Fourth Annual Fire Dog Day

Nov 13 is our Annual Fire Dog Day... This is a family holiday we created when we lived in Mississippi. Elijah called hot dogs 'fire dogs' because they are cooked in a fire (makes sense... especially when you are one and a half!) We roast hot dogs, make s'mores and watch a new movie. It's fun to create new family traditions!

DIY Dry Erase Board for CHEAP!

Tony 'built' this dry erase board for me :-). Well, I *guess* I will share with the children... hahahahaha!

It's 4'x8'. Huge! It's on the only solid wall in the dining room... errr... school room. I guess instead of it being a dining room we use for school it is really a school room we use for dining since we school more hours a day than we eat!

The wall before...

Here are close ups of the corners. More details at the end.

Mounted with mirror clips.

Okay, here is the story. I had this hankering for a Huge dry erase board. Tony said 'sure' and looked at office store online. They were very spendy... like $200 plus. Umm... There has to be a better (read: cheaper) way! I remembered *vaguely* something from somewhere about making one so off we go to Home Depot. Tony bought a 4'x8' sheet of white tileboard. In a rack above the tileboard were the strips of edging (he cut the mitered edges with a tin snip) and he bought mirror clips in the 'nails and screws' area.

Tileboard $11.97

Caps 4 @ $2.49 each $9.96

1/4 in Mirror clips 3 @ $1.96 each $5.88

GRAND TOTAL (incl tax) $30.31

Woohoo!!! I am so happy!!! I think I'll go write something now!

Sewing... A Quilted Project

I made this for a dear, sweet friend for her birthday... It's called a pinwheel.

I am not a quilter. I just kinda make it up as I go... Some day I'd like to learn how to Really quilt!!

More Pics from Goat Day!

I just found these on my memory stick. I didn't get to watch Sam and Luke do these because I was holding Joseph as he was napping.

Luke wanted to climb this wall last year but only made it half-way. He made it the whole time this year!

And Sam wanted to do this giant bouncing thing... What brave boys I have! :-)

We can't forget the Most Anticipated Activity of Goat Day... the Pig Chase!

The Annual Bike Ride

Every year our church has a Bike Ride. Everyone meets in Tallahassee to ride the 16 mile St Marks Trail. Lij and Ike rode in the bike trailer for the first eight miles and then they opted to stay with me. I drove the Support Vehicle ;-). Every three or four miles I found a place to park and watch the bikers. This was MaryVance's first time to attempt the entire 16 miles (on her bike with training wheels!) and I wanted to be near by if she pooped out.

Here's a shot of Lij and Ike while we were waiting for the bikers. Little boys. Rocks. Rocks must be conquered!

Oh! Look! Here they come!!! woohoo!!! I think this is around the 13 mile mark...Big Daddy in the lead with Mare, Sam and Luke following close behind. The man in blue is our friend John!
Biker Daddy... with the snack of champions... a banana, Gatorade and Slim Jim! Potassium, Protein and Electrolytes.... yummm....

And MaryVance Made It! She biked the entire 16 miles!!! Woohoo!!! Go Mare!!!

We all meet at the end of the trail for a picnic lunch.

Yapping? Me?! Gasp! Enjoying the afternoon with the RONU... Brandy and Serena!

And a final shot... one of my favorite little people in the world! Sweet Leah!! She was cooing at me... she *hearts* me! I think I'm gonna teach her to call me 'Dearly'... isn't that sweet :-)

Friends are a Blessing!

Last Thursday night we were blessed to have the opportunity to host our friends, the Graves from Tampa, for a quick overnight visit. It seems that none of the photos Molly took turned out so you will have to use your imagination! LOL The Graves are good friends with a family in our area, the Lains, so we invited the Lains to supper too! Graves + Lains + Lewis' = 28 people and a lot of chili, a lot of brownies, a lot of visiting and a Lot of Fun!

Thank you Lord for bringing wonderful new friends into our life!!

Backyard Fun

Friday the children and I enjoyed spending several hours outside in the back yard. Caleb was helping MaryVance learn to ride a two-wheeler and everyone else was just having fun riding bikes!

It won't be long Yo-Yo... it won't be long... This one is more your size for now!

"hhmmm... I don't think it works this way... I think YOU are supposed to pull ME!"

Luke helping Lij learn to keep his balance!

No Joseph.... really... tell me how you feel about it all...


And I include this as an aside of sorts... I am so encouraged by the faithfulness of our children to spend time in the Word. Sam had been really busy this morning and hadn't had time to do his Bible reading for the day. He brought his Bible outside and sat in the backyard with me and read while everyone else played. He is such an encouragement to me...

Goat Day

An annual local festival in Blountstown Florida ~ Goat Day. This is our family's fourth year to attend. Goat Day festivities take place at the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement. Here are some photos of the settlement area. There are many buildings here, a schoolhouse, church, fire station, general store, blacksmith shop and many more.

One of the highlights for the children is the Penny Dig. One of the local banks sponsors the Penny Dig and they scatter several hundreds of dollars of change in the volleyball thing (pit? field? court? Yes, I think 'court' is the right word!)
MaryVance and Elijah found $5.50 in change. They were excited to be able to buy their own snacks and treats with their own money!
Stephen and Caleb... 'partners in crime'... Ha ha ha ! They are big buddies and had great fun digging for change!

Joseph just liked playing in the sand.... who needs pennies...?

And the horses... we musn't forget the "horshes"...

It was a beautiful day, sunny, breezy and relatively cool. I didn't even *think* about the need for sun protection. Poor Molly... I think she got the brunt of it for our family -- though most of us were sunburned to some extent. Here's Molly after we got home:

Our church had a food booth at Goat Day. We provided a huge assortment of baked goods, breads and cookies, hamburgers, hot dogs and plate lunches with 'Uncle Lonnie's Famous Grilled Chicken' and all the fixins! Goat Day is a Lot of fun! It's always the third Saturday in October -- plan to come and 'do' Goat Day with us next year, okay?!!