Garrett Morgan & Frederick McKinnley Jones

  Way back in February Luke and Noah did a research project and were "wax museum" figures for African American History month. Noah was Frederick McKinnley Jones,inventor of portable refrigeration. Luke was Garrett Morgan,he invented several things including one of the first traffic lights and the gas mask. Making a gas mask out of a bee hood was a super good idea!

They both did really well. Both on the research paper and presenting their historical figure. It was interesting for all of us to learn about 2 scientists we knew nothing about before.

Luke and Noah's first Pack Meeting for scouts was the Blue and Gold banquet. It was a space themed dinner, we were supposed to bring space desserts. Luke made aliens out of green chocolate dipped marshmellows, Noah made ufo's out of cookies and gumdrops. They were really fun to make. I especially loved the styrofoam moon they are stuck into.

How are these girls 11???????

 I can't believe my girls are 11. Seriously. 11 seems sooooo much older then 10. 10 still seems like a kid in some ways, 11 is definitely grown up so much to me as their mom. I think they had a good birthday. Grace needed to run the mile at school and was nervous. She ended up running 3 minutes faster then last year! Sophie got a Helen, to learn to fix hair on, Grace got a lava lamp, or 2. Mom's mistake, her gain. Grandpa Smith made treasure chests for both girls, they gave each other a BB gun (Sophie was the only kid who did not have one) and a Newton's Cradle.

My sweet Grace has some Hardy blood in there...lots of closed eyes in this years pics!

Sophie had this amazing idea for a Bday cake. It was a pinata cake, filled with mint M&M's. Cake was green ombre. It turned out beautiful! But to be honest, was not the yummiest.

So. I forgot to take a picture of Grace's cake on her Birthday except for the first one. It was an ice cream cake, my first, and it was melting horribly. It tasted amazing, but was a mess to  look at. So here is Grace, 3 days later with the 2 last pieces. It was Fish Food, chocolate cake, frosted with chocolate whipped cream. This sweet girl was super forgiving at my absent minded pictures. Also, Dessa was here to celebrate with us and I did not get a picture with her either!

Happy Pi Day!

Today is 3.1415 - once every century! Of course we celebrated with pie, Key Lime and Chocolate Silk.

Today was also the Battle of Guilford Courthouse annual reenactment. It was wet and muddy, not as cold as it was in 1781 though. Jayden had never been to a reenactment before, or Abby. It was fun, and wet, and muddy.

 This reenactor let the kids all hold and look at his gun. I never realized that these old muskets actually had a piece of flint that struck steel to make a spark! This nice kid told us that his gun did not fire once during the reenactment, that they are really inconsistent, especially when it is wet.

When we got home the kids, Jayden included, played Revolutionary War for hours and hours. It helped that Abby was here. She has a way of making everything more exciting and fun and all 4 of my kids adore her. I call her my 5th child, but I guess with Jayden here now I should call her my 6th child :) 

The mix of star wars cloaks becoming soldiers and various and assorted weapons made me laugh. Grace made a colonial hat by wearing a sun bonnet backwards, her gun is also a random piece of wood from the garage. Abby just captured Luke and he is not very happy about it in this pic. 

 Grace and Sophie have been asking me to dye their hair colored for  quite a while know. I am not sure why exactly, but I did it for them this weekend. Sophie's is just on the ends of her bangs and Grace decided to do the whole bottom half of her hair and then cut it off eventually into a long bob. Both turned out really cute. They look so mature and grown up in this picture. So then I had to make sure and post this one too...

Best NC snow day ever!

Last week we got 6+ inches of fluffy, packable snow! The kids had never seen this much snow before. Before playing we had to get jobs done. Grace decided that shoveling would be easier then cleaning inside. I looked out the window and found her like this after 10 minutes. She has never shoveled snow before and did not realize how much work it is! Snow melts here so fast, there is usually no point in shoveling. And before you laugh at us leaving out the hammock, Just last Sunday I went out and used it. It elevates my foot perfectly. The chickens just wouldn't leave me alone. They kept pecking at my hair hanging down through the ropes. Silly birds!

We found a park in town with a great sledding hill. Parking is right at the top of the hill so I could put my foot up on the dashboard and rest it while the kids played and watch them.  We miss our front  yard sledding at William Wallace. I think all of  our neighbors do too! Our renters are not super friendly so the neighborhood kids don't feel like they can sled there anymore.

 Sophie was playing with Abby and fell jumping off the trampoline. She hurt her arm so didn't want to sled. I ended up taking her to the doctor just for them to tell me there was nothing wrong:) This was after 4 days and she was still complaining. Poor kid.

Finally

We have lived here for over a year and I finally got our clock fixed. It stopped working at the William Wallace house and when we moved here never was fully unpacked. With Jason's reminder I finally called a kind older man who came and fixed it along with setting it up. It nice to hear, better then I remember. I worried that in this smaller house the tones would be too loud, but they are not at all. The girls especially are enjoying it. They say that it reminds them of their childhood. It is odd for me to think of my kids growing up here in the South. That they will identify as Southerners, that this is home. We are supposed to get another 4-8 inches of snow tonight. In the past 2 weeks my kids have only gone 2 1/2 days to school. I am not sure how they will make it all up!

Snow Day! Again!

This was the view out my window this morning!

 Jason was up first, before 6, and came in and told me school was canceled. We had no idea it was going to snow! Wasn't forecast at all yesterday. Crazy NC weather. My view for the past 11 days has been this...

plus or minus a few kids. My foot is doing ok. I knew it would be really painful, but it is still surprising. I am so grateful that we have medical technology and health insurance so I could get my foot fixed though. Here is an xray from after my surgery. I wish I could say I had a bionic foot, it feels mostly like a Franken foot right now. Doctor says I will be able to run and walk pain free as long as I heal ok. He was surprised just how bad the inflamed tendon was was once he got my foot open.

This is my other view, out the windows behind the couch. I have enjoyed the snow as much as you can without being able to play or be out in it.

I let Grace take my camera outside this morning. She got some really great pictures. Along with lots of selfies of all varieties. All the rest of these pictures are by her! 

 

 I love that she is still making snow angels!