Climbing the walls and other past times

We are all thrilled that Cheryl, Hallie, and Daniel were able to come and visit for the week.  The kids have been making plans for months and one of the top things on the list was to go to Amazing Jakes, an all you can eat and play pizza place in Dallas.  Rusty took the day off so we were all able to hang out for the entire day. 

Everyone took a turn climbing "the wall," with varying degrees of difficulty and success

 We raced in the go-karts

  

 Played bumper cars

Rode on the rides

Played video games, air hokey, and miniature golf

And (of course) played Laser Tag. Benny was in his element. It was all we could do to drag him away from the Laser Tag Arena. You can see it in his eyes- he likes to shoot things!

We had such a great time, and it was so much fun having our cousins there to play with. The kids are already planning for another trip to Amazing Jakes as soon as possible.

The "mini" tornado

April 11th at 2AM we were awakened by a loud thunder clap and an immediate power outage followed by winds that shook the house.  I remembered people saying that a tornado sounds like a train or big truck coming and that's what I heard so we rushed upstairs to grab the kids.  I'm not really savvy at tornados.  We have a little space under the stairs with our 72 hour kits where I plan to go if/when we ever have a tornado, but frankly it is small, stuffy and not that fun, so I don't really want to cram us all in and sit for hours on end.

So we laid our sleeping bags out in the living room around our little battery powered lantern and waited to see if we would hear the tornado sirens.  We didn't have power and so we really weren't sure what was going on.  It was definitely windy and it was raining hard, so we waited.  After awhile we all tried to go back to sleep until we had power and or heard the sirens. Since that day I've seen the terrible destruction of tornadoes through the mid-west and I'm questioning my philosophy.  I don't think the tornado sirens are all that reliable and frankly with the wind and rain we may not hear them.  By the time we realize we are having a real tornado it may be too late to get in the closet.  I guess I need to look at making the closet more fun and less stuffy so we can wait it out safely.

Then next morning the kids were astounded to see that our neighborhood looked a bit like a war zone (well a light artillery war zone- maybe).  Many of the fences were knocked down and some trees were uprooted.  The yards and road were covered in shingles and everyone's roofs looked pretty beat up.  Lawn chairs and outside "stuff" were blown all over- as well as some swing sets and trampolines.

The kids wanted to "explore" the town and see how others fared.  It was pretty amazing.  Most of the damage came from trees, but all of the stores near us had damage to their signs and all of the freeway signs had been knocked down.  Later when we visited our favorite park it was sad to see some of the GIANT trees that had been uprooted.  We began to appreciate even more our safety and the relatively little damage that was done to our home. 

Since then I've become a bit storm obsessed.  Anytime the skies look questionable I'm on weather. com checking out the local forecast.  Although I love having the master bedroom downstairs and all the kids upstairs for functional reasons, I'm worried about being so far from them when it comes to fires or other natural disasters. 

Well all of the official reports say that we didn't "really" have a tornado, just a good storm with "straight line winds" around 80 mph.  That was good enough for me.  I think I'll pass on anything more severe.

The Great Outdoors

I'd like to say that we are a camping family. I've always wanted to be an "outdoorsy" type family that fishes and camps and hikes and does all that rustic survival stuff, but reality is we are lucky to camp once a year.  Camping is a big project.  It requires a lot of planning, packing, setting up, taking down, loading up, unpacking, and cleaning up.  It is not all that relaxing.  I know people with trailers that are all loaded with their stuff and they just jump in and go.  They have beds and stoves and shower and toilets and electricity and even airconditioning. If we were those people I might become more of a camper.  But we aren't so I'm at least trying to maintain my once a year quota.

This year we figured if we were going to all the work we better camp for two nights.  I stopped in at the campground on our way home from co-op with the tent. Our plan was to get the tent all set up and head home and get the car all packed and be ready to go so when Rusty got home from work we could just zip out and have a fun filled evening around the campfire.

When we made our reservation we were told that we couldn't reserve a specific site it was just first come first served so I got there as soon as we could, 2pm.  As I checked in I asked if we could just choose a site and let them know where we were on our way out. She said sure so we were off and running. We went to the perfect sites we had picked on our screening trip the week before and it was available so the kids and I unloaded the van set up the tent and were heading home to finish packing by 3:30. Not bad :)

Unfortunately on the way out when I informed her of our site I was told that site was reserved- What?? Well evidently you CAN reserve sites if you have a group- so we had to take down our tent move to an entirely different section of the campground and re-set everything up.  After several back and forths to confirm we had a spot that would work we got it all un-packed and headed home. We got home around 5:30. Not so good. By the time we packed, loaded the car, bought a few last minute items, etc it was very late and dark so we stopped at Arbys for dinner.  We realized at the campground that our air mattress pump was broken and so was our latern so we quickly laid out sleeping bags and just settled down for a night in the woods with a plan to run to Wal-Mart tomorrow to remedy the situation. I was exhausted. Luckily Rusty is a good sport and sang us all to sleep, until Kate requested he let his ipod sing us to sleep instead.

 We got up early the next morning and the weather was perfect. We decided to go on an early morning hike  to the duck pond.

It was just the right type of hike for us. Short, sweet and interesting. Ben examined all of the bugs, guppies, tadpoles and ant hills along the way. Lauren kept us moving at a brisk pace (anxious to be done). Kate and Dallin were busy using the binoculars.

On the way back to our campsite we decided to scope out an area that was appropriate for Rusty to try out his new, homemade, water bottle rocket.  We were all very anxious to test it out so we decided to go ahead and give it a trial run, or two, or three.  It was awesome!  The kids loved shooting it off and we took some fun videos of the momentous occassion. Unfortunately after about three launches the wind carried the bottle out to sea... so we added that to our list of things to pick up at Wal-Mart.

The kids couldn't wait to get in the water so we let the brave ones get in and swim for a bit before heading back to camp for lunch. It was still a little too early and overcast for me to get in, (and thus we see WHY my family is not the outdoorsy/adventurous sort).

We were very lucky to have friends join us on this camping adventure, so by the afternoon we had a few buddies and some sunshine and everyone hit the lake.

I borrowed some pictures from our friends blog - thanks Cassandra :)

That night we all ate dinner together, roasted marshmallows and played games--  I still can't believe with around 20 kids running around no one was injured or fighting. 

With such a successful camping trip I'm considering setting a new record and camping again---hmmm.... maybe we shouldn't tempt fate :)

A "Knight" to remember- and the dragon's not bad either

This week was the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet and they went with a Medieval theme. For the last couple of weeks the boys made shields and swords and candle sticks in preparation. Because of our "reputation" from past parties and events, we were asked to help with some of the activities.

Lauren was asked to make a dragon pinata for the boys to slay and we resurrected our black knight from co-op for the jousting activity.

Of course Katie could not pass up this golden opportunity to get dressed up and practice her princess manners.

 Because of random circumstances this was the first award opportunity for the troop in several months so Dallin had an overload of awards he had earned- Besides his Bear and a couple of arrow points he also had several belt loops and pins.  He loves cub scouts!

We are proud of him and all his hard work- Good Job Dallin!!

Spring Flowers!

A couple of years ago we went to the Dallas Arboretum, but last spring we missed out.  Luckily this year we had a friend invite us on a field trip and we were able to enjoy all of the beautiful spring flowers- and the good company of friends of course :)

 It was such a beautiful day I don't know why I didn't take more pictures.  I think the kids were pretty squirrelly and didn't feel like "posing" and I didn't feel like forcing them to pose.  I need to have Rusty around or we don't get all the great pictures.

I swiped this one from a friend :)  Luckily they were in a picture mood.

The Boys

 This year instead of playhouses they had fairytale castles for the kids- Katie was thrilled, but I thought the playhouses were better.

 The Girls

 Of course no trip to the Arboretum is complete without rolling down the HUGE hill....

 ...or playing in the frog fountains.

It is so fun to see all my little munchkins growing up and developing into little people. Watching them learn and grow is what makes motherhood so fulfilling.  I'm grateful to have good friends and family that help me in this monumental task.