The Boys' First Race!

Saturday the boys ran in their first race! It was a fundraiser for our Evansville Children's Museum. They had a lot of fun...even though it was at 9am and already 90 degrees! I couldn't get any good pictures of the starting line or of them running. Kind of a bummer...but they were so cute-they ran 100 yards (1/4 of the track). Anteneh finished about a third of the way back out of 15 kids and Luke was toward the back. But we were so excited that he finished-Luke has a tendancy to want to quit things when he gets hot or tired. During soccer season he literally sat on his Grandma Darlene's lap the whole season and refused to play. During Tae Kwon Do he didn't want to participate half of the time. And he's not as fast as Anteneh. So, we really gave both the boys a pep talk about not quiting things and making it to the finish line. And we high fived eachother when he came across that finish line-NOT LAST! There was one kid behind him and that made him feel great. It was good for his confidence. Yeah for both my boys! They are so proud of their medals...

Camping again

What do we love so much about camping? Is it the time with a good book under a huge tree? The goofing off in the tent with mommy?

Crawling in the pet den with Shadow? (Shadow has his own sleeping bag!)

Or taking him exploring around the camp?

Maybe it's the father-daughter bonding while putting up the tent....

Hanging out with your siblings...

Discovering new camping tools...("you mean this is a spoon, fork, AND a knife?!!!!")

being in nature?

Or making new friends and having them over to your tent for a snack?

We love to camp! Some of our best times together as a family are camping...even when it thunderstorms and the tent leaks, even when the van breaks down on the way back, even when there is a fugitive on the loose and the police come to your tent to look for him, even when starving dogs and homeless people stop in for a snack (Yes, this has all happened to us)...camping is the BEST!!!!

TPed!

It was bound to happen at some point...working with high school and middle school kids... But I never expected my boys would have the time of their lives cleaning it up!
It was the best possible 'getting TP'ed' scenario...they didn't throw it very high, it didn't rain, and they used the good stuff! It came down beautifully. And don't judge me but I had the boys stuff it in a grocery sack and made them use some of the rolls that didn't get totally unwound....so, it saved me a trip to the store!