Got To Get To

My husband loves reading Tim Challies' blog. He often shares links with me from his long blogroll but I must say that Challies is my favorite of his favorites. Recently, Tim posted about how he responded to his daughter with a "got to" attitude and realized he should have seen it as a "get to" moment. Click here to read it.

Florida, Day Four

On our final day at my sister's in Florida, we went swimming for two hours in the morning and then visited a local ranch where we fed one year old alpacas, gave treats to a couple of horses, and played ball with the farm dogs. Luke wasn't able to go to the ranch since we decided to go during his nap-time.

The Santa Fe Community College Teaching Zoo

Going to a zoo is something my kids have always loved to do. Even though you may think "you've seen one zoo, you've seen them all", my boys do not think that is a true statement. When an opportunity arises to visit a new city, we always seek out information about the zoo. This trip was no different.

Although it's was miserably hot outside, we ventured to The Santa Fe Community College Teaching Zoo yesterday. Here, all Zoology majors work hands on with training the animals, teaching the public about each animal, and taking medical care of them as well as maintianing their enclosed habitat. It was very neat to see these college students in action. The animals were magnificent but the kids soon lost interest when they (the kids - ha!) began getting irritable 30 minutes into our adventure...it was hot and they were hungry.

Anywho...here are a few pics I took today (with a borrowed lens) at the zoo.

I took these three monkeys home with me when they fell asleep at the zoo. Shhhhh....don't tell anyone!

Photofunia

I couldn't resist. I just had to play around at this site, recommended by The Angry Chicken blog that I frequent. So cool!

Florida, Day TWO

My brother-in-law took Andrew, Luke and me out on the Suwannee River this morning. The boys loved the wind in their hair as we drove along the water at 20 mph. We saw a few sturgeon jump, a lot of birds, and even one alligator. No snakes, thankfully. We caught about 12 fish but only two were large enough to bring home for eating. The boys held up their catch for the camera and then watched as their uncle scaled the fish.





After lunch, we decided to just skip naptime and go straight to the pool. The pool was fun but the owner has 16 dogs so my kids enjoyed playing with the canines a little more than being fish in the water. Next to the pool sat a cow pasture (remember how I told you we were in the backwoods of north central Florida?) so I grabbed my camera to get a picture of "Bessy and her gang".

Free postcards

The service I'm about to tell you about is F-R-E-E! Let's all do cheer! Can I get a woot-woot?!?!?!?


For my daughter's first birthday, I was trying to think of ways to cut costs. Now, hear me clearly....she's worth every penny but there just aren't a whole lot of pennies with our name on it right now. I mean, most of our pennies are in our gas tank, right? Anyway, I heard about an online service that lets you design your own postcards (front and back) and will mail them for free. The only catch is that you must allow them to put their advertisement on the bottom lefthand corner of the message area. Sure, you bet! I mailed 10 birthday invitations this way (even one to myself so I could see what it would look like) and was very impressed with the result!


What's the name of this service, you ask?

HIPPOPOST

Go there now and try it out!

My cousin, Kelly, will smirk when reading this but how can she blame me when this is a FREE service that I just have to share with others!? Kelly owns her own custom-designed stationary business, The Stamped Envelope, where she uses her degree and talent of graphic design to create beautiful paper in all shapes and forms. I love you, Kel!

Florida, Day ONE

We arrived at my sister's house in Florida (Gainesville area) last night. Mitch couldn't come with us so Luke is my bed buddy all week.

Abigail is also sharing a room with Luke and me. I found her cuddled up with her teddy bear early this morning.

To break up the five hour drive from our house to my sister's house, we stopped halfway at my mother's. There, Abigail learned a few songs on the piano and all three kiddos spent some time in their Gami's lap on the backporch swing.

Today, we got a late start to our adventures but had tons of fun just strolling around the mall, eating small snacks, pushing the strollers, racing down the ramps, buying late b'day presents, and laughing at one another. I took these shots on our way home as we drove the "back-way" down the dirt road my sister lives on. Backwoods Florida!

Tomorrow's agenda: fishing on the boat and then on to the swimming pool! We may hit a few of the natural springs to splash around in.

BabyK

I got to babysit seven week old BabyK Friday night while her parents, Chrissy and Chad, went out on a movie date. She was a delight! I only had the girls to entertain since Mitch took the boys to the library for some "Dad-time". Abigail waved at BabyK every time she walked past her bouncy seat. Since I'm always snapping pictures, I couldn't resist taking a few of BabyK. I'm no photographer but she is certainly a cute litte poser!

Hey, Mom....

"Sorry, Mom. I don't have time to look up at your camera and smile.

Can't you see I'm busy in my dirt garden? I mean, I have a mess to make!"

"It's hot outside, Mom. Do I have to wash my hair tonight?"

Andrew's artwork

The first piece of art that Andrew picked to tackle from those pictured below was that of the cow. He loves the Chick-Fil-A cows and thought it would be fun to draw one. He followed the instructions given here and I only helped him with drawing the spots and udders. He chose to color the sky purple/pink and add an orange sun. Funny how kids see things, huh? We didn't use the watercolor paints but opted to keep the craft area clean by sticking to crayons. He is quite proud of the result and I might have to frame this one for the kitchen!

I think his face is a piece of art. Look at all the boo-boos and the orange mustache from his punch. What a funny kid.

Favorite blog of the week

This is currently my favorite blog in regards to teaching young children to appreciate art. I am so excited about teaching my own kids some of these methods and, since they are often too young to execute some of these projects, I hope to volunteer at our church's school so I can do them with the upper grades. Before the start of school, though, I'm going to try some of these next week when we visit my sister and her family down in Florida.

Here are a few samples of the projects detailed on Kathy's site, Art Projects for Kids.