Well, life is all topsy-turvy right now anyway, and we were missing our friends, SO....I decided to "crash" the tail end of their annual Bear Lake vacation.  Check out the link for lots of fun pictures and even MORE links to even MORE stuff.  We had a great time and hope to visit that area again (next time we hope to be bringing DH as well!)

Thanks to the "students and staff" of Matchstick Adventure Academy!!

The kids and I met up with my youngest sister, "M" and her two little girls in Boise, ID, and together we drove down to Redwood City, CA to see "Beeker" and her family, and my Dad!!  What fun!!  We had never met Beeker's children, so this was WONDERFUL!  We had a fun, busy time.  We visited a Redwood grove ~~incredible!  There was a "cave" in one of the trees that had once been a temporary home for a surveyor!  All of us could fit inside it and stand up!  Very neat!  We also saw 10 banana slugs  One night we went to the boardwalk in San Jose and rode the carousel, walked on the beach, walked out on the pier and saw a sea lion lounging on the beams under the pier.  The children also braved some fried calamari....I tried a bite, but when I saw litte D biting and stretching "something" I just couldn't eat it....my Dad and I ate the fries!   We got to meet many of Beeker's friends, which was very nice too!  We stayed for about 5 days and though we had lots of fun, it was SO nice to return home to our own little nests.  Unfortunately we picked up a nasty cold along the way, so we've all been laying low since returning home.

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Today we were invited to a homeschool swim time at the local aquatics center.  Rather intimidating meeting new people while in a bathing suit.  Yah, and a bathing suit you're not sure will fit!  Whew!  But I went, kind of dreading having to entertain 3 kids in a pool with a bunch of other people.  Imagine my surprise when I walked in the pool area and there's this really cool water park kind of thing with lifeguards all around and such.  The kids had a BLAST and I got to sit on the side of the pool and visit with other Mommy's.  I did brave going down this really big spiral slide with David in my lap....yeah, cuz all my friends were doin' it......like I didn't learn better in high school, right?  Well, the thing is, I didn't want to wear my glasses and get them all wet and water spotted, so I left them on a sill at the bottom of the slide.  I climb (and climb) to the top of the slide and realize I cannot at all see the lifeguard who is supposed to signal you when it's okay to go down the slide!  I figure that blurry blob with a bit of red might be the lifeguard and the blob moves a bit so I sit down to go.  Behind me, another Mom suggests that I hold David up when I hit the water at the bottom(it's only about 3 1/2 feet deep).  So there we go, and we're going, and we're laughing and I'm thinking this ain't so bad.....yeah, then I get to the end of the slide....yes, I remembered to hold David up, but I was sitting on the bottom of the pool!!  Yes, got a good drink of "pool-aid" which is just so fun!  Ugh! 

David wanted to go again but I convinced him we should go in another spot, which Daniel then referred to as the "flushing potty"....oh fun.  So you go around and around in this circular current around a central round hot tub spa kind of place......hard to put words to it.....and yes, by the 5th time floating around I did start wondering if there might be a giant drain I'd get sucked into.  I finally convinced David that he really had had a lot of fun over with the other little kids and the big water-sprinkling-slide-play things.....because then I could again sit on the sidelines and watch (with my glasses ON!!). 

Overall, it really was very fun.  I was nervous about Daniel having to go in the locker room by himself, but we discovered a family locker room, which was great until it was time to go and then there was a bunch of teenage kids (mainly boys) in there waiting to change....yeah, a bit awkward, so after Daniel changed, David and I went to the women's locker room.  Ack....next time I'm wearing a dress over my bathing suit and coming home wet or something!!

Saturday we were invited to spend the day with a couple from church, B. & J. O'Brock.  They have a house on Cross Lake so we spent most of the day out on the lake on their boat with them!  What fun!!  They have a beautiful house, a lovely yard, and LOTS of lake!  The two bigger kids had a ball being towed around on the tube!!  Daniel fell off once because he was losing his trunks!!  (and held them up over his head when we turned to pick him up....very thankful he at least caught them before they sank!!!)  Glenn even took a turn on the tube!  There was a big event on the lake that day (The Poker Run....you go to various spots on the lake and pick up cards for your poker hand....mostly we were there for the fun).  Then there was a spot where everyone was just hanging out in their boats listening to music.  The kids had a blast jumping around in the water and on the tube!

There were a couple of boats that were decorated as last year's Poker Run had included a floatilla (parade of boats).  Mrs. O'Brock thought that maybe Kevin Costner was in disguise on this boat, as he does have a house on this lake.  They were throwing Mardi Gras beads and Mr. O'Brock caught some and tossed them to Alycia....you should have seen that girl dive in for those "jewels"!

Here are the three munchkins playing around "The O'Brock Dock".  They also each got a ride with "MisterJimO'Brock" on his jetski!  Woohoo!!  David even finally got brave enough to go in and float around (it was 10ft deep right there).  However, moments later, Daniel spotted a little "surprise" under the dock........

A copperhead snake!!!!  Daniel flew out of the water screaming, and thankfully the other two followed him out, and the snake glided into the boat house, where it sat on a rung of the ladder....posing perhaps.....before it met it's final demise at the end of a kayak paddle!!  Yikes!!!!!!  God is good....kept those munchkins safe!!  Thank You Lord!!

Yep, one of our pastors and his wife!!  Just a little eager for the day!


We had quite a crowd of eager "canvases" for our artwork!!  Above, David is getting "tatooed" by Miss Daphne.  (Well, I think Mr. Greg and I also got a turn adding to David's gallery!)  The bottom picture is me (!!) hard at work on yet another "masterpiece".  :)  Such fun!!

If you have never been to a crawfish boil, it is definitely something to try!!  Once you figure out the technique, you're ready to feast!  Of course, I think crawfish is a lot like celery, you exert more energy eating it than the energy it provides you....I mean, really, it's barely one bite of meat out of the crawfish once you pop it open (unless you suck the heads....WHICH I DO NOT DO!!!)  But really, it's an experience not to miss!  :)  This was our church's 6th (?) annual Crawfish Boil and I think they said they cooked 500 pounds of crawfish!  That's not including the corn and red potatoes also in the pot!

I can tell you I NEVER thought I'd be the mother of a ballerina!  It's such a....girlie thing!!  But we're having a fun with it!!

This was Alycia Ballerina's very first day of ballet.  She is 2nd from the left.  Her teacher, Miss Mary, goes to our church, which makes it even more fun for Alycia!

This is the third year that the Barksdale AFB Homeschool Group has been able to have an "Egg Drop" Contest using the base's flight tower.  Last year and this year we were able to use the brand new tower which is taller than the old one.  We came up with two totally new designs this year and had one success and one failure (but hey!  live and learn!)

Daniel's "Pillow Package" consisted of an egg taped to one end of a strip of packing pillows (air bags...don't know what to call them) and then it was wrapped up.  That survived the plummet.

Alycia' "Please Don't Sneeze!" consisted of an egg wrapped up in a plastic grocery bag, stuffed into the middle of a nearly full box of tissues and padded with a few more grocery bags.  Sadly, her egg did NOT survive....think we need at least one more grocery bag for cushioning.

There were several new and interesting contraptions too, this year.  One 7yo boy taped 6 or 7 paper plates together to form a big circle; and put the egg in a cup taped to that.  It fell slowly and gracefully and the egg survived.  Another boy made a windmill looking thing, only the blades faced up (like a helicopter) and the egg was suspended with elastics in a little pouch in the center of the legs.  It flew down beautifully and also survived.  There was a total of 24 creations and only about 6 or 7 broke!  Pretty cool!!  Hoping to get some pictures to post (my camera wasn't charged).

     Wait, I haven't quite finished with Tuesday yet!  How did it get to be Friday already??  There's plenty of laundry and dirty dishes, so I know I've not been sleeping, but......is it really Friday??

     Ummm.....welllll.......I did get Alycia's room clean this week; that's a big load off my mind (and off the floor!) and we gave a LOT of stuff to a dislocated family staying with another family down the street....that was nice.....

     Ah.......hmmmmm.......what else??  Oh! We got to the library yesterday! Oh, and that was after I finally read the book about Cleopatra that I had signed out a week ago (along with other books about Egypt)...See!  I got something accomplished!  ((whew!!))

     This morning at 8:30 the Pastor's wife (who also leads our church's homeschool group) called to make sure I would go to the correct airport for our fieldtrip....FIELDTRIP?!?!?!  DID SOMEONE SAY FIELDTRIP?!?!  Why yes, that's neatly written down on my nice new dry-erase calendar hanging on the fridge...yep, and it's written in the Friday square!  Yikes!!  Well, at least that decides what we'll do for school today!  Actually it was a great fieldtrip to the Shreveport Municipal Airport.  Our church's homeschool group is small and all the kids (so far) seem to get along really well.  Yay!!  They all got to sit in the pilot seat of a little Cessna (even David, who did NOT want to get back out!) and then walked through the aircraft mechanics' school located there.  Interesting!  When we got home later, I had the kids fill out field trip forms and draw a picture.....school done!  Big check mark on that square!  Now, what's tomorrow?  Perhaps I should get a head start on next week!!  Yikes!!

We had hoped to see it fly over our house (it really did!  Really low!) but we forgot to be watching at 5.  So I loaded all the kids in the "school-burban" and we went on base (they weren't letting the public in, but we could get on being a military family).  As you can see in this picture, we didn't get real close to it, but the lady that took this picture for us also stood on her car with a telephoto lense on her camera and got a GREAT picture.  What an incredible blessing from God to have this opportunity!!  Unforgettable!!  Daniel was nearly out of his mind with excitement!!  He even knew why the shuttle was so dirty (volcanic ash and such in the mesosphere!!)  Woohoo!!

Isn't that awesome??  Can you tell we're excited????  Hee hee!!

Well today we were blessed with the opportunity to swim (and picnic) for a few hours with friends.  It was wonderful!  Daniel and Alycia are really turning in to brave and good swimmers.  I found David's floaty bathing suit and he's doing really well wih that, just kind of "bicycling" around the pool.  He even was jumping off steps and going under and popping back up!  They really had a great time.  My friend bought fried chicken from Walmart, brought chips and cookies and drinks. I added fresh peaches to all that and it was wonderful!