What's a hoodle-whip

Mommy to the girls: Let's go get something to eat.
Gracie: But Mommy, I look like a hoodle-whip.
Mommy: What's a hoodle-whip?
Gracie: That thing you always call us when we don't match.
Mommy: Oh, a hoodlum. (Mommy finally looks up from the computer.) Yes, you look like a hoodlum. We'll go through the drive-through.

Camping at Big Creek

We went camping with a few friend from our coop group this last weekend. It was a lot of fun. Eric was at a golf tournament all weekend so it was just mama and the kids. That was fine, because the kids are very helpful, but we did run into a few problems.

For one, we had to cook all of our meals over the fire, because we forgot the Coleman stove. We also forgot some of the food in the frig at home, so we didn't have the variety that we had planned on. Mama spent SEVERAL hours blowing up an air mattress, because the pump was brought, but not the hose to attach it to the mattress. Ugh...

Despite all that, we had a great time. The big kids took a long hike on Saturday, while the rest of the kids spent almost the whole day in the creek. Mama even got in the creek despite the fact that it was extremely cold!

Someone in our group saw an Elk on Saturday and someone else saw a bear on Sunday.

All of the kids stayed up very late both nights, sitting around the camp fire, roasting marshmallows and talking with their friends. Unfortunately, most of us didn't get much sleep the whole time, so we headed home Sunday in a state of exhaustion.

There are a few more pictures of our camping trip on our Home School On the Go blog if you want to see more.

A Couple Nights Away

Eric and I got to get away all by ourselves for a couple nights last week. We stayed at a fancy inn, and enjoyed the quiet very much! We took a drive through the Smokey's and walked around Gatlinburg, then had a candlelight dinner back at the inn. We were very spoiled!

1st Annual Kid Fish & Mitchell's Birthday

Kim came up with the idea to have a fishing tournament for Mitchell's birthday this year, and everyone thought it was a great idea! (Especially Mitchell!) New poles were bought, and lot of bait. Chris even surprised the kids by buying trophies.

After the fishing stopped we cooked up some dinner...

...and made up some margaritas and strawberry daiquiris. (Virgin ones for all the kids.)

Do you see the teeth?

Then the awards cerimony began...

Gracie got the prize for "Most Fish" among the little kids.

Grayson got the prize for "Smallest, Fastest Fish".

Alli got the prize for "Biggest Fish". Did you see her catfish pictured above?

Lizzie got the prize for the "Coolest Fish".

BJ got 3rd Place.

Ronnie got 2nd Place.

and the birthday boy got 1st Place!

Congratulations contestants!!! You all did well.

Then...as the rest of us ate our blackberry cobbler for dessert, Mitchell, the fish-o-holic, continued to fish until he caught this monster carp!

We all had so much fun that we plan to have a kid's fishing tournament every summer!