Happy Birthday!

Why can't blogger post in the order I loaded these photos?!! The birthday wish photo was first and the sunset was last. These aren't anywhere close to how I added them! Frustrating...

We had an awesome time celebrating our friends' birthday @ "our" creek. It is absolutely beautiful. I am so thankful I remembered to tote the camera the last 3 times we went. Now we have photos across the season. We will return as the winter passes to observe changes. There is a great deal of wildlife in this area. We have found several lizards, any array of fish, raccoon tracks, possum tracks, and deer tracks on our walks. We also discovered the small pools of water are fed by a fresh water stream. I was surprised to find the area trash free when we arrived this time. The last time we went to this location there was trash EVERYWHERE. Our friends cleaned up some before we arrived but they only had one bag of trash. There were easily several large black trash bags of trash @ this site when we were last there.
I cannot believe it is already Thursday. We are going to get our Christmas tree today to decorate tomorrow before Mady leaves for the weekend. I thought we would go to an actual Christmas tree farm this year and choose a tree. The kids do not seem to be interested in this. Sigh< I am dragging them anyway! >Grin


We do enjoy going to some local plays, musicals, and concerts. We went out to eat last night, after playing with some of our friends for the day. After dinner, we drove around to see Christmas lights. It may have been too early for that. Only a few houses had lights up. Maybe this weekend? We are only just now doing ours. This weekend is the annual Christmas on the Square in our big town! We attempt to see Santa there every year. Sometimes it is just too cold to walk around outside on the square and wait to see Santa. More Christmas traditions to come.

Happy, Happy, Birthday Aunt Jessie!

Happy Birthday Aunt Jessie! We love you!

Family Portrait

We have been busy this weekend! Mady had a guest Friday night. The girls had a wonderful time together. We managed to make arrangements for another circus ticket and Mady's friend went too the circus with Mady, Niki, and Pam (our adopted Grandma!) Niki described the circus to the family last night as we ate dinner @ Olive Garden with our Aunt Heidi, whom we have never met. Her description included words like cool, loud, and creepy. She also told us about the man on the motorcycle riding across the string in the air. She was scared he was going to fall. She didn't mention any of the animals @ all. I can't say I am surprised. We purchased an annual zoo pass for the family and it was all I could do to drag the girl enough times so the pass had paid for itself!

Meeting our Aunt Heidi was cool. You know when you have a really close friend and they begin to hang out with your family sometimes they don't really fit in for awhile, this was the complete opposite. She and my mom were cutting up and we were all telling stories about each other, it was more like she was a missing piece to the puzzle. Unfortunately, my mom and Aunt Heidi were not very keen on allowing pictures but I do have a couple I can include. I should have sent the camera with the girls to the circus. Note to self, get Mady and Niki a camera for Christmas!

Today, I have to go to my mom's and bake 6 loaves of bread and then we are off to have a family portrait taken. Julie and Pam and Bill are not going to be in it though...Target can only seat 9 people. I told my dad we could set up my camera with timer so we could all be in a picture together. After our portrait we are all headed back to my parents house to celebrate my mom's birthday. My Aunt Heidi has decided to join us. Our family is really growing. I also still need to purchase a card for her! We better get going. I wanted to post some of my not so great pictures that no one wanted me to take so I could look @ them!

Sometime this week I will post the research about unschooling. I can see a change in all the kids already.