Cardboard Village

This fall, Austin's Target class got to use their creativity and design a cardboard village, much like what Caine did in his arcade ... well, after bringing lots and lots of cardboard boxes to school, Austin and his classmates came up with City Hall as their contribution to the Cardboard Village.

 

He worked with his friend Charlie from cub scouts to build City Hall

 

Those are obviously Texas trees in front of the building ;0

  

Friends Hayden and Michael built a gas station and convenience store....they ended their week with a trip to Canstruction - a very cool idea to inspire recycling and creativity.

Christmas Card pictures

Thank goodness Christmas comes just once a year as that is about as often as Eric and I can get our acts together and get the kids dressed and in great moods to go take pictures somewhere.....coming soon to a mailbox near you.....you just have to guess which one made it......

Football

Austin asked to play flag football this year, and as usual I forgot my camera!!!

 but at least I had my phone ;0 and..... at least he has RED hair!!  He is easy to find.

at the end of the season he caught an interception, scored 2 1-point after touchdown goals, pulled some flags at the right time in a play and dropped a few more balls that he would have liked.....but he had fun!!

Butts Mill Farm

Our friend, Lisa, took her daughter and our two kids to this farm near us last week to help out with summertime activities while our kids are out of school and before school starts back up - in 2 weeks!!!

Anywho, these are the pictures she sent me....some are just so self-explanatory!!

 As you can see from the look on AC1's face, clearly AC2 was doing something wrong!  Or something AC1 felt was very wrong ;-)

 Like a kid in a candy store ;0

 No, they did not ride down the slide!!  Looks a little dangerous!!

 Seems they all had fun in the creek.

He has good form?

Beach!!!!

Just in time for Austin's 9th birthday, we had to go to the beach for a few days to celebrate!!!  More about the birthday later.....

 Outside our rental....who can balance the best???  Right after this picture was taken we walked down to the beach for a few minutes before we left to come back home and Austin said he needed to hold on for a minute....seems when he slid onto this post he got a splinter stuck in his tooshie!!!

 Hard to believe this was the end of the vacation; look at the smiles on those kids' faces!!!!!  Plus they seem to still like each other....who are these strange characters?!?

 Don't ask.....I didn't .... just take the picture MOM!!

 Austin's sand castle.....seems I forgot to take a picture when he built it, so in the middle of the night I went back to the beach and attempted to take a picture with a device that did not have a flashlight....did not work so well....need to find that picture (smile).

We went to Tybee Island, GA and we stayed on the north shore, which is part of the inter-coastal waterway, so the sand is very different than on the front of the island....which has a very long sand portion.....anywho, this is one of the animal tracks we saw...who knows what it was!?!

We also saw MANY dolphins, which got very close to where we were swimming as it is near the channel where shrimp boats come in, so they follow the shrimp boats....very fun to watch!!

Ansley's Friend Turns 7

 Ansley and her closest friends all celebrate birthdays about a month apart, so we had some really fun birthday parties to attend this year!

 Needless to say, she had great fun at Lauren's pony party!!!  Who wouldn't when you get to ride a pony!!!

As you can see it was a beautiful day in GA; sunny fun with so many friends!!!

Spring in our yard

My homegrown peonies ... my new favorite flower in Georgia ... if you do not know them, you should look them up....they rely on ants to bloom...who knew!?!  Not this Texan!!  Plus, once you plant them, they are perennials, but they do not bloom until their 3rd year!  They are just a shrub/hedge like plant ... love them!  Just wish the picture was a bit more focused; better luck next year!!!