Home on the Range

Guest post by Crazy Fox.

We went to a cattle ranch and we saw a lot of cows and some babies.

There was over 325 cows all together and we got to feed them all.

We got to ride on a hay wagon and it was fun.

The cows were hungry.

I like this cow a lot because he looks cool.

These cows are heifers. That means they have not given birth to a calf.

Our Knights in Shining Armor

We are in the middle of our Christmas break from school. We have been studying medieval times. The boys have not given up their lessons completely though. They have been taking advantage of the snow and acting out jousting tournaments in our yard. But instead of horses they are using sleds and instead of lances they are using pool noodles.

They have been doing this a lot.

Reformation Day

My knights in shining armor guarding their fair lady.

Little Lady was a fair maiden, but after she took the tulle off her crown,

she told everyone she was a queen.

Digging Badger and Crazy Fox prepared to defend the castle.

The boys and the Zookeeper in the final stages of sword construction. Everyone was a little tired here. They were really having fun, it just wasn't captured on film.

My Mini Mr. Fix-Its

We have been looking for a used tag-a-long trailer for Little Lady. We finally found one, but it had a flat tire. The Zookeeper taught Crazy Fox how to patch bike tubes about a month ago and he has had lots of practice already. He took it out to the shop to repair the tube.

Digging Badger decided to take the hand brakes off his scooter.

(They have been sticking and slowing him down).

The tube is all fixed and ready to go back on.

This is what we call discovery learning.

See anything wrong in this picture?

He won't make that mistake again.

Now that the chain is on, Crazy Fox tightens everything up.

One last turn of the wrench and those brakes won't be slowing him down anymore.

Don't worry, he still has the foot brakes.

Fun with Dad

The Zoo Keeper was long overdue for a haircut, and with the weather warming up, he decided a short buzz was in order. I much prefer his thick, black, hair to be a bit longer, but I will be the first to admit that his hair is unruly.

The boys have been wanting to shave the Zoo Keeper's head for over a year. (They were going to surprise me when I got home from a weekend getaway last year, but ran out of time.) So the clippers came out and Crazy Fox got right to work.

Because the Zoo Keeper's hair was so long, he decided to have a little bit of fun with it.

Then it was Digging Badger's turn. He finished off the rest.

Who needs a haircut now?

Crazy Fox has apparently inherited his dad's wild locks.

The Big 0-8!

I can't believe our boys are eight!

Crazy Fox and Digging Badger celebrated their 8th birthday with a round of miniature golf. That is all they wanted to do. Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, so we all hit the links. I wanted to take a picture by the 8th hole sign since they are 8. There are about 25 different varieties of this same picture . . . apparently the boys are entering the "ahhhh mom" stage of their lives. Just smile and hold still.

On the morning of their actual birthday, we started our day with cinnamon rolls. Of course we put candles in them and sang happy birthday.

There is no better way to start a new year of life than with cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk.

Crazy Fox . . .My candles are sparking.

Digging Badger . . . Dude, your candles are bending, I'm glad I have my own cake.

The boys enjoyed their cakes and shooting their new BB guns with a few friends. What more could an eight year old boy want?

Speedy Saturday

Today went by like a blur. We started out our day with the boy's first basketball game. They are having fun playing and learning about the game. Luckily, the league they are playing in doesn't keep score or they may have been saddened by today's outcome.

I have a whole week to figure out how to get my camera on inside-florescent lighting-dark gym-mode. There has to be one for that. I'll just look for IFLGD. Maybe next week I can post some pictures that aren't grainy and green.

After the game, we ran home for a quick change of clothes and a quicker bite to eat. We were off to the Awana Sparks-a-rama, again in a fluorescent lit gym.

This is one of the best pictures I got today. Pretty sad, I know.

This was the boy's favorite Awana game. It is called balloon battle. The point is to get the balloon to hit the ground in your opponent's area. They did a great job on this one.

At the end of the games, our team came in first place. See how excited they are.

And after a day like today I am ready to climb into my cozy bed.

I'm sure going to miss that hour of sleep tonight.

One Snowman's Story

This is one snowman's story. . .

It all started one snowy afternoon about a month ago. Crazy Fox rolled the fresh, powdery, snow into a big snow ball and then another and another. Each one placed carefully, one on top of the other.

Twig arms were freshly cut off of the bare tree and placed in the appropriate spots. Crazy Fox willingly gave his new snow friend the scarf off of his neck, and The Zookeeper chipped in with his hat. Everything was going smoothly for Mr. Snowy. We even had fresh carrots in the fridge. The perfect nose was chosen and stuck in place. Now all that was missing were eyes and buttons. Everything was covered in snow. What will become of this Mr. Snowy if he has no eyes? Don't worry. . . The Zookeeper's Wife is very resourceful. Of course with the purple pony party looming, there was lots of extra homemade purple playdough in the house. So, we just made a few balls for purple eyes and added them, centered just above the nose. Although, the eyes weren't sticking very well. Just at that moment, we realized there was bark covering the ground just beneath the snow. We dug in a bit and found three bark buttons to finish Mr. Snowy's attire. Handsome, isn't he?

Crazy Fox told Mr. Snowy goodnight and went to bed himself.

The next morning we went out so greet Mr. Snowy and see if there were any cheery birds sitting on his shoulder. There are always cheery birds sitting on the shoulders of snowmen in picture books. Have you ever noticed that? But we did not see any cheery birds sitting on Mr. Snowy's shoulders. What we saw instead was awful, almost gruesome.

Okay, let's take a break from this saga and take a quick quiz?

1.What is one of the main ingredients in play dough?

2. What do you sprinkle onto icy sidewalks to melt the ice?

3.When I say pepper, what is the first word you think of?

The answer:

That's right . . . .Salt, Sodium chloride, NaCl,

Now, back to the story. . .

Where his sparkling purple eyes had been the night before, was now eaten away, by all the salt in the play dough. The Zookeeper's Wife no longer felt like a creative, resourceful mom. Instead, she saw before her, all the hard work her son put into building Mr. Snowy ruined by a snowman's worst fear. Flesh eating bacteria. Salt. The rapid melting of snow.

Upon further inspection, the flesh eating bacteria had spread, deep into his torso. He was doing all he could to stay standing, fighting against the disease within him.

We had to act fast if we wanted to save him. First we tried a skin graft, but his body rejected it. He could not take much more. So we decided to do a complete head transplant. We had a donor ready and waiting, but when we placed it on his torso he crumbled. . . to the ground. . . into chunks of snowman. The bacteria had completely eaten away at his body. So we quickly rounded up a donor torso and placed it onto the lower portion of his body. He was weak, and started to wobble, we thought we were going to loose him. We gave him some support around the base and hoped he could hold on through the procedure. We attached the new head with little trouble. We even gave him some deep-set bark eyes. They were not as sparkly as his first ones, but much healthier for a man of his kind. We bundled him up in his scarf so he could recover from the traumatic night that he had barely lived through.

He was able to stand tall again. He's practically new, almost, a bionic snowman.

But lately we have noticed that Mr. Snowy is loosing weight. His health is declining again. There is nothing else we can do. Sometimes you just have to let go. He can barely lift his arms and he has lost all of his parts. The life of a snowman is a tough one. Staying out at night in the freezing weather, knowing that even though you want the sun to come out and shine, it is the worst thing for you.

It could really leave a hole in your heart.

"It's Not Cold Mom"

The boys must go out,

The boys must go out,

No matter if its rain or shine,

The boys must go out.

(Does anyone else remember this song?)

They are a lot like the mail. Maybe it is because they are male. They need to be outside running and jumping and tackling and running and sledding and smooshing and running and throwing and building and running. Boys are crazy. That's how God made them.

So I sent them out to shovel the driveway. They did a good job don't you think?

The boys have the wind to thank for completing this chore for them. It was gusting in our favor today.

To reward them for their hard work, I let them do some sledding in the backyard.

After they tired of jumping themselves, they came in to get their remote control trucks.

They took them outside and made ramps for them. They tried to see how far they would fly over snow jumps, experimented with how they slid on ice puddles in the yard and how steep of hills they would climb in the snow. They came in to defrost for about 5 seconds and then went back out into the 30 degree weather. Which is really not bad, unless you add in the wind chill. This makes the real feel about 18 degrees. They still came in all sweaty and smelling like boys. Digging Badger told me "Its not even cold Mom!" I told him to "You just go out and have fun then".

To boys there is no weather, just different mediums to play in.

One Rad Snow Fort

It was so nice to have the Zookeeper home today. He finished off all the touch up painting in Little Lady's room while the rest of us did school. After lunch the Zookeeper and the boys did an extensive . . . er . . . quick look up of how to build a snow fort. We had a snow block mold in the garage that had never been used. We have never had enough snow to use it! It started snowing this morning and hasn't stopped all day. It is supposed to snow into the night and the next 3 days. The boys had fun building a snow fort with their dad.

Then they practiced their hitting with some snowballs and a bat.

Little Lady went outside to check out the snow fort and then everyone came in for some hot chocolate.

Skating By

We went to the home school skate day at the local skating rink yesterday. The kids had never been to a skating rink before. The boys have always had amazing balance. They asked me to take their training wheels off their bikes when they were three. I took them off but kept the wrench close by knowing I would be putting them right back on. But guess what? They never looked back. They rode around in circles on the driveway until it was too dark to see. Then they wanted to teach all their little friends how to ride two-wheelers so they could all go fast together. I can still remember that amazed feeling I had as I watched those two little guys riding their two wheel bikes for the first time. So, I was a little surprised at the fear I saw in their eyes as they clung to the wall as they went around the rink. They were holding on to the wall as if they were on the rim of a volcano, hoping and praying they would be able to hold on, lest they drop into a pit of hot lava.

Crazy Fox went through an obsession with roller blades a few months ago. He found a pair at a yard sale and has practiced for probably 30 minutes total.

He held on to the wall for a few laps, and then he stopped in front of me and said "Roller blading is easy mom! I can do it without even touching the wall." And he did.

Little Lady told me she didn't want to go skating. I thought to myself, She doesn't even know what skating is. So I asked her to just try it, we got her some skates and put them on. I helped her stand up and hold on to the wall so I could take her picture, (she is a very willing ham).

Little Lady rolled about 1/8 of an inch and sat back down.

"Mom, I do not want wheels on my feet."

I held her hand and had her roll beside me for a few feet.

"Mom, I do not want wheels on my feet."

I said, "Honey, trust me, you're going to have so much fun. I will hold your hand. I won't let you fall."

"Mom, I want these wheels off my feet! I want my shoes."

We turned the skates in and Little Lady told the skating rink lady that she was too little to skate and she did not like having wheels on her feet. The skating rink lady tried to encourage her, but it had been decided. Little Lady was not going to skate. She was happy to sit on the bench watching her friends do the limbo and open and close our locker 900 times.

As the morning went on, Digging Badger let go of the wall, but he was always within arms reach of it. We'll have to go back and practice some more.