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We went camping with our ward back in January...I kept saying, if there is rain in the forecast, I'm not going.  We camped down at Brazos bend, and you can see the flood line from Harvey.  It was so spooky.  Well, I guess I didn't look at the forecast because I went camping and it rained the entire night.  Not a little rain, a lot of rain.  Luckily there wasn't thunder and lightning.  I kept waiting for the tent to leak and it was already chilly.   We survived the night, but most families didn't.  Almost everyone left during the evening and throughout the night.   I guess it made for a memorable campout, but I spent most of the night wishing I had stayed home.    There was lots of breakfast for everyone.  :)  I might never go on a ward campout again.  This year it rained, last year the mosquitos were so bad and it was really hot...

Back in January, we were hit by an ice storm and the kids had 2 "snow days".  It was fun and a little annoying...mostly because it was the week after Christmas break.  I hate to admit that I kinda just wanted to send them to school.  But it was really cold and we really did get ice and some pellet-y snow. It's been the craziest year for weather.  Such a cold winter...I'm not really complaining, because the summer is so hot, just unusual.  The kids spent a lot of time outside and then came in for hot chocolate.  Calvin noticed a dead bird in the tree and at first we thought it had frozen to death, but after looking closer, I realized it was dinner for a Loggerhead Shrike (or butcher bird).  They are the crazies birds, smaller than a robin, and store their food for later on trees.  Usually impaled on the trees.  We have seen June bugs impaled, lizards impaled and now a bird. 

For her birthday, Elsie wanted a painting party.  I'm not a painter, but I've been to a step by step painting place a couple times, so I felt fairly confident I could walk these 6 and 7 year olds through painting.  I found a tutorial on YouTube.   Luckily, my neighbor is a painter and she has actually owned a couple painting studios so, I picked her brain a bit and borrowed her easels.  When she dropped her daughter off at the party, she asked if I wanted help and pretty much ran the class.  Haha.  I have the best neighbors.  She was worried that she was "taking over".  I told her I was happy to have you take over.   It was really fun.  I think the kids had a good time and it wasn't too messy.  I let the kids decorate their own cupcakes and that ended up being the messiest part.  It's so fun to see all the finished paintings...the same but different! Happy Birthday party Elsie!  She reminded me many times that it was her first

 Six year olds are the best.  I LOVE this age. We celebrated Elsie's birthday in between school and basketball practice (Ginger).  She had a friend birthday party several weeks later and made sure to remind me that this was her first friend birthday party :).  For her birthday she asked for a "Fitbit". Six things about Elsie: 1.  She LOVES school.  Loves her teacher, loves her friends, and loves going in general. 2.  She LOVES Ginger! (and Ginger loves her).  Their relationship is very cute.  Ginger is calm and patient (most of the time) and Elsie is bossy and demanding.  It's almost more like a mother/daughter relationship than a sister relationship.  I'm sure that will change with time. Elsie copies almost everything Ginger does (the good stuff)...and copies all the naughty stuff from Calvin. 3.  She loves to be the baby (milks it as often as she can), and also loves to be a big kid.  She's got the best of both worlds. 4.  She always volunteer