Joshua's invention

Joshua has made a "classified" drawing which outlines his plans for anti-baby weapons. He has a baby freeze gun and a baby switcher gun. He also has detailed plans for a baby remote. It has functions such as call911, freeze, slow, gone, mute, power, (my favorite funny one) stick to ceiling. Since this is classified information, be sure not to tell him that I shared the info!

Joshua's Birthday

Happy Birthday Joshua! 11 years young, and an awesome son and great big brother. We love you!

Only in the South?

A bacon maple doughnut

Joshua's crossover to Boy Scouts

March Madness

We stuffed way too much into our month of March.  It has been crazy busy around here.  We started the month off by going to the local skating rink.  Matt tried to teach Luke to skate while I tried to keep Thomas and Anna off the skee ball machines.  Joshua and Caleb tried the limbo on roller skates.  Caleb had a unique move where he squatted down and used his hands to roll himself under the limbo stick. 

Joshua had Piano festival where he played two songs that he has been working on this year.  He got a superior, and we were really proud of his effort in something that he is not crazy about doing.  He also had his crossover ceremony where he left the Cub Scouts and moved into Boy Scouts.  We have a great troop in our area.  They are very active, and we believe that Joshua (and the other boys) will be supported well as they work to obtain Eagle Scout status.  Joshua is going to Boy Scout camp this summer where he will begin working on his badges.

 I had to include these pictures of Thomas' boots.  These boots go all the way back to Joshua.  They are Stride Rites, and although the sole and inside still look great, the toes are looking terrible.  Thomas does not care, and repeatedly asks for his brown boots.  I even tried hiding them and buying new boots (but I couldn't find any exactly the same).  So, I gave up and let my baby boy enjoy one last hurrah with his brown boots.  Now that spring is here, he has started wearing his crocs again, and the brown boots can finally be retired.  Maybe they should be bronzed?

They even have cool monster trucks on the bottom.

I also had to throw in a picture of our sweet baby girl, just because.

Next, we had the Pinewood Derby race.  Matt worked really hard on the cars for the big boys.  Joshua decided on a Georgia Tech themed car, and he won 3rd place in design.  Must have been some GT fans in the judging!  He was so excited that he wore a GT shirt for the competition.  I noticed later that he was wearing his jacket zipped up, and I asked him about it later.  He said that after we got there, another boy made a mean comment about his shirt, so he covered it with his jacket.  Grrr...Georgia fans.   Caleb was disappointed that his car didn't place, but Luke got 2nd place in the siblings competition.  Luke will start Cub Scouts next year.

Joshua and I both celebrated birthdays this month.  Neither one of us had a big party to celebrate.  Joshua got a camping backpack from us, and he used some of his birthday money to buy gear to go into the pack.  My mom made me a cake, and Luke helped her decorate it.

I had a chair refinished and had to head to Dahlonega to pick it up, so we made a day trip out of it.  We started in Gainesville where we met our social worker for Anna's six month post placement visit.  Then, we drove up to get the chair, and we also made a stop at the Gold Museum.  We're not very organized, but at least we got a picture.

We have been having fun playing around the house.  The beautiful weather has made it easy for the kids to get outside to play, and we even started a family PE program.  We shared a family cold too that knocked us all out for about a week.  I attended the homeschool convention in Greenville.  Matt kept the kids, this was my Christmas present.  I was so thankful to have a friend go with me.  We were able to encourage each other and stay up late talking.  While I was in Greenville, Matt had to take Joshua to DPA competition in Blairsville.  His topic this year was bike riding, and he had to give a 5 minute talk on it.  He scored 1st place, and when Matt sent me a text with the picture, I was so proud!  Mom helped out by keeping Thomas and Luke, and Matt's Dad went with him to Blairsville to help with Caleb and Anna while Matt was with Joshua at competition.  We are so blessed to have family close by.

Finally, the last weekend in March, we were able to go camping.  We headed to Fort Yargo in Winder for a couple of days.  They were having a living history reenactment that we wanted to see.  Camping with 2 two year olds was exhausting.  I learned that Anna is a plunderer while Thomas is a wanderer.  They really kept us on our toes.  We spent the first day riding a mountain bike trail around the park.  It was 7 miles, but since it was trail riding, it seemed more like 50 miles.  I had Thomas in the baby seat on my bike, and Matt pulled Luke and Anna along in the trailer behind his bike.  Joshua and Caleb were awesome as they rode their bikes.  It was super exercise, and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to move the next day.  A little stiff, but not as bad as I expected.  We enjoyed the next day at the Living History fair.  Matt sewed (I don't sew, so he had to) shirts for him and the big boys that are representative of the time period.  They will use these again at our Living History camp in the fall.  I got a good picture of them in front of the fort, but my SD card for the small camera is corrupt, and I lost all those pictures. 

April/May will hopefully be a little slower.  Joshua and Caleb are in the middle of play practice for the Jungle Book.  Joshua is Mowgli, so if you notice his hair getting long, it's because we are trying to get it to grow out for the play.  We are winding up our school year and planning a late spring break to coincide with Matt's annual meeting in St. Simon's. 

Summer will be here before we know it!