Birthday Stuff

On Valentines Day we celebrated Jonathan and Gavin's birthday with a big family dinner and cupcake decorating.  Here is Gavin, probably waiting to eat something.

Here are the cousins eating at the "kid" table.  I guess we need to get a bigger kid table since there wasn't room for cousin Malachi to eat with the big kids.  We had smoked chicken potatoes, salad, and corn bread... yummy!

After the meal the kids got to decorate their own cupcakes with sprinkles and other candies.  Gavin's was pretty full after we added the five candles for his age.  We only put one candle on Jonathan's since there wasn't room for all 28.

More decorating with GG, Grandma Lisa and Aunt Laurel.

Jump Rope for Heart

Every year the students in Alachua County participate in an event called Jump Rope for Heart.  The students from each school raise money for the American Heart Association.  Here are a couple of pictures of Nathan jumping at Terwilliger with the rest of the first grade students. 

Alien Invasion

Here are some pictures of our trip to the Florida Museum of Natural History for their new exhibit Alien Invasion which was actually a dual exhibit featuring artistic photography of the everglades and a showcase of invasive plants and animals that are endangering the everglades.

Gavin in front of some bones, which I think was a mammoth, but it could have been a mastodon... I am not sure it has been a while since I have looked at the plaque for it.

Nathan looking at some of the beautiful photography by Clyde Butcher and Jeff Ripple.  I am always amazed by the beauty that God has given us to experience.  Sometimes we just need to stop and remember it.  

Nathan is coming out of the "caves" into a recreated section of habitat where the kids can do an animal seek.  We found several birds, bugs, snakes and mammals in this habitat.  

I forgot to get pictures of the part of the alien invasion exhibit where it actually had the plants and animals that were endangering the everglades, but I will just mention that Nathan and I were both surprised that the top three threats were actually invasive plants (Old World Climbing Fern, melaleuca, and some sort of Brazilian Holly bush).  Now you know!  Also there was a big burmese python there as well, also invasive.  Keep your pythons on a leash.

Pinewood Derby

Yesterday Nathan went to the Pinewood Derby for cub scouts.  He and his dad made the car on the far left which was named "Fast Boy".  Nathan's car won this heat, got second place on the second heat and for his third heat he was close to a tie for first with the other two cars.  The winner of the third heat only won by 4 milliseconds.  I guess the speed is being timed by a official clock.  Who knew that these things were so competitive.  

Here is Nathan with his fellow scouts, Will, Bradley and Josiah.

Nice face!

Josiah, Bradley, Gavin and Logan all watching the races.  

The awards given to the tigers at the end.  Nathan's car won for "most original" which seems to be code for least attractive.  (We didn't have time to give it a proper paint job before the race.)  Since we raced with another pack, we aren't sure who won from Nathan's group.  They will give the awards to our tigers at the Blue and Gold banquet.

Visiting the Great Grands

On February 1st we got to visit our Great Grandparents Breman at First Christian Church of Lake Butler.  It is wonderful to see our family members who we do not see all the time.

Camp Buctuocs 2009

This is Nathan's first year in cubscouts and he is a tiger cub.  The big camping event for Alachua County is called Buctuocs.  It was really cold, but we all had so much fun it was crazy.  The boys got to do archery, fishing, fencing, BB guns, cooking on a fire, rock climbing and arts and crafts.  It was really a lot of fun and it was nice to get to spend time together as a family.  

This is a picture of Gavin fencing.  He loves doing this at home so he was so excited when he got picked to try at camp.

Here is Nathan trying to shoot a BB gun.  He was really disappointed when he didn't hit the target at all, but I guess that will teach him to listen when his dad is trying to teach him how to use the guns from now on.

Here is a picture of what I am pretty sure is Gavin's first time fishing.  He said this was his favorite part of the weekend.

Rock climbing.  Nathan tried to climb what I think was the hardest wall.  He made it about one third of the way up, and couldn't go any farther. 

Gavin climbed the easier wall, but he almost got all the way to the top which you can see was really high.  When it was time to come down I was a little nervous because he looked like he might be stuck.  I thought that someone was going to have to climb up and get him.  He finally let go and slowly drifted down like he was supposed to.  I was so proud.

We didn't stay the second night because it was so cold, but we waited until the ghost stories and s'mores were done before we left that night.

Grossology

Over Christmas break our friends the Wolfe family came to visit us at our house.  We took them to visit Grossology a museum exhibit on the gross science of the human body.  My boys love this exhibit and were sad to see it go.  Gross and educational all at the same time.

In the Butterfly Rainforest.  

Here is an overhead picture of all five kids after we finished visiting the butterfly portion of the natural history museum.  Fun!

Here is Nathan climbing the rock wall which is a gigantic size replica of the human skin with different growths, scabs, warts, and moles to climb on.  Very fun.