Dewberry Fun

We packed shoe boxes for Samaritan's purse this week.  (The shoe boxes go all around the world to give gifts to children who, for the most part, don't have anything.)  In Caroline's shoe box, she packed a baby doll that she had a hard time releasing into the hands of another child.  When I bought it, I didn't realize it cried and so every time the baby cried, Caroline would give it the little plastic bottle to make her feel better.  Then, as we were packing the shoe box, the baby would cry every time I laid her in it.  Caroline kept insisting that she needed to feed the baby to get it to stop crying.  I took a picture of her with the final shoe box (closed) and she looks so sweet.  Then I took a picture of her with it open to show the baby and she had a more reluctant face.  Guess what she's getting for Christmas this year?  A baby that is eerily similar to this one.  She's also getting the jelly bracelets that made it into the shoe box.  Apparently, anything that goes in a shoe box is immediately coveted.

The boys packed their shoe boxes as well.

Our CC Group made a trip to Dewberry Farm.  While it is called a farm, I'm not so sure they grow anything there except Christmas trees.  And the only animals they have are in the petting zoo area.  What they do have are lots of fun activities for the kids to do.  They have giant air-filled pillows to jump on, pedal cars, a super tall slide, and a tractor pull.

It's Texas.  You have to have a horse to sit upon and rope a calf.

Josiah decided to try the pipe slide.  It is made up of pipes so you sort of roll down the slide on the pipes.  I tried it a few years ago and even with all of my padding, it hurt the tushy area.  Josiah went down it, and to see his face as he made his way down was hilarious.  It hurts even more when you have less than 5% body fat.

We tried the corn maze this year.  I was slightly reluctant to go in with one particular child of ours.  He had a friend there and he was more interested in stealing away from the group than staying with us.  The last thing I needed was a child lost in a corn maze.  I was happy when we all finally made it out.

Henry seemed to know of only one way to hang onto a rope and that would be just barely.

This year, the kids noted the zip line area was totally gone.  Last year we watched as all the adults hit their knees on the ground trying to zip line, so maybe that had something to do with it, but it was our kids' favorite thing to do.  In the end, we had a great time, left totally exhausted, and quite thirsty.  No matter how many drinks I bring each year, I cannot keep up with their thirst.  Next year I'm just going to have to bring two gallon jugs of water.

Henry went into beast mode during his camo belt test this Friday.  At first Henry kept saying he was getting his camel belt.  When I caught on that he was saying the animal, it was pretty funny.  Not the animal, buddy, camouflage.  Todd was at the test while the rest of us were at Awana, but he said Henry did very well.  He even broke three boards at the end.  He was happy to move up in rank.

Next week, I get to sit in on Josiah's CC class for the first time.  It came to my attention that while he is doing great in class, his presentations are going a little too long and it's cutting into the other subjects time.  I spoke with Josiah later that day about his presentation (which was teaching them how to draw the swan, Louis, from Trumpet of the Swan).  He mentioned that he didn't have time to do the trumpet or the notes.  I asked him what happened (since he had practiced this presentation four times at home).  He mentioned that he spoke too long about the book.  And therein lies the problem.  The book was not part of the presentation and if Josiah starts explaining a book (especially one he's very excited about), that would be a good 15 minutes before he got to the picture.  His presentations need to be 3 minutes max.  He definitely does not have a problem speaking in front of a group.

We have some very special visitors coming this week.  The kids have been counting down for at least a month or two for their Grandad & Nana's arrival.  I have a feeling we'll hear, "Best Day Ever!" the moment they see them again.