He's back!

Okay, so Andy isn't the subject of this post.  However, he gave me a pretty good reaction when he saw this way cool carrot we grew.  I guess it is technically two carrots.

This is the subject of the post!  I found this little guy again when I was out weeding on the side of the house.  We looked up some info on eastern box turtles and found somethings they like to eat.  We tried to make him comfy, but he just kept trying to escape.  I had to put the container in the sink to keep him from escaping. 

Another escape attempt!  We only kept him for a day and then released him back into the wilds of our side yard.   Hopefully we will see our little turtle again.  We really need to name him/her.

 We had the opportunity to have the Elders over for Family Night.  Eliza loved them!  She kept bringing them toys to play with.

Eliza and Elder Waniel

Elder Rigamoto being introduced to our little turtle.

Elder Waniel meeting our little turtle.

We always enjoy having the Elders over and visit with them.

First day in First Grade!

 Bradley started school last week.  It is hard to believe that I now have a first grader. 

Eliza is at the stage where she has to bring something with her when we go places.  She just happened to pick this horse that is almost as big as her to carry around that day.

 Eliza, Daniel and Bradley

It was pretty bright so they were having a hard time looking at the camera.

Daniel, Ms. Souchek and Bradley

Ms. Souchek is the school librarian and Daniel loves her!  She lets him check out books under Bradley's name.  He asks all the time if we can go get another book!

Technically this was the second day of school, but I forgot my camera the first day.  It turned out better this way though.  There were less people crowding the halls and it made it easier to get some pictures.  We are excited about this school year and hope things go as well as last year!

Aug. 26, 2011

Birthday Celebration:Part 2

Happy 6th Birthday!!

Bradley has finally reached the ripe old age of 6!

He got some Star Wars figures and a big Woody for his birthday.

Since he prefers ice cream to cake we did ice cream cakes this year.  They were a little smaller than I thought, so we got two.  Then Bradley helped me decide what should be on top.  Bradley also picked all the decorations and helped get them up!

Bradley with his ice cream cakes.

Bradley & Macy

We invited a couple people from church to have dinner with us and then some neighbors joined us for ice cream cake. 

Daniel, Bradley, Macy and Oliver

They were very excited for cake!  We want to thank Marek and Margaret for letting us use their freezer to store our ice cream cake!  It was a fun day and we are especially grateful Bradley is part of our family.

Aug. 21, 2011

A Birthday Celebration: Part 1

Since Bradley's birthday was on Sunday this year we decided to do something fun as a family on Saturday.  When I asked him what he wanted to do he said, "Go on a family bike ride."  I told him that we could do that in the morning and asked if there was anything else he would want to do.  He said, "Go to the carnival."  I haven't seen any around here, but a neighbor did tell me about a town with little rides at the park.  Saturday morning we had scones for breakfast and then went for a bike ride.  We stopped at the playground at his school on the way home to play for a while.  Then we headed home to make a  picnic and head to Burlington, NC to enjoy the park.

 The boys thought we should ride the train first thing.  Eliza wasn't sure how she felt about the train.

Then we headed over to the boats.

Eliza and Bradley took turns ringing the bell.

After the boats we headed over to the car ride.

Daniel got to drive this little yellow jeep all by himself.  He was so excited!!

 Bradley was good enough to ride with Eliza to make sure she didn't try to stand up or bail out during the ride.  She is a little bit crazy like that.

Next we rode the carousel.  It was made in the early 1900's.  Unfortunately the kids all got on in the same area, so half the carousel was empty and the other part was packed!  It made it difficult to get a good picture, so I made them pose on their way out.

By this time Eliza was too starving to do any more rides, so we took a brake for lunch.  

While we were eating the boys rode the last ride...the Airplanes!  They loved this ride and actually did this one twice.  They were pretending to drop bombs on the "bads" as they went around and around.  The only problem was getting them to look at the camera!

After doing all the rides we decided to head over to downtown Burlington to see a restored caboose.  Eliza didn't think she had had enough playing yet and kept running away.

Daniel at the brake wheel on the caboose.

Bradley sitting up top in the lookout seat.  The fireman and brakeman would sit in these seats and watch for smoke or anything else that might alert them to a problem on the train.

The conductor, fireman and brakeman would eat and sleep in the caboose.

Daniel and Eliza

We really enjoyed exploring a new area.  Burlington has some really fun areas and we definitely recommend checking out the Burlington City Park.

Aug. 20, 2011

A Baby Shower

Last week I hosted a baby shower for a friend.  Her husband is in the same program as Andy.  They have a little boy and are excited to be welcoming a little girl any day!

The boys helped me pick out the decorations and do the set up.  

The dessert was delicious.

 

It was a lot of fun to visit with the other ladies and see all the cute gifts.  Girls are so fun!!

Getting so big!

Eliza's hair is long enough to braid now, and if I have her watch a Veggie Tales she will sit long enough to braid it.  It has to be wet or I can't get it tight enough because it is so fine.  It makes her look so big!

It makes me a little sad to realize that my baby is almost 2!