The Girl

Britney had a spend the night party for her birthday.  Her 15th birthday...wow.  Her actual birthday isn't until the 21st so I have a couple more days :)

That's all she really wanted for her birthday - to have her favorite people over to spend the night.  We didn't go anywhere or do anything major.  They were just together...happy, laughing like fools, smack talking, and just being their amazing selves.  

 Brit didn't want cake for her birthday this year.  She wanted apple pie :)

This picture...HA!

Rachael had other plans and didn't get dropped off until about 10:30.  I'm just glad she was able to come.  That darn kid is SO busy!

The next morning, I made a quadruple batch of pancakes, which were quite impressive. 

Hope you had a great time baby girl <3>

Sunrise

I went to Point Mallard this morning, put in some miles and enjoyed greeting the sunrise.  I haven't been sleeping well for weeks and after cat napping for a couple hours early this morning, was awake after Bobby left for work at 5:00.  I just went ahead and got ready.  No sense in running when it's HOT out.  I decided to take the camera with me because let's face it, I don't see the sunrise often.  I thought I should document such things.  It's a PITA to hang onto the camera while jogging so I don't foresee me doing it again anytime soon. 

Natural Bridge & Caney Falls

We went on our MUCH needed adventure today!  We wanted to go back to Horse Pens 40 but there was a 70% chance of thunderstorms for Steele.  We kicked around a few other ideas and ended up deciding to go to Bankhead with it only having a 40% chance of storms.  The kids and I had been to Caney before but Bobby hadn't and I knew he'd really enjoy it.  Even though, from experience, hiking back out with a kid on your shoulders sucks ass.

I did some searching online and found out that Natural Bridge is quite close to Caney and none of us had been there.  I'm ALWAYS up for a brand new adventure!  We all got up and going this morning, made a stop to pick up some fresh fruit, trail mix and granola bars and were on the road by 10:30.  We almost brought Bailey with us, but she had been really sick for a couple days.  She's just now feeling better and I didn't want to push her little body too hard right off the bat.  I don't know what caused her to be sick, but she lost weight and was completely pitiful.  I'm SO glad she's on the mend.  I love that little fluffer pupper :)

We headed to Natural Bridge first.  The parking area is nice and there are picnic tables right next to a little creek.  You have to register with the office, which basically just means hand over money :)  There's an admission of $3.50 for adults and $2.50 for children just in case you go, expect that.  The natural bridge is about 100 yards from the office and then there's about a mile hike that doubles back on itself and takes you back to the office.

It was a really nice walk, but the word of the day is SPIDERWEB.  Holy shit, the spiders were abundant!  Poor Britney. 

Then we were off to Caney Falls!  It's a mile and a half walk/hike to the falls from the trail head and like most hikes to cool places, it's harder getting out!

The water was COLD!!

This picture cracks us up! It looks like Britney just smacked Dakota when she in fact is just splashing him with water :)

LOOK!  I was there today!

Dakota was saying "I'm Batman" and flapping the towel out.

We weren't home for ten minutes when Elisa called to see if we were hungry.  We were after all that playing and needed some real grub (no offense almonds and dried mixed berries.  you rock)  We all got changed out of our wet clothes, she came over and we decided to go to Moe's.  It was SO good!!  And then as an extra treat, we went to Kaleidoscoops.  We made it home just before the weather got really nasty.  You know that yellow, tornado looking sky?  Yeah, that.  Thankfully it was just some rain although there was flash flood warnings for our area.

Anyway, I think that's about it.  It was a really awesome day and seriously needed! 

It's August!

I swear this year is zipping by!

I greet August with a sinus infection, a blanket and hot tea with honey.  Because of my horrible sore throat that manifested in mere minutes, I thought I had strep at first.  But by the next day, I was relieved my head was full of stuffed up and drip.  I'd rather have just about anything over strep.  *shudder*

We have received our confirmation email from Dayspring so we're officially in our 6th year of homeschooling!

When we went to Hobby Lobby, Bobby picked out some paracord and buckles and a little instruction manual on how to make bracelets.  He taught himself during some free time at work the other night and was very excited about what he had learned and shared his knowledge with me when he worked off.  We've bought additional paracord in various colors and have made several.  I want to learn how to make different weaves and discover new purposes for our creations.

Britney is with friends...again :)  We saw her long enough to eat lunch with her yesterday before she was off again!  I think she's really moving out and just hasn't shared that information with us yet :)  While she's gone, she will go get her haircut in Birmingham by the same girl who did it the first time.  She's excited about that.  It's grown so much and she's definitely needing a trim.  Her fauxhawk seems to be quite inspirational as I've heard Jake and Emily are getting the same do!  Can't wait to see pictures!  Then she's going to a play (which Dakota and I will too if I'm feeling better) then home with another friend so she can help with their church's kids' service.  I guess we'll see her sometime Sunday.

The cucumbers are coming in full force and Bobby canned up the first batch of pickles for the year.

I guess that's about it.  I have the go bug BAD but since I've been sick, we didn't go anywhere while Bobby was off work this week.  :(  I wanted to do a short trip back to Horse Pen's 40, High Falls Park, Canyon Mouth Park...or somewhere.  Maybe next week while he's off work *fingers crossed*

Happenings

Yesterday morning, Donna stopped by and dropped off a couple bags of veggies from her garden.  One bag had 6 large, beautiful green peppers.  I immediately thought about making stuffed peppers even though I'd never made them before.  I searched online for some recipes and went to Aldi's to pick up the rest of the ingredients I needed.  Also, Dakota specifically asked for some muffin mix.  He wanted strawberry, but they only had blueberry.  I got back home and he and I made up the muffins.  He measured things out and mixed it all up.  Those were some yummy muffins!

I love finding new-to-me blogs and websites from homeschooling/unschooling families.  I enjoy the discovering of new ideas for projects or finding a book someone might enjoy or a link to some amazing video.  I found just that video yesterday.  Go HERE and watch and learn.  My life changed.  For real.

At Christmas, Max gave Britney The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.  She picked The Hobbit up the other day and started reading and yesterday began reading it to Dakota.  I absolutely love when she reads aloud.  She puts so much emotion into it.  She does voices and sings and acts things out.  It held The Boy's attention, that's for sure.  I just don't have that power.  She's such a wonderful big sister :)

Back to the stuffed peppers:
It's kind of a long process and I didn't go by a set recipe, but they turned out pretty darn good!
I filled them up with ground beef, brown rice, sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomato sauce and different seasonings and topped them off with parmesan cheese.  Yummo!

Shaving Cream Art

In the spirit of trying to be more creative, I've been searching the internet for art projects we would all enjoy doing together.  I came across the idea of shaving cream art.  I had never heard of such a thing so I googled it.  I must be living under a rock!  I think everyone knows about it!

First, spray a layer of shaving cream onto some sort of containable surface.  We used cookie sheets since they have a lip around the sides.  Disposable aluminum baking trays are a good option, too.

Some used more shaving cream than others :)

Take a flat object...spatula, knife, piece of cardboard or plastic and flatten the foam down so you have an even surface.

Then add drops of food coloring

Next, take a toothpick and use it to swirl the color around.  Don't push all the way down...you want to keep the dye close to the top.

 

Press a piece of  paper onto to surface so it soaks up the color and then peel it off.  We used white card stock.

We put our papers outside for a while to dry.

They spent a good chunk of time playing with the foam and mixing colors.

Then we took paper towels and wiped the shaving cream off the papers.

Dakota's

Britney's

Mine

We really enjoyed this!  It's super simple, lots of fun and a very inexpensive project.  Plus, we think the results are pretty cool :)  I definitely want to try it again (maybe tomorrow) so I can mix the colors together better to give it more of a marbled effect.