a pink blanket lining the bassinet?? I guess when you have an older sis...

Big eyes!

His love of music starts.

yum!

We still have this chair!! The kids love to sit in it.

What a smile!

Hanging out with Mom

2nd Birthday

Senior Year of High School

First Baby

Daddy/Daughter Dance

2nd baby

Growing Family and 1st son

still growing...

two sons!

Most recent picture of our wonderful Papa Fox

16 Wonderful Years

2009-03-21T13:19:00.002-04:00

Today is Papa Fox and Mama Bear's 16th anniversary.
I thought I would treat you all to some photos.

The wedding party

The Happy Couple

The night before at our rehearsal dinner.

Sorry this was before digital cameras were big so I had to scan pics from my scrapbook!

I love the digital age!!

Thanks to our wonderful neighbor(who watched the kids), and Papa Fox's parents (who footed the bill) we had a nice dinner out last night.

Thank you!!!

Lipstick??

2009-02-27T15:23:00.000-05:00

Froggy loves to color, stamp, draw, all kinds of things. He was stamping a piece of paper and I walked into the kitchen to get my water. This is what I found when I came back.

He stamped his lips with a pink stamp.

Oh yes and the tongue, too!!

All about Howler Monkey Part 3

2009-02-24T08:03:00.000-05:00

And now he turns two.

He had a race car cake and all girls at his party.

This is Raccoon at almost 1. She looks so little! It was hard to get HM to sit next to her for this pic. They were all dressed for the party.

This is his third birthday. This time he atleast had his brother so he wasn't the only boy.

These were the mini cakes Tiger wanted to make him.

Bright and early on his 3rd birthday morning!

Tomorrow he finally get to say.......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOWLER MONKEY!!!

stayed tuned for the 4 year old!!

All about Howler Monkey Part 2

2009-02-23T03:51:00.000-05:00

This will complete his first year

April 2005 at the pool

April 2005

Daddy put him in the tire swing

and he likes it

May 2005

This was my favorite outfit for him June 2005

Falling alseep with daddy June 2005

At the beach again..this time we let him in the sand.

One of our favorite pictures with Tiger

His first 4th of July

Starting to sit up and starting to get really chubby!

He loves his exersaucer so he could watch the girls play

Still liking the tire swing

Check out the drool!

Tongue!

I want to crawl but I just can't get this belly off the ground.

yeah!

This is what happens when you have older sisters

Not too sure about the grass.

Playing with sisters.

Nov 2005

First Pumpkin Pie - Nov 2005

First haircut Dec 2005

Hey we are no longer in Hawaii!!! Dec 2005 in Washington state

First CHristmas

presents

First cross country drive Jan 2006

Moving in!

First Valentine's Day

First Ride on Car for his First Birthday!

First Birthday Cake!

All about Howler Monkey Part One

2009-02-22T15:33:00.000-05:00

He is born!

This was my first and only hospital birth. This is the girls hanging out and waiting to see if my induction would do anything. Don't the girls look so little!

Tiger refused, but Flamingo jumped right up at the opportunity to cut the umbilical cord.

My BIG boy!

Tiger holding him the first time.

Father and Son

Flamingo holding him the first time.

At one week old!

The Hawaiian blanket I made him

Laughing at Daddy

First trip to the beach

And his first Easter.

This was all in his first month! More months to follow....

It's a Jungle!

2009-02-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

We let the animals loose in the jungle and had quite a day! Since we had been dealing with several illnesses again I was glad we were still able to throw together a birthday party quickly for mister HM.

He wanted to wear this jaguar mask so badly!!

The birthday boy..well not officailly until Wednesday.

The family dressed for the jungle party.

We had a wonderful Expedition guide with his two guides in training.

The snake cake, which was requested by HM. It is an all natural cake and I was even able to make the green icing without artificial food coloring!! Sorry I was just excited about that.

Building the present.

Just because he is too cute!

The buffet! Read the labels. The kids got a kick out of it.

We started with an obstacle course. You had to jump over quicksand, go under poisonous vines, through the bat cave, through alligator swamp, step over spiders, and jump over the piranha pond, all while carrying your camp supplies and dodging the wild animals like the moose, the pink bear, and the bunny!

Alligator swamp

See the green and orange piranhas in the blue pond. Just pretend they don't look like turtles!

Next we threw tree frogs at leaves. If you look closely, the thing that looks like smeared snot, that is the tree frog. The kids, and umm gentlemen, had a fun time with the icky sticky frogs.

Pinata, notice all the rest of the kids are behind a fence!

Blowing out the candles!

We had a fun day. HM really enjoyed his party.

Playing with Daddy

2009-02-15T01:03:00.000-05:00

Daddy always comes up with the best games to play.

The girls decided to see if they could build a tower that would touch the ceiling.

Success!

Where have you been??

2009-02-09T13:13:00.003-05:00

Okay after a few e-mails, phone calls, and in person questions I have gathered that some of you think we have fallen off the face of the earth. Hey I ws just thrilled to know so many people actually read my blog and were interested in knowing what we were up to. I figured I had bored you all to death by now.

Since we got back in town in January lots of things have been going on. We were all sick for awhile and then it was back into school and get the house in gear. HM was diagnosed with SPD, more on that later, and this added therapy 3 times a week to our schedule. It also meant a diet change, so more from scratch cooking. which takes more time. I thought I did a lot of "real" cooking, but wow! I was surprised at how much we had to cut out. Anything with artificial colors or flavors is out.

Then Raccoon got sick. A bad infection in her mouth which made her stop eating and drinking. That of course is not a good thing. All this on top of still doing school, trying to fit in some playtime and sleep with the kiddos and read read read on SPD so I can better help HM.

So now you know why I have not blogged. As much as I enjoy sharing our life with you all, I will have to be cutting down on blogging. I have to make time for a few new things and given my choices of things to cut out, blogging lost!

So what is SPD you ask??

SPD is a neurological disorder having to do with the brain inefficiently processing sensory messages coming from the person's body or environment. A person with SPD will have difficulty adapting to everday sensations that you or I would be oblivious to. Most people are familiar with the normal 5 senses but our body also deals with the tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive sensations. SPD can be different for different people and it can range from mild to severe. No, there is no "cure," but the person can do therapy that helps them learn how to manage it and help them to understand what their body needs and when. Diet can also play a huge roll in helping.

So, some examples from HM's life. He has always screamed when we would wash or towel dry his hair. We thought he was being weird, naughty, etc. Turns out when he said we were hurting him, even when being so gentle it was barely doing the job, it actually was hurting him.

When HM goes into a new room and HAS to TOUCH EVERYTHING!!! No matter how many times we have tried different ways to discpline him he still does it. Well this is how he gets awarness of where he is in a room because he can not properly process this. That is also why when he does it he goes into his own world and can not "hear" me.

Sometimes his body gives him too much information so he gets over loaded and that is what causes some hyperactivity. He can not process all the sounds, smells, sights, etc and it overwhelms him. This is why he is such a different little boy at home in his familiar surrounds than when we go out. He is also very different when other people are at our house and can even be overwhelmed at times when too many of his siblings are in the same room as him.

So anyway we have been seeing some good improvements with therapy and look forward to continued success.

In other news, the two big girls are back in piano lessons. We were blessed to find a lady right on base so the girls can ride their bikes, atleast when it warms up a bit. You should hear the whining, "but MOM it is 15 degress outside!" "So wear your jacket!"

Re-enlisting

2009-02-05T00:41:00.003-05:00

Up bright and early so we can all be at DINFOS for Daddy's re-enlistment.

Everyone was sleepy but excited to go to work with daddy

Even I got an appreciation certificate

It was great seeing his commander get down on the floor and play cars with the two boys.

Snow Day

2009-01-18T23:52:00.004-05:00

Snow!

I think their favorite part is to eat the snow.

Not quite enough snow for sledding.

Ready to go!

What a great brother to pull his little brother around.

Will he pull Raccoon, too?

Snow angels

Snowball fight

yummy!

All bundled

Happy New Year

2009-01-06T12:57:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. We are now back in our own house and hopefully back to normal, well normal for us.

I do not have the energy to update everyone with all that happened while we were gone. I will just say that my grandfather is doing much better and should be coming home today or tomorrow. He never came back home while we were there but we were able to visit him several times.

We had many adventures while we were gone and came home sick. We have been home a week now and everyone seems to be mostly over whatever cold/flu thing we got.

Hopefully I will have some fun/interesting things to blog about this week.

Pics from December

2008-12-29T13:55:00.000-05:00

I will try to slowly posts some pics from our trip

This is the back bunk in our trailer. Tiger sleeps on top and Flamingo, HM, and Raccoon Sleep on the bottom. Flamingo and HM next to each other and Raccoon lies sideways at their feet.

That is until she decided to come crawl in bed with me. LOL

This is Papa Fox and Mama Bear's bed. Sometimes Froggy, or others join us. Sometimes Froggy sleeps in the pack n play. He can jump out of it though.

We managed to make cookies at Granny's house. I had planned a whole month of activities for December, so before we left I tried to grab as many as I could to bring with us and do.

HM put these on his head and proclaimed, " I am Pirate Underpants!" You can bet I will be showing this one at his wedding reception!!

These 3 loved Granny's swing.

Enjoying Granny's new house...plenty of room to run!!

The new furniture!

The kids made angels for Papa, my grandfather not to be confused with Papa Fox, and decorated his hospital room.

While we were there the weather was so wacky. Cold one day hot the next. One day it was in the 80s!!! And I brought warm clothes for the kids. I think they spent most of the trip telling me they were too hot!

Bowling

2008-12-27T13:35:00.000-05:00

So, I was looking in my folder that I save pictures to so I can blog about them, and noticed I had a few things from the first week of December. I did not get a chance to upload them before we left.
We went bowling one day since HM had so much fun when he went with his friend.

Raccoon loved the pink ball.

HM had a hard time only throwing the ball down his own lane.

Tiger had fun and did pretty well.

I thought this ramp would help Raccoon, but she actually preferred doing without it.

Flamingo liked the pink ball, too.

Even Froggy got in on it. He had a hard time waiting his turn. He loved rolling the ball, but didn't care to wait and see if he knocked any pins down. He just turned and ran for another ball!!

It was quite an exhausting trip, but they had fun.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-16T13:39:00.003-05:00

For those of you that are wondering what happened since I usually have a new post almost everyday...we are out of town. It was a very unexpected trip. My Grandfather in Georgia became very ill and was in the hospital. So on Dec 5th we headed down in our trailer to see him. Papa Fox drove with us to Atlanta where a very, very, very, WONDERFUL (thank you thank you!!!) friend drove him back home while I continued on with the kids.

Yes I have never towed a vehicle and I got a crash course driving through Atlanta towing my trailer. We made it safely to South Georgia and Papa Fox made it safely home.

The kids and I have been staying in our trailer at my Granny's house. My grandparents are in the process of moving so this seemed the wisest thing to do. The kids love the empty house and being able to run around it. Their new house is so beautiful!! Tomorrow I get to go see the new furniture in it. As soon as my grandfather gets out of the hospital they will move in to the new house.

My Papa (my grandfather, not to be confused with Papa Fox) is doing better. He was on a ventilator and unconscious when we first arrived. By the end of the week he was off it and alert. He is now out of CCU and in a room where he can have more visitors. I even took all the kids to see him. He really loved that. HM and Raccoon were a bit nervous, but Froggy, to my surprise loved it! He "chatted" with him as if they were best buds. We pray he will continue to get better and be home for Christmas.

We were able to drive to see my other Grandparents, too. We really enjoyed that trip and would have had even more fun if we had not all gotten sick. Everyone except Froggy has been sick one day or another during our trip. It started with Raccoon throwing up in the restaurant the night we arrived. It seems everyone is mostly on the mend now.

We are very grateful that our friend will be bringing Papa Fox back to us this Friday. We will be very glad to have him join us for the holidays and then we will head back home.

Our Christmas Zoo News paper edition will be delayed until January. Sorry for the delay but you can watch your mailbox in January for this years exciting edition. I have no Internet access while down here unless I go to the library so this will most likely be my last blog post of the year.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Hungry

2008-12-01T19:33:00.002-05:00

HM - "mom can I have a snack?"

Mom- "not right now, hon it is too close to lunch."

HM - "Mom, can I have some food not called a snack or lunch, right now?"

Mom - "what?!"

HM - "Can I have a different named food and eat it now?"

Okay, so I give bonus points for not asking a second time for "snack." He was inventive. Hmm.. can't have lunch yet, and she said no to snack..... Especially since he was so polite and obviously starving!! So we decided a different named food would be carrots. And he was thrilled. He then became the distributor of the carrots. He was so happy to pass out carrots to everyone.

So does everyone now think I starve my children?? They got so excited over carrots! LOL

Cleaning Day

2008-11-29T06:57:00.000-05:00

Once a month we have big cleaning day. I thought you might enjoy this picture of the youngest helping out. They were so cute running in circles with their dusters.

Our Thanksgiving Day

2008-11-28T18:34:00.005-05:00

We started preparing on Monday. Tiger made pecan pies on Monday. Flamingo made chocolate chip bars....they however did not last until Thanksgiving day. :)

I made rolls on Tuesday.
On Wednesday I finished Pilgrim costumes and the girls ironed napkins and tried out different ways of folding them.

Flamingo burnt her fingers with the iron while trying out one fold, so they opted for a design that did not involve the iron.

Flamingo was dressed and ready bright and early Thanksgiving morning.

We had a leisurely morning and then it was time to get the turkey ready.

We were anxious to try out the new roaster.

We laid out a snack/lunch after the turkey was all set.

crackers, olives, carrots, goldfish, and cheese.

Then we headed to the park

We played for awhile to run off energy before naps.

When the 3 youngest went down for naps, Papa Fox set up a game of Catan while we finished dinner prep.

I did sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes.

Flamingo did cranberry sauce.

Tiger did green bean casserole.

Then we played while I went back and forth cutting up potatoes and finishing things up.

When the youngest woke up it was dinner time! If you look closely you can see the "lily" napkins Flamingo did. They are in the cups.

Froggy and his turkey bone.

Tiger really liked the sparkling grape juice.

Raccoon and HM decided to run off energy by running the circle after dinner.

HM was trying to hide from the camera and run by before I oculd get his picture.

There goes Raccoon.

After dinner we played twister and Hullabaloo. Even mom and dad played.

After twister there was some rousing wrestling matches and pillow fights. Mom stayed out of that one, but called it quits for all when the blood and tears became too much.

Time to settle down for Pecan pie!

After the littles went to bed we relaxed. This was not a posed picture either. I found them this way.

I found Papa Foxx laid out on the floor. He did not want me to get a picture of him so he kept showing his butt. He is lucky I am nice and didn't post that picture!!!

We had a wonderful day of playing and relaxing and talking about all we were thankful for. Most of all we thank God for sending His Son for us!!

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

2008-11-27T09:26:00.003-05:00

Tiger's top 10 things to be thankful for
1. house
2. bed
3. doll
4. blanket
5. family
6. clothes
7. books
8. Savior
9. hair
10. food

Flamingos top ten
1. my family
2. my Savior
3. my house
4. my Bible
5. my friends
6. my toys
7. our pirate ship
8. my bed
9. my books
10. my clothes

The above 5 are in my top 10 right behind Jesus and my husband.

We are especially grateful this year to not be in the hospital, or coming home from one. I am also grateful for a father who so lovingly thinks of me often. I know he will especially be thinking of me while eating his Honey Baked Ham. Just remember that on your birthday Dad!!

I am off to throw a turkey in the roaster and go back to playing with my family.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!

Snow Day

2008-11-24T13:53:00.003-05:00

Last Friday we were lucky enough to get some snow.
We started off all warm and cozy inside because one of Papa's co-workers let us borrow KungFu Panda.

Then it started snowing so we got all dressed to go out. By the time we had coats and hats on and got out there it stopped. We came back in and took everything off and got all warm and yep, you guessed it, it started snowing again. So back on with the coats and out we go again.

Raccoon trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

Tiger and HM try it.

Flamingo's turn.

It started coming down more with big fat flakes and actually sticking a little.

Tiger's face was so funny and she was making very strange sounds. I guess it takes quite a bit of effort to catch snowflakes.

Then back inside for hot cocoa!!!

Kids and cameras

2008-11-23T13:34:00.000-05:00

"mom, can we use the camera to take pictures of our dolls?"

"sure!" I love the digital age, they can take as many as they want and I do not waste film.

Then I downloaded my camera and this is what I found.

Here Raccoon has Tiger's digital camera

Not sure what they were doing here or what they were doing in MY room.

Raccoon is still snapping away on Tiger's camera. I guess I need to download that one soon.

Goofy girl

Ok where are the doll pictures???

Where was I?? I know that is what you all were thinking right??

I was in a bubble bath reading a book.... or maybe I was taking a nap on the couch... eating chocolate and scrapbooking...hmmmm sorry it was more likely that I was making dinner, reading books with Froggy, or cleaning something.

Crafts

2008-11-22T17:35:00.003-05:00

One day last week Raccoon and I were able to work on a craft together. The girls were doing school and both boys were still asleep.

She practiced cutting after I traced her hand.

Then she glued all her hands together to make a wreath. Now I can hang it on the wall with my 5 other wreaths from when Tiger and Flamingo were 2,3, and 4.

I guess now I need to get to work on making some with the boys.

Romp n Stomp

2008-11-21T02:09:00.000-05:00

We are lucky enough to have a gym set up once a week during the winter for kids to come play. We took advantage of it this past Tuesday.

They put out all kinds of toys to keep kids entertained.

Hm enjoyed crawling thought the train.

So did Froggy

We saw a couple of our friends there. Raccoon was enjoying getting a book read to her in sign language. This is one of the girls Tiger helps watch.

As I pulled out the camera to get a pic of Raccoon, Dragonfly noticed and sat up straight, looked at me and smiled. Unfortunately I was not quick enough and the smile had faded. She sure know what a camera is!!

CRASH!

Even Raccoon had to crawl in the train.

It was a great way to get out some energy on a cold day. It even snowed here later that day. Nothing that stuck. Poor HM. He asked to put on his snow clothes to go out and play. I told him it was going to be enough to play in. He stood at the window for quite awhile watching it and telling me it was melting. Maybe soon he will get his wish!

My New Toy

2008-11-20T01:59:00.000-05:00

For quite a while now I have been saying I need to replace my crockpot. The inside crock is getting worn out and it is actually getting to small for us, too. I wanted to get an 8 quart, but those are hard to find and expensive. When I went to the store I saw a roaster that to me just looked like a really big crockpot with adjustable temperatures. So when it went on sale for $20 I decided to go for it.

So here is my new 17 quart "crockpot"
Papa Fox thinks I am a little crazy, since it is over 3 times as big as my crockpot.

I am thrilled!! I tripled my chicken in a pot recipe and had room to spare!! That means I can probably make 5 or 6 meals at one time in it. Since my family LOVES chicken in a pot I can cook one night and have enough to put in the freezer for several more times. Maybe I will cook one week a month and just quadruple every recipe so we can eat the rest of the month out of the freezer. Or maybe I can buy 6 more roasters and cook all in one day!!! LOL just kidding.

Anyone wanna join us for dinner????

The box

2008-11-19T06:05:00.003-05:00

A month or so ago we had to get new car seats for HM and Raccoon. We saved the boxes for some rainy day play. At some point last week we got out the boxes on several days. It is amazing how much fun kids have with boxes.

Here is Tiger quietly snealing in the box...

Then HM turns around and jumps on the box. I think she survived.

This was when they made the box into a slide. Then they posed so nicely for me.

Night Night!

Inline Skating

2008-11-18T06:55:00.002-05:00

Tiger likes to skate, but the only skates we could ever find at the store in her size were inline skates. She said no she preferred to continue to rent the quads at the rink.

Then someone blessed us with a free pair of inlines in her size!! Okay she would give them a try.
They are not near as hard as she thought they would be, and if it had not been so cold or rainy lately I am sure she would be zooming all over the neighborhood!

Caramel Apples

2008-11-17T06:32:00.002-05:00

I am finally posting pics of our caramel apple day.

HM wanted to start eating his apple immediately. I was trying to convince him to wait for the caramel, it would be better. He was not easily convinced.

His friend would dip a little in the caramel and then have a bite and continue the process.

Finally got him to dip it into the caramel and roll it in the nuts.

The baby behind Tiger is one of the twin girls she helps watch now.

Flamingo was eager to get started.

Big bite!

The whole crew

Big bite!!!

Saturday

2008-11-16T17:17:00.002-05:00

While Tiger, Flamingo, and Flower were at the AG Show, the rest of us had fun at my house.

Dragonfly enjoyed being a pirate

and a flapper

this was my dress when I was 6 years old. My mom made it.

Butterfly wanted to be a princess.

Ladybug chose to be a flower. I made this outfit for Tiger when she was 4. We no longer have the hat anymore.

Raccoon chose to be a ballerina.

Then we put on a ballet instruction DVD and they danced. They were really cute trying to do all the moves.

Then we did art. We played Little People, and doll houses, and ponies.

Dragonfly was very nice to me and slept most of the morning. Of course she waited until right until her mommy showed up to wake up, have a dirty diapers, and cry alot. So her mom would walk in to her all red faced looking like I had tortured her.

They always do that to you!!

An American Girl Day

2008-11-15T18:41:00.004-05:00

Last night the Tiger and Flamingo spent the night at Flower's house in preparation for going to an American Girl Fashion Show today.

They had a lunch and got to see girls model the clothes with their dolls. They learned different things about the historical girls outfits. The learned some tea party ettiquette from the Victorian Era. They learned some of the how and whys to certain articles of clothing from each girl. It sounded like a lot of fun.

all the "girls" at lunch

When they came home they were very excited to work on scrapbooks that were given to them as they left the show.

They are having so much fun with it.

Now they are off doing a fashion show with their dolls.

Tiger's job

2008-11-14T06:57:00.003-05:00

Tiger has a real job!! We were invited over to HM's friend's house to make caramel apples the other day. My friend has a 4 year old boy and twin girls that are one year old. Tiger spent most of the time we were there playing with the girls, after the made and ate a caramel apple of course. Priorities!!

My friend was very impressed with how TIger was with the girls and asked if she could hire her to be a mother's helper. Tiger could play with the girls while she did activities with her son and vice versa. Tiger was so excited.

We checked with dad, she made a list of questions to ask about the job and expectations. One of her questions was how much would she get paid. She was then asked how much she would charge. I knew Tiger was dreading this question because she was afraid she would sound greedy. She then asked her if it would be too much to get $.50 an hour. My friend laughed and said, "I was thinking a little more than that. I usually pay babysitters $10.00 an hour."

I think Tiger had a hard time not running around the room yelling, she was so excited. I said, "wow, now you won't ever be willing to do it for me since I don't pay that much."
"don't worry mom, I would do it for you for a penny, or NOTHING!"
What a sweet girl!!

Time for Flamingo to step up and take on more responsibility. Tiger started her job yesterday and I had to take Raccoon for a doctor's appointment for a rash on her legs. So Flamingo got all of Tiger's normal jobs including running into the pharmacy while I stay in the car with the kids. She needs more practice, but I think she will do well in time.

Tiger had a blast at her "job." It was a rainy day and the mom had a home visit nurse coming over, her one daughter has had some major health issues, so Tiger was to keep her son occupied so she could talk to the lady. Tiger spent some time with the twins while the boy was napping. When he woke up they played all kinds of things. At one point they were playing hockey in the kitchen. Yes, this was at the suggestion of the mom. They are into playing sports inside their house. HM loves to go over there. He can do all kinds of things mom doesn't allow at her house.

Anyway Tiger's first action upon receiving her paycheck was to take some of her saved birthday money (that is being saved for American Girl Doll - Kit) and her day's pay and buy her sister a Christmas present. A $40 Christmas present. What a sweet girl she is!!!

Sunday Drive

2008-11-12T10:04:00.000-05:00

Sunday after church was a beautiful day. Not too cold and the fall leaves were beautiful. So, since gas was down to $2 a gallon, we even saw it for $1.95 during our drive, we figured what the heck, let's go for a drive. We ended up at Fort McHenry and decided to go for a tour.

We tried several times during our trip to get a good pic of the kiddos for Christmas cards, but with sun in their eyes and wind in their face, not to mention an unnamed little boy who was far more interested in running and playing than sitting still for some silly picture, we did not get a single shot!!

Froggy on Papa's shoulders

one of many outtakes

Hm was constantly making faces

Popeye??

Up the hill to the Fort

We thought this would make an awesome pic with the flag in the background. Well after about 20 pictures we gave up. I think this was our best one.

Since they weren't behaving for pictures we sent them to the bomb shelter.

But there was too much room in there so we locked them in the jail

HM loved the canons
We had a fun afternoon. We headed home when the temperature started dropping and moods started declining. We headed back home to warm drinks and leftover pizza from Friday night.

Bowling

2008-11-11T06:53:00.000-05:00

Last week a neighbor dropped by to invite HM to go bowling with her and her son. He was so excited. For once he was getting to go somewhere and the girls were jealous. He had such a good time. It was his first time bowling, but I have no pictures. She did print out his scores for me. He bowled 2 games a 78 and a 63. Of course bumpers were up so you can't get gutter balls like when I was a kid. I could probably really use those bumpers now!!

Now the girls are frequently asking when do they get to go bowling and Flamingo even asked if she could join a bowling league!! She doesn't even know if she likes to bowl or not. Too funny. Guess I know where our next field trip will be.

Tiger's skirt

2008-11-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

I remember when I was in high school my friend and

I used to try to embelish our clothes. Sometimes it worked out sometimes it did not.
Tiger got a skirt from the thrift store the other day and decided to try out things on it. I did not help one single bit! I was not even in the room, nor did I get out any materials for her. I am so proud of her!!!

She sewed a heart on the pocket with some faux metal accents. She did another faux metal iron on design on the bottom.

It is hard to see the design on the bottom from this picture.

She added a strip of red to the back slit of the skirt, too.

Good job Tiger!!!

Twins

2008-11-09T07:51:00.000-05:00

Froggy and Raccoon are almost the same size. There is less than a pound difference and they are almost the same heighth. They are my only kiddos with blue eyes and they were both born in April. So since I get asked all the time if they are twins I dressed them as twins and called them that all day. I thought they were cute!

Park Day

2008-11-08T19:31:00.004-05:00

Friday we woke up to sunshine and predicted warm weather. We had planned to work on home economic activites, but decided going outside would be much better. The biscuits and other goodies will have to wait. We called our friends to see if they wanted to meet us there. Papa Fox had the car so we walked.

The big girls made a picnic on the play equipment and played up there, too.

The youngest ate lunch in the stroller.

Our friend brought some paint and art activites that the kids enjoyed.

She also brought Polly Pockets which even the boys enjoyed.

Froggy was very into the paint.

Now I have two Mom! He was so proud of himself.

During the course of the day the kids would pair up and play together in different areas of the park. It wouldn't always be the same two either. It was very cute.

We stayed at the park for almost 4 hours. HM rode in my friend's car with her and Flower walked with us. I gave the 3 big girls the phone and let them explore parks on their way home. They came home one time for water and snacks and headed back out until dark and dinner time. They really had a great time exploring different parks on base.

When we got back home, our friends came over and HM continued to play Polly Pockets with Butterfly and Ladybug.

Then we made pizzas and played games. We stayed up so late!!! We were all so tired. Even Tiger was asking my friend, who needs a blog name so I can quit saying my friend, when she was going to get Ladybug out of her bed so she could sleep. Then we looked at the clock and it was only 10pm!! I know party animals, huh?!

We played Chutes and Ladders and Candyland to start off with. THen we played Bibleopoly when they youngest kids headed for bed.

Thanks for coming over and thanks again for the potatoes!!

Cable TV

2008-11-07T13:01:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday while at the neighborhood center we had access to cable tv. It started with Tiger working out in the exercise room with my friend and watching Food Network. She was instantly hooked. She came back in the room where I was, asking to cook something. She then wanted to watch more food network.

Flamingo did not have as many projects so she was able to spend more time in the tv room. I found a station called TBN that I thought might be pretty safe. She watched things like the NEST Family videos, that we love, and Bibleman. Corny but kids like it. While on lunch break I came in and we watched the food network again. Tiger wanted to cook and to buy every gadget they advertised to make cooking easier. Flamingo say a toy advertisement and immediately wanted it.

Boy, I am glad we do not have cable. It has been a very long time since we had cable. It is amazing how much you forget about it. It can suck you in so much. Wanting to watch everything and the "I wants" get out of control. I was amazed at how mesmorized Flamingo was and instanly the commercials got her.

Besides we don't have time for tv!! We abrely have a chance to watch all the documentaries I get from the library and netflix!

Pause please

2008-11-06T01:00:00.001-05:00

Raccoon has a new thing. If we are reading or talking and she wants to say something, she will say "pause, mommy". I am working on the "please pause."
It is so cute to hear her little voice say, "pause, mommy" while gently touching my arm. Then she asks her question about the book and says, "okay, go ahead."

She also says, " I need to tell you a question!" So earnestly. It is very adorable.

New Game

2008-11-05T02:55:00.000-05:00

We discovered the game Settlers of Catan almost 2 years ago. Papa Fox played it in Haiti. When he came home we bought the complete set and have been hooked ever since.

Last week while shopping at the Christian bookstore Tiger called me over to share a discovery- Settlers of Canaan. We were very excited and decided to buy it for daddy for Christmas.

Well that lasted about a few hours and we decided to give it to him that night! Saturday night afger our long day of sewing we stayed up to play. We had a ton of fun. We love family game night!!!

Saturday Sewing Day

2008-11-04T02:55:00.000-05:00

Another full Saturday of sewing. I want to do this once a month. It just happened that this weekend was the only one available for November. I don't want to do two weekends in a row again. I worked longer this time, too. I left before 7am and did not come home until 7:30.

This is Flamingo's finished bag from last week.

This week I made pilgrim dresses. I did not get to the white part. It took ALL day long to just do the black dress. So I still have the white apron, the white cuffs and collar and the white hat.

I caught Tiger straight out of a shower.

Family Fun Night at Church

2008-11-03T02:45:00.001-05:00

Last week we had a BBQ and Bonfire at church. We enjoyed eating hamburgers and hotdogs and sitting around a fire. Of course we had to roast marshmallows and make smores, too.

This is Papa Fox with the 5 kiddos.

They requested that I be in charge of games. So I came up with 2 games for the kids to do that I thought all ages could play. First we played pass the parcel. Think hot potato, but when you get the bag instead of being out you have to unwrap it and follow the instructions. Things like sing row row row your boat while doing jumping jacks. The big kids caught on quick that they did not want to bag, but then were bummed when they didn't get the last bag filled with candy. Next we played a version of tag. That is what is picture above. Everyone stand in groups of two holding elbows. One person is chasing another and the one being chased grabs one elbow and the other person has to run. We played this one the longest. They really had fun with it. Then we played a chicken game. Too complicated to type out. :) I then left them on their own to play tug of war. I came back to find the boys about to let go of the rope and let the girls tumble into the road! We had a fun time.

Yummy Smores!!!

Animal Week

2008-11-02T14:45:00.009-05:00

We did several activities with animals this past week. Some were before the zoo and some after. In preparation for the trip both girls researched two birds that were at the zoo. Flamingo chose the Bufflehead for Maryland Wilderness and the Egyptian Goose for African Wilderness. She enjoyed looking things up on the computer.

Tiger was having a hardtime finding the webpage she just had up about her Cinamon Teal bird.

While Tiger was working on her report we used legos to make animals. It can be hard to make animals out of only square and rectangle blocks.

Flamingo made a monkey. He is turned sideways with his head turned to look at us. That is his tail behind him.

We also colored Tigers. Froggy really loves to color. I think he is my youngest to like coloring so much. Maybe he will be an artist like his daddy.

Raccoon would color a little on hers and then a little on Froggy's.

We decided to make elephant puppets. Of coures as I am printing the templates both my black and color ink ran out. So we have some funny looking elephants.

HM followed directions very well.

working hard on the puppets.

The finished elephant puppets.

We also worked on Rainforest Lapbooks this week. We learned quite a bit about different rainforest animals. For instance, did you know there were freshwater dolphins?? I did not. Did you know they were pink??? I might never have known that. I love homeschooling!!
They live in the Amazon and are very rare.

Tiger doing her lapbook.

HM was "hiding" from me in this picture

We decided to make playdough animals. Raccoon and HM made worms. They were playing for quite a while with their worms. It was very cute.

Everyone had fun making animals.

Flamingo and her turtle

Tiger with her tiger and tree.

Zoo Day

2008-11-01T14:44:00.000-04:00

Last week we took a trip to the zoo. We checked weather and had made reservations. No rain for atleast a week and the weather had still been in the 60s so we might only need light jackets. The we went and did it. We washed our car. Then out of no where came rain. It rained all day and the night the day before out trip and was scheduled to keep raining. We decided to go anyway since the temps still looked high. Then came the wind!! Luckily I had packed our heavier coats, atleast for the kids. We did not have gloves and hats, but thanks to our friend who had extras in her car we were all set. I did have blankets with me so the kids in strollers were cozy. Two other families joined us for a total of 12 kids and 3 moms and tons of shivering. Well I was okay but everyone else was cold.

We had done some animal activities before the trip and the girls had scavenger hunts to do while we were here. Flamingo had to find certain animals and classify them. Tiger had to find answers to certain questions. We started in the Artic and she had quite a few questions. She did not get to finish them because the little ones got impatient staying in the same area for so long.

We did get to see a polar bear and learn alot from a zoo guide in the Tundra Buggy. We even learned that Artic Foxes eat Cheerios. Who new they had cereal growing in the wild? :)

Next we headed to the African Adventure. It was too cold for most of the animals, so we didn't get to see zebras, rhinos, and only a glimpse of an elephant. Flamingo needed a rhino for her scavenger hunt and then proclaimed, "a rhino is a reptile, right?" So I am very glad that our next chapter in science is learning about classifying animals into mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and birds.

We got to see the Cheetah up close.

Silly kids!

We really enjoyed the Chimpanzee Forest and we learned alot from the zoo guides. That was the good thing about the weather...too cold so we were practically the only ones there!!! I think we saw two other families.

Flamingo had done a reading comprehension on the Sifaka so she was excited to find it. The 3 kids have their ears pressed to the glass trying to hear it say "sifaka."

Flamingo got so excited everytime she found one of the animals on her list.

Froggy was now loose and all 3 little ones loved watching the fish. There were 2 crocodiles in the tank, too.

Froggy could "touch" the crocodile.

After seeing most of the zoo, we stopped for lunch. It was nice to have an indoor place to eat, but then the kids started getting rowdy, so we headed to the Kids Zone to play.

The other grownups who stood around freezing and watching kids.

Helping Froggy down.

The boys started getting wild with slide pileups. HM LOVED it. He enjoyed having some boys around to be rowdy with. It wasn't long before the girls joined in the pileup and everyone was squished.

Take a Picture of Me!!

Tiger helped Raccoon down for the first one and then she was confident enough to go on her own.

The kids had a blast going up and down over and over again! Froggy was the only one who didn't go all by himself.

We got to see penguins. It was not too cold for them!

This Okapi licked the window just as we walked up. The kids thought his black tongue looked gross!

The giraffe kept sticking its head over and licking the wall. It was so nice to see them up so close. I guess in this case it was good for it to be too cold outside.

We had a fun day! The End!

Silly kids

2008-10-31T06:38:00.000-04:00

I thought you might enjoy some videos of general silliness. Happens quite a big at our house. Raccoon and Froggy love to da a "happy dance."

In this video Froggy is making some funny facial expressions. He can be quite expressive with his face. He is funny when he tries to roll his eyes.

My little chef

2008-10-30T06:26:00.000-04:00

Raccoon had fun getting to help make cookies. Our neighbor brought over half of a tub of cookie dough for the kids to make cookies with.

She was so excited to help and insisted on wearing the hat.

Grandma Cat, do you remember this apron???

Raccoon

2008-10-29T08:55:00.000-04:00

Raccoon is now learning to ride a bike. She goes backwards really well!! We are working on forward. Next spring we will have to do bike upgrades. Tiger needs a new bike since she is too big for her current one. Flamingo will move up to Tiger's and we will buy some spray paint and training wheels for her bike so HM can ride it. Raccoon can then get really good on HM's bike. We thought about doing it now, but figured since it is getting colder and colder it would be bettter to wait until spring.

Funny kids

2008-10-28T05:58:00.000-04:00

Last year Nana got the kids doing a "sound off." I would say sound off or she would and they would say their number, Tiger - 1, Flamingo - 2 etc.
After seeing the Sound of Music the big girls decided to try to teach the little ones to line up in order and stand at attention. It is very cute. Well it had been awhile since they had done either, but Friday during our morning school together time, I told them to meet me in the stairway at the maps. They all lined up, even the little ones without being reminded. Too cute!!

So then I made them stay while I ran for the camera.
Grandma Cat, recognize the bunny HM is holding?? He still loves it. We just won't tell Raccoon it is really hers.

We have fun learning geography. Hm is trying to learn his oceans right now. Flamingo has learned continents, oceans, and is working on reading map keys, legends, finding coordinates on the map and other fun stuff. Tiger is working on labeling all the states and capitals correctly. She keeps mixing up the middle states. Maybe because those are the ones we have not been to!

The Big Sewing Day

2008-10-27T05:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, I am a complete idiot!! I have no idea why I never thought of this before. We have a neighborhood office that allows you to use their facilities for free. Why have I never taken advantage of this before?? Papa is always willing to take charge of the little ones for me to work on sewing projects and teach the girls, but it is hard to find the room in our house, especially where the little ones won't try to "help" you.

So I decided to book the room at the neighborhood center. Nice big room!! All my bins on one side.

A table with one sewing machine and one serger.

A long set of tables for cutting and pinning and the other set of tables for our two sewing machines.

Tiger has her own machine that she used, Flamingo used mine, and I used my friend's machine. It was so great of her to suggest we take it. Thanks again!

Flamingo making her bag.

Tiger piecing together hers.

She was very proud of her new bag she sewed and quilted.

I do not have a picture of Flamingo and her bag yet, as she had run off to play with her friend who dropped by to visit us.

The girls completed presents for Grandpa and Grandma, Nana and Papa, Granny and Papa, and Great Grandpa and Grandma. They also cut out some new projects for next time, and made their bags. They worked very hard and on very little sleep from their slumber party the night before.

I made 3 bags like the girls, a pillow case, did all the cutting for their projects, and almost finished new curtains for the girls room. We were tired but had fun. Around dinner time our garden friends came up to the neighborhood center to say hi. The kids played in the game room, and the kids playroom. We had brought a movie for our dinner break, but could not figure out the darn TV!! All I wanted to do was put in a movie, but they had some weird cable thing and I could not get it to go off cable and work the DVD. I guess that is the prce we pay for being Cable illiterate. :)

Slumber party

2008-10-26T09:23:00.000-04:00

Friday night the girls went to their first slumber party, other than Tiger's own. Flower was turning eight.

We got there early to give our presents and visit. The little ones and I stayed for dinner. When it came time to go HM cried the whole way home. He kept saying he wanted Tiger and Flamingo and they were "our girls" and they couldn't stay there. He wanted them to walk home right now. He really did not like me leaving them there.

The girls had a lot of fun. They stayed up way too late!!! Tiger crawled in to bed with my friend around midnight since the girls would not calm down upstairs. Flamingo got to bed somewhere between 3 and 5am. WOW!!! And I showed up at 7am to help with breakfast and take the girls for our big craft day. I think they are still recovering from lack of sleep.

Bike Riding

2008-10-25T18:00:00.001-04:00

Yet again, I am behind. This week I will be telling you all about last week!! Hopefull I can catch up quick since we will be having a ton of fun this week, too.

Last Saturday the big girls and papa rode their bike all the way to West Virginia!!! A group of people from our church wanted to take a bike ride and end in Harpers Ferry, WVA. The little guys and I drove the van so we could meet them for lunch and pick them up at the end. I forgot to snap pictures of everyone on their bikes and ready to go. I did get pics of the rest of us playing at a really fun park.

This is Froggy chilling out of the swings after his major face plant off the merry go round.

They relly enjoyed this park which was a mixture of older play equipment and new. You rarely see metal slides or merry -go-rounds anymore.

HM was brave enough to do the REALLY tall slide.

They all loved the Merry-go-round, but Froggy loved it best. His idea of fun was to try to walk around it with no hands, which was why he did a face plant into the bark. HM had fun when several big kids showed up and he got the chance to go VERY fast. He learned to hold on right quick!!

Merry-go-round fun

What are they saying??

2008-10-22T04:45:00.000-04:00

The girls were preparing for our family talent show. Do you know what they are singing???

Kids Training Doggies

2008-10-21T02:33:00.005-04:00

Flamingo training Robinson

HM's turn

Raccoon even got a turn

Tiger, my budding dog trainer.

I hope you all have enjoyed the videos as much as we enjoyed Miss D and her two lovely dogs entertaining us for the day!

Doggie visit part 2

2008-10-20T02:08:00.003-04:00

These two videos are of Robinson.

Doggie videos Part 1

2008-10-19T01:40:00.004-04:00

I know I said I would upload some videos of Miss D and her dogs. Sorry it took so long. This first one is of Gracie, she is only 3 and still learning all her tricks.

These other two videos are also of Gracie. I will show some of Robinson and some with the kids doing the training on other days.

New Room arrangement

2008-10-18T06:51:00.001-04:00

Well we split the kids up again and have moved some things around.

The boys are now back in a room together.

We have put all the girls in another room.

These beds were made in the morning, but with reading time and playtime they have become unmade.

Flamingo and Raccon share a bed so they will have more floor space to play with their dolls and doll house.

We also turned the playroom into more of a school room.

So as you can see we have been rearranging again!!

Scandal at Church

2008-10-17T06:50:00.001-04:00

You won't believe what is going on in kid's class on Wednesday nights!!! It is shocking!!!! Boys kissing girls!! And do you know whose fault it is???

MINE!!

Aren't you shocked?! HM is going to get kicked out of class at the tender age of 3!!!

Yes, apparently my attempts lately to teach HM how to treat a lady, i.e. his sisters, have gone too far. I guess I should have specified that you aren't allowed to go around kissing and hugging on girls who aren't your sisters.

Luckily the "lady's" parents aren't pressing charges. After all he did ask first and she did agree!!

An old picture of the two afforementioned scandal makers.

An Appeal

2008-10-16T16:01:00.002-04:00

We do not allow our girls to come back to us with, "but....." when we tell them something or if we have answered a request. However we do feel they need a respectful option to give us more information or to "plead their case." So after a respectful yes maam or yes sir they can say, "may I make an appeal?"

We have been doing this for years now and are starting to teach HM. Well, Raccoon must have picked up on it.

Today during lunch, I was cleaning up and talking to Froggy when Raccon said, " may I make an appeal?"

I said, "an appeal to what?"

She looked at me with a grin and said, "A peel, and apple peel!" as she pointed to her apple she was eating.

Tiger, FLamingo, and I all burst out laughing. I guess we have a stand up comic in our midst. I wonder if she really comprehended her own joke??

Sneaky Chef

2008-10-15T10:28:00.002-04:00

On Tiger's birthday I promised a post on why we had spinach in just about everything we ate that day. So here it finally is..... Aren't you just so excited??

My kids are good eaters. They even eat their vegetables. However what mom doesn't want to make sure her kids get the "most bang for our buck" when it comes to nutrition. Little kids especially can only hold so much in their stomach. So I like to find ways to get as much vitamins and minerals into their foods, yet still have fun.

We have been doing berry-spinach smoothies for awhile now. Spinach is full of nutrition, but let us be honest..not many people like cooked spinach. My family likes it raw but not so much plain, cooked. So as I was experimenting on a few things here and there my friend mentioned this book called the Sneaky Chef. She has a way to sneak in all kinds of fruit and veggies.

Ignore the first few chapters of the book on her philosophy of why to sneak foods in. Go straight to the recipes. We have been enjoying adding all kinds of extra nutrients into our foods. Most of my kids are not too fond of spaghetti sauce, except Raccoon who will eat a tomato like it is an apple. So I cooked and pureed a California Mix(broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots) and did half red sauce and half the puree. The kids gobbled it up!!! It took the edge off the red sauce and added in extra veggies! YEAH!

I loved being able to make chocolate pancakes and chocolate muffins with hidden spinach. They even had blueberries in them. Blueberries are another food that gives you a ton of vitamins in a small amount of berries. Oh and they were made with whole grain flour, not white. ALL the kids gobbled them up! Trust me, you could not even taste the spinach.

So anyway we are having fun trying to see what we can sneak into our food. The kid's newest mealtime question is, "So what veggie did you put in this meal?"

Friday School

2008-10-14T13:28:00.000-04:00

Fridays are lighter school days for us. We try to leave time for more fun schooling. We might have school games, art projects and we really enjoy watching science and history videos during lunch. We get some from the library and some from Netflix.

We have enjoyed the Drive Thru History series and Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution.

This week we watched an episode of Popular mechanics for Kids. We all enjoyed the first episode at lunch last Friday. It was on submarines.

Raccoon kept jumping up in her seat saying, "I want to do that!"

HM just kept forgetting to eat. He was enthralled! I knew he would love all the "machines" this video has in it.

Later that day we watched the episode on Monster Trucks. HM was hooked. He wants one and he wants to drive one NOW! Tiger told HM that she did not want him to drive one because she saw one turn over and she did not want him to die. He grabbed her by both arms, looked into her face very intently and said, "I will NOT die, I can drive one and I will NOT die." It was cute!

So if anyone has any new suggestions for us to check out..leave me a comment.

Raccon's turn

2008-10-11T10:26:00.002-04:00

Last Tuesday Raccoon got to take a tunr roller skating.

Not surprisingly she was much more calm than HM.

She did pretty well for a 2 year old first timer.

After awhile she was content to just hold still and let you pull her.

The first thing she said when I put her skates on was, "I have WHEELS!" She only skated a little while. The rest of the time she was content to color with me. She also enjoyed her sister Flamingo buying her some nachos from the snack bar. She had a great time!

Creatures

2008-10-10T10:25:00.000-04:00

This year we have managed to have quite a few creatures around our house. The other day the children caught a big praying mantis. Froggy kept trying to step on it.

We have had groundhogs, rabbits, deer, black widows, grasshoppers, praying mantis, atleast 6 varieties of weird caterpillars, beetles, frogs, and snakes. These are only the odd ones, too. We of coures have at least a hundred varieties of spiders all around and ants, too. You would think we live in the woods and not a pretty decent sized city right in the middle of two major metropolitan areas!!

The new Flamingo

2008-10-09T10:19:00.002-04:00

Yes, Flamingo now wears glasses.

When she went in for her yearly physical they checked hearing and eyesight and she wasn't answering well on the eye test. The nurse just assumed because of her age that she didn't do so well and concluded that her eyes were fine. I decided to get a second opinion from an eye Dr. since I know how well Flamingo can read and answer questions. Sure enough she needs glasses. She does not have to wear them all the time, but mostly for reading things far away and sometimes for clearer focus with school work. She is super excited about her new glasses.

A Doggie Day

2008-10-08T01:35:00.001-04:00

Last Friday we were incredibly blessed to have a lady from our church bring her dogs over. Now these are not just any dogs. They are specially trained dogs. They do tricks and work with children in hospitals and therapy type situations.

Miss D let the kids feed the doggies treats.

They all sat down to watch Grace do her tricks.

Robinson sat down to watch with them.

The kids loved that the dogs ate Cheerios as a treat.
Raccoon got to hold the hoop for Robinson to jump through.

So did Flamingo and Tiger. HM also did but I missed getting a picture of him.

Miss D taught the girls how to walk the dogs and tell them to heel.

The girls got several lessons in dog training. They were doing a good job at practicing Grace's and Robinson's tricks with them.

Thanks again Miss D!!!! We loved our Doggie Day!!

Keep watch for the next few days and I will post some videos of them.

Flamingo's funnies

2008-10-07T01:30:00.000-04:00

We have a stethescope at home that the kids enjoy listening to their heartbeats with. My friend was babysitting and she showed them how to listen to their guts. They could not hear as much as she normally could through hers which is more powerful. Flamingo told me, "ours must be older, it is all used up."

For school time the younger ones have been working on learning their days of the week and other calendar activities. We have been including weather in this and making a weather graph with the older girls. When I showed Flamingo the weather spinner she said, "Oh is that what the weatherman uses to tell us what the weather will be?" LOL Not quite, but it sure seems like it around here!!!

Her logic can be quite humurous at times.

Airport Park

2008-10-06T13:26:00.002-04:00

Last Wednesday we were out at a class and decided to find a park for lunch on the way home. I had heard about this park right by the airport that I thought the kids would enjoy.

It had a fun playground.

Flamingo's favorite part.

There was a set of covered benches for us to eat at while we watched the planes land.

The kids really enjoyed how close we were to the big planes.

Kid's Class

2008-10-05T06:48:00.002-04:00

HM is now old enough to go into Kid's Class at Wednesday night church. He is such a big boy!! He made a project that we now proudly display on our fridge. Now, I am used to getting glowing reports on behavior with my girls, but this time was told he did normal for a boy! LOL Well atleast it wasn't terrible. He gets very excited and even in service we could hear him singing. There is a reason we call him Howler Monkey, if you remember from the intro real Howler Monkeys can be heard up to 5 miles away.

I am sure he will get calmer as the weeks progress.

Tiger's Story

2008-09-30T08:05:00.002-04:00

Tiger wanted to share her story she learned in Latin.

My newest teacher

2008-09-29T08:02:00.000-04:00

Raccoon took it upon her self to "teach" Froggy.

Corn Maze

2008-09-28T08:37:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday as we were getting ready for church, we thought about going to a park after church since it was so nice out and the weather seemed to be cooling down. Then we realized it would be the perfect time to stop by this farm we see every week and do their corn maze. This is the 3rd year we have been saying we were going to do it.

I had to get picks of Raccoon in her cute new dress.

My boys!!

The terrific trio!!

It is so hard to get a pic of the 5 of them. HM always makes a funny face. Froggy kept standing up. Hm can't smile without making a funny face.

They are still cute though!

At the farm.

We went for farm animals instead of zoo animals today.

The mini hay maze.

They had a big pile of hay for the kids to jump into and play on.

Raccoon was a little unsure about standing up. It was pretty high up.

JUMP!

They had a blast in there.

Beautiful Flamingo.

Mom and the little watching all the hay fun. Yes this was before Tiger's bday, you can tell by how long my hair is.

In the corn maze.

Running to Papa Fox.

She was just too cute!!

In the middle on the platform. You could look out and see the whole maze.

In the stocks. Glad they weren't the kind our pastor was talking about!! That was all the kids could talk about when we saw these.

We enjoyed our farm day.

Harvest

2008-09-27T08:05:00.001-04:00

We just recently got the last big harvest from the garden. We dried all the basil, made our last 2 jars of pickles, pulled up the tiny carrots that didn't do very well, and got the last of the red leaf lettuce. I am still getting a ton of tomatoes and we have a few slicing cucumbers coming. I have a few heads of green leaf lettuce, too. The zucchini and most of the squash got some kind of disease. I might get a few more yellow squash. My garden is looking bare now. I eat at least a whole cucumber and whole tomato every day. Soon I will have to start buying them!

Now it is time to start some reading so I can get better at gardening for next year. I think we might try a bigger garden. Maybe I can produce enough tomatoes to make sauce!! Yumm!!!

The birthday girl

2008-09-26T04:59:00.000-04:00

Tiger's birthday present from us was to go camping so we had a pretty low key day for her birthday.

She got to pick all the meals for the day. We started out with chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes and sausage. The best thing about the pancakes was there was SPINACH in them!! Woohoo! I love getting extra vitamins in their food. I will post more on that later.

She opened her present from Nana and Papa. We have all been reading through the book and enjoying it. We are trying to figure out which pages to glue together, LOL, like all the ones on playing pranks on your family and friends. Thanks mom!!! :)

I had to get a picture with the birthday girl. After breakfast we started looking through her scrapbooks. I love doing this with them on their birthdays and talking about all the memories.

For lunch we invited friends over to play. Only two families, but we added up to 11 kiddos and 3 adults. We had homemade bagel bites, homemade garlic fries, green beans, and chocolate cupcakes. The cupcakes had spinach in them!!! Oh yes and the bagel bites had carrots and sweet potatoes. That was 3 extra veggies besides the obvious ones. And yes these were all Tiger's ideas for lunch.

I do not have a ton of pictures, like I said it was a low key day. She spent most of the day at the park with her friends. She was very excited to get a gift card to the exchange where her and her sis like to walk or ride their bikes to. She even got a homemade paper purse to go with it! Thanks Princess Flower!
I was bummed that she spent most of the afternoon lying down because she did not feel well. I think she was having some allergy issues. We have been forgetting to give her, her medicine this week.
For Dinner we had chicken quesadillas, with more hidden veggies. Papa Fox decided to put on the old campy Batman movie on our computer for the kiddos to watch. I could barely stand it!! It was so BAAAADD!! Papa and I could not stop rolling our eyes and wincing. The kids loved it though. Then it was time for icecream. No hidden spinach this time! :)

Tiger's Birthday - 11 years!!!

2008-09-25T01:40:00.000-04:00

Tiger a few days old, I don't have many younger pics of her on the computer since we did not get a digital camera until she was almost four. So these will not be the best photos of her.

napping with mom

She is about 18 months here. We loved to go to this park.

Her 2 year old birthday!

I made this outfit for her and our friend gave us the red shoes. She loved those red shoes. I had to hide them when she outgrew them.

Her caterpillar cake with ladybugs surrounding it. We had fun with this birthday.

This was November after she turned 2, shortly before we moved from Key West.

This was a few months before she turned 3. I was so glad to be able to do pigtails.

I loved those curls!!

3 year old Christmas picture.

A fun picture we took for daddy before he left for 6 months.

Super Tiger!! HM now wears these pjs.

Love that wild hair!!!!!!

4 years old

1st Day of School...yes at home, but we still had to have the backpack and lunch box! :)

5 years old!! She had a Hawaiian party just like I did when I was 5.

Papa Fox buried his children

6 years old. This was taken in Kauai, Hawaii

7 years old and driving!!! Yes she was actually driving... in a very low gear and very slowly.

7 years old!!! She had a backyard pool party.

8 years old, she had a tea party.

9 years old!

And finally 10 years old!!!!

Check back tomorrow for the 11 year old!!!!

Park Day with Dad

2008-09-24T03:30:00.001-04:00

Papa Fox took the animals to the park last Saturday. They had fun. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Oh, and yes those are scabs all over Raccoon's face taht you see in the close up. She ran full speed down our sidewalk to get a ball and landed face first on the concrete. It actually looks much better than it did last week.

Blogging Game

2008-09-23T03:50:00.000-04:00

I know I am about a week behind on blogs, but we interrupt your regularly scheduled reading to play a game!!!

Blogging game:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I (or any of my family members) had together. It doesn't matter if you knew us a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions (if you haven't done this already) on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

My new stroller

2008-09-23T03:14:00.002-04:00

Since I have been doing a lot of walking lately, we decided to go ahead and get a new stroller. This is the one I wanted when I was pregnant with Froggy. You see this is the double stroller model of my favorite single stroller. It just seemed foolish to spend the money then when I had two working strollers and big kids to help push them.
I love how it folds, I LOVE the tall handles, I love the drop basket, I love it maneuverability. It is such a great stroller!

During the morning the little ones and I have been going for walks or to parks around the neighborhood. When we got the new stroller, I decided to really break it in, we walked to the commissary for groceries. HM is a good walker and without his older sisters around he matured several years. He was so obedient and super helpful. When we got to the commissary, was when it dawned on me that I did not have a big helper to push the cart! Not to worry, HM says, "I will do it Mommy!" And he did. See I love this stroller, I was able to push it one handed while steering/pulling the cart behind me. I was so happy about my new stroller that I didn't mind all the bruises from HM repeatedly running into my heels with the cart.

The bagger gave me a funny look when I told him I did not have a car for him to take my groceries to. He seemed uncertain as to whether or not to give me my groceries. "Where are you going to put them?" "In my stroller." "Here let me do it for you." "No, thank you I can do it." He just looks at me like I am insane, then the cashier pipes in with, "leave her be, she has 3 kids she can do anything." WOW! Suddenly 3 kids make me invincible. Maybe she just thought my stroller was that cool, too. Should I have mentioned the 2 others who weren't with me? :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

2008-09-22T03:06:00.006-04:00

A tribute to my mom who turns 29 today!! We love you and miss you HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

To a Nana who.....

...can survive a night in a hotel with 5 kids and be happy when they all jump on her bed in the morning.

....who has to be told to stop giggling with the 2 year old so he can go to bed.

who knows how to hide in a box with a grandson.

who like to play catch.

who can still enjoy watching "Cars" for the 201st time.

who likes to swing in circles and get dizzy.

who listens to babble and doesn't ming being drooled on.

who can push two kiddos, watch two more do tricks on different sides of the playground, listen for the sleeping infant, carry on a conversation with her daughter, and do it all in 90 degree weather, with 200% humidity, and still smile!

who knows the value of bubbles!

who enjoys funnel cake.

who can ride scary rides...

and slow ones.

who can hold a squirmy boy through a dolphin show.

who likes to play dress up.

who knows how to snuggle.

and giggle and giggle and giggle and giggle and giggle...

who is such a good sport when you play games and she wins.

who likes to read books...even two different ones at the same time! :)

We love you and miss you!!! Happy Birthday to one super Nana.

xoxoxoxxoxoxo

An Early Birthday Present

2008-09-21T03:07:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday Tiger received two packages in the mail. One from Grandpa and Grandma with goodies for everyone and a present for Tiger. The other was from Papa and Nana with a wrapped present and an unwrapped present.

Nana has been collecting coins for quite awhile. Since Tiger showed an interest, she decided to pass on her collection to Tiger. She was so thrilled!

Thank you again everyone!!!

Preschool

2008-09-20T02:19:00.000-04:00

Just some fun pictures of the little ones doing "school"

The museum

2008-09-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Seems it seem to be tradition for any camping trip we take now, we had to have a day of rain. So when we woke up to rain the next morning, we packed up and headed into town for a trip to the children's museum. We were the ONLY people there, besides one gentleman from the Netherlands who came to see the aviation part of the museum. It was so great!!!!!!

HM got into the plane and had me sit with him. He then proceeds to teach me how to fly the plane. He was telling me what everything was. "This is the light switch. These are the pushies and these are the turnies. This makes us go up when I pull it."
"Wow, what is this?" I ask.
"that tells us we are going there," as he points to a picture on the dash.
I ask a few more questions and he pauses, sighs, and then says, "Stop telling me questions, I am trying to drive the airplane." I laughed so hard! Hmmm, could he possible have heard mom say that before??? Substitute car of course.

Flying with his sisters.

Raccoon was impressed witht he big vault door. The museum was an old bank.

My aspiring gymnasts.

Trying to fit all the organs back in the body.

Papa and I took turns playing in the toddler area and going with the bigger kids to other exhibits. We gave the girls a cell phone and let them roam on their own.
He was thrilled with the ball.

Playing with Papa and the camera.

I'm so cute!

Papa playing with the two youngest and the camera.

They had a very neat eye exhibit.

Raccoon and HM loved the agriculture room.

Playing in corn.

They had a cow that you could enter throught the mouth and inside learn all about the cows stomach and digestion.

And this was how you exited. HM love going through the cow over and over again!

Picking fruit.

Shopping.

They had fun puzzle shopping lists for the older kids. Here is Tiger trying to figure out a fruit that does not grow on a tree.

Building a town.

After we left the museum we headed to the mall for a much overdue lunch. When we saw the museum had a cafe, we assumed we would buy lunch there. Wrong! It was a room with tables that you could bring your own food to. So luckily we had a snack with us because we did not get lunch until after 2pm.

We played at the fun play area in the mall and headed back to the campground. It was no longer raining and the kids had fun getting all dirty again!

The next morning we headed home!

Zookeepers

We're moving!

Logan's Toe

The Play

Saturday

Married?

Share

We're Back!

Semi-Retirement

Flamingo's Birthday!!

What can you cook???

Artificial??

TWO YEAR OLD FROGGY

Froggy's Birthday!!

The Big Birthday Bash

Latin by Tiger

Crashing Therapy

Home Therapy

Random pictures from March/April

Raccoon is 3!

Happy Birthday Raccoon!!

My Dolls, by Tiger

February and March Madness

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA FOX

16 Wonderful Years

Lipstick??

All about Howler Monkey Part 3

All about Howler Monkey Part 2

All about Howler Monkey Part One

It's a Jungle!

Playing with Daddy

Where have you been??

Re-enlisting

Snow Day

Happy New Year

Pics from December

Bowling

Merry Christmas

Hungry

Cleaning Day

Our Thanksgiving Day

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Snow Day

Kids and cameras

Crafts

Romp n Stomp

My New Toy

The box

Inline Skating

Caramel Apples

Saturday

An American Girl Day

Tiger's job

Sunday Drive

Bowling

Tiger's skirt

Twins

Park Day

Cable TV

Pause please

New Game

Saturday Sewing Day

Family Fun Night at Church

Animal Week

Zoo Day

Silly kids

My little chef

Raccoon

Funny kids

The Big Sewing Day

Slumber party

Bike Riding

What are they saying??

Kids Training Doggies

Doggie visit part 2

Doggie videos Part 1

New Room arrangement

Scandal at Church

An Appeal

Sneaky Chef