Critter Time

The girls were so excited to find this little guy.  Can you see him?!

It is a Walking Stick!  Marian said she was climbing the tree and saw it and it scared her when it moved.

Callie thinks it is funny to put things on her head.

And she LOVES to pose for pictures.

We did something fun yesterday.  We trekked out to the Big Cat Sanctuary  

 I know, it isn't a cat.  they rescue all kinds of wildlife and this bear was so cute, playing in his pool.

They did have a lot of tigers, some cougars and lions as well. There were some other odd things, including bobcats and ligers.  they were so pretty!  And HUGE!

Bengal Tiger and Siberian tiger. Awesome!

 Here I am with my crew. It was really hot and the kids were grumpy and thirsty.  They survived.

This kind of sums it up.  Hot, sweaty, slightly grouchy, but with a quirky smile.

Hot Summer Days

I'm not sure when the Dog Days of Summer are, but it is heating up here.  The humidity has descended and it is HOT!   It kinda makes me wish I ice skated.

  It is so fun to watch these 2 play.  Delaney is so sweet- helping Rylee get dressed and putting her shoes on.  Here they are playing so nicely together, picking the little fruits that grow on the tree.  I think they are plums.

 We also spent a toasty day at Silver Dollar City in Branson!!  It was a lot of fun. 

This was Rylee in line to the Pirate ride.  It got dark and scary, so she clung to Grandpa.

I thought the ride was lots of fun.  You got to shoot at stuff!  Rylee did not like the ride and spent the whole time in that very position- with her head buried in my leg.

 The older children wanted to go on this ride.  None of us grownups wanted to, so Joshua, Marian, Callie and Aaron went on it themselves.  If you look closely,  Joshua is in the very back (or the very top) and Marian is 2 rows in front of him in the purple.  Callie is next to her in the pink, and you can barely see part of Aaron's orange shirt.  They loved the ride, by the way!

As the afternoon heated up, we went to the kiddie area where there were water things and fun stuff for kids.  Joshua totally shot me with this nerf ball cannon.

We rode some water rides and got quite drenched.  I had hoped to capture the extreme dampness in a picture, but alas, you cannot tell.

It was a great day at the amusement park and we had a good time.  We may go back in a week or two!

And what is more fun than rescuing a bunny rabbit from the fence?!!  I came back from a long dog walk the other morning to see this.  Callie and Aaron said it was stuck in the fence in the backyard, so they helped it.  They wanted to keep it, but I said no.

Some scouts used these canoes and my dad got to help drive them around.  The canoes ended up here and Callie was thrilled to be a helper.  It was pretty funny to see her with the pressure washer.  Whenever she pulled the handle, the power of the water would jerk her whole body back.  But she kept at it and did a good job!

And then all the children had a marvelous time climbing on and playing on the canoes on the trailer.  Yes, even Rylee climbed up on top pretty much all by herself.

Even though it is getting hotter, the fun is really just beginning for us! 

What goes up, Must come down

 Mom and Dad know some pretty awesome people.  One nifty guy has some great model planes.  Very cool model planes.  We went over to see him fly them.  Who do YOU know who has a flight line in their backyard?!!

Sadly, the first plane met with tragedy.  The wings blew off and the body of the plane made a spectacular nosedive to the ground.  Here is the rescue crew.  What I love most about this shot is that Dennis is carrying part of the plane and carrying Rylee.  Did I mention he's pretty awesome?

The battered remains of the plane.  The children were quite impressed.  

Next was plane #2.  The lawn mower provided the electric power to start the plane.  

I need to crop this shot.  You can't tell well, but the plane is "chasing" Aaron.  The kids had so much fun. You can see the flying field there in the background.

Yes, even Joshua had a great time!

Who knew it would be so much fun to watch a giant remote controlled plane do spins and barrel rolls and other fun stuff?

Some of us sat comfortably and snacked on cookies while we enjoyed the show.

Marian was much more rambunctious till she got some thorns in her hand.

 Did I mention that they have motorcycles as well?  I did say they were cool folks!

Before we left, the kids sang their favorite song.  It was a really fun evening.

Puppy Love

 For my birthday this year, I tried something new.  I got myself a puppy!  I know, who'd have thought?!  It was rather a surprise to us all, but he's cute, he fits what we wanted, and he's a sweetheart.  I had expected we'd get an adult dog when the time came, but alas, I'm dealing with housebreaking and a baby dog who doesn't want to sleep alone at night.  Fortunately, he'll grow out of that.

 

  So this is Levi.  He is a 3 month old Australian Shepherd with some good breeding (that I care nothing about).  He does have one blue eye and one brown eye and he's a "blue merle" color. He was a bit overwhelmed by all the children at first, but you can see he's settling in nicely.

 He was the runt, which is good for me.  He should stay around 35 pounds.  Isn't he a cutie?!  He's also quite smart and has quickly learned who's the boss (me!), and how to walk on a leash.  He's doing really well.  The children, especially Joshua, can't wait till they can teach him tricks.  I find it quite flattering that I am now the center of his universe.  Wherever I go, the dog follows.  Whenever I walk him, he has his eyes glued to me to see what I'm doing.  If I sit down, he sits under my chair or on my feet.  I think I like adulation!

Callie is in heaven.

Me too.

Fun with Water

Grandma and Grandpa have a water table that is a lot of fun.  Mostly before the novelty wears off.

Some children have fun in different ways.  for them, the novelty never really goes away!

Some of my other children feel the constant need for something new.  I told Joshua he could build a fun water playground here in Arkansas, because there is room here to do it.  There is not room at home to put it up and no room to really store it either.  If you want to make your own, check out Family Fun's Kid Wash.  I printed out the instructions, took Joshua to Home Depot and got the stuff.  Honestly, it was pricier than they projected, but I did buy the PVC pipe cutters (and I'm SO glad I did!!!).  I hauled everything home and let Joshua go to town.

 He measured the lengths and cut all the pipe all by himself.  I sat in the house.

He followed the directions and put it together.... all by himself!

He had help from his sisters to hang the sponges and towel strips.

I really only came out at the end to admire his work.  And to help drill the holes.  We did use the 1/16 bit- the smallest drill bit there was.  We drilled a few, turned the water on, and then drilled a few more.  We had plenty of water pressure and kept blowing the red noodle off the top.

I don't know if you can see the water in this shot, but it worked very well.  Thee kids were delighted with the project.  I was incredibly impressed that Joshua did it all on his own.  He would have drilled the holes himself too, but it was hard work for him and I felt the need to claim I was of some use!

If you do want to make this, Family fun does have good specs.  However, we followed the advice of others and put the fewer and smaller drill holes, and did not put in the gate.  I wish we had gotten some extra + connectors, because the tallest piece has no support and tends to fall over.  We may go back and give it a support beam.... or not.  We got cheap sponges at the Dollar Store and used towel strips rather than the lawn chair webbing.  The sponges have already been ripped off the twine, so I'm not sure we'll replace those.  Dollar Store noodles may be the next attempt.  So far- Super Fun!!