Cupid's Cuties

This year, I decided to host a little Valentine's Day party with some of our friends. Since Valentine's Day was on a Friday we got to enjoy our party on the actual day. We invited the Tims and Mashburns over for a homeschool Valentine's Day  party.

Miss Jess brought an extra visitor so we had 20 students total. The kids decorated boxes (the Mashburn kiddos get bonus points for the best boxes) and selected valentines. I talked to my kids and all the boys wanted to give out food related valentines. LOL

I was a bit of a lazy mom and didn't fill out the "to" portion of the cards. Since I have more non-readers that readers, I thought that would make things simpler for them. It proved to be a real time saver, and I'll continue to be lazy in the future.

The younger kids didn't really grasp the concept of giving out cards. In fact, a few tears were shed at the thought of giving away their sack of goodies. However, when the delivery of cards was complete there were lots of happy campers! I heard several discussions of having a party next year and schemers trying to develop a plan to pass out cards for lots of holidays. LOL

Candyce made handmade valentines that were super cute. Even though she gave my 8 children whistles, we're still friends. Haha! This little girl couldn't quite figure out what she was doing wrong. Unfortunately for me, her older siblings helped her out.

Tie Dye Take 2

One of our absolute favorite things to do is have friends over, especially the Mashburn and Tims families. Back in the late summer the kids and I tie dyed shirts. It was so much fun that we wanted to do it again. After looking at our blog pictures about our experience, our friends thought it sounded like fun as well so we decided to have a tie dye party and decorate shirts together! I was hoping to make our dying experience into a great Christmas party but I found myself greatly lacking in the energy department and 37 weeks pregnant. We had a great time and there's always next year for a party!

Getting the tables out was a much better plan than dying shirts while sitting on the ground (not to mention that I've grown quite a bit since then and would have found myself stuck there!).

I also recommend that mom put on gloves before mixing colors or touching anything in the box! I *might* have had blue fingers for a week after a lid wasn't properly secured. The mommas helped the kids get the shirts folded and wrapped with rubber bands. Then we let them squirt dye, mostly as they pleased.

Mary Claire got in on the action this time and her shirt turned out great! She might be the next Picasso of the tie dying world!

We used the same kit that I purchased from Amazon previously. I won't be doing any tie dying without it! I do recommend enough gloves for each person that will be touching the shirts or dye and lots and lots of rubber bands. It comes with a fair amount and if you were only dying 5 or 6 shirts it would probably be plenty. The rubber bands could also be dried and reused but I decided to throw them away. Dye covered rubber bands waiting to dry would result in dye covered children in my home. The disposable pans are nice because they help contain the mess and can then be dropped in a large outdoor garbage can.

Madisyn enjoyed the tie dying and visiting with friends but holding baby Stella was her favorite part of the day. Candyce had quite an exciting birth story and I can't wait to "hear" all about it again on her blog. Candyce also amazed us all with how well she was getting around just a little over a week after Stella was born. I'm in the hermit camp and tend to stick close to home after a new little one joins our family. I'm hoping for a little of Candyce's energy this time. ;-)

Our finished product! I purchased two kits and so far we have been able to do 9 short sleeve shirts, 8 long sleeved shirts, and two baby one piece short outfits. We still have 1/2 bottle of all three colors of dye.

Fun at Fort Rock, Part 1

A little over a week ago, we attended Fort Rock Family Camp. We had a great time and since I took over 500 pictures in three days, six posts about our fun are in the works. I'm going to post them every other day so I can share some other things we have going on as well. So stay tuned for more!

 

We arrived on Thursday night and settled into our cabin. Each cabin has a queen bed and two sets of bunk beds. We only expected four beds for the kids and had told the younger ones they would have to share. When we got to camp we found that the staff had placed two extra mattresses in the floor for us. We also brought a Pack N Play for Liberty. The cabins are designed to look like rustic old west cabins from the 1800s but with all the important things like air conditioning and indoor plumbing. ;-)

We were fortunate that our friends, the Mashburns and Tims we also able to come during our camp time so we already knew 2 of the other 15 families present. After we unpacked the van, made the beds and headed outside for some free time.

Fort Rock is in the mountains of Northwest Arkansas and our flatland children loved running up and down the hills. They picked flowers and found lots of neat rocks.

We had two family sessions each day. We sang songs, played games and heard from various speakers {a few gave testimonials and one man brought a few sermons on family}. One of the games we played involved the moms. Each mom was given a cookie to place on her forehead. Without using our hands we were to move the cookie down to our mouths. The kids and dads had a great time cheering us on/laughing at us, little did they know - their time was coming.

The dads played a game called Chubby Bunny. They started off stuffing three large marshmallows in their mouths and then said Chubby Bunny into the mic. The dads that said it plainly advanced to the next round. I believe they got up to 11 marshmallows before the winner was crowned.

The moms we involved in another game, skillet tossing. We were given iron skillets and we tossed them as far as we could. I'm happy to report that no one was injured in this competition. ;-)

During each game there was lots of cheering and laughing!

The last game the dads played was wearing frozen t-shirts. The shirts were wet down and then folded very compactly. They were then frozen. Kent said it was really hard to get the material to separate. It was really stuck together but as time went on, his hands were going numb.

The last game involved the kiddos. The director picked one child from each family to participate. They were given baby bottles filled with lemonade. The first one to drink it all, won. You could tell this game had been played several times because the rules included no removing the lid, no biting, etc.

Check back for more fun at Fort Rock!

Slippin and a Slidin

What says summer more than water! We bought an above ground pool a few years ago on clearance and we have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last year we rented an inflatable water slide for Ben's 5th Birthday Party. It was also lots of fun so we decided to rent it again this year.

The only thing that could make a pool and a slide more fun is to share it with friends! We wanted to enjoy it all day so we had a 4th of July party on the 6th of July {Saturday}.

We were really excited that the Mashburn and Tims families were able to join us. The adults wasted no time and got right to visiting and the kids got wet as soon as possible!

It was almost as much fun to splash friends as it was to actually go down the slide! The ground all around the pool at the base of the slide was soaked!

We were blessed with weather warm enough for playing but enough clouds to keep everyone from looking like lobsters.

The younger kids didn't seem to enjoy the thrill of going down the slide but they found plenty of popsicles, cookies, doughnuts and chips to keep them happy all day.

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They even managed to calm the fun enough to pose for a picture at the top.

 When the thrill seeking died down a bit the pool offered a nice, calm place to have some fun.

As evening neared our visitors dried off and we found a few other ways to have fun.

 

Griffin shared his tablet.

 

The menfolk  checked out the chickens.

 

The the horsey gave a few rides.



BBQ and Guns

 

On the Fourth of July we were invited to our friends, The Tims, home for a BBQ celebration.

Don did a great job on the BBQ and Ribs and we all had a great time fellowshipping. The Mashburns also joined us so there was plenty of fellowshipping to go around.

The kids found the water guns and had a great time soaking one another.

 

It didn't take long before the power of the water hose was discovered and true soaking began.

Meanwhile the adults and littlest stayed safely under the carport where all forms of water shooting devices were banned. :-)

The men can complain all they want about the women gabbing a little too much but it was the males of the families that kept going and going and . .  .

Addy and Ava were such good little girls. They stayed far away from the water and played on the driveway with sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

Madisyn grew tired of the shooting games and joined us on the carport.

Mary Claire still hasn't realized that she is not a big kid. LOL She got a little more than she bargained for when she left the safety of the carport for the backyard.

Zoo Take Two

One of our favorite things about homeschooling is the ability to take a field trip on any day we choose. We typically avoid Fridays because so many school groups make field trips then.

On Good Friday we had plans to visit the zoo with our friends and we were rained out. So we set a rain date and visited last week. It was anything but rainy. Several of us got a little sunburn. I left feeling like the worst Mommy ever as Liberty got her first burn. Her little face and one arm were more exposed in the Ergo than I realized. As soon as we got home I contacted Mrs. Stephanie at The Shifty Fox and placed an order for a sunhat. I'm not used to such a fair skinned babe.

We started off in Cat Country. After visiting the felines, the kids asked to visit the nre Sting Ray exhibit. I didn't realize there was an additional charge, so we settled with taking pictures instead. Hopefully, Daddy can make a trip with us and we can visit the Sting Rays another time.

 



Since we were there with the Mashburn and Tims families, picture taking took quite some time.

 

After taking a picture with everyone the kids checked out the elephant statue.

 

We headed to lunch and then visited the farm. A favorite activity for me is getting a picture of the kids on the cow. We've been getting one most trips since Madisyn and Ty were babies. My oldest babies are getting a little tired of the routine but they indulge their Momma anyway. :-)

 

We love hanging out with our friends. It's so nice to have friends were the kids like each other, the dads like each other and the moms like each other. When we all get together that's over 23 personalities to contend with! It's amazing that many people can enjoy each other.

Each time we get together we always forget to get a picture of  the kids. We didn't this time! It took awhile to get the kids gathered up from the playground. When we started, this hippo was free of other children. By the time we had everyone gathered up, some poor child had gotten in with our group and was trapped inside. She didn't seem to mind and we didn't even no she was there until she came out when we started leaving. LOL Either she's incredibly patient or she doesn't quite understand how photobombing works! :-)