Saturday, June 25, 2011

VBS @ The Cowboy Church of Ellis County -Son Country Harvest

The boys attended VBS at our church a couple of weeks back. They had so much fun! Bug was so excited about the water games and play that they did each night. It was a blast. I got to help out with Bug's class which was a lot of fun.

The boys attended VBS at The Avenue church last week and had a lot of fun with friends. Bug was excited to see his friends Garrett and David again. Red made a new friend named Seth and just had a ball playing on the playground with him.

I love that they have the opportunity to go have some fun with old friends and new during the summer. It also helps pass the crazy hot days we've been having lately.



Here's our latest project! LOL

Canning!

We dabbed at it last year with Memaw and made some tomato sauce.

We have a garden going, but it's been so crazy hot already that our poor garden is just not producing like it usually does. :(

But I found jalapeno's on sale 3 pounds for a dollar so we thought - heck we need to try
this canning thing again! So we did - and honestly it was so easy! Hubby did most of the work on the jalapeno's and came out with 6 beautiful jars! I am excited!


So I caught the canning bug!
I
picked up peaches 3 pounds for $1 and decided I could can them! I got 5 beautiful jars out of the batch and boy oh boy are they pretty! I was very excited. It was a lot of work to peel, pit and dice all those peaches, but oh so worth it to see the end product!

The coupon chat group from ECCHO meets up every Thursday for a play date and we decided that this Thursday we want to have a canning play date.

I came home this afternoon after a super fun time at Mattie and JoJo's birthday party and put up a pineapple I got for $.99! Woo-Hoo! I have been debating putting up some tidbits and did a little research on the best way to do it. I didn't want to make it really syrupy - so I decided to sweeten the pineapple with a touch of sugar and just use water as the liquid. I tasted it before I jarred it and it was very yummy! I only had one jar left in my box so I figured it was a good "trial" jar. It went smooth as butter and I am very excited. It turned out sooo pretty! Love it! I can't wait to try some other things. I have to get myself so more jars. We got some tomatoes and peppers from the garden yesterday so I am thinking Monday I might try a garden salsa.

Oh the fun I am having!






Here is Bug's newest friend...he was outside with Daddy this evening and found this little guy hopping around. He was quite excited to play with him for a while. LOL I think we'll call him Fred...
Well I am feeling better that I got May caught up. LOL

I was thinking the other day about the journals that B's mom used to keep - he actually found a few of them while cleaning out the shed at his Dad's old place. It was rather cool to see her thoughts about daily life, grocery lists, what the boys were up to and such. Made me think, I need to do that, then I remembered I do, sorta, with my blog. So I am more determined to keep it updated.




Bug went to Horse camp earlier this month - he had a
blast!!! I got the chance to stay and help out during the mornings which was a lot of fun! During one of the class times the girls and I did a Draw Write Now lesson and drew a horse. Well it was an attempt on my part to draw a horse. LOL - the girls got a good laugh though.

Bug had a great time riding horses, playing games and learning about being a cowboy.










After horse camp on Friday we ran down towards Itasca where we had seen a field of sunflowers a few weeks earlier that had just begun to bloom. Well when we went down there they were in full bloom and boy oh boy were they beautiful! What a site to see acres and acres of the pretties!









Red took swimming lessons the same time that Bug was in Horse Camp. Oh what an experience that was. Red absolutely hates the water and he was not not very happy about it. We haven't every tried before because we knew that the teenage instructors at the Y would never get him in the water. A friend of mine recommended Coach Gaylor from the HS, so we decided it might be just what Red needed. It was horrible the first day, he was upset and cried and scared to get in. But Coach Gaylor ot him in. Not that he was happy about it. He completed six days though and in the end he was actually swimming on his own a little bit and floating on his back like a champ! I will definitely be contacting Coach Gaylor again next summer!

Back in early June the the boys, Daddy and I loaded up to head out to the Annual Preston Street Garage Sale in Ennis.

We love a good junkin' sale and the community wide garage sales are always the best!

We came home with lots of treasures and two very tired boys on Friday, but it didn't discourage us from heading out again on Sunday. What fun we had!




We found a $.05 bucket at one sale and boy oh boy did Bug have a good time digging through it! He found lots of little treasures for the geocaching box. He also found several old match box cars, and some Disney pins. He was quite excited about his find. That boys is a collector already....oh help me! LOL






Here is some other finds. I was very excited about this Texas Aggies box that Daddy found at one sale! It will be perfect to fill with goodies for a future Texas box!











Daddy picked up a few interesting jars. I found a set of three boxes (brand new) of staples for $1 - what a steal! I also found a goodie bag at one sale for $.50 - it was very interesting with a great mix of old buttons, interesting jewelry pieces and sewing stuff.




Oh I love this bag - it was $0.10 - it included some sewing stuff which I will pass along to Mom, but the most interesting was a pin cushion with little china girls on it. It is very pretty and very interesting.








I found a Texas shaped ice cube tray (another great thing for a future Texas Box) and a brand new # 8 candle! Red found a toy and a tap light for his room. Bug found that very interesting lizard piece and an angel pendent. Daddy picked up the games and the collector card and pin.









We found some canning books at a sale and I was very excited about that! We also found a little fan for the classroom and a clip light. Bug found a boomerang for $.25 - one of his favorite toys these days!







Daddy picked up this 7 up trash can for $1 - What a Find! He also got a Coors lamp and some silver pieces.

I got a new cutting board and a box of envelopes for a quarter.


Well that was most of it. We had an absolute blast and really just enjoyed being out and about with each other and spending time together as a family. It was HOT, but we loved being together and junkin'! :)
Our Beach Trip to Matagorda Bay with Memaw & Papa!


Back in May we traveled to Matagorda Bay to spend a few days with Memaw and Papa.

It was a wonderful time.

The boys had a great time feeding the gulls. I am always amazed when we throw a piece of bread to one and then all of sudden three dozen we upon us! It was quite amazing.




Dad and I enjoyed walking on the beach in the mornings. It was so nice out! We found a really cool man-o-war and he was still alive. We tried to "save" him, but the darn thing kept coming back with the tide. The discovery turned up a very interesting conversation about man-o-war's and how they might "work". Thank goodness for technology when we got back to the house we were able to learn all about the man-o-war! :)












Here is one of the gulls wading in a tide pool.














Here was another cool discovery Dad and I found. A coconut covered in alga and little tiny crabs. They were alive too - it was really neat. Again we tried to get it back out to sea, but it kept rolling back in. It was cool to ponder where that coconut might have come from.





The ocean was very rough the whole time we were down there. The wind was crazy and the waves were big! It was cool to watch them roll in though!








Here is a shot of the brown pelicans that are native to the gulf coast. They are so cool to watch.










It didn't take long for Bug to convince his Papa to take him off into the water. They would "ride the waves" as they came in. It was hilarious to watch. Up and down up and down! Bug loved it! Papa finally had to drag him out there because they were both shivering and turning blue! LOL







Oh I just love this picture. The way that the sand dune flowers would open and close each day was so pretty. I just love it.
Here I am moving on through the month of May! :)



I wanted to share a little about the reading program I found for Red. He is a very auditory learner and didn't really respond well to the traditional Saxon Phonics program like Bug uses, so I did some hunting, tried lots of different stuff and finally found something that seems to be working well for him. We also use the Explode the Code books (Thanks Angela P!) but this goes very well with Red's auditory learning style. We have been using it for about a month now and it is going very well.









It's laid out very simply - each lesson includes any materials needed (like making a few index card pieces - see below), and includes what to say, etc.

The lessons are quick and simple - we've gotten into a few sight words now as well as reading a simple sentence. The book includes copy work ideas. I have done a of few of these with Red as well.

I am so happy to have found something that he seems to be taking so well too!








Here is a sample of the cards that I mad to practice the words ending in the "ap" sound. It makes it something like a game and Red does really well with it!







Here you can see Red's depiction of "The Beach". The boys were so excited about the beach trip we took with Memaw and Papa to Matagorda Bay. During school, Red was drawing on the board and came up with this. The blue is the ocean, the brown is the beach and the black is the beach house, we are the various circles you see are us on the beach.








More from before the beach trip.

Here is one of our opossums - we call this guy Great Uncle Bob.












Unlike Fred who just dumps the bucket and eats from the side Uncle Bob climbed up and hung himself over the edge. It gave me quite a start to open the backdoor and find him hanging there eating. But the funnier part was that he didn't seem to hear me, I got the camera and came back and he was still there. LOL






After several minutes he seemed to get his fill so he waddled off under the porch. What a cutie!
Playing catch-up again! First May flew by and now here we are at the end of June! Oh my goodness! Well this post takes us all the way back to the first part of May. We went with some friends from ECCHO to a baseball game in Grand Prairie. The Grand Prairie Air Hogs vs. the Salt Dogs.

The kids had an absolute blast being with their friends, Seth, Aaron and Alyssa @ the game!
At one point they threw out t-shirts and Bug tried hard to catch one! I think he enjoyed the running more than the trying to catch though. LOL
Here is the mascot - he came around to visit all the fans in the stands! It was fun to meet him!
The mascot got the crowd cheering as the Airhogs finally scored a run! :) Although we really didn't care as we just enjoyed being with friends. We ate hot dogs, drank soda, popcorn and cotton candy! The kids were a mess, but they had so much fun it was totally worth it! Thank goodness for germx and baby wipes.