Fishing in Lake Okeechobee

Caleb went on a "guys" trip on the Lake.

Back at the pier, he caught a little one :)

Natalie's first time fishing...

Natalie's first fish!  She asked, "Can I touch the eye?"

Annalise and the worm.

Not the best centered picture, but look at the pole bend!

Everyone was impressed.

A real Lake O catfish!

Vacation

We got home today from what has become a semi annual vacation to Clewiston.  My parents were donating a work van to the radio station, so they drove it down and met us there.  When I was a kid, vacations were never relaxing, which isn't to say they weren't fun!  We just did a lot.  But there is not "a lot" to do in Clewiston, so we got some big time relaxing on this trip.

Coloring with Grandpa

Connect Four with Grandma

We finally had Caleb's "official" birthday celebration!

This is the cake he decided on - for a while he wanted a train cake that somehow involved a mountain, then a shark cake, then a frog cake that somehow included tadpoles.  He liked it.  That's what's most important about a birthday cake, right!?

He finally got to open his gifts.  This kid has patience!

We got to swim a lot.

We got to sleep a lot.

We got to fish a lot.

We also scoured Goodwill and went to Wal-mart about 10 times.  And I got a special souvenir just for me.

Actually I got two of them - sutures.

I banged my head against a hanging wine glass in the kitchen and the stem snapped and somehow cut my knuckle.  I don't think it would have been a stitches worthy cut on a flat part of the body, but your thumb knuckle is a busy place, so I'm having to stabilize it keep the sutures in for 7-10 days.  Rob knew a local doctor and she sewed it up for me this morning. 

And even with my souvenir, we all had a great week!

Big Baby and Little Baby

All of Natalie's dolls are named "Baby".

The Elusive Science Museum Pass

Our library system has this great program called the Museum Pass program. You can "check out" a pass to certain museums and up to 4 people can go for free. These are great places too - the zoo, Miami Children's Museum, Deering Estate, Viscaya, the Science Museum and the art and history museums.  It is sort of a game to get them though.  Each library has one pass available at a time (except for the zoo - each has 4, but only for part of the year).  The pass is first come first serve and is good for 1 week.  If you use it the next day, no one can get it for a week.  The available passes are updated first thing in the morning, and you could get just about any of them any time if you are willing to drive far enough.  I'm not.  But we have at least 4 libraries close enough that I am willing to make a trip just to get the pass.  But there's no guarantee.  I've showed up 20 minutes early only to find I'm 2nd in line.  That happened to us twice with the Science Museum, but yesterday...we got it!

We were needing a good field trip anyway.  And we had a great time - plus there were NO field trips there today!  It was just us and a handful of European tourists.

Mangrove wall

Rob showing off his muscle on the body heat detector.

Strong baby!

Touch tank

Classic!

I would be remiss if I didn't add that there are some exhibits under construction right now - and they happen to be very visible ones.  Also there are plans to build a new science museum in the next 3 years.  But we still had a very fun time.

Caleb's Birthday is Number 1!

You may think your birthday is tops, but Caleb's really is! September 16 is the most common birthday (according to several websites and the Reader's Digest).

(I cannot believe Natalie's hair in this picture, she can't possibly have been that bald a year ago!)

7!!!

Big Fish and a Tribute to our Armed Forces

Caleb's birthday is this Sunday and he asked it he could have the day off of school. I told him, "Sure!" ha! But don't feel too bad for him, Rob took him fishing all day yesterday.

The guys and their catch.

Caleb caught this monstrous bluegill.  Most bluegills are about 5-6 inches long, this one was 10.

I really have to wonder, how did the alligators miss this thing!

I made cupcakes for Caleb's group at enrichment.  His friend Ashley had her birthday today and her mom brought cupcakes too.  While we sang to her and him another girl raised her hand to say her birthday had been yesterday, so we sang to her too!  After class I found out that two other kids in the class had birthdays this week too!  There are only 14 kids in that class!

I found a shark cupcake online that had a fondant shark on it.  My neighbor got me into making marshmallow fondant a while ago, but I really haven't done it that much.  Another neighbor had this shark playdoh cutter - exactly the right size!

My school of sharks.

The teeth really threw me.  The rest was easy.  I made the black eye dot and the gills with a straight pin dipped in black food coloring.

I made Annalise a pink shark with the scraps.  The sharks just went on blue cupcakes.  Voila!

Today's My America class at enrichment was on the military.  This was our craft.  We also learned When Johnny Comes Marching Home. And read a book about kids waiting for their military parents to return.  I was really surprised at how little knowledge the groups had about the military.  Most of my carefully chosen words had to be explained twice.  I really thought they would emotionally connect with the kids in the book, and maybe some of them did, but it was difficult.

As a wrap up, I gave the kids paper to draw a picture or write a letter to a soldier.  The helper-mom and I tried to get them all to write "thank you" somewhere on the letter.  I'm going to mail them to a place that will distribute them.  This kid forgot to sign his or her letter.  I'm not sure if I should send it!

This is Caleb's.  I was impressed with how accurately he drew the United States and amused at how BIG the Florida Keys are!  That circle on Florida is Lake Okeechobee.

Natalie Quotes

There are two comments I get often about Natalie. People who don't know her say (or sometimes shriek, I'm not kidding.), "She has red hair!" I guess I sometimes do the same thing when I see a kid with extremely curly hair or extremely long hair for their age. It doesn't really bother me. I hope it doesn't bother her.

People who already know her and know she has red hair say, "She talks a lot!" And boy does she!

Yesterday I let her carry the key to the mailbox, "I going to do it by my own!"

Today she asked for a tissue and came back a few minutes later with it soaked. She can reach the bathroom sink if she stands on a step, so I figured that was what she'd done. Our conversation:

N: Will you wipe my face with this?
Me: Is that your tissue?
N: Yes, will you wipe my face with it?
Me: Ok (wiping) how did you get it wet?
N: (Very pleased) I put in in Mako's dish.
Me: (speechless)

Random

Frog bellies.  They aren't usually this cuddly.

 I like solutions.  For....just about ever...we have been having trouble with our afternoon chores.  Some of them are bedtime chores, some of them don't need to be done every day, some of them won't get done if we leave them til bedtime.  Anyway, we chronically omitted 2 of Caleb's chores.  This week I suddenly was inspired to attack our afternoon chores the way we do them in the mornings and do them all at once, even the ones that make more sense to do at bedtime.  100% at check time, 2 days running.  Let's keep up the pace!

Our grill...so rustic and yet, I like it.  Plus the kids get so excited to see me light the charcoal!

I've started cooking chicken for about 5 minutes per side directly on the grill and then putting foil under them.  It has helped prevent too much charring

 A Caleb inspired trivia clue: "Those green things people give you that get soft after a while."

Avocados, obviously!  People grown them in their yards sometimes and find themselves with hordes that they have to give away.  The same thing goes on with mangoes.

My new skirt.  New-to-me.  I bought it at a yard sale for 50 cents.  I have very little fashion sense, but I know the shirt doesn't "go" with it.  I don't have a shirt that goes with this color, but I love it just the same - what I love is the two ENORMOUS pockets on each side.  The height of practicality!  And in my line of work practicality trumps fashion big time!  Plus I've finally discovered (I've lived in Florida for 13!! years) - skirts work like shorts for our heat!  That and having two girly-girls who live in play dresses just makes me want to wear a skirt too.

Let me just say that this set up works wonders for teaching your kids why they need to wear their seat belt!

Annalise would be in K-4 this year.  We are "unschooling" K-4.  But Annalise is very self motivated when it comes to this stuff.  I had a handwriting book set aside for her and she wanted to work on it on her own.  There is so much I could say about her handwriting and general attitude toward learning how to read do math, but I will sum it up with: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

Wrap Up of the Week

Tonight marks what I hope to be the end of my hectic few weeks. I was responsible for organizing a parents meeting for Awana this week at church. That is code for - I suggested we have a parents meeting so I got the job. But that is ok, maybe God put it on my heart for that reason. It was important to me and I wanted to make it something that would benefit the whole program. I think it was a success. I was in a "if just one person shows up, we are having this meeting!" kind of mood - and 8 parents showed up. The room we met in only had 10 seats, so it felt like a good crowd. Four of those parents volunteered to help out on a weekly basis and I think all of the parents came away feeling like they were more connected to the program in general. Last year there was a huge disconnect between the workers and the parents. It may not have affected things negatively, but it didn't do anything to help out either.

Being a hectic week, I forgot to write the morning show trivia questions (my little radio gig - still a volunteer position as yet, but it justifies my using the Keurig when I'm at the studio) until 9:50 on Tuesday night.  Wednesday morning is trivia morning.  I listened to the station on line while I worked on the questions and a show promo came on saying, "Join us tomorrow morning for trivia!"  and that was enough encouragement to press on ("they're counting on me!")

Then I got a cold, erg.  I guess that happened over the course of the week.  I don't remember being sick on Sunday, but I know I was by Wednesday.  This is the sort of cold that makes me lose my sense of smell and taste.  They say that people who lose their sense of taste permanently also usually lose interest in food.  I can see that.  Texture is not a big selling point for me in most foods.

And Natalie may have had pinkeye.  It was not a clear cut diagnosis, just a "this is not a week for pinkeye" episode.  I explained to the bigs that it was very contagious and that if they got it they couldn't go to enrichment on Friday and they avoided her like the plague!  Annalise must have washed her hands 15 times a day.  If Natalie so much a brushed against her back, she washed her hands!

Also my ground orchid randomly bloomed, as it randomly tends to do.  Love it!

And my lone rosemary plant looks nice (and smells divine).  I grew it from a seed.  Seems to be a very slow growing plant.  I started several seeds and only have one plant to show for it.

I also tried planting some flax seeds I had bought to eat.  I read one place that kind won't grow and another that it might.  One of mine sprouted!

This week's My America class at enrichment was on the Statue of Liberty.  We made the Family Fun Lady Liberty crowns - very easy to make and the kids loved them. 

Liberty Enlightening the Bathroom.   The sunlight is supposed to be the light from her torch :)

Natalie modeling Annalise's eyeball craft from her Wearable Concepts class.  This is the same class where she made the paper brain hat.

Today we went to the library after enrichment.  Caleb was looking at the dvds when suddenly about 20 of them fell off the display!  No, they erupted off the display.  It was pretty dramatic!  Then Natalie tripped and banged her head on the concrete floor in the middle of the library.  She cried so hard (and loud).  But she was ok, bruised forehead.