We had Mason’s birthday this weekend and he has been busy planning his party for about a month. He made a list of several things to do, and wanted them all to relate to Batman. So I was put in charge of games and came up with a few things we did.
We first decorated the house with Batman colors and decorations, and I decided to turn the treehouse into the Batcave. So I hung plastic bats from the Dollar store up there, along with some streamers. I also put a black light in there and so first off we all went into the tree house and I told the kids the story of Batman, and also gave them some information on the villains.
Next we talked about Scarecrow and his magic fear potion. I got some sour spray from the Dollar Store and took the label off and replaced it with Batman stickers. This was the antidote so they all had to get some sprayed in the mouths. From there we went over across the street to the neighbor and shot her scarecrow with Nerf bullets. I told the kids they were tranquilizing the Scarecrow. The winner of that game got the “antidote”. (more…)
Because we thought Sassy the rabbit would like a little more freedom than her cage, I ran some chicken wire around the perimeter of the deck so she could run free on the deck and get some fresh air. This worked fine for several months, and we would always put her back in her cage in the evening.
She escaped a couple times though, and usually didn’t run very far away and would always come right back when Whitney called her. A couple nights ago, however, when Heidi and the kids came home around 8 pm she was nowhere to be seen. She also didn’t come when called, so Heidi went out driving around, looking for the rabbit. After a while, she gave up, and the kids were pretty sad. We thought she would come back during the night, but didn’t. It turns out an animal killed her, and the neighbors saw a fox prowling through their back yards.
Since we were all set up for rabbits, we got some replacements from Bunny Lu Bunny Rescue, and the kids love them. We got two boy rabbits, Jack and Morgan. So now we are litter training these rabbits and getting to know them.
Last weekend we decided to go camping, and, since we enjoyed it the last time we went, we settled on Westmoreland State Park which is pretty close to where we live. We left on a Friday and came home Sunday so were there for two nights.
It was a lot of fun. We took our friend Abby with us, and the kids had fun playing together. We stayed in a campsite close to the one we had last time and the first thing the kids wanted to do was find the giant fallen tree they played on last year. Luckily it was still there, so I videoed them playing on it. They also played in a small stream, making their shoes and socks wet in the process.
We went for a hike one day of about six miles, and Mason especially was very tired about three miles into it. So I made up a story of a giant blue tailed skink that roamed the land and told him we were in its territory. The trail markers were blue pieces of metal attached to trees, so whenever we saw one I said that was where the skink had whipped his tail against a tree to mark the territory.
He had a lot of fun with that idea and added on to it: when we saw old trees that people had carved their names into he said (more…)
I’ve been listening to podcasts while running for the past couple years.One that I regularly listen to is called the Dirtbag Diaries.It’s a pretty interesting (to me) collection of stories from outdoorsy people.This past spring while running, I heard the editor, Fitz Cahall, ask for story suggestions and started thinking.At first I was thinking how different my life was from most of the subjects, even though we enjoyed many of the same things.Then I started thinking about how I’ve been trying to brainwash (I mean involve) my kids in outdoor pursuits.So I sat down and wrote a little piece about that and suggested that I thought many people were in a similar situation.To my surprise, Fitz emailed back and asked if I’d like to work with him on an episode.Go here www.dirtbagdiaries.com to listen.Click more to read more about the story. (more…)
Yes, it was a long time ago, but here are the last batch of pictures from Idaho…along with a short movie. The movie is funny because it shows Mason eating jerky and Tabasco sauce. He really likes spicy food, while Whitney thinks any seasoning at all is too spicy. Like salt or pepper, for instance.
Its also got Mason riding a four-wheeler and Whitney fishing. (more…)
As I’ve said before, we sometimes have the Wild Kingdom outside our doors and windows. The other day was no exception, as the kids and Heidi managed to capture a huge spider.
I’m not sure what kind of spider it was, but it was pretty scary looking. You can see how large it was by comparing it to the quarter that I put in there with it. I guess Whitney screamed pretty loud when she saw it. So Heidi put it in a Tupperware container to save for me, but the kids got concerned that it would die without air so they put it in something else for me. Then, that night Whitney was telling me about it on the phone.
