Part 1 of Payton's 4H Project:

He chose a camping/cabin theme for his Construction Set project for 4H this year.  This is "Part 1" and the cabin will soon follow!

I had a little too much fun playing with the "move blur" feature in Photoshop!

Lego-Mania

The kids and I met Sunshine and her kids in Indianapolis Friday after work.  We were planning on going to a park and just playing the afternoon away, but the weather thought otherwise.  We ended up at the Mall for a while and dug up some fun there.

We visited the Lego store.... need I say more than "Lego?"  I think Payton would have stayed in the store for the entire night!  He was completely amazed and awestruck!  He does have a project to work on for 4-H so immediately his creative mind went into gear.

While we were there they had a "fast build" contest.  The person who could build the most lego men within 1 minute and 30 seconds got to keep 3 of the men he/she created.  Would you believe that Payton won?  He was so excited!  Everyone who participated in the "fast build" got to keep one, so all the kids happy!

Payton and Justyce check out the Digital Box.  It was pretty neat!  Can you see them on the screen?  And even a bit of me in the background.  The coloring on these pictures is crazy!  Too much yellow and red in the Lego store :)

Completely awestruck I tell you, completely!

The race is on!

Payton is excited that he won the "Fast Build" contest!  

Family Camp 2011 and the Zip Line!!!

In May, we attended the DYF of Indiana's Family Camp weekend.  It was a lot of fun.  It's neat to see how relaxed Riley is there and how much she enjoys being at the campground.  Payton loves it too.  He has a blast every time he is out there!

The whole group + counselors (except for Kyle who is taking the picture and his mom who is holding the ladder) 

Aren't we cute???

And now for the Best part of this year's Family Camp... The Zip Line!  As I've said before, I'm a chicken and did not try it, but the rest of my family did and LOVED it!

At the campfire, Riley and Payton helped lead one of their favorite camp songs: Fudgie the Whale!  Read the lyrics then look at the pictures.  It's fun to see what pictures go with what lyrics!

FUDGIE THE WHALE

I’m a great big mammal

I’m a great big whale

I got a chocolate wig

And a chocolate tail

I bought my car today

Because it was on sale

And when they call for me 

They call for FUDGIE The WHALE!

FUDGIE

FUDGIE

Fudgie the whale

...And a chocolate tail...

FUDGIE.....

...FUDGIE...

And Now For The Famous Words Of Alice Cooper...

School's out for summer!

Miss Brown with Payton

Mrs. Osswald, Riley, and Mrs. Jones.

Mr. Scott and Riley

I really cannot believe that this school year is over already!  Wow, time has flown by.  

This year the kids aren't very excited about summer break.  (Shocking, I know!) 

Payton is already missing his teacher and his class.  Missing them to the point that he is begging for me to go and buy him one of the 'Bridge' books so he can start working on 4th grade work and (in his own words) "keep his brain smart through the summer!"  How adorable is that?  A kid that loves school - what a blessing!   

Riley heads off to Middle School next year and isn't too thrilled.  She's leaving behind her comfort zone and is unsure of what's ahead.  HHES is the school she has been at the longest, has made great friends there, and it's where she started her diabetes and school adventure.  She's learned the 'ropes' there and has mastered them if I do say so myself.  She has had a team of FANTABULOUS (yes, it is supposed to say fantabulous, a wonderful blend of fantastic and fabulous) nurses that make her feel comfortable and somewhat normal.  They have been genuine and compassionate with the care they give her each day at school and again we are blessed.  Her teacher has been amazing this year as well!  Again, we are blessed!  She has completed the year once again with straight A's, but I'm pretty sure by the look on her face when Payton was begging to go and get a 'Bridge' book that she isn't a bit concerned with keeping her brain smart over the summer!

Payton's 3rd Grade Class is All 'Jazzed' Up!

For the 3rd grade music program this year, they did a tribute to the great Jazz Musicians throughout music history.  Plus, they added a little modern magic to it as well.

The next 2 posts are video highlight from this 'jazzy' night!

What an Imagination!

Payton loves to invent, create, build, take apart... anything that has to do with pairing his hands with his imagination.  So when Riley introduced him to modeling clay, his world of creating was immediately expanded.

Birthday Catch-Ups and Minute To Win It Challenges

On April 10th, Payton turned 9... can you believe it? 9.

He invited 5 friends over for a "Minute to Win it" challenge party.  We played a lot of the fun challenge games that they have played on the hit TV show "Minute to Win it."  With 6 total boys, they drew numbers to pair up into 2 person teams and Riley's friend came over so they could be on a team.  The best part was the team names they came up with!  We had the Bad Boys, the Flying Ninja Tsunami Squirrels, Fat Cakes, and the Squat to Pees!  I bet you can't guess which team name the girls picked!

I'll be posting photo highlights of the party soon!

3rd Grade Basketball Champions!

Payton's 3rd Grade basketball team, the Clemson Tigers, won the championship this weekend!  The boys had a great season and I think they all learned a TON about how to play basketball all while having fun at the same time!

A little Photo "catch-up"

I love taking pictures of Grandma's barn.   

Looking towards the bridge from down below the house at Grandma's.

Standing along the tree line behind Grandma's house looking up towards the house and barn.  You can see my mom and dad's house in the upper right of the picture.  Right beside where I am standing is where Scott's deer was on the edge of the field in the tree line.

Payton and Mason wishing this buck was theirs!

Mason was telling us how nice of a buck this was and how nice it's body was!

Scott's daughter, Raylan loves to go deer hunting with her daddy!  She wasn't along for this one, but enjoyed being there when they brought it in.

Scott helping Riley and Payton get through the barb wire fence.

Granny, Riley, and Payton at Uncle Raymond's on Thanksgiving Day.  Can you believe that this was Granny's 96th Thanksgiving?  Wow!  (counting her first one when she was 5 months old)

Jerilynn, Riley, Payton, and Anna on Thanksgiving Day.

Riley and Payton playing a DS game together at Grandma and Grandpa T's house the day after Thanksgiving.

Riley was all ready to watch Ramona and Beezus with me and pooped out about half way through!  However, I finished the movie by myself and cried my eyes out!  It's such a good movie.  Gotta love the nice, feel-good movies!

Not many people believe us when we tell them that Buki and Barkley have a very close relationship... honestly -- they do!  They eat out of the same bowl together, at the same time.  They sleep next to each other.  And they love to play together.  If Barkley isn't starting it, Buki is!  Oh, and if you haven't guessed it, Buki is now an inside cat.  We still aren't exactly sure how this happened, but it has something to do with Riley becoming extremely attached to him!

Jon, the kids, and I stayed at my Mom and Dad's until the Sunday after Grandma's funeral.  It was nice to just be there on the farm and enjoy being with family.  It was hard to look down at her house and think that she wasn't there.  It still just didn't seem real.

Saturday we went to visit Grandma Denny (my Mom's Mom) at the nursing home in Brazil.  She was sleeping and was hard to wake up, so we tried to talk with her a little bit, but our visit was short.

Saturday evening, Jon and I went to dinner together in Greencastle, while the kids went over to Aunt Loretta's to play with Mason, Jocelyn, and the rest of the crew.  Jessica had to learn all the in's and out's of diabetes in record time and she did a great job!  It was awesome to have a chance to have dinner with Jon.  Afterwards, we went back to get the kids and sat out by a fire with Jess, Jeff, Scott, Gwen, and all of the kids.  Just being together brought back so many memories of being kids and running around my Grandma's and Aunt Loretta's together.  I'm sorry that it has been so long since we've seen each other and especially sorry that it took a funeral to make it happen.

Sunday morning is when Scott got his buck and I took the pictures of the barn, house, field, etc.  My kiddos were so excited to be a part of the deer experience... such city kids, I know!  I remember being a kid and laughing at friends who would come down and be mesmerized when the hunters would get a deer... now it's my 2 that are mesmerized -- how funny!