Happy Birthday Ben!

Happy Birthday Ben!
Over the weekend we threw a Minecraft birthday party for Ben and he loved it. Everyone had fun. We made t-shirts for all the creep-y guests, made creeper juice to drink, exploded TNT Diet Coke with Mentos, made worlds on paper, crafted creepers with perler beads, ate food, shot pigs and cows with BB guns and bows and arrows and of course we had cake and played Minecraft. It was a great party.

Here is Ben working on his t-shirt for the party. Super easy to make, we will make t-shirts again for a birthday party!

Creeper juice was really kool-aid, I couldn't find any green drinks without caffeine. I thought this would be blue and I would add yellow coloring to it to make green but it turned out to be red fruit punch, no one cared!

Stickers with a few Minecraft blocks so they could create a world on paper.

Food (pretzels, watermelon, carrots, TNT, cupcakes and hotdogs and hamburgers)

 Ben shooting balloons so he can eat lunch. Pink balloons were pigs (hot dogs) and brown were cows (for a hamburger!)

Harry trying out a little archery.

Minecraft playing.

We exploded "TNT" via a Diet Coke and some mentos. We tried twice, second time was much bigger of an explosion than the first. Here is Noah trying hard to get away as it exploded.

The creeper guests with the birthday boy. He's 12, where did time go?

Halloween 2013

We had a great Halloween this year! The kids walked the Coronado blocks with Ryan collecting loot all along the way. Here they are at the beginning of our tour of the island.

Ready to go!

We picked Ryan up along the way. 

 Rebekah showing us her loot.

Pepper love...

Rebekah loves her dog. Every parent starts to get nervous when their kids get quiet and I am right there with them. Rebekah will get quiet and hang out with the dog, Pepper. I have found her dressing Pepper up with hair ribbons or laying in her kennel with her. There have been times when she has played with her dolls or toys right alongside the dog. Today I found Rebekah setting Pepper up in her bed snuggled up in her blankets and pillows. They read together and have snacks together. Pepper doesn't mind and is really patient with her. So cute!

Story of the world...

We started a project with our social studies book called The Story of the World today. The kids have been so excited to start it since we have been so busy with other activities. I found this website that details a lapbook with a free download here: http://tinyurl.com/mbg7246 so we started putting it together today to catch up with where we are in the book. It has also been a great way to review what we've talked about up to date. So far they love making their own books, I'm sure they will love reading through it with anyone who asks about them! Here they are working on their books!

Happy Birthday Noah!

Noah is now 8 years old! What a quick 8 years that was. We had a little party for him with a few friends. They went and played lasertag, then we had pizza and presents at the park. He has been so excited to turn 8. He doesn't have to sit in a booster seat any longer so that might be a part of it. But I think mostly he is happy to be older. We are going to have a party for Ben in a couple of weeks so anyone who missed Noah's birthday will be able to help him celebrate then!

Birthday boy!

Presents!

 Ryan

 Rebekah

 Cupcakes!

 Friends

Camp Mataguay...

Hannah and I went to Camp Mataguay with most of our Girl Scout troop this weekend and we had so much fun! It's one of the local Boy Scout camps and we went last year. The big attractions this year were canoeing and archery as they were last year. We also did a lot of cooking, leather work, goofing around, singing songs, playing games and a craft or two. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Walking

 Canoeing

 Collecting acorns

 Archery

Soccer, Noah...

Noah shot an incredible goal today during his game! He kicked the ball from mid-field and it shot straight into the goal for a score for his team!! That shot earned him Player of the Week! He is thrilled and we are so proud of him! Go Noah!!

Garden...

We have been working very hard on our garden this year, we have a total of 3 small boxes and 6 larger boxes now. The 3 small ones (4 x 4) are Hannah, Noah and Rebekahs boxes. Bens box hasn't been built yet. I have occupied the 6 larger (8 x 8) boxes. 

Box 1: We have onions, peppers (hot and sweet varieties), cabbage and tomatoes in one box and they are growing quite nicely.

Box 2: There is corn, green beans, pumpkins, zucchini and a couple of sunflowers in this box. We have harvested about 1lb of green beans and 10lbs of zucchini already and it is delicious! 

Box 3: We have several varieties of tomatoes, crookneck squash, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli and cabbage. We have harvested 3lbs of crookneck squash from this bed. 

Box 4: This isn't really a box, but we lined cinder blocks on their sides with the holes visible on the tops. We planted cucumber (eating and pickling varieties) in the holes and are training them to climb up a pair of old gates that we had laying around the property. They are growing nicely, we have a few cucumbers growing and perhaps they are ready to harvest soon. I just hope that many will be ready at the same time so I can pickle them. Along one edge we have strawberries.

Box 5: This is a new box that will be filled with tomatoes soon. The starts are ready to get in the ground so we are working on this box now.

Box 6: This box has had collards and kale growing in it for the past 6-8 months, but the weather is getting too hot now so I'll be planting something else in there pretty soon.

The kids have been just as busy with their boxes this spring! They have all sort of yummy stuff in their garden boxes like pumpkins, corn, carrots, snap peas, watermelon and cantaloupe. Hannah and Rebekah have pumpkins in their boxes and their vines are taking over the walkways. They are having so much fun with it.

Rebekah's

Hannah's 

Noah's 

Around the rest of the house we have other food growing: artichokes, fruit on the trees, blackberries, strawberries, and herbs like oregano, basil, mint, lavender, and rosemary. We had dill (until a gopher got to it yesterday) that I was planning on using in my pickles. Garlic grew very well with our roses, we ended up with about a dozen garlic bulbs!