Pics

Miriam is a beauty queen.

She's also a weirdo. She gets that from her dad.

This is the cake that Timothy and I made for Lynnaea's birthday/baptism party. Lynnaea was a Halloween baby. Notice the arm coming out of one of the graves. Also notice that one of the headstones says, "Ned is dead." I think I'm so funny.

On Friday I took the kids to a field trip to the Roy fire station. A group of homeschooling moms put the field trip together and it was awesome. You started at this trailer.

While you waited (a long time) to go into the trailer, a man taught you how to use a fire extinguisher. PASS=pin, aim, squeeze, something that means go back and forth slowly that I have forgotten. I really did pay attention.

Eli took his brand new shoes off outside without my realizing it and Patsy chewed one. Grr.

Inside the trailer was a kitchen that frequently lit on fire. Each child was able to "put out" the fire with an extinguisher that shot out green beams instead of white stuff. Strange, but fun for the kids.

Then we learned how to put out an oven/range fire. Exciting. After the fires we endured an earthquake and a major rainstorm that killed the electricity. Crazy stuff happened in that trailer. At the end, the children got a prize for surviving.

It was the offspring's favorite part of the field trip.

I was not such a fan. They wanted to imitate the conditions of a house on fire so they had heat lamps creating enormous heat, plus a bunch of fake smoke. After five minutes, I was light-headed. Then the earthquake noise and the shaking put it over the top. I cracked the door when I wasn't supposed to. It was that, or pass out. Still, I think I let myself get a little too close to passing out and my head killed the rest of the day.

Still, I don't mean to complain. The people did a great job.

This is a fireman explaining all the stuff on the back of a brush fire truck. We saw a whole bunch of firetrucks, ambulances, paramedic trucks, and other fire equipment. It was cool.

That lady in the maroon shirt--she has sons named Wyatt and Ethan. Crazy.

That really has nothing to do with the field trip though.

After seeing the rest of the fire station, including the kitchen and bedrooms and big tv room, we went to get a cookie and a bunch of free stuff--including fingerprinting booklets for the kids.

When we first arrived, Cowen and Miriam put their names on slips of paper and added themselves to a drawing. The drawing was only for school-aged children. And guess what--Cowen won!! He got a really cool first aid box chock full of fun stuff.

It was a great day with beautiful weather.