1st Time on Ice

 I've never used these before or been with a kid who's used them. Wow, what a difference it makes on the amount of fun someone who can't skate can have. We wouldn't have been there as long if it wasn't for this walker thingy. We gave it to a little boy when we left who was begging to take his skates off until he got one of these. Great invention. 

And if ice skating wasn't enough, we had to take a couple rides on the horse drawn wagon. 

Trunk or Treat on Halloween

My natural born cowgirl and her side kick hip hop dancer. Ready to round up some candy.  

We met up with some crazy friends to make the rounds with.

Don't mess with the ears.

Stopped to take a picture with Payton and Tenley's 2nd grade teacher, Mr. Lewis.  

Backyard Movie Night & S'mores

Planting the friendship flag in the front yard means anyone and everyone is welcome! A summer event we love to have in our backyard is a evening outdoor showing of a movie. We gather all the blankets we can find, put on the coats and pj's, munch on some popcorn and candy while watching a movie amongst mosquito's and dew.  Sound fun?

 

There's so much fun to be found in a backyard with friends!

 

  A tic, tac, toe board created from some beach rocks collected over a previous summer trip.

Roasting S'mores!

Lemonade and Popcorn available all night at the stand.

 How many kids can fit in one trampoline?

 Even a game of Limbo, the creativity never ends...

Show time!

Sometimes all you need is a river and friends

Summer Horse Camp

 

For Payton's 8th birthday us and all the grandparents got together and sent the two girls to horse camp for the first week of summer. What a blissful week! They had a great time, were worn out at the end of each day and were just plain happy and content. Payton's horse for the week was Skeeter and Ailin started with Hotrod and then moved to Dancer. 

 Ailin and Hotrod.

 Payton and Skeeter.

Killdeer

The other day we decided to go on a search for the hidden nest of a Killdeer.  I had told the girls that when I was growing up these were one of my favorite birds.  I love the sound they make.  I always remember seeing them in big open gravel lots.  I liked that they spent more time on the ground it seemed then in the air.  I'm not sure why they pick these areas.  We have two large open gravel lots at the beginning of our street.  And we've been blissfully listening to the Killdeer calls.  So I explained a bit about the Killdeer nest and how they are very difficult to see, and that I've never even seen a Killdeer egg in person and then we started out looking for them.  It was the second trip up there that we did find them.  The amazing part is the way the Killdeer get so close to you and fain injury when you are close and slowly walk away from you when you start to leave the area of the nest. Leading you away.  So armed with this info, when the bird was walking calmly away from us we would turn around.  She or he, they both were there, then would scamper back toward us and spread her wings and tail out like she was injured and couldn't fly.  The closer she got to us while doing this the closer we got to her nest.  Until eventually we spotted 4 pretty little speckled eggs settled in a nest of gravel.  After having a good look we quickly left so the poor mama bird didn't get too worked up.