Our own take on a parade

Since we could not attend the Pleasant Valley Days parade because of the previously mentioned evacuation (which is still going on ARGH!) we decided to hold our own parade.  We got ready to make our own floats, have candy and toys thrown into the air and award prizes for the "floats" entered into the parade.  It was fun.

 The mess involved in preparing for the parade.

 

The line-up!

 From the front: Peter's dragon car (won best high-flyer). Willy's car with the feathers, Haley's car with the eyes and flower (won the "eye of beauty" award), the clown looking car (Diedre's) and then the rest were Caleb's.  The dragon car with the big wheels was also Willy's and it won the "happiest animal" award.  Rob came up with the awards. 

 Caleb's googly eye car won best of show and the clown car won also.  Caleb made each of them with his own ideas, he did not want to stop. 

 And these are an example of the awards that were given out.  Professionally made by Mrs. Construction Paper herself, Diedre.  However, they were done with felt, large buttons, and ribbon.  I left the paper for another activity. 

It was tons of fun.  We tossed out candy and bead necklaces and toys just like they would at Scofield and my kids enjoyed the show.  A pretty good substitute since the real thing was postponed until further notice.  Fun is where you find it and we are glad we went looking.

Before the smoke came...

Before our week's plans were changed we had some good adventures.  We took a hike up to Peter's cave to get a closer look.  We have hiked to Caleb's before and that was not too hard.  Peter's however is really high up and it took some tough little kids to make it up that far.  In this picture you can see how high up we went from the main highway.

The crazy thing is we did not even make it to the opening of the cave.  There were a lot of little rocks on the trail that kept making us slide down and the higher up we went the more difficult it became for William.  He was tired and we decided that we had gone far enough.  Caleb could have kept going but he was very helpful with Haley.  Peter was a champion and did it all on his own and also helped William by encouraging him and holding his hand for part of the way.  

A close-up of the cave.

Here is another view of Peter's cave.  Very cool.  We will have to wait until another day to get closer.   Those two little kids are Peter and William.  Peter waited with William while I took Haley down to sit with Caleb.  Then I went back up to help William down.

Caleb made another fun discovery at the cabin, he found this wood pecker's nest in a hollow tree by our cabin.  Such fun times!  Now, if only that fire would stop burning.

Mother Nature's surprises - part 2

 It started out a beautiful summer day.  We woke up, had our breakfast of Scofield Eggos, and went down to the lake to fish.  It was a perfect morning.  No wind, smooth waters, fish were jumping.  We were excited for the day.  Then another cabin owner came down to the lake to notify us that the town of Scofield had just been evacuated and the road into Scofield had been closed to incoming traffic!  Why you ask?

Because of this forest fire!  We were so bummed!  And worried about our cabin.  We did not want to leave but when the ranger came around to give us the boot we knew it was time.  Leaving Scofield was very sad.  We were worried about the cabin, sad about all the things we still had planned for the lake that we did not get a chance to do, and hoping the best for the fire fighters.  

The fire is still burning and growing.  We are still praying that it will end soon and everything will be okay.  We are hoping to return back to the cabin.  We know that the most important thing is that we are safe and we keep telling ourselves that material possessions are not as important.  But in our hearts that cabin means more than just a place to stay.  It is connected to so many memories and happiness, it is a part of us.

For the record

This is not to boast or brag about myself in any way.  I know there are much better DIY robots out there and mine may be considered sub-par.  However, I wanted to document the little robot family (if you will) that I made for Caleb's birthday, before the big day comes.  Because I know that when the day arrives we will be so full of excitement about the rodeo and celebrating and having fun that these robots may not get noticed.  I hope not though.  But do not tell Caleb, the big day is a few weeks away still.

 So, my boy loves robots.  He sews them, draws them, collects them and makes them.  I thought he may enjoy some robot softies to add to his collection.  Then I kept having all these other ideas on how to do the faces or buttons, and I thought that my other children might enjoy a robot to hold/play with as well.  And they were pretty fun to design.

I think these might be my three favorites. Rob thinks they look like monster-robots and that might be true to an extent.  But I think my boy will like them.  He is a very gracious and sweet boy that way.

Loose tooth drama

Peter lost his third tooth on Sunday, June 10th.  Boy was that an afternoon not to be forgotten.  In the afternoon he ate a pretzel and his already very loose tooth was ready to come out.  So ready that it was barely hanging in there.  But he was scared and did not want to pull it out.  He was also tired, so that made things worse.  And he was very hungry but could not eat anything because it all hurt his tooth, making the whole afternoon very sad for Peter.  Finally, finally, he calmed down enough to trust me, we said a prayer that it would not hurt, and he let me tug it out.  Phew!  It did not take any effort at all.  Peter was so happy after that.  He told me that he wanted me to cook him angel noodles, his favorite, after the tooth was out.  He devoured those noodles and then showed his tooth off to the whole family for the rest of the night.

Working out the kinks

We took a trip to Scofield this week and it was not always smooth sailing.  The weather was 50/50.  If it was not beautiful and sunny it was very windy, which makes it difficult to be at the lake.  So, on one of those days we took a trip to Price and visited the dinosaur museum.  The boys had fun looking for shark teeth in the sand/bone pit and Caleb really enjoyed looking at all the Indian artifacts.  I think the hit of the day was the Wooly Mammoth, he is huge and very cool.  There were other days that were beautiful and provided for much time outside in the water and sand. which the kids loved.
We worked out the kinks of Haley going to sleep for mom instead of dad, and that was a struggle the first two nights.  But after that she was a sweetheart and did pretty well.  It helped that she did not go to sleep until like 10 so she was exhausted and ready to do it for me.
Another of the kinks was getting locked out of the cabin one morning.  ACK!  I did not realize that one of the kids had been playing with the lock on the door and pulled it shut as we went down to the lake for the morning.  When we went up for lunch and naps to my HORROR I realized that we were locked out!!!!  The truck was locked, I had no keys, my phone was in the cabin!  What to do?  We said a ton of fervent prayers, ran around the whole cabin checking for open windows and there were none.  It was getting desperate!  Kids were hungry, two of them were very tired and I was panicking.  I figured the only way to get in was a) call Pa and wait 2 hours until he got to the cabin with another key, b) break a window, or c) call Rob. I went with option c, went to a neighbor's cabin who has a phone, used his spare key (because we were the only ones in the camp), and got his phone.  The kids also ate a package of oreos from his cabin as their lunch out of desperation by mom to keep them happy while I busted down the door policeman style.  I called Rob and he told me the only way to get in the cabin was to put a screwdriver in the door where the lock was and pry my way in.  Well, it turned out more to be just Diedre using her shoulder and throwing myself in to the door a few times until we got in.  Yeah, it was cool.  The door needed to be fixed but we got in and now there is a spare key in case another incident like this arises.
The rest of the week was great.  We got to meet a new baby lamb of our neighbor, Tonda.  She will be bringing up more this summer to the cabin and we are all SO EXCITED!  Baby lambs are the cutest.  We saw a wolf on an adventure drive and that was new and exciting for all of us.  Caleb had a hummingbird fly right up next to his head as he was reading outside one evening.  We found lots of pretty rocks at the beach.  Caleb was a hero to Peter and saved his hat from the lake one windy night.  It was a great week, even with the kinks, and we will go back for more.

Summer's official beginning

Oh, we are looking forward to summer and the last day of school I think offically marks the beginning. No matter what the calendar says.  We have had such a big week.  Bro-Sis Day and now the last day of school.  Heartland had their annual dance festival and it was so fun to watch the boys dance.  They are so cool.  William and Haley were really tired at the festival but I think even they had some fun.  Let's see, how else did we celebrate?

 

 I made each of the boys a fun little shirt and they loved them.  All three of them have Toothless from "How to Train Your Dragon".  Peter also has Harry Potter, Caleb has a robot, and Willy has a rainbow.  I also did one for Haley with a sun because she just loves outside.  Fun little details to make things more special.

The kids also got some ice cream for a treat, played in the pool, received some new books for summertime reading, and had a good time together.  I loved watching the boys dances today, they had such a fun time this year at school.   We have some small goals for the summer.  Along with having a ton of fun at the cabin and hopefully getting along nicely, we have some learning that needs to happen. We are going to focus on reading for Peter, letters for William and math for Caleb; and Spanish for all of them.  I also informed the boys that they are going to learn the art of cleaning this summer.  I am tired of half-done jobs, or mopey kids when it comes to chores.  We also have an incentive program for them to earn cool looking beads to add to a string each time they accomplish something.  Every boy loves looking for a good treasure and I hope these bead-like treasures help us out.  Summer will be great, I just hope it does not pass too quickly.