Audrey is most interested in Monarch butterflies, but she also enjoys photographing the outdoors. This year she earned Honorable Mentions for her “Momma” and “Fairy Door” photographs at this years Elkhart County Parks Photo Contest.
This was the second year that Megan entered pictures into the Elkhart County Parks Photo Contest. She works very hard getting good pictures and hopes to earn a ribbon next year. She asked Mr. Courtney (who is in charge) and he said she was youngest to enter any pictures! We learned later that the next youngest entry was taken by a ten year old.
Keep up the good work Megan!
As one of the youngest participants, Adrian won an honorable mention with his White Crocus in this years Elkhart County Parks Photo Contest. He enjoys taking pictures and he often takes a lot! I am really proud of how he is improving.
Mark entered five pictures in the Elkhart County Park Photo contest this year. He did not win any ribbons, but I was told by someone looking at his pictures that his deer picture was really neat.
Andrea was excited to earn a third place ribbon for her “Strawberries” picture at The Elkhart County Parks Photo Contest! Her photography is really improving.
Today we watched the inauguration of President Trump. We turned on the news early and are still listening and watching everything that is going on. I have enjoyed listening to the children’s discussions on everything leading up to the swearing in and then President Trump’s speech.
Today is “national jump in puddle day and splash your friends day.” Enjoy it if you can find unfrozen puddles!
I am ready for a good back packing trip. Since Mark was a newborn, we have often taken the kids out for challenging vacations. As the kids grow older, Allan keeps looking for new places to take us. When Mark was seven, Andrea almost five, Audrey just three and we were waiting for Adrian, we went to Glacier National Park for a week of back country hiking.
The older two had to walk all of the way and Audrey did a fair amount of hiking herself. We slept in a tent and ate dehydrated food all week. We played in ice cold mountain rivers and explored bear country.
(It is cold outside, and I am daydreaming of a good hike with the family. I wonder where we should go?)
For Christmas this year, the family was surprised with an envelope from Santa on Christmas day. In the envelope was a candy cane seed kit!
It was a pretty neat kit. There were six seeds, but only five came up. There was also white and red fertilizer and soil. The seed packet said that the seeds were very rare and only grew in perfect conditions, so I am glad that Santa shared some with us this year.
We supplied our own bowl and used the bag the soil came in to cover the seeds like the directions said. If we receive candy cane seeds again, we would use a deeper bowl since the full grown candy cane plants all fell over so we do not know how tall they would have grown if they had the chance. We were hoping the canes would flower and grow new seeds, but once they fell over, we were afraid they would not be so nice.
The kids thought the candy canes were really good. They decided that candy cane seeds must be related to bamboo since they grew so quickly. Megan said North Pole candy canes tasted more pepperminty and they thought they had a cleaner, fresher taste.
