The first day of school!

Lucy is starting 5th grade and will be home schooled this year for the first time. She is super excited about being home schooled, I hope it stays that way!

Ruby is starting Seventh grade (middle school) and will be starting at a new school. I have NEVER seen her so nervous about school as today.

Haley is starting tenth grade. She seems happy and relaxed about school.

Kinda funny watching my two mormon girls walking into their Catholic school. We have really loved this school for Haley so we can't wait for Ruby to have this experience.

1st Time "Official" Camping

Ruby has been begging to go camping for some time now. We went camping in KOA cabins a year or so ago, but she said that was not real camping. Eric and I are not big fans of camping so we were not too excited to purchase and plan a tent camping trip. Ruby told us that she was an abused and neglected child because ALL her friends go camping with their parents. We explained that we like "camping" in a big ship in the Caribbean... she did not find that funny.

 The last time the girls got their teeth cleaned at the dentist, the hygienist came up to me and told me how much Ruby wanted to go camping. Then she gave me a little speech about how good camping is for kids and she suggested some great places to camp nearby. This was the moment I realized we needed to take Ruby camping soon or we would be paying for her therapy. So we planned a camping trip with our good friends the P family.

Other then a tent and sleeping bags we have no camping supplies so we stopped by Phil's Frosties for dinner on the way to the camp site. 

It took us a little time, but we got the tent up without any drama.

We actually had a blast camping , except for baby in a tent with no crib. I was told it was too cold to have Keets in a pack n play, he needed to be in a sleeping bag to stay warm. I was worried all night that he was either going to suffocate or freeze to death so I could not sleep. Every time he moved I had to check on him. It was a very long night. I felt so relieved when the sun started coming up because the end was in sight.

The 6 girls were in a tent next to us. They did not want to fall asleep at night then in the morning they did not want to wake up. Once they couldn't ignore my singing and walking on them, they woke up but would not get out of their bags because it was "too cold".

The P family (hard core campers) came with all their gear and cooked a gourmet breakfast burritos for everyone.

Then we all headed to the Rogue for a day of rafting.

I always love rafting, even with no sleep.

There were three families rafting in 2 1/2 boats. We love everyone that was there but I have to say some of the adults (the ones that are camping masters) were rafting woosies.  As soon as the squirt guns cam out they paddled as fast as they could and we did not see them until the end of the ride. 

a groovy kind of love

Haley's Happy Happy Happy Birthday

For Haley's 15th birthday she wanted to have a Duck Dynasty party. We came up with tons of ideas and had the party planned... then Haley had an emergency appendectomy. 

So we changed things around to make it less physical so she could participate in everything.

First thing as guests arrived we gave them a camo t-shirt to wear (although some already came with them on). 

Of course if you are doing a Duck Dynasty party, you gotta have beards. So the girls all designed and cut out their beards, blackened their cheeks and got their redneck on!

The each designed their "hubcaps" (aka silver frisbees) then we had a hubcap throwing contest off our deck out into the goat field. 

We watched a a clip from the episode Frog in One. Then we had a Frog diving contest. We hid four small rubber frogs in the bottom of a container of chocolate pudding. They could only use their mouths to find the frogs. A couple of girls started gagging saying that the texture of the putting and the rubber frog were grossing them out. Sounded successful to me!

For dinner we had Bayou Bowels (aka Hawaiian haystacks).  We had maggots (rice) Frog legs (chicken) for toppings we had yuppie food (corn), Mrs. Kay's sauce (sour cream), koon turds (olives), fungus (mushrooms), worms (chinese rice noodles), frog eye salad and of course we had Si Sweet Tea (root beer).

Tie dye cupcakes with some worm bait on top.

 We painted fish and made fish prints. The girls were grossed out when they saw the fish on the table, but once they started doing the prints they LOVED it.  They kept asking if they could make more.

My younger daughters just wanted to dissect the fish. They were in heaven showing the other girls the tongue, and eyeball. I was glad they were happy, but it totally grossed me out. I guess I'm just yuppie girl at heart.

We watched a clip from the episode about the wild hive and then went out and hit a beehive pinyata.

 Later we made mallow dogs. We were all surprised at how good they are. We actually liked them!

 Of course we had to do some photos of the girls getting their duck on!

Happy, Happy Happy!

Our Co-Pay Summer

A broken leg

A chipped tooth

an appendicitis 

This was the first year we actually met our medial deductible.

Let's hope it never happens again!