Fort Rock Mother/Daughter Retreat

Earlier this fall, Madisyn, Felicity and I attended a Mother/Daughter retreat at Fort Rock Family Camp.  This was my third trip to Fort Rock and I just can't say enough good things about the whole experience. If you know anything about our family, you know that we love to do things that involve the whole family. Fort Rock is wonderful for that. The entire family can visit and work and play together.

One of families we met at family camp last year was also in attendance. We bought some wonderful handmade soap by the girls. We're years away from thinking of creating as many wonderful soap variations as the Runyon family, but Madisyn and I might have to try our hands at making some goat milk soap this winter.

Of course, we did all the iconic Fort Rock things - archery, shooting range and even tomahawk throwing. Who knows, if we attend a few more times we might be able to get all the arrows in the target {archery and shooting 22s with a baby in a Ergo requires extra skill}.

The highlight of the event was the workshops. Michelle, Jana and Jinger Duggar and Nancy Newport brought wonderful sessions on strengthening our Mother/Daughter relationship. Michelle and Nancy are both wonderful Titus 2 ladies. I really wish more older and younger ladies would try to learn from each other. These ladies that have raised faithful, Christian adults without rebellion have so much to share.

I have to say, Michelle Duggar is just as sweet and wonderful in person as she is on TV. It's too bad she doesn't do home visits ala Super Nanny style. I would be first in line to sign us up!

Christmas at Home

We started off Christmas Day with our traditional Christmas Morning pajama picture. This is our last photo as a family of 9.

I'm quite proud of my avid readers, so we gave lots of books for Christmas. If one of the older children has disappeared you can almost guarantee they've snuck off to their room with a book. This year we gave gifts of something to wear, something to read and something you need. With 7 {and soon 8} children we decided to add some "rules" to make things a little simpler.

Madisyn's gift to her brothers was a framed picture of them with Papaw. The boys loved the gifts and promptly hung them on the wall over their beds.

Mary Claire loved her Minnie Mouse shirt with her name on it. The girl loves Minnie Mouse and all things pink.

Bowling Is Right Up Our Alley

Back in May we participated in a "School's Out" bowling party with 4-H. We had trouble locating my camera so I borrowed Madisyn's camera. Some how the memory card was misplaced and we just found it! I'm so glad, as it held the only pictures of most of the kids first bowling trip and Henry's Birthday.

Our older children had been bowling before but the last time we went as a family, Ben wasn't a year old yet! Needless to say, they were able to participate much more this time.

We were very thankful that the bowling alley placed bumpers in the gutters. This made the game much for fun. The 7 and under crew played on the bumper lane and the rest of us played on the other lane.

Daddy was able to join us and he was a great coach! The ball was nearly as big as Henry and Mary Claire but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Even Libby enjoyed the family time!

Big sisters make everything more fun!

The little girls only made it through one game but the rest of us played two! Kent and I took turns holding little people, bowling our frames and helping the middle kids. We were worn out by the time we were done!

We had a great time bowling. It's amazing how much more enjoyable it is to bowl since smoking has been banned. We look forward to more family times at the bowling alley.

Fair-ly Nice Day

We had a beautiful day last week so I decided to take the kids to the district fair. What boy doesn't love an excavator sized just for him. Can you imagine the destruction Ben could create with this little gem?

What could possibly go wrong with Henry behind the wheel? They aren't even moving and Mary Claire and Ben are having a blast! We love visiting fairs and seeing all the animals {our family isn't much for rides, though}. Our local county fair isn't very large and I knew by state fair time I wouldn't be up for walking on uneven ground, so the district fair seemed to be a perfect fit.

Our favorite part of the fair was the petting zoo. Ty was generous and bought food to feed the animals. He divided it among his brothers and sisters and everyone had a chance to feed something.

Some of the animals had their fill of the dry food and would only come to the fence for carrots.

The Antelope was a favorite but everyone was afraid to let him eat out of their hands. They placed carrots on top of the feeder and let him get them from there.

Another favorite activity at the fair is having pictures made in front of equipment. I think it goes without saying that for the Witcher kids, the bigger the better!

A picture in the bucket of the tractor sounded like a good idea but getting everyone to look didn't work out so well. LOL

Even though the rides weren't open when we visited, a picture in front of the Ferris Wheel is a fair time tradition.

 

We decided to save Kent a little time and shop for our next car. ;-)

 

Next we hit the exhibit hall. The kids enjoyed petting a bear pelt at the State Park booth. They were very happy to report to the interpretor that they had visited several of the parks she had featured on the sign.

Of course, the best part of the exhibit hall is all the free stuff. PLEASE, vendors when you see a woman with seven children visit your booth, PLEASE don't tell her children they can have one of everything when she just told them they could pick one thing. Any number times 7 means lots and lots of papers, flyers, business cards, key chains, bumper stickers and bags that will make a mess all over the van and boys' room. Not that I know that from experience or anything. ;-)

First Official Field Trip of the Year

Each year when the public schools in our state start school, we take a field trip. Typically, we've been doing school for 6 weeks. We take a little trip to celebrate our way of schooling. Another reason we started this tradition is that no one misses the first day of school, so everything is vacant.

This year we visited the Children's Museum of Memphis. They installed a splash park this year and we decided that we were way behind on visiting.

This was the first time I had taken the kids to a splash park of any kind. Madisyn and Ty were a bit big for it, but since it was pretty much just us it didn't really matter.

It was much more enjoyable for me than a pool because no one was going to drown. ;-) I was able to place a chair in the shade and just watch.

Mary Claire made a couple of friends. She loves to get around other little girls. However, she doesn't say much and just stands by them. Later she'll talk about her new "friends" but she never said a word to them.

There was lots of squealing and laughing as the water sprayed them in the face.

Liberty didn't really care for the water. There wasn't any for her to sit in and it was a bit cold. Luckily for her non-walking self , big brothers and sisters didn't leave her out of the fun.

Who says the baby of the family get ignored? :-)

The bigger kids enjoyed the feature than dumped a few gallons them. The water was cold and the temps were only in the mid-80s so it was quite a shock when the water hit.

This was Libby's favorite hang out. She much preferred crawling all over the towels and shoes to getting wet.

Morning Mayhem

Imagine my surprise when I downloaded the pictures from the camera memory card and discovered a morning of fun the children had! The photographer {Madisyn, I believe} caught her brothers and sisters in all kinds of mischief, while Mommy prepared for the day.

 

 

Ben was wonderful at devouring the rest of the bananas.

 Tyler helped himself to the remainder of the cookie dough.

 

Mary Claire and Liberty had lots of carrots {at least they were health conscious}. Maybe that's why Libby's hair looks so orange?!? ;-)

But the greatest surprise was the photo shoot that captured the many faces of Griffin. I hope they make you smile as much as I did. I'm still not sure what prompted him to dig out his fishing derby certificate from June to use as a prop, but the boy has a future in comedy.