BB Gun Shoot

On the first day of winter we had weather in the mid to upper 70's.  

We played ball with the neighbors for quite awhile before dad thought we should do some shooting.

Our neighbors, Eric and Will

Eric is doing a one year residency at UNC in radiology.  They moved in during the summer.  It has been fun to have some more kids in the cul-de-sac.

Bradley taking aim.

Eliza taking aim with a little help from dad.

Will's turn to shoot again.

Daniel taking aim.

The target is a pumpkin left over from Halloween.

Dad showing us how it's done.

After everyone had a chance to shoot a couple times they would go down and see how many times they hit the target.  They were also looking for bb's on the ground.

Eric and Evie watching the kids shoot.

Bradley kept busy climbing the tree while the others had their turn to shoot.

Too bad this isn't a very good climbing tree.  Well maybe it is a good thing.  He can't really go any higher than this.

We got out some boxes to make it easier to see when someone hit the target.

Sometimes the bb's ended up inside the box.

Evie checking the boxes one last time before taking a shot at it.

Nathan enjoyed having all the "bikes" to himself while the other kids were shooting.

Daniel sighting in on the box.

Nathan wanted to play basketball, but he got the wrong kind of ball.  He was determined to us the football.

The boys are getting to be pretty good shots.  Daniel was very excited that he hit the target.

Nathan coming to check on the shooting.

We talked Eric into taking a few shots.

Then Evie took a turn. 

She thought it was fun to be like the big kids.

Evie and Nathan headed around back.  They were being silly trying to poke their head between the bars.

There's that cute face with a cute little tongue.

"Mom I am done now."

Eliza wanted in on the action too.

She maybe more silly than Evie and Nathan put together.

Nathan has decided he really likes helmets.

When the shooting was over Andy put the pumpkin in the tree to see how long it would stay there.

(It stayed for almost 3 weeks.)

The other pumpkin was smashed in the woods.  I have always wanted to smash a pumpkin, but Andy thought we should use our extra pumpkins as targets.

The kids talked him into smashing one of them out back without me!  I couldn't believe it!

The squirrels have been enjoying it though.

My pansies have held up extremely well.  I planted them in October and they are still as beautiful as ever. 

The snap dragons behind them in the planter are still green, but they haven't flowered since I planted them.

This planter is the one the squirrels dig in the most.  I am sure it is half full of buried nuts.

Dec. 21, 2013

Unusually Warm Weather

We had a couple of warm spells during December.  We enjoyed the weather immensely!

Daniel and Bradley throwing large Frisbees at each other.

Eliza and Nathan chasing the boys around the cul-de-sac.

Apparently the discs were like torpedoes or lasers or something.  They took turns chasing each other down and "shooting" each other.

Eliza with her weapon of choice.
 The weather was unseasonably warm, but not warm enough for a water fight.

Daniel about to blast Bradley.

Run Bradley, run!!

Nathan was digging in the side flowerbed and moving the dirt one shovel at a time to the front.

As you can see in the first picture Nathan has more dirt at the beginning of his trip than the second picture. 

He was still happy to be out moving dirt even if it didn't make it clear to it's intended destination.  :0)

Dec. 17, 2013

An Apple Swan Update

This is what an apple swan looks like after spending 2-3 weeks in the fridge.  The kids wouldn't let me throw it out because they liked it so much.  When it started to sprout more "feathers" I decided it was time to go.

There is a hawk living in the neighborhood.  We see her flying around sometimes.  Recently we have seen her sitting in the trees out front of the house.  When I saw her in the tree next to our house I grabbed the camera to see how close I could get before she took off.

Can you see her?

Dec. 18, 2013

Christmas Tree Book Report

This is Bradley's first book report.  He had some very specific instructions as to how the report was to look.  It was a little bit of a pain to find the poster board, but I think it turned out well.  The book he read was

The book is called "The Bogg Monster vs. Frogosaurus"

The finished product looks pretty good if I do say so myself.  :0)

Each "ornament" helps explain the book.

Bradley with his report before heading out to school.  

Nathan wanted to be in on the picture too.  He is getting to be so big!

Good job Bradley!

Dec. 13, 2013

Leave Removal

This year the community scheduled a day to have all the leaves removed.  We had huge piles of leaves along the curb for weeks through out the community before they came.  The problem was that half the trees dropped all their leaves by the end of October and the rest hung around until the first of Dec.  The day they finally came Eliza and I were having lunch.  I was a little surprised to see the how they picked them up.  When I saw the truck I had to get a picture...it was great.  :0)

There was a large tube with long handles they used to suck up the leaves.

The guy in green is getting ready to put the hose back on its stand.

They picked the leaves up pretty quickly.  I think they should do this a couple times a year.  It was great to have the leaves gone!

Dec. 6, 2013