Pumpkin Patch Pedal Tractor Pull

Andrew pulling - 4 full pulls and all the weights

Garrett pulling 5ft.

Andrew getting his trophy!

Yesterday in Salem they had the Pumpkin Patch, which is a fun day sponsored by the local Lutheran church's. The 4-H club had several games and activities for the kids. One of them was the Pedal Tractor Pull. Robert has aged out of the tractor pulls, but Garrett is just starting. Yesterday Garrett placed 2nd in the 4 yr olds and my nephew Andrew placed 1st in the 7 yr olds. Both of the boys are excited. Andrew got a trophy and in his words -"FINALLY!"

Final Flag Football Game

The boys got their names announced at the end of the game.
(Robert on the right)

Robert on defense going after Austin with the ball. 

OKay so this was a whilrwind of a weekend.  But Saturday night was Robert's last Flag Football game of the season. His team was #2 of all the 3rd & 4th grade teams and last night all the teams got to play on the high school field with LIGHTS! This seems to make it a BIG game for them. Robert's team didn't win last night, but they had a good season and the boys had fun.

Pumpkin Patch in Salem

Just wanted you to know that if you are local, Saturday October 16 (tomorrow) will be a day of fun in Salem. There is a pancake & buckwheat cake breakfast until 1. THen at 2 there are going to be kids games, hayrides, pumpkin sling shot and more fun. There is a pumpkin carving contest, Evening Prayer service and then Square Dancing with Jimmy Dittman. SO if your calendar has some open time stop out and join in on the fun!

Reading Through the school year

Well earlier this summer we set up pictures of barns and the kids earned their animals for their farm with every book that they read. It seems that the animals have lost their excitment. So today I started taking down the farm - to which Garrett protested, but when I explained that we would do something else, he was alright with taking it down. So today we have enlarged a coloring book picture (with my auction buy of an overhead projector) of a combine and a wagon for Garrett and a tractor and wagon for Robert. The object will be to read enough books to fill the wagons with ears of corn (that they will get to color) for each book.

I have found that having these simple interaction with the books and being able to keep track of how many books they have read is a lot of fun for them and encourages reading. So what are you doing to encourage free reading (school assignments don't count) for your kids this fall?

4-H Awards Dinner results

Okay I bragged a little the other night. Here is a photo of Robert receiving his 2nd award.

4-H Leader's Dinner & Awards night

Just wanted to brag a little, tonight was the annual 4-H Leader's and Awards dinner. These awards are for kids that do a little extra work and have their books judged an extra time. Well Robert received 2 awards tonight. One for his Goat record book and on for his Geneology Book. Venango's Edge 4-H CLub (Robert's Club) actually had 9 awards tonight - which was actually over half of the awards. Wow what a group of kids!

Fire Prevention Month and Drills

Okay so I'm a bit behind the ball as LAST week was National Fire Prevention Week, but around my house it becomes all month and it is all firetrucks and firemen around here. But in all seriousness, making sure that everyone knows how to get out of the house and where to go is SO important. Remember that if you ran the drill last year that your children have grown and maybe the youngest will not need help now, but will need to be reminded that he/she needs to crawl out of the house and they may not remember where to go just because of their age. And just because the oldest knows the drill by heart, you need to make sure that the other kids do too.

Something that I saw last year and was terrified by the outcome, was a television show that had the fire alarm go off while children were sleeping. They had hidden cameras in their rooms and their parents sat in a downstairs room. The fire alarm went off and some of the kids never moved! Others thinking it was their alarm, put their heads under their pillows or pulled the covers over their heads!  For several of the families participating in the show, their children would most likely died of smoke because it took over 12 minutes (I think) for their children to get out of bed and mosey to the downstairs.

This bothered me SO much that we had to try it here. To start with I had talked to the boys about what I had seen on TV and how I hoped that they would be able to tall the difference if they were ever in that situation. Then towards the end of the month, when it wasn't on their minds, we planned an evening drill. We had the kids in bed on time on a Saturday night. Then between 9:30 & 10, Gary pushed the fire alarm test button and I timed the boys at getting themselves downstairs. I was relieved that they both had made it downstairs in under 3 minutes. But because of the show (which I don't remember which show it was) this is a new drill that my family will be doing every year, just so we know what that alarm sounds like, especially when we are sleeping!

Don't forget to change the batteries in those alarms this month too!!!!!!

So does your family have a fire drill? Have you ever tried a nighttime drill? Something to think about trying!!!!!

Apple Pie Filling

We have a good crop of apples this year. I tried this recipe last year and we found that we enjoyed this apple pie filling on top of waffles, pancakes, in mountain pies and come to think of it I don't think we ever got to actually having an apple pie. But you can use this how ever you would like, but it is a good way to preserve some of you apples and have quick desserts at your fingertips.

When I am canning I try to involve the boys some how. For apples Robert & Garrett both helped pick the apples with Gary. But since Garrett was home with me he got the opportunity to help peel the apples. I have a peeler/corer and the boys will fight over who gets to help crank and peel the apples. It is so nice to have willing help!

Core, peel and slice enough apples to fill 7 quart jars. Layer the apples into the jars. Then in a pan, combine 6 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch, 2 tablespoons cinnamon
10 cups of water
Cook until thick. Add 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Pour into jars with apples. Leave 1/4" headspace. This recipe says to Cold water pack for 20 minutes. Makes 7 quarts.

I don't know the recommendations as to if apple pie filling should be cold water packed or packed in a pressure cooker. I know that my pie filling from last year did fine with cold water packing.

Enjoy!

Hyper Dash - a great game for Christmas lists!

This was the game of the year for 2007 and we were lucky enough to receive this game as a gift. And we have had a great time with it. The game is called "Hyper Dash"and for more info and a picture you will need to click on this link. http://www.hyper-game.com/ . But this game gets everyone up and moving, plus an added benefit is it has taught Garrett his colors and his numbers (1-5 anyhow) and colors: red, blue, yellow, orange and green. But it also teaches the importance of listening to directions. Hyper Dash has 4 different games and several different levels (i'm sure we haven't explored all of the levels) The 5 targets and the wand will fit in a plastic shoebox so it has gone with us on vacation. But this game is versatile enough to play with 1 without all the action or several  players playing on teams in a large field. And the kids just find it fun, but it tests their reaction time and their speed. What a great game to have that gets exercise, listening to directions, speed, colors, numbers and on higher levels math, and easy to care for too! All in 1 game!
So if you are looking for Christmas gifts this might be one that you would want to investigate.  I haven't checked out the other products from this company so I can only speak for the Hyper Dash game and we love it. 

Waiting activities

On Saturday we went to the Autumn Leaf Festival Parade. Now the parade doesn't start until noon, but we were there at 9:30am so that we could save seats for the rest of the group that sits with us (we are now up to 17 for our family and there are families that sit beside us, too that we know.) But what do you do with kids while they wait, you can only eat so many times, so we have learned to take a few books with us that all ages can enjoy. The "I SPY" books are great for this kind of waiting time. And the bigger the book the better. We have found that there are 3 or 4 of us looking at a picture trying to find a certain item. And this is something that Garrett at 4 (and he did it last year too) can handle and the boys at 9&10 can handle too. Now the toddlers were a different story, but reading them a story works too. This is just something that we have found helps when we are waiting for an event of this type to start and we know that we will have a long wait. Adding a book or 2 really doesn't take much space or weigh that much when carrying in the blankets and chairs and such. SO enjoy a good book and have some fun the next time you are waiting !

Children's Sermon - Treat God Like Ice Cream!

Well, it has been a while since I have had a children's sermon and this was the weekend. It was a busy weekend too, so I turned to my notebook that I started for Children's Sermon's. This notebook has ideas that come to me at anytime and then I can pick which Children's Sermon sounds good for today. Well I decided yesterday that "Treat God Like Ice Cream" was up for today and here it is.

So how many of you didn't want to get up this morning on a drizzly, rainy Sunday morning. Just a little tired from all the Autumn Leaf Festival events? Me too. But you know what - what would have you done if mom or dad would have come into your room this morning and said let's go for ice cream! I know that I would have gotten out of bed quickly and would have been ready to walk out the door. I know that ice cream can make us excited about going to get it. But why aren't we excited to hear that it is time to go to church and that we have the opportunity to learn more about God and his teachings? Maybe we need to treat God more like ice cream and be excited about going to "get Some" of God's good news just like we are excited to go get ice cream.

 How about when you get there are you ever amazed at all the flavors to pick from, like when we go to Penn State's Creamery and they make over 100 flavors. Of course they aren't all available at the same time, but oh the flavors that they have! But I know that I went to Renninger's this summer and I was amazed at the size of a SMALL cone - it really isn't small. (To which the kids agreed that they are really big cones) So once again are we able to treat God like ice cream and be amazed at what he has done? Are you amazed by the colors of the fall leaves or by when he answers your prayer (remember he doesn't always answer the way we want), or by the world that he has made all around us? So shouldn't we be amazed by God just like we are amazed by the flavors of ice cream. Do you know they make Sweet potato ice cream and avocado ice cream? I found it on the Internet.
And finally how do you eat your ice cream? Do you eat it by taking 1 lick and coming back later or do you eat it all right now and can't wait until you get more? If we took a lick and came back later it would be melted and a mess. But when you are done with ice cream would you eat more in an hour? How about tomorrow? OF COURSE - I know that I would. So why don't we treat God that way?  Should we come to church on Sunday and get a little "lick" and then wait again until next week or should we enjoy everything we get to be involved with on Sunday and then make sure that we spend some time with God on Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday ad Thursday and Friday and Saturday and then be excited to go to church again on Sunday. That would be like getting ice cream everyday! (wouldn't that be cool?)
So we need to treat God like Ice Cream:
1. We need to be excited that we get to learn about him - just like we are excited that we are going to get ice cream
2. We need to be amazed at everything that God does around us- just like we are amazed by the number of flavors that we could get or the size of the cones that we receive.
3. We need to enjoy worshipping God when the opportunity comes and have the desire to have some time to worship or spend time with God - just like we enjoy eating our ice cream and then desire more.
So the next time you have an ice cream cone think about the ways it is like the way we should be treating God!

International Ataxia Day

Today I want to take the time to help make those reading this blog more aware of Ataxia. This is condition that my nephew, Andrew, suffers from the effects. This condition has so many different faces that it is hard to diagonois and still remains difficult to treat.

Here is some information about Ataxia from the National Ataxia Foundation

What is ataxia?


Ataxia means clumsiness of movement or loss of coordination that is not the result of muscle
weakness. The word “ataxia” might be used simply to mean poor coordination, or it might be used in a more
specific way to denote a degenerative disease of the nervous system. Ataxia may affect the fingers and
hands, the arms or legs, the body, speech or eye movements. This loss of coordination may be caused
by a number of different medical or neurological conditions. For this reason, it is important that a
person with ataxia seek medical attention to determine the underlying cause of the symptom and
to receive the appropriate treatment.

What causes ataxia?
Most often ataxia is caused by loss of function in the part of the brain, the cerebellum, which serves as the
coordination center. The cerebellum is located toward the back and lower part of the brain. The right side
of the cerebellum controls coordination on the right side of the body and the left side controls
coordination on the left. The central part of the cerebellum controls the very complex movements of
gait or walking, head and trunk stability and eye movements. Other parts of the cerebellum help to
coordinate eye movements, speech and swallowing. Ataxia may also be caused by dysfunction of the
pathways leading into and out of the cerebellum. Information comes into the cerebellum from the
spinal cord, inner ear and other parts of the brain and signals from the cerebellum go out to the spinal cord
and to the brain. Although the cerebellum does not directly control strength, (motor function) or feeling,
(sensory function) the motor sensory pathways must work properly to provide the correct input into the
cerebellum. Thus, a person with impaired strength or sensation may notice clumsiness or poor
coordination, and the doctor may say that person has ataxia.

If you would want to know more about Ataxia and the things they are doing to help find a cure or at least medications to help please visit the website http://www.ataxia.org/
This might be something that you don't deal with, but there are people suffering from this everyday and they are suffering without a lot of media for a cure. Thanks

Flag Football Season

Robert on the run

Robert centering the ball

On defense - catch up with her!

Okay Flag Football season has 4 games in, so we are about 1/2 way through and Robert seems to be enjoying the season and he is playing well. Today he had a run that was almost a touchdown but he stepped out of bounds. Then they came back and he did make a touchdown. He had at least 4 flags that he pulled for the stop. His team seems to be more of a throwing team, which we are still working on catching on the run really well, but he is doing well with the running and getting to where he wants to go when he has the ball.

Monarch Butterfly Hatched

Both chrysalis opened within 24 hours of each other

These are our Monarch butterflies that we have been feeding and watching through the life cycle. They both opened within 24 hours of each other and then we released them together on Friday afternoon. Something neat that I learned this time through the process of watching these caterpillars/butterflies is that you can tell the difference between male and female and in the photo above you can actually see 1 of each. The male is the upper butterfly and th female is the lower one. If you look at the bottom wing of the male butterfly you will see a black spot on one of the lines in the wing, this is how you can tell if it is a male or not. See we really can still learn new things each day! Just remember that like the butterfly it takes a lot of time, patience and trials sometimes to become the beautiful thing that God wants us to be!

Agriculture Education and other fun things

Since I was raised on a farm and Gary works on a farm, agriculture is our way of life. I believe that it helps us remain grounded in what we do. We get to see the miracles of life in many forms, from the birth of a calf to the sprouting of the seeds, we see the cycle all around us. With that in mind, I have been wanting to add something new to my blog and that is an agriculture activity or link to an activity to help people understand different aspects of farming and what is really going on, as farms become more modern and we see less of the farms that have a few chickens, a few cows and a couple of pigs. Specialized farms are what are now and are pretty much here to stay. 



Silage chopping



So for this month, around here it is time to harvest the corn. Some of the corn in our area is harvested in 3 different ways. The first is when the corn is still a little bit green in the stalks and a tractor, corn chopper and wagon go through the fields. There are also the self-propelled choppers that will harvest too. The corn that is harvested this way will be stored in the tall silos or in a silage bunk or bag. This will be corn silage and used as feed for the animals. 

Combine shelling corn

In a couple of weeks the corn will continue to dry or start looking dead. Then there are 2 ways to finish the harvesting of corn. One is to bring in a combine and when the combine goes through they are shelling the corn. They will just have the corn kernels to store when the combine is done. The other way to harvest corn is with a corn picker. This is a machine that will pick the ears of corn off the stalks and the ears of corn are stored in a corn crib.

harvesting ear corn with a corn picker



Most of the sweet corn is already done in this area, but there are still fun things to do with corn. If you get a chance, The Amazing corn maze in Lucinda, Pa  www.amazinglucinda.com is a lot of fun and this year they have made it 3 acres bigger!

So if you get a chance to spend some time with corn, check it out. IF you can't get to the corn maze, try something simple at home maybe carmel popcorn or just use the old hot air popper and watch what the kids do with that (especially if they have only had microwave popcorn!)  There are some great corn coloring pages available at www.kidsprintables.com check under "fall."

Let me know if you enjoy knowing more about agriculture and ways to show it to your kids and ways to enjoy it in the many different seasons.

Special Class Schedule

At Keystone, we have "numbered day schedules" instead of  "day schedules" and I find this very confusing. But Robert and I have found that each year we take a piece of fun foam and divide it into the 5 days. He writes the day number and then what special class goes along with that day. I also try to find stickers to decorate each class with. Then I take Velcro dots and attach a dot to each day & I make an arrow or a marker of some type to move each day to help us keep track of this schedule. This year the marker is a football. So each day he would move the football to the next day and know what special class he has. In addition to that I have a stack of magnets, (The free kind that are handed out as advertising) I glued 2 of those to the back of the fun foam with Elmer's glue. This makes it that it will stick to the back of our door (without damage) and Robert can check to see if he has what he needs for the day when he is going out the door.

If nothing else it has worked great for me to be able to as questions in the evening,. like how was art? or what ever class and it gets the conversation started.

Monarch caterpiller on the move

Caterpillar in a J before going into a chrysalis

Here you can see our caterpillar on the left in the "J" shape
and another caterpillar in the chrysalis on the right.
They will stay in the Chrysalis for about 10-14 days

Our caterpillar has grown a lot since we first put a entry about the caterpillars up. So he has eaten a bunch of milkweed in the past couple of weeks. Over this past weekend we saw him in this "J" form which is what they do before going into their chrysalis. They will be in the green chrysalis for about 10-14 days and then they will emerge as a butterfly ready for a long trip to Mexico for the winter. I love to see the life cycle come into a way that kids can see it. We'll post more when it happens.

Happy Birthday Gary (boy is it hot!)

Well, today we celebrated Gary's birthday.As usual I got out the Happy Birthday banner and the boys decided to write on the door "Happy Birthday Dad!" (With those crayola window markers) but there was just one problem to my day it was 90 degrees, hot and humid and I needed to bake a birthday cake in my house with no air conditioning. When Gary came in for breakfast, I apologized that I didn't think we would have cake for his birthday until the weekend (possible high of 58). I figured that ice cream with a candle would have to due for now, but he asked about the Banana Split Ice Cream Cake that a friend had shared the recipe a few years ago. I thought about this and decided that it would be just about perfect for his birthday today. Which it was especially good this evening when it was still very warm at 7:30, and it worked great for a hot September birthday with a candle in it. So here is the recipe for those who might need a quick and easy dessert for these last few hot days of summer! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARY!

Banana Split Ice Cream Cake

2 -12 count boxes of ice cream sandwiches
1 tub of whipped cream
bananas
cherries
any other toppings that you might find on a banana split
Chocolate syrup

In a 9x13 glass pan, cover the bottom in unwrapped ice cream sandwiches. Spread a layer of whipped topping on top of the sandwiches. Then slice the bananas on top of the whipped topping, place cherries where they would be on each slice when cut. Add any other toppings that you desire. Then layer yet another layer of unwrapped ice cream sandwiches. Add another layer of whipped topping. Freeze until ready to serve. Cut place on plates and drizzle a little bit of chocolate syrup over the top and enjoy!

First Day of School

I know that for kids the first day of school can be scary and exciting. So I have tried to make the first day of school a fun day at our house. This year, I had the door decorated with "Good Luck in 4th grade" by using Crayola Window Markers which are really a lot of fun to leave messages on windows and mirrors. Anyhow, then I usually try to find 1 school supply that wasn't really needed but wanted and I purchase it without my kids knowing about it. Then on the first day of school, the kitchen table is set for breakfast and there is a new supply at their spot too. This year it was twist-up colored pencils for Robert and a new Thomas the Train book for Garrett. This is also one of the days that Garrett and I go with Robert to the bus stop across the road, and we do the usual first day of school photos (which I try to do at the same place so I can see how the kids have grown)

I also try very hard to make sure that I have cleared the calendar for when Robert gets home to hear all about his day. It sometimes takes a little bit of time for Robert to tell me details of the day, but usually by bed a have a pretty good look at what the day was like.

So what do you do for the first day of school?

Monarch butterfly time!

It is that time of year, when the boys and I go out caterpillar hunting. We went the other morning and found a couple of caterpillars, but nothing like what Andrew and I found Sunday afternoon. We found 7 caterpillars, but the coolest thing was the size of them these are the smallest caterpillars that I have ever found and we found 4 of them. Check out the picture. Monarch caterpillars are such a neat thing for the kids to check out - the process of change that the caterpillar goes through. I will have photos of the process until these caterpillars turn into butterflies. Garrett will be doing a butterfly life cycle - check out http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ for a life cycle print out and other butterfly activities. I have found that there are adults that have never seen this change of life - I guess that I took it for granted that I had school teachers that loved the hands on learning that could be added to the curriculum. I also found that if you search "life cycle of monarch butterfly" there is a website that has time lapsed photos of a butterfly coming out of the chrysalis - very cool!

Children's Sermon - Stepping Out

okay, this children's sermon was almost too long, but the length can always be adjusted by the number of examples used.

I asked the kids how they were doing and if they were ready for school - answers were as I expected the day before school starts. Then I asked if over the summer if any of them had gone to Wal-mart, Riverside or Sharp Shopper - to which they answered yes of course. Then the hard question - how do those doors work? The answers were interesting, but I finally explained that they use to have these black rug like things that when you stepped on them the door opened. So what opened those doors? We did - by stepping forward and stepping on the black rug or by breaking the motion detector. So YOU stepping forward was what made it work.
Now do you know that God has a whole warehouse of miracles just waiting to have happen? So what is he waiting for? Well let's look at some of his past miracles.
We talked about David & Goliath and how David had to say "I'll fight the giant" before God went to work.
We talked about Noah and how Noah had to say yes I will build the ark - God gave the blueprints.
Jesus feeding 5,000 - the boy gave his 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread and God went to work, but the boy had to step forward first.
But that was all a long time ago, so are miracles happening now? Well when Gary went to Jamaica, it poured at the place where they were staying but where they were working it wasn't raining and they could get the house built. See the mission team had stepped forward and said yes and God was doing the rest.
(I continued with several examples of current miracles from within our church)
So why don't we see miracles happening more often, because people aren't stepping out or stepping forward and saying yes to what God wants them to do.

So with this new school year, I hope that you will decide to step out for Jesus and say "yes" to what God wants you to do. I made foot shaped bookmarks from funfoam and wrote on them "Have you stepped out today?"

A verse to go with this was Deuteronomy 31:6 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

Swimming Pool Educational Game

This summer we have spent a lot of time at our pool. The boys like to have me "tow" them around the pool on a pool noodle. Well I had just read an article about a mom who had her girls learn their address and phone number while they got their hair done. Well since this was on my mind, it got the creative juices going. While in the pool, we came up with a new game. Rockin Robin's Towing Service.

The boys would pretend that they had an accident with their pool noodle and then they would call "Rockin Robin's Towing Service" AKA Mom. I would then ask them to give me their location for the tow truck to find them - they had to tell me our home address including town and state. Then I would ask for a phone number at which they could be reached in case the tow truck got lost. To this Robert found out that he needed to learn my cell phone number - so his contact number was my cell phone and to Garrett his contact number was the house number. Once the information was communicated I would rush to the "scene of the accident" and grab a hold of the pool noodle with child in tow and tow them to a pretend garage to have their car fixed.

Okay so we pretended and included learning and swimming and fun all into one- what more could we ask for! At least the boys now know phone numbers and Garrett has learned his address! Yeah!!

Fresh Applesauce

Well it is that time of year when the apples start to fall off the trees and the battle to pick up apples with the boys begin. But so far this year there hasn't been major battles and Gary helped this week by bring in a bucket of apples. These weren't real big apples so not really good for apple pie filling or apple dumplings, but good for applesauce. So if you have never made homemade apple sauce here is all that you do - it is really simple:

First wash your apples, then you can decide if you would like to peel your apples or put the apple sauce through a food mill. If you peel your apples, you just need to core and peel the apples and put them into a large pan and add a little bit of water so they don't scorch to the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat on and stir your pan of apples on a regular basis until it is sauce. You might need to add a little sugar depending on your preferred taste and depending on the apples. As for me I dislike peeling apples so I just cut and core the apples and cook the apples with the water until the peels start to let loose of the meat of the apple. I then put the apples through a food mill and take out all of the peels and then add sugar (Depending on the apples your applesauce might take on a pink color from the peels). Either way homemade applesauce with a little cinnamon is a favorite around my house especially if it is still just a little bit warm.

The best part was that I had 2 boys come offer to help today. Robert came in and started turning the food mill and when Garrett got up from his nap he wanted to help too. This was so neat since I try to find jobs for them to help with putting up food at this time of year and sometimes I have to listen to a lot of whining about helping. So their volunteering was a great joy!
If you are looking for ways to include the kids in the kitchen with canning or preserving foods this fall stop and look at the simple jobs that they can do. Even 2 year olds can stand on a chair and "help" wash the apples before cutting them into pieces. Older kids can learn knife safety and if they are soft apples use a butter knife to cut the apples into pieces. The food mill is another easy job but it takes supervision because usually the food being milled is hot and it could splash on the child. But even when we are trying to get the food ready for winter we need to find ways to include our kids in the kitchen.

Venango County Fair

The Frog Jumping contest returned this year and Andrew had the largest frog there - he didn't win but it was a huge frog! (And he didn't step on it!)

Robert in the auction ring on sale night - he did very well and had several buyers there bidding on his goat.

Animal dress up contest - Garrett took first place with his goat as Rudolph and he dressed as Santa. Robert and Sam had "Superhero goats" while John, Joe & Paul had the "Pirate goat" and Andrew dressed his sheep up as a King.

The week ended on a fun note except when Andrew got hurt, but the kids had fun. The one other thing of the week was that at the awards ceremony Robert received the "Rate of Gain" award for goats, which was cool since we weren't sure if he was putting on enough weight or not- I guess Robert must have fed it right. The fair is over for yet another year, but now Robert has decided that maybe he would like to have dairy goats so he could milk them and then make goat milk fudge & a pig might be fun too. Oh what will the next year hold for us? I can hardly wait!

Venango County Fair - Continued

Robert with 1 of his 4-H projects - Genealogy- 1st place. He also entered Cookie Magic - 2nd place and First Aid as a club project which received 1st place. He entered a few in open this year too a Quilt patch, a story about Maple Syrup, a Duct Tape ipod case, and a photo of a butterfly. ( In this picture you can see nephew Andrew's poster in the right hand corner with a 2nd place ribbon)

Andrew showing his pig in pee wee showmanship and he received a blue ribbon.

Andrew in the pedal tractor pull. He had a full pull which made it he was in the pull off which he had 2 more full pulls before being beat by another boy by a few inches. But he did a great job!

Garrett in his first fair pedal pull and he did a good job.

Tuesday of fair was busy watching Andrew show his pig. He also showed a sheep on Monday. Wednesday the big event was the pedal tractor pull - first time for Garrett and the first time that Robert got to help instead of pull. Also the first time that Andrew got several full pulls. By Wednesday the boys were getting a little tired.

Venango County Fair - beginning of the week

Garrett with his 2nd place collage of tractors. He entered a farm display which placed 1st, a painting on fabric which placed 2nd, a Christmas ornament that he received 3rd and a bookmark, plus his goat Simba.

Simba and Garrett had a blue pee wee showmanship, a 1st in Doe of any Breed and Champion Doe of any Breed

Robert received a blue in fitting, a red in showmanship and a 1st place in the middle weight Meat Goat class. He got to go in for Champion but didn't quite make the cut.

Garrett showing his goat, Simba, all by himself this year!

Robert answering the judges questions during the show with Bo.

We started the fair off with the Goat Show Monday morning and the rest of the projects being judged. The boys were planning a great week and I think they succeeded.

Happy Birthday Garrett

Opening Presents and a watergun to even things out Happy 4th Birthday Garrett

Okay, Summer gets in the way of me being a "good" mom and remembering to get online and post simple things, but Garrett turned 4 on June 30th. He is now "Big" or so he is telling people. The fun part is that the next day he got up and asked me if he was 5 now. But his birthday was a cool evening and a campfire and sweatshirts were required but he had a Thomas birthday cake and family stopped in for supper, cake and ice cream. A watergun and a nerf gun will even things out with Robert and painting pads and a new hay rake for his "big tractors" and a round baler for the small tractors will round up things. He spent that night sleeping on his floor in his new sleeping bag. But if nothing else He are excited to be 4!

Dirt and Sand

I really enjoy having fun with food, especially during the summer. For a picnic a couple of weeks ago, I let the boys decide were we taking dirt or sand. It was decided dirt this time, but if your looking for something fun for the next picnic or get-to-together here is the recipes (general) for Dirt & Sand.

Dirt
1 package Oreo cookies crushed (generic chocolate cookies work too)
2 packages chocolate pudding made up
1 tub of whipped cream
1 container of gummy worms

I usually use a dedicated sand bucket and a sand shovel to serve with (this container never goes near the sandbox - it's MOM's). Just begin layering the ingredients in until nearly full. Always end with oreo crumbs on top with a few worms sticking up through. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Amounts depend on the size of your sand bucket as you may need more ingredients depending on the bucket or serving container.

Now for those who do not like chocolate it is the vanilla version.

1 package Vanilla Oreo's (generic vanilla sandwich cookies work too)
2 packages vanilla or you could use butterscotch pudding
1 tub of whipped cream
and try to find seashell shaped candies or I have used swedish fish too. I've found that you need to check the gummy section of the bulk goods store or the local candy store. It's amazing the things hey make in candies.

Once again I use the dedicated sand bucket and sand shovel to serve. And just layer the ingredients into the bucket until nearly full. End with the cookie crumbs on the top like sand and add a few seashell candies or fish that got stuck on shore. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Amounts depend on the size of your sand bucket as you may need more ingredients depending on the bucket or serving container.

This is a lot of fun especially for the kids. You could substitute ice cream for the pudding and freeze. Remove from freezer before serving (very hard) but artificial flowers out the top is a lot of fun - some people will think you are really eating DIRT or maybe SAND.

Fun with Food

"Hi I'm Mr. Corndog Man! How are you?" (are you sure we can play with our food?)

Summer time can sometimes mean a little more flexibility and that meals can be fun. Today the boys wanted corn dogs (questionable on how healthy)which I had purchased and had in the freezer. When I pulled them from the microwave, I noticed that there was a bump on the batter that looked like a nose. So I grabbed some shredded cheese and made little eyes and then I took a mushroom (left over from mountain pies the other night) and made a mouth and set them on the table. Robert and Garrett were like "Cool" Robert wanted to add hair - he said that cheese could easily make hair or maybe streaks of ketchup. Anyhow we had fun at lunch today and made the next time, I will let the boys create instead of me, but it is fun to make something different or unexpected for lunches during the summer. Try even using a cookie cutter for sandwiches - some days we have cows, pigs and hay bales. (Which Robert will even ask for once in a while because he remembers doing it when he wasn't in school)

Baby is here!

My new neice arrived at 3:45am this morning. Haylee Catherine made her arrival. She is 7#3oz. and 20" long. Catherine is doing well and the delivery went well from what I have heard (it was long) But all are well, what a blessing from God!

Wooden toy tops

This summer we have had several toy races at our house. These were simple toys that we made at VBS and here at my house for a last minute craft and they are SOOOO simple. They are simply wooden wheels (that my husband uses when he is building toy trucks) and a dowel rod cut to 4 inches in length. Sharpie markers were a simple decoration and makes them individuals. Then the kids set them on the floor and push the top away from themselves. We have had a great time with these simple toys. We have timed the spinning and also who's spin the longest amount of time or has the most unique spin pattern.
Tops are still a lot of fun!

Tye Dying Hand-me-downs

My sister is expecting which is great but we understand that it is to be a girl. This means that all the hand-me-downs can't be used. Some are definitely boy clothes. But a couple of weeks ago, I went to the attic and pulled out the clothes and sorted through them and found some that could be male or female. I also found 18 white (some what stained) outfits. My nephew (future big brother) was here for the day and we decided that Robert and my nephew could tie dye the outfits so that the baby would have some color. They picked pink, purple and a tealish blue. They turned out great and what a way to let kids help get ready for the new baby. We spent all afternoon. wrapping rubberbands, carefully putting the outfits in one color and then the next. After they dried, I rinsed them and then took the bands off. What excitement when they saw their handiwork. We also did a plain white sheet for the crib that turned out really cool. But here is a picture of a few of the outfits. But what a simple way to make hand-me-downs more exciting.

County Fair Projects

The Venango County Fair was something new to me when I was a kid, but since that is where Gary & I met, and we believe in the family friendly atmosphere it is now a given to our family that we will be going and participating in the fair events and friendly competition. With Robert being a 4-H'er he has several projects that he will be exhibiting for 4-H. Along with the projects come the books. These are a great way to keep Robert writing and reading and calculating the costs of his projects. Plus he will learn something new too!
Now Garrett will have his projects too. The fair offers open classes for everyone. There are youth classes for those 8 and under, 8-18, and adults. These projects are what keep the boys busy all summer. Actually it started the planning in January or February because the seed catalogs came out then and they were looking for sunflower seeds. They both enter sunflowers that they have taken care of throughout the summer.
But some simple ideas are: collages, fabric painting, flowers (plant and let the kids water and weed and then select the best looking bloom as needed for each type of flower) farm displays, models,etc. there are lots of things to choose from and they are great ways to use up some of that extra time that you might have this summer!
Gary & I even enter some of the things that we have made throughout the year, just for the fun of it. If anyone is interested I have extra fairbooks with the classes! Venango County does ask for preregistration by July 16th.

Vacation Bible School

As a co-director for Vacation Bible School, I am always excited about what is coming for the kids. For some reason this year I was more worried than excited, but our church had the "Backstage with the Bible" from the Go Fish Guys. If you have never heard of the Go Fish Guys, they are a great music group that started in adult Christian music and moved into kids music and the kids (and adults) love the music. Well, the VBS was very exciting - we had 104 registered kids attend VBS and over 40 volunteers. But the most exciting was how the kids took to the music and they really knew the words. Their favorite song _"The 10 Commandment Boogie" How awesome to have a song with God's rules be the kids' favorite song.

Now my boys were very very excited because we do like the Go Fish Guys' music so that made their day all by its' self. But it is so cool when Garrett came home each day and could tell myself or Gary ALL about VBS. The snack, the story, the games, the music, the craft (which he usually had to show us) and even the things he got to buy at the store. Robert had to miss one day because of cap, but he was always ready to put in anything that Garrett maybe missed about the day.

I was a VBS kid meaning that I attended several VBS's each summer and now my boys are doing the same. If you are interested Emlenton Area Church's will be having a "Family VBS" Starting June 21-25 from 6-8:30 each evening. The are presenting "Egypt - Joseph's Journey from Prison to Palace" All are welcome to come and join in on more summer fun!

Tents are great

Yesterday Robert asked if he could get out his tent. It is a small 2 person tent (if they are small people) but it was a nice day so he was allowed to get it out, but he had to set it up himself or with the help of his brother. A little while later both boys came to get legos - they could play outside and not loose the legos. The boys spent most of the afternoon playing in the tent. Then last night when I came home from a meeting there is a note saying that Robert was sleeping in the tent by himself. At age 9 I thought this would be an interesting evening. But he made it all night in the tent by himself and he enjoyed it. The tent stayed up today too and they continued to play in it. Aren't new play things in the backyard great? Sometimes something as simple as a tent or when inside a sheet over a table can entertain children for hours. And it seems my boys still like to have close, small space rather than wide open spaces. HAve a great summer weekend and remember tents are for more than camping!

Summer Reading Project

When Robert was younger he tracked the books he read through the summer by adding a body part to a dragon on our upstairs bulletin board. HE really enjoyed the activity that followed reading a book. Well after a lot of looking through bulletin board ideas, the boys and I have talked about having our "Reading Farm"." This week we will draw and color the barn which is the base for our farm then in order to have farm animals, they will have to read a book. For each book read, they will get a farm animal to write the name of the story on and them color the rest of the animal. So by the end of the summer, they are hoping to have an entire farm (maybe I'll even include tractors and equipment - we'll have to wait and see) But this is just an idea that has encouraged my boys to keep reading especially during the summer!

Alphabet Train

Garrett is learning his alphabet and we have tried a couple different things but they haven't clicked for him yet, but on Friday I started "Garrett's Alphabet Train" I found a blank train engine picture and a blank train car for in a classroom or bulletin board. I added Garrett's name right to the train and then printed it off for him. Now Garrett hasn't proved to be much for coloring, but twice now with the Frog Life Cycle and now with the train he has done a wonderful job. He also asked for colored pencils, so don't be afraid to give kids different tools to color with. We have the start of our train ready and on the wall. I took a photo of him and cut it out so there wasn't any background and it is just his head and put it in the engineer's spot on the train. I am planning to have each train car have a different letter and he can either find that letter in a magazine or paper or he can add pictures from the magazines of hings that start with each letter. But if nothing else he is very excited about it. We'll see how it goes.

Last Day of School

I try to make the first and last days of each school year special. We usually have something to give to the teacher for a Thank You for a good year and we usually try to have something for the bus driver too as they did make sure that Robert was safe to and from school each day throughout the year.
But I also have a few things that I do for Robert - first is that there will be pictures as he gets on and off the bus tomorrow. But I also have purchased Crayola's window crayons and Window Markers. SO there will be a little message on the door as he leaves and a new one when he gets home. Something as simple as "The LAST DAY of SCHOOL" or "Good-Bye 3rd Grade" then when he comes home it might say "Look out 4th Grade here comes Robert" Or "Welcome Summer!"
I usually have some type of small gift for the first day of summer too. This might come on the last day of school or it sometimes waits til the first day after school is out. This is usually something that the boys will spend time with this summer. New sports equipment or a few new books to read throughout the summer. What ever it is I do try to go overboard and celebrate each year completed in school! So try something special for your kids!

math games

Robert is to the point that he is learning his multiplication tables, but there have been a few nights that just going through the flash cards is just a bit more than what he can handle. So I got out a deck of regular playing cards and we divided them in half. And we both flipped over 1 card. He had to multiply the 2 cards together. IF he got the answer correct he got the cards, if the answer was wrong, I got the cards. The object of the game is for him to end up with all of the cards. Now we used the jack as 11, the queen as 12 and the King as 1 and the Ace was the Wild card which means that the person who laid it down gets to choose a value for the card. This proved to be a nice way to practice his math facts and was more of a game than a flashcard practice time.

After we had played several times (at his request) I got to thinking that this would work for almost any math. Addition they could easily add. Subtraction they would have to remember to start with the largest card and multiplication as we played it. So maybe throw in a few math games this summer while hanging out outside and the kids won't even realize that they are practicing their math facts.

Teaching Opposites

Garrett and I have been playing a game for a while that he reminded me of the other day as we waited for an appointment. When I was in high school there was a cheer that the cheerleaders did during football that one line was " We say fight, you say Win -fight, win, fight, win" and it continued with other lines. Well I have taken that line and have made it a fun opposites game. I will look at Garrett and say" I say stop, you say go - stop, go, stop, go" We then continue with as many opposites as we can. Sometimes I will start with "I say on, you say- what do you say?" This is where Garrett will tell me off and then we finish the game. This has become a fun little rhyme that we can do anywhere, from in the car, to waiting in line at the store, to waiting for an appointment. And it doesn't take anything but a mind fast enough to remember opposite groups plus it helps the kids remember their opposites.

Memorial Day Events

Okay, for my family Memorial Day usually means that Gary works and that there is farming to be done, but first there is the Service in Salem. I have been attending (for what seems like )Forever. But I have taken on a few new roles since I was a kid and I know go along with the Legion to each cemetery and play "Taps" for them.

I was talking to a friend the other day, who said that she had never been to a military funeral until recently and that it was very moving. That really got me thinking because I think that I have exposed my boys to not really the military funereal, but to a military salute. They know what a 21 gun salute looks and sounds like, they know that usually following the 21 gun salute there is the playing of "Taps" and it is a quiet solemn time to remember those who have passed on.

I hope that you take time this Memorial Day to share with your family and your children what Memorial Day is all about. It is for those who fought and gave their lives for our freedom. The freedom to have our picnics, to play our games, to go camping, whatever it is that you might be doing on this long weekend. I hope that you take time to remember and share that with those around you what the day really means. Maybe take time to attend a service somewhere near you to show your appreciation for those who gave their lives. They gave their lives, can you give a little bit of time to show them the honor that they deserve?

Have a safe and Happy Memorial Day Weekend and Take time to Remember

S'Mores Children's Sermon/activity

Okay, We had a very cool Children's sermon at church this morning that works so well with the official start of summer that it was too much fun not to share. Thanks Andrea!

The S'Mores lesson

After discussing that this was Memorial Day and that we are to remember those who have fought for our freedom, came the discussion that this usually meant picnics and campfires. And she asked the kids if they knew what the trinity was or who was in the trinity. When they didn't know she explained that it had 3 parts, The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit. 3 parts just like a Smore! So the next time that you make a S'more remember that there are 3 parts the crackers, the chocolate and the marshmellow. The marshmellow is white like purity and when it is warmed becomes the glue that holds everything else together just like God holds everything together. And the best part about S'Mores is eating them and getting them inside of us, just like the best part about the Trinity is having them inside of each one of us!

So I hope that you have fun at your next campfire, but maybe you can use it as a learning opportunity that has a sweet treat in the end!

Tadpoles

The other afternoon, my mom stopped in with a bucket for the boys - in the bottom of the bucket were a large amount of Tadpoles. Well, we found a container to put them in and currently they appear to all be living. But I decided that if we were going to have them around that this was a great time to learn about them a little bit more. Garrett has been checking on them 2 & 3 times a day do I got online and checked on of my favorite websites for kids activities http://www.dltk-kids.com/ and searched frog life cycle. and up poped these adorable pictures and great ideas on how to make them. One of the neat ideas from this was that packing bubbles work great to appear like frog eggs.

So I printed off the life cycle in the large format and sent Garrett to check what color his tadpoles were. He came back in and when I showed him the picture of the tadpole, he went right to work coloring his picture. Now this is quite the accomplishment since Garrett doesn't like to color. But he worked at this for a while, coloring the tadpole and then the frog and all of the arrows to make our circle. Then he helped cut outsome of the pieces and he used the gluestick to stick them(with help for the proper order) onto the construction paper.

He did a great job and was very diligent about it too. So I hope you enjoy his art work and maybe you too can find some tadpoles to try raising.

handy pudding

Garrett loves chocolate pudding. We had had some of the individual servings pudding here, but are currently fresh out. So Garrett and I made chocolate pudding which is a really easy thing for kids of all ages to handle and can be nearly mess free (except for the eating of it). I have a shaker Tupperware container, (I have found that recycled Kool-aid mix containers or something similar works too)that holds 2 cups of milk plus has room for the chocolate pudding mix. So he helped pour in the milk and the pudding mix. I got the lid snapped on and then Garrett gets to jump and shake the pudding for at least 1 minute, but I usually try for 2 minutes. Then it goes into the refrigerator until after lunch. After lunch , I decided that we would have a little fun with our dessert and I pulled out the ice cream cones. Instead of Ice Cream cones we had pudding cones. Kids really enjoy these and they are kind of fun. Garrett really like scooping the pudding into the cones. And then we were able to enjoy our pudding cones outside without a really big mess. I have seen these also with a small amount of whipped cream on top to make them look even better.

So grab the pudding and enjoy a Pudding Cone this summer! We did.

Friends dropping in

Sometimes those plans from the very last minute work out the best. Dawn, Jeff & Abby were able to come and visit this weekend at the last minute. This worked out for us since it was a rainy Saturday and our plans ended up being cancelled. IT is so nice to have friends visit and we really enjoyed their visit. If you haven't had a chance to visit distant friends, maybe last minute "oh we have a free weekend" would be the time to go for a visit.

revised Candyland

The other day I was trying to figure out how to help Garrett learn his alphabet by the shape of the letter, not just saying them. So I thought about how he learned his colors and some of his numbers. He had to match them in a fun way. With games like "Candyland" you learn your colors, and "shutes and ladders" teach the numbers, so I was thinking that there isn't a reason that we can't learn our letters the same way. So when I was at Goodwill, I picked up a used Candyland Game and brought it home to be spruced up. I took a Sharpie marker and started printing both upper and lower case letters per block. Then I took the cards and on the backs wrote the alphabet in both upper and lower case letters. I put doubles on the cards that were doubles and I put numbers on the spots like "Peppermint stick" &" Gumdrop grove." With these changes we played the game using the letters and Garrett had to say the letters on each spot between where he was and where he was going. It seems to help and we are progressing. But now we have a game that we can play colors, or letters and numbers or we can play all three if the cards get all mixed up, there won't have to be a right side up or down either.

Do any of you have games that you have changed the rules to or a revised game that has worked well? please let me know as I love to have games in the back of my head!

Fun garden craft

My boys had seen a cool craft in last year's "Family Fun" magazine that we decided to make for Mother's Day gifts. They were gazing balls. My mom really likes gazing balls and has them in all shapes and sizes in her yard, but a few of the smaller ones got broken last summer in some of the storms. These were really simple and fairly mess free. They use clear, plastic treasure balls (look like Christmas ornaments, but they open like an Easter Egg) any how, you put a few drops of metallic paint of 2 different colors in. Then close the ornament and slowly roll the ball around for the paint to cover the inside and mix together naturally. Then we opened the ornaments and let them dry. We found some square stakes that the boys then painted and we put everything together with copper wire wrapped around the ball and then wrapped around the top of the painted stake. These turned out really cool, they look like the expensive gazing balls and these ones shouldn't break as easily as the glass ones. For full directions check http://www.familyfun.com/ and then search for "high-stakes glazing ball"

Mother's Day Children's Sermon

I once again had Children's Sermon., now this was kind of fun since it was Mother's Day. So I started by asking the kids that if they had any of the following living at their home to raise their hand and then I went through the following list:
a transportation director
a personal dietitian or nutritionist
a fashion coordinator
a landscaper
an accounts manager
a pediatric physician
a domestic engineer
an interior designer
a family historian
an arbitrator
or a personal coach
TO almost all of these I got "no" or "huh?"
Then we went back through each one and explained what these jobs would be in simple language and who most likely in the homes of our kids performed these duties. I explained that Mom's tend to be the ones who arrange for rides to where we want to be. That Mom is the one who decides what we can or cannot have to eat. "Can I have 1 more oreo?" and that sometimes mom says no because it is good for us NOT to have 1 more cookie. Then the fashion coordinator is the person who buys, washes and let's us know if what we are wearing is appropriate for the occasion and if it matches.The landscaper is the one who might mow the lawn or plants the flowers or shrubs or adds decoration outside to make your home look nice. The accounts manager is someone who makes sure that the bills are paid that there is money for groceries and all the activities that kids would like to do. The Pediatric physician - this I had to explain was "a kid doctor" and who do we go to when we have a sore throat or a splinter? - MOM. A domestic engineer - is someone who makes sure the the home runs properly. The interior designer is the one who makes the inside of our houses look nice and helps keep it clean. The family historian - is the person who helps keep track of our lives, either in photos, or journals or scrapbooks. They are the ones that when asked "What was it like the day I was born?" will be the one that can remember that day and explain it in detail. The arbitrator is the one who breaks up fights or arguments with siblings or friends. And finally the personal coach - I hope that we all have personal coaches as those are the people who encourage us all the time, they are the ones who challenge us and teach us new skills that we need to get through life. But the amazing part of all of this is that all those big titles we sum up with 3 letters -MOM. But when we read Proverbs 31:29-31 we find that "...that a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her reward she has earned, and let her works be known at the city gates."

Now you knew that mom did all these things for you, but I challenge you to learn 1 new thing about your mom today. Find out what your mom's favorite color is, what is her favorite flower, or her favorite food. Take time and talk to your mom because she is a lot more than you think.

Coupons / Riverside Knox

I was at Riverside in Knox today and saw that they are NOT going to accept printed at home coupons because of counterfeits. Just thought I'd let you know before you head in and can't use those coupons

Salute to America

Robert on his recorder


Robert's class presented a "Salute to America" they performed on their recorders, and sang songs of America, but here is one that I know Aunt Caren, Aunt Catherine and I were taught, which they are still teaching because it has all 50 states in alphabetical order.

Robert is front and center but Mrs. Nesta does step in the way a few times. Enjoy

Pilated Woodpecker update

I was fascinated by the woodpecker at Salem. I have since been trying to get a picture of it. But after checking online, I found that the pilated woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in North America. This one appears to be nesting as it is inside the tree now. If you stop by and don't see the bird. Stop and listen carefully, you can hear him tapping inside the hole at the top of the tree, but if you talk a little bit sometimes he will stick his head out and then he flies away but it seems that he does come back. But for a bird he is beautiful and it is the male as I was able to see the red streak on the cheek.

baby geese

If you have little ones that would like to see the baby geese, we noticed that there are baby geese at the Beaver Ponds that have hatched. THis is a great time to explain to kids about how birds come from eggs and then hatch out. Geese are very interesting to watch as they raise their young. Check them out if you get a chance.

Wildflowers blooming

It is that time of year when we go looking for the wildflowers in the area. There are actually some endangered or protected wildflowers locally. If you would like to see red trillium there are a few near the small bridge at the east end of Spook Hollow road. IF you don't know what a trillium looks like, I will try to get a picture of one and get it posted but I didn't have my camera with me and they are a little early (like everything else this spring). The other flower to start watching for is the Lady's slipper. These flowers aren't quite blooming yet, but watch for an orchid like leaf and a delicate pink slipper looking flower. I know of 2 places to see these flowers, but one is on private property and the other is off of West Home Road towards Emlenton, you would turn at the old West Home church (it is now a home) and follow that dirt road and they are usually on the right side of the road if you are going down the road. When I get pictures from this years flowers I will post them, but there are really some exciting nature things to see if you are watching for them.