I normally don't do much for St. Patrick's Day. We don't have any regular traditions other than wearing Green. But this year, Brydon was going to be gone for a Scout Camp out and Service Project, so I decided to make it a fun day.
The night before St. Patrick's, Caleb made our first ever Leprechaun trap. Some of our friends made these so we decided to give it a try. We hoped we could lure the Leprechaun in to trap him, so we could talk to him the next day. Caleb made a cute rainbow and we put together a make shift Pot of Gold in a box. For a last minute idea, I think it turned out well.
Our First Leprechaun Trap
The Leprechaun was really sneaky and during the night he turned all our chairs over and left a little trail of green paper to some treats.
Caleb was so excited to check his trap in the morning. He thought for sure he had been successful! He was very sad to open the box and find out it was empty. He looked at me and said, "Mom, I really wanted to catch that Leprechaun so he would tell us the magic word to ride the Rainbow. I really wanted to ride that Rainbow!"
Caleb loved that the Leprechaun magically turned our milk green though.
For a fun lunch, we invited some good friends over, whose husbands were also out of town, for a Green Party. We had yummy green punch and green "tortillas" for our tacos.
Our Super Cute Green Kiddos
Dessert was a Big Favorite
My super talented friend made these awesome rainbow cupcakes with clouds and I took the chance to make my grandma's pistachio nut torte (yummy yummy). Can't have a party with out yummy treats!
Then my other artistic and talented friend brought some face paint. The kids spent time playing, getting their faces' painted, and having their nails painted green (yep even the boys).
Way cute!! I am most definitely not talented enough to use face paint.
A fun and simple way to celebrate the Luck of the Irish! What a fun day!
Our family recently had a very West Texan experience. Last weekend it was time for the World's Largest Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up! We had heard that this was one of those experiences that you just needed to go check out. Last year Brydon was gone and I didn't want to go without him, but this year we could go as a family and with some awesome friends. Well it was quite an experience, and we have never seen anything like it. I took a bunch of pictures and have some videos.
But a small warning.....you are entering the world of Rattlesnakes!
Click on any pictures you dare to take a closer look at.
The Safety & Handling Pit
This is the safety and handling pit. The pit is full of snakes while the handler talks about snake safety. A bit of irony.
My two handsome boys!
Free face painting with our friends.
The Milking Pit
This is short video of the milking process. They just pull the snakes out of the barrel, milk them, show them around a bit, and then throw them down on the ground. Apparently it takes about 10 days for the venom to come back. However, they do not take all the venom in a milking.
Milking the Rattlesnake
We were able to touch a live Rattlesnake's Rattle while it was shaking. Caleb wasn't to sure he wanted to touch it.
The Skinning Pit
I didn't know it was possible to feel sorry for a Rattlesnake, but this particular pit can make you feel pretty sorry for a Rattlesnake. It is a rather gory process.
These teenagers were very busy and jumped right into the process. After the heads are chopped off, the snakes are tied to strings where they are then gutted and skinned. Snakes are very interesting. They are like chickens and even with the head removed, their bodies and heads continue to move. During the skinning process, the bodies move around and even without skin it keeps moving. Who knew!
If you are interested, you can watch the process pretty much from beginning to end.
Rattlesnake meat that is still moving!
For $20 you could skin your own rattlesnake and keep the skin. When you were done you could dip your hand in the rattlesnake blood and put your hand print on the wall and sign it. We decided to pass on that experience.
A behind the scenes view of the pit.
The Weighing Pit
This is where the snakes are first stored after being rounded up. The pit is full of snakes and boy did it smell terrible! Reminds you a bit of Indiana Jones.
Wouldn't you like to be this man. Just hanging out and chatting with his buddies.
This is where the snakes are actually weighed. There is a competition between round-up teams and so awards are given for the largest snakes. Apparently you can pay to go out and round up your own snake or just take a tour to watch others. Miss Snake Charmer gets to help in the weighing process and after they are weighed, she gets to grab the snake and pose so beautifully. I am not sure what it takes to be Miss Snake Charmer, but you most definitely have to be be comfortable with snakes.
The kiddos having a little snack.
Rattlesnake Meat
We had to try rattlesnake meat. It came fried in these small strips. We were ready to take a big bite, but learned quickly that it wasn't that easy. It was not de-boned.
If you pick the meat along the sides of the backbone,
you get this tiny piece of meat! Tasted fine but just not much to try. You can get a case of rattlesnake meat for $50 a pound.
So we experienced our first Rattlesnake Round-Up. There is a good chance it will probably be our only.
We did not pick up any of these awesome souvenirs. But if you are into snakes you could pick up a rattlesnake head in a jar or dried in a bag, rattlesnake teeth earrings or a rattle necklace. The snake skin was popular and you could just hang it up or get a wallet. I have to admit that they at least use every part of the snake. My favorite thing was a real turtle shell with a rattlesnake head and a rattle as a tail. Didn't get a picture and didn't buy it but it was quite creative.
You are welcome to come check it out next year in March if you want to.
Caleb has had some exciting Kindergarten adventures lately!
He was just selected as the Super Citizen of the Quarter for his class. We are so proud of him and he was so excited to be featured on the special board for the entire school. He also received a special certificate.
Kindergarten also had Cowboy Day this month to celebrate Texas History. All the Kindergartners got to dress up as cowboys and then decorate and put together a stick horse for the big Tri-Kindergarten Horse race.
Pretty darn handsome cowboy!
Check out his awesome horse. I was really proud of how much time he put into it. Art isn't usually his favorite thing to do (particularly structured art). The feathers were fun to add and the class dubbed it the Indian horse.
Getting ready for the big race on Race Day!
Lining up to begin.
The event was featured on the news and so Caleb has now had a few seconds of fame. His entire class race was actually featured in the clip as well has a cute shot of him. The race is pretty funny. You can actually watch him take off and then half way through the race his hat blows off. He then goes back to get it and pretty much finishes last. He was sad he didn't do as well as he had hoped but really wanted to save his hat. You can actually watch his good friend Brynn as well. Her horse's head pops off right after his hat blows off. Man it is tough to be 5 sometimes!
All Smiles Though!!
Caleb also had a unit on Outer Space. He has loved teaching us all about the sun and stars and planets. He even got to make a fun astronaut suit. Every once in a while he has to be an astronaut when he gets home.
These were really creative suits made out of a garbage and a cereal box wrapped in tin foil for a backpack. It does make me a little sad though to think that you can no longer grow up to be an astronaut.
I have to admit that all this Kindergarten fun has made me miss the classroom a little. I sure do love 5 year olds and Kindergarten is such a blast. We sure are proud of our little
On the way to church, Caleb all of a sudden says, "I think it would be great if Jesus had a different plan!"
Me: "Oh really. What is that?"
Caleb: "I think Jesus' plan should be that we eat dessert before we eat our dinner. Or that we could eat chocolate cake all the time. Well....that may not be very healthy but I would like to eat dessert first."
(Hmmm....who knew that was part of Jesus' plan. But it does sound like fun idea.)
One night we had a late night at our friend's house, so we just put all the kids to bed together. Later Caleb comes out of the room and we ask why he isn't asleep.
His reply: "Because we have hair in our mouths! (we laugh) I really do!"
Sure enough, after looking in his mouth we found a hair from a giant stuffed gorilla. I guess he had been challenged to bite the gorilla and he did.
While out shopping, Caleb and Brydon were horsing around. Caleb was crawling up dad. All of a sudden, Brydon said "Ouch" and put Caleb down quickly. He was rubbing his stomach and asked Caleb why he had bit him.
Caleb said, "I didn't bite you. I just had my mouth open and then closed it!!"
Brydon, "That is the essense of biting."
Apparently Caleb had opened his mouth and then closed it pretty hard on his dad. The sore bothered Brydon for quite a while.
One afternoon while getting the after school snack, I had given Caleb a list of healthy snack options. We had discussed how carrots were good for the brain. He choose carrots and while eating his snack, he began making up math problems for me to solve. He asked me if I knew what 9 + 1 was. When I said 10, Caleb said, "No mom, it's 91. You must not have eaten a lot of carrots when you were young, because I am way smarter than you!"
What do you say to that?!? I just ended up laughing! :)
Caleb was getting his jammies on one evening. While he was getting dressed, I went and put toothpaste on his toothbrush. He came into the bathroom and saw his toothbrush waiting for him. He looked at me and said, "Mom! You have to just accept that I am a big boy now and don't need your help."
Yeah well I don't know if Moms ever believe that!!! At least I am sure not!
Hope your February was filled with love and fun! And make sure you eat plenty of carrots so you can be smarter than a 5 year old!
In the beginning of the year, Caleb decided to start swimming lessons again. He has grown so much since last year, and it has been amazing to see how much he has learned. He is now quite the strong swimmer. He can swim alone without a life vest. I had to capture a few videos to show off to the grandparents. They aren't great but you can at least see a little of how awesome he is!
The other day we saw a picture of Michael Phelps and Caleb asked who he was. We explained that he was one of the fastest swimmers in the world and was a Gold Medalist. Caleb was so excited and asked many questions about him. We eventually ended up finding a video of Phelps swimming online so Caleb could watch see him in action. He now wants to learn out to swim in races and think he wants to be as fast as Michael Phelps someday. Never thought my 5 year old son would know who Michael Phelps was. Not a bad hero, I guess. It was be interesting to see what the future holds for swimming in Caleb's life. But for now, swimming is most definitely a favorite!
