Growing Everyday

Well, we got the kids a Wii awhile ago. But then I bought Super Mario Bros. I thought it would be great fun…what I did not count on was Jared getting obsessed with conquering the game. I will admit that I enjoyed playing the game as much as I did Super Mario Bros 3 on the original nintendo. But I didn’t conquer the original and I had no intention of conquering this one. But with the help of Andrew, Jared did conquer all the levels. He is now working on collecting the star coins on every level. He has really enjoyed the game more than I thought he would. Plus it is great to see Andrew and Jared spending time together.

I am sure as the weather gets warmer though, we will spend a lot more time outside.

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Jared was able to join Boy Scouts this year. So far, he is enjoying it. At the first pack meeting, he learned he would build and launch a rocket. He was so excited. It turned out that the rocket is a little hard to build, so Daddy did most of that. Then the launch day came….and it was rainy and windy. So it was canceled and Jared was sad.

At his next den meeting, they met with another den to launch the rockets and it was the perfect day. (You will have to excuse Jared’s outfit, it was pj day at school that day and he wasn’t about to change just to go launch his rocket.) Jared and Daddy attached the engine and then Jared took it out to launch. I was amazed at how high it flew. It disappeared in the sky. Jared was amazed. And Dad was proud his rocket flew.

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We took a family walk in the woods last weekend. Well, only sort of to the kids because the paths were paved and that doesn’t really count in their minds. I got some cute pictures of everyone and the kids and dog were tired afterwards.

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Sometimes the things that are utterly boring at home can become exciting and entertaining again if you just do it somewhere else. Beka and Jared are getting bored with drawing and the playground. So I decided to take art stuff over to the playground trying to make it more exciting. It worked for about 30 minutes and that was totally worth it.

We have also taken some old games we used to play and added new twists to them. Andrew and Beka will play “follow the leader”. The change is Andrew will be on his ripstik and Beka will be on her bike. Andrew and I have taught the kids how to play four square. I had to google the rules to make sure I remembered how to play, but it was worth it.

It is a challenging some days to keep my little sponges engaged in something other than the TV, but we try.

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Beka’s teacher sent home a printout on Friday describing an activity called Bugfest that was happening at one of the Indy parks over the weekend. Of course, my children were eager to be a part of anything having to do with bugs. Now, Andrew and I thought this would be a smallish event. We were completely and utterly wrong. There were parents and kids everywhere. First, we went to the check-in where both kids were handed a card to keep track of the stations they visited. There were probably 15-20 stations to visit all dealing in some way with bugs. We were able to see monarch caterpillars and monarch butterflies, bees and beekeepers, an entomologist, and worms. The kids really enjoyed watch the fly fisherman make their own flies. Then we come to the "grossome" part of the day. The Bugfest included a bug cafe where the children and Andrew tried bacon/cheddar crickets, salt/vinegar crickets, sour cream crickets, and chocolate covered crickets. They also had these silkworm things that you could eat. Apparently, those tasted the worst.

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We spent alot of time doing nothing in August partly because mom is lazy and partly because school started and that cut into fun time a bit. So I decided to end the month with picture spam. We took Jared to a skatepark for the first time to play on his skateboard. He was intimidated by all the big kids but he did okay. That same day Beka brought her bike to the park and rode all over. Then both kids decided to climb and tree.

I tried one afternoon to get some posed brother/sister pictures. That didn’t work out so well. Jared hates to smile for pictures and if I have Beka pose, her smile looks so fake. Anyway, it was fun for me to play photographer for awhile.

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I took pictures the last time we went swimming. We only made it about 30 minutes because it was cold. Beka and Jared really do love to swim though. It is even better when Daddy is there to play with them.

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We took a random drive before school started to Falls Park. There are hiking trails that we walked and a mountain bike course. Also, of course, there are waterfalls. It was a very pretty park, and you could tell many people visit it often.

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Along with Grandma and Grandpa Westberg, we took a day trip to Squire Boone’s Caverns. Squire Boone is the brother of Daniel Boone. There is a whole little kitschy town set up with a place to mine rocks, a bakery, and even a candy shop. To get to the cave you have to walk down a spiral staircase consisting of 73 steps. Now, it is dark and damp going down these stairs. The kids were very brave and with a little coaxing from Mom and Dad made it down into the cave. The cave was amazing. There was an underground waterfall that we walked over, rim dams, soda straws, and so many other formations. It was really worth the drive to see the caves.

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Beka and Jared have inherited a love of Fishing from their Grandpa Westberg. Grandpa and Grandma Westberg bought them their first rod and reel and will forever be their heroes because of it. Jared and Beka just love to go to the pond and fish. The pond in the neighborhood is wonderful for kids fishing. There are a lot of hungry little fish, so you never have a long wait between casting and pulling out a fish. Andrew gets run ragged putting worms on the hooks and taking fish off the hooks. I can put the worms on but I still haven’t figured out how to get the fish off. To give Andrew a bit of a break and to spend sometime together, Grandpa and Grandma came over to fish with us. I think a good time was had by all.

We caught a glimpse of a turtle while we were out there.

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