December Camping Tour

Post #2

Christmas Eve at the beach

We spent Christmas Eve with Heather's cousin, Laura, at Bonita Beach in Bonita Springs. It truly was "bonita" (beautiful!). What a totally different feeling to be at the beach this time of year. Very foreign to me. I am used to much the opposite, in fact, normally I would choose to be snow skiing over being at the beach, but we had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, not typical hot and muggy summer beach weather, but in the 70's and breezy. The water was quite chilly, but we all managed to actually swim in it (why come all the way to Florida and not swim in the Gulf?). The kids made sand castles, sand snowmen, collected more shells than we will take home, ate lunch at a beach cafe, and played in the water. An added bonus was that this beach is the home of the Gopher Tortoise Preserve, so we got to see lots of these tortoises throughout the park.
Heather and Laura....our dads are brothers

Eric found a live hermit crab in this shell

Our family

eric working on his sand castle

Bay and Leah looking at the gopher tortoise

December Camping Tour

Post #1

We are in the middle of our December Camping Trip and I finally have time to post some highlights of the trip. We left the week before Christmas and drove down to Florida...brought along the camper, bikes, car-top carrier...loaded to the hilt. Everyone is having a great time.

First stop was Faver-Dykes State Park near St. Augustine. We drove down to Daytona Beach after we settled in to visit with Dennis' step-dad, Sam. Took Elsa to a local d0g-park to let her run, and the kids to a playground to let them run! We love the abundance of the live oak trees with all of the spanish moss here...so pretty. We also drove on the beach for a bit, but couldn't get out to walk...no dogs allowed on the beach in Daytona.

The state park we found is a hidden gem I think. It is very small (only 30 sites) and extremely well maintained. It was well secluded and also gated at sunset, so we felt very safe. Here is the view of the marsh from the playground area. We were told to watch out for the local wildlife: armadillos, alligators, snakes and racoons. Never saw any, but heard many things in the brush at night. Not to worry...there is much to be seen further on in our trip!

Visited old St. Augustine and enjoyed the town very much. The kids enjoyed all of the cannons on the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. It was a really neat fort. We didn't do any tour, just ran through the fort at kid-speed! We also walked through the shops in the town and did the Holly Jolly Christmas Trolly to see the Christmas lights...the whole town and many of the bed & breakfasts go all out to decorate everything!

Here we are at the fort with the sun sinking in the background. We are used to the sun setting at about 4:30 pm this time of year at home, so we have enjoyed the full extra hour of daylight while down here. Same time zone, so we figure it must be because we are a bit further west, as well as much further south.

Look for the next post to be from Ft. Myers on the Gulf Coast. So far we've logged over 1500 miles on the truck!

Christmas Surprise for Leah & a dissappointment
"Kit"

I am so excited about my handmade Christmas present for Leah. One of the things that is so surprising to me about her is her lack of interest in baby dolls; but on the flip side, her extreme interest in animal dolls and how she treats them as if they are baby dolls. She dresses them up, feeds them bottles, and all of the things that little girls do with baby dolls, except she wants nothing to do with human babies! Anyways, in this interest, I found a cute pattern for a handmade baby doll here and the alterations to make it into a kitty (she loves kitty cats), plus outfits to go with it.

I've never sewn anything like this before, and was wondering how it would be to work with tiny garments and such. The whole thing took me just one afternoon, kitty and 2 outfits. It was very fun to do, and I sure hope she likes it!

"Kit" in her little pink dots pintucked dress


"Kit" in her birthday suit
Reversible jumper and shirt

the other side of reversible jumper

On another note, I also got a new foam cushion for Elsa's bed and sewed a nice fleece cover for it with a zipper so it could be removed and washed. The one she had previously was super thin, falling apart, and smelled horrible as well. I got her a nice 3" cushion for her to cuddle up on. I thought it turned out very nicely.

However she was very wary of it from the start, and wouldn't even get in her bed unless I physically put her in. So I thought it just smelled funny to her since it was new, and it would take her a little while to get used to it. Well, she had other plans. yesterday when we got home from church, she had ripped the fabric apart at the seams and chewed up the foam! I guess she was telling me that she really didn't like it after all! We got a good laugh out of it, and now she's sleeping on the floor of her crate with no cushion for the time being. She seems to like that just fine! So much for appreciation from the dog!!!

Advent Already!
Wow, I can't believe it is quickly approaching Christmas already! The kids are excited to be decorating the house, are drawing pictures of idyllic Christmas tree and snow scenes at every chance they get, and the preparations have begun with gift shopping, baking, etc.

We usually do a family advent devotion throughout December each year, and so when a friend sent this link, I was excited for something new! There is a daily scripture, devotion and prayer (standard devotional fare), but also very soothing music that continues to play in the background even when you are done with the reading.

Following the Star (click to follow link)

It is fun to see what types of questions arise from the kids out of our conversations about God and heaven with them. After a reminder discussion about Jesus' birthday, Bay asked Dennis and me,

"Since Jesus is God, do you think that when Jesus died on the cross, he really actually died? Or do you think he was faking it?"

What wonderful windows into their hearts. We are often reminded to be thankful for these little souls God has entrusted us with and what great opportunities we have been given to share with them this eternal hope from the very beginning.

Have a wonderful Advent Season!

Christmas List

We told the kids that they could make up a Christmas wish list. The boys quickly sat down together to corroborate on what they each wanted to ask for to make sure each thing worked with the others' requests...no repeat legos or DS games...

Leah promptly went off into her own space and got her paper and marker and made up her own list. No help from her brothers, no input, other than the 4 years of brainwashing she has endured from them! See if you can't find the brotherly influence in her list. We think it is adorable. I have translated her writing below the picture of the list if you can't figure it out yourself :)

It reads, "Leah's Christmas List"

legos. cat. leapster barbie game. horsey (meaning horse). tinker bell book. scooby doo game. racetrack (she explained this to mean one like Bay's that he never lets her play with)

Bay's Space Room

We are in the process of doing a bedroom swap with the kids. Bay's is the first to be done. This used to be Leah's pink room. Big change! Anyways, he wanted a space theme. I found a really cute quilt at Land of Nod, but they wanted almost $200 just for the quilt, and that did not include me getting window treatments to match, etc...So I looked up space fabric online and found a really cute series to use for his room. He has black fabric with stars and constellations on the windows. My mom volunteered to make him a quilt, so he will have a cool quilt...blue fabric (like the walls) with planets and accented with blue stars and orange pops of color throughout. He has orange sheets and I'll make him a couple of throw pillows to coordinate as well. Needless to say, the whole getup...fabric for quilt, windows, etc. is costing just a little over $200, so that makes me very happy. It is always rewarding when sewing it yourself is much cheaper than buying. It doesn't always turn out that way, but sometimes it really does!

Roman shades over the bed

Here are the shades let down. This room gets the most sun, and the sun is so bright in the morning as it is facing east, so I went ahead and lined everything to ease the damage to the fabric and hopefully make them last a little longer.

Close-up of the roman shade fabric.



The sliding door drapes. These are also fully lined, and is actually the first time I correctly lined drapes, and they turned out so nicely. They hang so well and have a great "drape" to them. Close-up of the fabric. It is black background, clusters of tiny blue stars, and then also gold stars with actual constellations marked on them. Pretty neat!

Once the quilt is done and all of the decorating and organizing is done, I'll take more pictures. I just wanted to show it coming along.

Delight in the Everyday

This school year we significantly cut back our extracurricular activities. We made the decision (providentially) to scale back, and while Dennis' mom was with us this fall, we wouldn't have been able to function otherwise. However it has continued to be a blessing for our family, as we have not been running around every day and evening of the week for soccer, or coop, or swimming, and have been able to enjoy more leisure time as a family and on school without so much pressure! I know it won't always be this way, but it has been a nice break.

This week we got to go on our first field trip of the year, to a local plantation and working farm. Mostly we got to interact with the animals. The kids were given buckets of feed (bits of bread and veggie scraps) and were allowed in the pens with most of the animals and got to pet all of them. Leah enjoyed feeding the goats and the potbellied pigs:

Bay enjoyed running in circles with "Pickles" the pig, and he also found the farm cat. Bay was not too keen on feeding the animals, he didn't like touching the decaying veggie scraps!

Eric was not too excited about feeding the animals, but he had a good time anyways. It was a gorgeous fall day.

Eric, Bay, and friend, Elliott standing by the koi pond in the beautiful gardens surrounding the plantation house.

I had to take a picture of the boys one morning doing math. They looked to be concentrating so hard.

And like I said, more family time has meant more time to play games together. We just taught the kids "Mexican Train" in dominoes. It is one of Dennis' and my favorite games.



And lastly for today's post, Bay finally lost his front tooth that had turned gray when he busted it about 4 years ago! He was so excited to loose that tooth!

Frisbee Golf is finally here! Yay!!!

In the not-so-distant past, an old housing area was converted into a frisbee golf course very near where we live. This is exciting, because we haven't had a course near us since we lived in NC. It is not the best course ever, but it is here and we tried it out with Eric and had a great time. Eric hung in there and made it to about the 15th hole, and we stopped because his stamina gave out. The nice thing about this course is there is a lot of distance between one hole and the next, so you don't have people who are playing behind you throwing discs into you while you are teeing off on the next hole. Anyways, enjoy the pics!

Eric found his way into the rough :)

Halloween 2009

We had a fun Halloween...the post is a little late, sorry.
The pumpkin carving this year was fun. The pumpkin designs are, from left to right, Eric's, Leah's (original hand drawn design on her pumpkin), Bay's, Bay's again (the white one doing the scream) and then Leah's white one is last, with tears. The whole time they were carving and pulling out seeds, etc., Leah kept quoting from Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, "You didn't tell me they were going to kill it!"

We were invited to a costume party for a friends' son's birthday, so Dennis and I dressed up as Mr. Clean and his wife ;)

Leah in her poodle costume that I made months ago! She is holding her tail around the front so you can see it.

Bay as Wolverine

and Eric as Snake Eyes (G.I. Joe ninja)

Notes

The kids wrote some funny notes tonight. I wish my scanner was working, because to see the handwriting is precious. Anyways, here they are, transcribed.

Note #1
I say that Leah will have a coke if she gives me her lollypop.

___BAY_____
sign name here

Note #2
I say that i agree with Bay to give him my lollypop if he gives me a coke.

___LEAH___
sign name here

Note #3 (given to me to sign)
As the mother of these two children I agree to this deal.

___NO DEAL___
sign name here


I told them good try, very cute...but no cokes for any of my children!

Big Camping Trip

We recently returned from our annual week-long camping trip to the Ohiopyle area of Pennsylvania. We realized on this trip that we vacation in this part of the country year-round! Between camping and skiing, we seem to be more and more familiar with south-western PA! It certainly is a beautiful area that is close and accessible.

The trip was wonderful. The weather called for rain EVERYDAY, but it actually only rained the first day. The temps were perfect and we all enjoyed ourselves.

We camped at a different campground this year, Yogi Bear's Jellystone, and while it was okay during the week when noone was there, we did not enjoy the noise and crowds on either end of the weekend. I think next year we will go back to the State Park.

That's our camper, there, on the other side of the playground.

Eric reading campfire stories to his siblings.

Leah playing a little putt-putt.

Mom and dad relaxing by the fire. This actually did not happen too often. We tend to stay quite busy while camping!

A scenic view of the Ohiopyle River Valley.

One of the places we biked to on the River Trail...it is called "Picnic Rock". We actually came here on two separate occasions. Once from each direction. This is the Caselman River.

As always, we did lots of biking. This year, however, was the first year that everyone pedaled! How exciting! Bay on his own bike and Leah attached to Dennis'. The kids always amaze us at how well they do and how long they can pedal without complaining. Dennis commented that this is probably our most favorite family activity. During three separate days of biking, he figured we biked about 47 miles total. One day it was 24 miles round trip. If you are interested to see the map of the entire trail, look here. The Great Allegheny Passage stretches from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, then connects to the C&O canal trail from Cumberland to Washington D.C. It is our goal to finish the entire trial, section by section before the kids are all teenagers, and then to do the entire 350 miles at once when they are all teens. Many people do the whole trip in about 6 days, so I think that is a great goal for us!




Eric, looking like he needs a break!

And this picture, well, I think it nees a caption. To me it looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland! we had fun with this crawfish. It was Bay's idea to put the flower in his claw. And if you are wondering, yes, it is dead.