One of God's Unique Plants-The Moon Flower

A couple of years ago my dad gave me a bag of moon flower seeds. I have loved these beautiful flowers. Last year I had to cut them back because they were taking over my bushes. I wasn't sure if they would grow back this year but I have one good size plant that grew. These flowers are really unique because they only bloom at night..and the flower dies the day after it blooms. It's really too bad the flower doesn't stay pretty longer for us to enjoy. I'm not sure if there are other types of moon flowers that do stay pretty longer. We've been keeping an eye on this last bud for the past few days. I told Cade yesterday that I was pretty sure it would bloom tonight. When we went out earlier today I could tell that tonight would be the night for it to open up. I've watched several of these flowers bloom over the past 2 years. It's really neat to stand outside as it's getting dark and watch the flower slowly open up. Tonight we all got to stand outside and watch as God worked his magic on this beautiful plant. The boys were thrilled to actually see the flower moving!!.

We didn't get outside early enough for me to take a picture of the petals completely folded up. This first picture was taken at 6:47 p.m. It had already started opening up!

Here is what it looked like at 6:53 p.m.

By 7:00 it had completely opened up. Isn't it a pretty flower!

The boys and their moon flower!

A busy morning!

Well it's another beautiful day here. I absolutely LOVE the weather we've had this week. We started off the morning with Cade playing soccer. The boys all played great! After the soccer game we went over to spend some time at the BBQ festival. We had a good time.Cooper ready to watch Cade play...he only lasted about 2 minutes in this seat!
Cade ready to play some defense

We stopped at the car show before heading over to the festival. There were lots of really neat cars but these were our favorites
The General Lee
The Batmobile (the boys favorite)
Herbie.

The boys enjoyed several activities. One was a pony ride.



Cooper had fun watching the animals while the boys rode the ponies


They had fun sliding down the party jumper. They came down very fast!!



The whole family enjoyed a train ride. The boys were exhausted by the time we were ready to leave.

Another great week

We've had another great week here. The weather has been beautiful all week so we've spent quite a bit of time outside. We have done several things with the letter M this week. The kids are enjoying our letter activities. It gives them something different to do for at least a few minutes during the day. This week we've played with magnets and money, used M&M,s for "math" activities, made M&M crafts, made marshmallow sculptures, made handprints in modeling clay, and glued macaroni on the letter M. The kids favorite thing this week was using M&M,s to do "work". The smaller kids didn't care anything about doing the "work" but they sure did love eating them when we were done!!our M&M craft


Cade sorting M&M,s
Making marshmallow sculptures
big brother helping out
handprints
macaroni craft

The boys got some pumpkins from Papa and Clara Ruth. Boy were they excited. We got 2 pumpkins so they each picked one. Cade picked the taller pumpkin (because he is taller!!) and Chance got the one that was slightly shorter but a little bigger around. They immediately started telling each other that "mine is the best one!" Must everything be a competition???? Cade told Chance that he thought his (Chance's) pumpkin would be better for making a pumpkin pie!! He wants a pumpkin pie so bad but doesn't want it made from his own pumpkin..funny! I've never even made a pumpkin pie and don't think I'm going to use these pumpkins to make one. I want to enjoy them sitting on the porch!
On a side note Cooper is walking EVERYWHERE now. He is getting so big way too fast!

It's that time of year again

Well fall is here and it's time to start swapping out clothes. The weather is actually still very warm but I know the cool days are just ahead. The mornings are a little cool. As much as I dislike trying to get the boys clothes organized I am ready for them to wear some of their fall things. I have lots of tubs/boxes to go through. The picture doesn't even show the boxes and bags in the boys closets. I think it's going to take me a while to get everything sorted out. The good thing about all of these boxes is that the boys are going to have plenty to wear this fall/winter. I'm very thankful to not have to go buy clothes (or at least not much) for my boys. I've been very blessed with LOTS of clothes handed down by my sister. I can't even begin to imagine what an ordeal swapping clothes out for her is. She is the mom of 21!! Whew!! Well I'm going to start tackling this mess as soon as my kiddos go down for naps!! I can't believe I've gone a week without posting anything and then all I post is a picture of a big mess..haha. I should have some new post over the next few days!

A great day!

The kids and I had a good day today. Like I mentioned in an earlier post.. I am doing preschool at home with Cade (and the other kids). We have had fun with it so far. Some days we don't get much (if anything) done. It's hard to find a good time to do school stuff with 5 and 6 kids here (2 of which are babies that want to be in the middle of EVERYTHING). We do the best we can though. This week our letter has been E. We've done some crafts and fun things with this letter so far. I told Cade I would let him help me make eggs one day. Today was that day. The kids helped me make green eggs for egg and cheese sandwiches. They each got to crack an egg and put it in the bowl. I only had to scoop out a couple of shells from Chance's egg!! Not bad! They loved eating the sandwiches. Cade painting his elephant earlier this week. We made paper bag puppets after they dried.
The kids stirring the GREEN eggs!
Now doesn't that look YUMMY! It really was very good. The kids each ate their whole sandwich!!
painting leaves...doesn't go with E...we just painted them for Fall. As you can see Cooper thinks he's as big as the other boys. He wants to do EVERYTHING they do.
such a big boy
They love painting
Chance working on his leaves
Chad came home with this today. It is my birthday today and he thought I needed a drink from Sonic. He was right!! Tonight after bible class we all went to Baskin Robbins. 2 treats in 1 day..WOW!!!

Sound Asleep

After the boys went down for naps I went and laid down for a few minutes. I couldn't go to sleep because I was thinking of all the things I needed to be doing. When I walked into the den this is how I found Cade. I guess even Spiderman has to sleep sometimes!!

Outside Fun!

Yesterday I got to spend the day with just my boys. Rarely do I have just my kids on a Monday. One of the little girls I keep had a virus so she and her sister stayed home. I love the kids I keep but I also love days with just my boys. We spent the morning at the park and even took our lunch and enjoyed a picnic. After rest time, which we all needed after spending the morning playing at the park, we went swimming and played in a mud hole. What Fun!!! It was a great day! enjoying a picnic at the park
Cooper laughing at Chance because he was saying "shoo fly"
They love mud! Cooper thought he needed to join in the messy fun too.

I made a GOAL!!!!!

Cade had a soccer game this morning. Once again the boys played great. They seem to be playing better and better with each game. He is enjoying soccer so much...even more than I thought he would! I took this picture after Cade made a goal. I just love it! He was so excited.

scrapbook pages

Here are a few of the scrapbook pages from Cooper's 1 year album. I'm all done with his album with the exception of his birthday pages. I hope to get those done soon. All of my pages are fairly simple. There are some pages that I don't just love but at least they are done!! These were some of my favorites from his album. I think most of the things I used for his album came from Hobby Lobby.

Apple Picking Time!

This afternoon we took the boys to pick apples at the home of one of our church members. They had a good time and picked LOTS of apples. We came home with a basket and a bucket FULL! I am going to be busy coming up with things to make with all of these apples. I do plan to freeze some for us to enjoy later. We look forward to enjoying these apples for quite some time.