Brotherly Love

Malachi has had a loose tooth for a while now. He was very excited when he finally pulled it out. The only problem was...he lost it. He dropped it somewhere and couldn't find it again. I told him to look for it so he could put it under his pillow and I went on about my business. When I finally walked into the kids' bedroom that night, I heard Isaiah consoling Malachi. They didn't know I was listening. Malachi was crying because he was not able to find the tooth and he thought that the tooth fairy would not bring him anything. I overheard Isaiah say, "It's ok Malachi, when I lose my next tooth, I will give it to you."
I thought I was going to cry too!
I reassured Malachi that the tooth fairy is magic and that she would still be able to find his lost tooth.
Luckily, she did, and Malachi woke up to find $5 under his pillow! (Dang, that's a lot of money!)

Making a Car

Since Seth took off his training wheels, Malachi has been playing with them. Malachi decided he wanted to build a "car" with a piece of wood and some training wheels. Ray and Alex helped him decide how to do it. Malachi went to Home Depot with Alex and picked out some screws and washers to build it with. Alex built Malachi's design with Malachi's input.

All done...except for the paint:

Now to test out the finished product:

They spray painted it later but I didn't get a picture.

Seth can ride without training wheels!

On Tuesday Seth came up to me and asked if he could take the training wheels off his bike. I told him no but he insisted. He continued to ask and threw in a little whining to get his way. Finally I agreed, but warned him that I was not going to put them back on in five minutes after he has fallen a few times.
Alex was outside and took off the training wheels for him. Alex held the back of the seat for Seth on his first attempt. Then Isaiah helpe him get started as can be seen in this video:

After that, Seth was on his own! He can get himself started and can turn around without help!

GO, SETH! GO!

Hickory Creek Camping

Last weekend we went camping at Hickory Creek on Lake Lewisville. We were glad to have the pop up to keep us in some air conditioning and keep us from sleeping on the ground.

But unfortunately, we drove all the way to the campground with the crank still in the back of the camper. So when we arrived at our campsite and got ready to pop up the camper we discovered that we had no way of doing so. Crap!

There was nothing to do but go back home. We got on the Internet and found a place that sells the cranks! Phew! Thank goodness we were able to buy one that fit for only $14. So we headed back to the campground with the utility trailer loaded with bikes and fishing gear and chairs and the grill and coolers and anything else we thought we couldn't live without.

Once we got set up we had a great time. Our campsite was right next to the bathroom which was very convenient. We went on a walking trail, tried fishing (no luck), rode bikes and swam in the lake. They even rode bikes in the lake! It was very windy and there were a lot of waves making very difficult to stay upright on a bike. But it sure was fun trying. (My camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get any pics of the bike riding in the lake.)

The first night we were there, there was a fireworks show on the other side of the lake. We sat outside and enjoyed the show.

The next day, Ray had to leave to go to a minicamp for the upcoming flag football season. I stayed at the campsite with the kids. Ray came back with a surprise! He brought two of the boys who live on our street back with him. Marcus and Bruce are our new friends. They are visiting their mom for the summer. They came to spend the night with us at the campground. Nehemiah is in the red shirt. Bruce is holding the meat up front. And Marcus is dancing while turning the meat over on the grill.

"Sea Shuttles"???

We tried a new fishin' hole in Garland. We didn't get a lot of bites but the ones we did get were nice sized catfish. Since the fishing was slow, the kids put down their poles and played around. Isaiah pretended to be the leader of the army and led the others with "Hut...two...three...four...Hut...two...three...four!". They each had a good sized stick in their hands which served as a rifle. If Isaiah thought an enemy was near he would hold up his hand as a signal for everyone to "get down" and "be quiet"! They would all crouch down on either side of the sidewalk or sometimes hide behind a tree. I enjoyed watching them while waiting for the fish to bite.


They also found lots of snail shells that Jada called "sea shuttles". No matter how many times I corrected the terminology they continued to call them sea shuttles. Here's a pic of their discovery.

(No Seth does not have a Charlie Chaplin mustache, he fell on the concrete last week while playing basketball with the big boys.)

They also found a little baby turtle shell. They wanted to know why the turtle died if it was only a baby.

And what would a blog be without a pic of someone "throwing up" a peace sign?

Slip N Slide

Ahhh...childhood memories! I remember loving my slip n slide when I was a kid. Of course the one we had only had enough room for one kid to slide at a time. Now there are deluxe versions! We bought one at Walmart that has room for three kids to slide at once. We took it over to Grandma Rachel's house and had a blast! Jada was a little scared at first but soon gained her confidence. Samara tried and tried but never did make it to the end of the slide. And afterwards, all of them had redness and little scrapes on their tummies! Ouch!

After dark, everyone dried off and went inside where Nehemiah and I were transformed into "horsies" that took all the kids on rides.

The kids sang "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" and "This Little Light of Mine" for Grandma. She loved it!

It was a great day!

Pics from fishing

I finally got the camera and the computer to make friends...

So here are some pics from recent fishing trips:

A cottonmouth snake eating a fish that we caught and threw back in the water:

Jada's first fishing trip with us:

Jada, my niece:

A beautiful evening sky:

Malachi casting:

Seth relaxing:

A mama duck and her babies: