Umatilla Cracker Christmas Parade

I know a Christmas parade before Thanksgiving!?  It is against every fiber of my being but we are supportive of our gingerbread man.  Papa Terry was a Gingerbread Man in the Olde Mill Stream float for the 35th annual Cracker Christmas Parade.  Everytime someone yelled "Merry Christmas",  Walker responded with "Happy Thanksgiving".  That's my boy ;)

The boys and Coy went to a late night showing of Harry Potter 7, Part 1 last night.  In preparation, Garrett read all 7 books again in about a month so he was very excited to see the movie.  They were a little blurry eyed this morning and an early morning parade was not what they had in mind.  But it was a beautiful morning and a bag full of candy softened the sleep deprivation.

Boys weekend menu

The boys camping weekend menu is always interesting.  The first boys weekend Coy made chili before they left in the hopes that it would span the whole weekend. First they had chili dogs which were large mountains.  Then they made a "world famous creation"  Chili-mac-n-cheese it was all sorts of "wonderful delicious goodness" according to Coy ;)

This past weekend it was Italian fair though the chicken sandwiches for lunch required a "flip top head".  They never go hungry.

Pictures of Garrett's First Hog

Coy got a doe too that weekend.  It was a great hunt.

3 inch "cutter teeth"

Great job Super G !!

HOGZILLA, Part Deux

Garrett harvested his first big game animal this past weekend on another boy's trip to the lease.  His patience paid off and he got this huge Russian Boar which weighed 145 pounds with 3" cutter teeth.  He made a clean shot and now we have more pork for the freezer.  Great Job G-Man!

Veteran's Day with Papa

Eustis Elementary had a special program this morning to honor Veterans.  Laine invited her Papa Coy.  She anounced him saying "this is my Papa, he was in the Navy in World War II".  She got to sit and watch the program with Papa in "special blue chairs".  She and her class performed a song for all the Veterans and other classes sang songs and read poems.  It was a very nice morning.

RIP Dumpster

We lost Dumpster last week, Garrett's Dumpy Tree Frog.
He was looking sick and being that he was nocturnal we were not sure he was eating.
 Garrett buried him in our butterfly garden.

Garrett decided to stick with "Fire Bellies" the original 2, Bob and Marley are thriving and now have 3 new friends, Georgia, DJ (Dumpy Jr.) and Indie.

Walker decided to join the action and now has a Leopard Gecko named Miles

Miles lives in a desert habitat and eats crickets too.  The sand in Miles' habitat glows in the Dark.

The Ford Farm is Growing  :)

Red Ribbon Week

This past week was "red ribbon" week at school for drug awareness.  There is a theme for each day and time is spent talking about drug prevention.  We had crazy sock day, crazy hat day, favorite team day and wear red day.  You can see who is Laine's favorite team.  The Middle school participated too but I was not quick enough to get pictures.  The boys had fun with crazy sock day and of course wore their Bronco jerseys.  They wore Georgia red on Friday, the Wiley's would be so proud.  Laine was torn because it was the Friday before Halloween and of course, we have the Halloween outfit but she chose to wear red.  It was funny to see all the red at the "Fall Festival" party it looked more like a Valentine party.

It was a short week at school, the kids had Monday off because it was a "teacher work day" at the end of the 1st 9 weeks of school which means report cards.  I am very happy to announce that we have 3 kids with straight A's.  Laine had her conference and she is doing very well.  We are going to focus on her reading and are shooting for chapter books by Christmas.
Middle school does not do conferences but the teachers have the opportunity to mark comments on the report cards. Each boy received some "hard worker in class" and "demonstrates excellence" comment codes.

We are very proud of them and hope the hard work continues.

Happy Halloween

Papa took Laine to the pumpkin patch after a Halloween lunch.
 She picked a perfect pumpkin.

Laine had a great time carving her own pumpkin all by herself.  She was very clever and designed the face complete with a heart for a nose.

Laine had decided right away to be Taylor Swift for Halloween but then that was it.  She never changed her mind but also never decided what she was going to wear until Halloween.  Thankfully Wendy saved us with the wig and we had the cowboy boots.  When it came time to get dressed  Laine was unsure about the wig and I told her she could wear whatever she wanted out of her costume box as long as she was happy.  But then we added the red lipstick  and that was it, she thought she looked great and we pieced the rest together from there.  Not too bad for last minute.

Trunk or Treat with Kirk 

The boys had decided to go hunting with Dad and skip trick-or-treating.  No game this time but they had fun.  They came home with a few stories; one about a piglet that thought the ATV was it's Mama and one about almost running into a coyote.  Boys ???  They got home about 8:30 and Garrett decided there was still time for candy.  So he quick changed into a "Greaser" and took one of the ATVs Dad was unloading from the trailer and Walker (the responsible adult, as he called himself, that was his costume) drove him around the neighborhood so he could trick-or-treat.  What kids won't do for a piece of candy :)