Girl Scout Camp

The girls attended a weekend camp this spring. Why my girls chose to be the only girls to be buried in the sand up to their chins is beyond me. Good thing we were headed home that night. It would have been a bit uncomfortable to have camped covered in sand.

We had a great time together - just the girls and me. Allen stayed home with the boys and Amelia. I did real good enjoying my girls and not worrying about the baby until another baby came to visit his mom at camp. This baby and Amelia were born a few weeks apart. Suddenly I got kind of anxious to go home...motherly instinct and all. We were just heading home then anyway so it worked out well.

5 Little Monkeys...

...swinging in the tree!

We have a tree in the backyard that is actually large enough for the kids to play in. One day they played games up there for hours.
AAAhhh....to be a kid again...

Guadalupe River State Park Campout

Our school was one of the Texas districts to close for the swine flu. Church services were also cancelled for the weekend.
So Allen and I joined some friends and took the kids camping.
We found this really nice state park about an hour from us. The setting was cool - kind of hard to tell from the photo though.
We played at the river Saturday and had a family church "meeting" on Sunday. (More like a family home evening.)
I did decide that if we ever camp on Sunday again we would not set up or take down that day - the kids commented on how it didn't feel much like a Sunday, I agreed.





Allen, our friends, and I stayed up late playing games at the picnic table. We were stalked by the raccoons. They wouldn't leave our camp alone. They were pretty bold about coming up to the light too. We couldn't figure out what was so attractive about our camp. Then it dawned on me...never dump hot dog water near a tree...2 feet from the campsite.


We all brought fishing gear. Although I don't know what we would have done if we would have caught anything...neither Allen nor myself have ever gutted or fried up a fish. Catch and release? Seems pretty cruel to me. As it was the fish weren't biting that day. The kids had fun practicing casting though.

Hanging out at Camp

Amelia is at a stage where she loves to crawl and put everything in her mouth. Unfortunately this combination had her confined to her play pen or someone's arms the entire trip. She didn't like losing her freedom. (It made it harder on mom and dad too.)

Swimming at the Guadalupe River

More pictures from camping at Guadalupe River State Park.
The river was nice and shallow - which was perfect for the kids.




Gabriel spent much of his time building a dam across the river.
Simon & Oliver were so cute with their floaties...notice that they don't really need them.
Katrina & Abagail enjoyed using their floaties to ride the rushing current caused by the dam.

A Day at the Zoo

Checking out the San Antonio zoo.


The zoo had a really cool new exhibit called Africa Live. It allows you to view hippos and crocodiles from the water level. It also has various other small African animals and reptiles. Previously all a visitor could see of the hippos was their rear sticking out of the water as they slept...now we get up close and personal.

I included a photo of a huge python (with Simon looking through the glass) especially for my mom. She doesn't like the fact that we have a python in the house...ours will never get close to this big!


I made up a bedtime song years ago called, "There's lots of animals in the zoo". The kids still request it many times per week. I think that title goes with this photo.

Pals!

It is so fun to see these two play together. A minute before I grabbed my camera Amelia was delightedly watching as Oliver SOAKED the door with water from the hose. She kept trying to grab the water. (Mom was gald there was a door in the way.)

Oliver teaches Amelia all the important things...such as playing with trains and dinosaurs, playing make believe games, watching movies (even though Amelia won't EVER watch for more than a minute).

Oliver even keeps Amelia "safe" by making sure she doesn't eat things off the floor or go in the bathroom or fall off the couch (never mind that he put her there in the first place).

Sometimes Oliver gets a bit intense...but Oliver is a great big brother and Amelia loves him.

It's a Race!

Yesterday I challenged the kids to a reading race. They love to read and are pretty fast - although I am suspicious they skip over less-interesting parts.

We are now in a race to read the Book of Mormon. We read individually.
We have 3 rules:
1 - read as much or as little as you want each day, but read each day.
2 - no skipping parts
3 - be honest

I thought I would need to take it slow so I wouldn't discourage them - as I assumed I would be able to get WAY ahead. However, this weekend seems to have proved me wrong.

Katrina and Abagail have spent most free time reading, they are both in 2 Nephi already. Gabriel discovered this and got busy.

Simon and Oliver are doing a modified challenge. Simon was already on chapter 1 Nephi 12. His challenge is to see how much he can read before we all finish. Oliver is going to read a few verses from each chapter with me.

All the kids have charts to help them track their progress. We plan to celebrate with a family party when we are finished.

We are all off to a running start...now mom has to catch up!

Marshmallow Madness

We went on a campout yesterday. Katrina created this collage of roasting our yummy treat.

More to come when I get a chance.