End Hunger

We spent a beautiful Fall evening enjoying the End Hunger concert last night. The statistics are unbelievable in a county which is the 6th richest in the nation. We alone have 1,584 children who are fed by our local Food Pantry - we have 4,950 local residents living in poverty and assistance is cut off if you earn $14,001. 13% of MD Seniors live below the poverty line. It's also hard to believe that just $15 can feed a family for a week... I'd be more than happy to tell you how to help.

Hubby had the honor of being part of this great cause. He played with one of our local kids who was brave enough to sing in front of more people than I could count. The three on stage had never played with each other before this night and they were fantastic. Our kids were so proud to see Daddy on stage and Bella ran up to the front of the stage yelling Daddy... Daddy! She just came in and pointed to the above picture and said "That's Daddy on stage, he played a beautiful song" Good job sweetie!

They Say It's your Birthday and Other Events

I'm lucky that I still remember my log-in to my Blog! We have been so busy with coaching soccer, starting up our new Cub Scouts Den, school, and every day life.

Hubby decided that it was time for our youngin' to learn how to defend our farm - it's an air riffle don't worry. We learned all about gun safety.Our little Cub Scout was awarded his first belt loop for fishing. He even won a fishing pole at the fishing derby.We went camping for my birthday at Beth Page campground. We saw the world's largest RVs and we looked like small potatoes in our modest pop-up.We went for a birthday canoe ride, but I still had to paddle in between picture taking.

They let me rest a little, but not much.

At the end of the canoe trip my Mom surprised me with a Birthday Golf Cart to drive around the campground. Thanks to the sign everyone in the campground sang Happy Birthday has we drove around.They even treated me to a steak dinner at the campsite with cupcakes!

We played a round of Putt Putt after dinner.... nice purse honey!In following the family tradition, everyone came over for cake and ice cream when we returned from the camping trip. My Mom made me the ugliest birthday cake that I have Even seen, but it was still yummy! It had a little mishap, she's really a good baker - I swear!

Luray Part II - Hiking and 3,642 feet

We went on our second camping trip to Luray, VA and had lots of fun at the Jellystone Campground.The water in the pool was freezing! I had a conversation with one of the VA locals and it went something like this Me: "Gosh the water is cold" Nice VA Lady "Yup, it's always cawld... Juuune, Juuuulie, Awguuust...it's aways cawld". That is the best I could do with the phonetic spelling. Perhaps you had to be there for the accent.

He has no sense so he just jumped right in!

The baby pool was warmer, but that could be due to other factors outside of the weather.

They had these awesome jumping pillows - you could probably shoot yourself up to space if you jumped hard enough. The kids loved these (all 3 of them).We hiked to a waterfall in the Shenandoah State Park. The kids were great for such a long walk with the exception of the pony incident.
I suggested that Bella's pony ride in Daddy's backpack on the way up since she kept loosing her balance. That did not go over well and The Boy volunteered to take care of her and walked hand in hand with her all the way back telling her that it was O.k. It's nice to see that they love eachother beneath all the bickering.Our second hike was a bit harder. We hiked to the top of Little Stony Man and they said it was good for the ages of our 2 monkeys. Well, be very careful when you listen to the Ranger because when you get up there it's you.... 2 crazy kids and a 3,642 feet drop.
It was a great way to get a quiet ride back to the campground.

It's Dark In Here

As part of our last camping trip we went to Luray Caverns. The kids really enjoyed all of the dark winding paths and the pretty rocks.Our son was quite scared when he heard that one was called Pluto's Ghost. He was thinking that it was really a ghost and wanted to know all about who Pluto was and whey he was a ghost.There were so many cool things to see and I took way too many pictures of rocks.This area had a pool of water underneath it so it looked like a deep cavern.There were some that you could stand inside of, but there may have been a rule against that one.

Lots of wishes were made along the path. Our son whispered to me on the way from from the camping trip "Mom when are my wishes going to come true?" Well, he wished for a million Bakugans and jewlery for Mommy, so lets hope the second one comes true first!This was their favorite part - a huge bin of colored rocks that they got to load into little velvet bags - for a nominal fee of course!

I also learned an important Blogging rule - don't assume that your kids are quietly eating ice cream while you catch-up on your Blogging. They just may be emptying the whole jar of sprinkles on their ice cream!

No Gifts

We decided that we weren't going to exchange gifts for our 8th anniversary. He Lied.
His parent's didn't make such a promise and these were a nice delivery.My Mom gave us the gift of a night out on the town. We went French - j'ai bien mangé!

Happy 8th Anniversary Sweetie!

First Grade

It's just fair having to got to school just 2 days after coming home from vacation. Mommy has had homework all week! The Boy said that he likes his teacher because she knows all about science and worms.

This was the first day of kindergarten - boy am I happy that grade is over with! I was told that the difference between Kindergarten and First Grade is that you have more toys in the room in Kindergarten. It only goes down hill from here sweetie - wait till medical school (: