Birthday Party

Friday night we hosted a party for Jackson's 7th birthday. We had 5 kids over to spend the night. I have to say that Tonya was a little nervous for some reason. I'm the one that is usually scared of kids and she is the one hiding. This scared me because she is the one that is comfortable around 25 4th graders and ultimately has our game plan on surviving the night.

She did have everything planned, but this was the problem. When they arrived and started tackling each other, she realized that they probably would not be interested in the multitude of science experiments that we had planned for our evening entertainment. We had to go to plan B. I started acting like a drill sargeant and then I would not acknowledge them unless they called me Big Jon. Then Big Jon talked as much trash and kicked their butt in every challenge that I could come up with. (Mainly Guitar Hero, I rocked!)

Then it was time for the eruption. Jackson had asked for a volcano birthday cake, so I found some ideas on the internet to make one that was supposed to erupt. I had to try this out. We had had a mock eruption on thursday, but it did not go so well, so I was a little nervous. I had made a cake that was four layers thick and full of toothpicks to keep it from destroying itself. Then in the top, you put aluminum foil and fill it full of egg whites, sugar, food coloring and dry ice. Then when you add hot water it was supposed to erupt and run lava down the sides.

Then we stayed up late and later played in the snow. I would write more about all that, but it's dinner time around here and Wes and Will are not happy. Big Jon has got to go.

Let's Talk Turkey

As many of you know, my most favorite time of year is coming up....Turkey Season. There is nothing like Hooting like an owl to locate them on the roost and then strategizing a way to get close to them. Every once in while it works out and we are blessed with a chance to bring one home. Last year Jackson killed a really nice one on his first turkey hunt. In a couple of weeks we will go again. Maybe this year he will not come home saying that daddy kept saying bad words. When he shot it, I dragged him out of the blind to tackle it and I was jumping around like a baboon screaming that holy crap you just shot a turkey over and over. I am not particularly proud of my choice of words at time, but I was excited. The other thing that I kind of regret was while I was jumping around was that when I got to the turkey, Jackson was not behind me anymore. He had stepped knee deep into a hole and could not get his leg out. Well anyway despite all that, it was a beautiful hunt that neither of us will never forget. Notice in the picture below that the turkey is almost as tall as he is.

I recently had another proud moment. Mr. Will has started to try to talk lately. He has started to say Da Da and he will yelp like a turkey. Tonya is very pleased about this. She is trying to get him to say words, but all he wants to do is call turkeys. I am so proud. (tear)

Here is a video of dinner time at our house. Will it's a little long, but you will see will calling them in.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7022922582967427546

Crop Day

Last Saturday was an exciting day. Tonya left at 10am to go scrapbooking and left me with the kids all day. We had a big time and I am proud to say that all four kids survived the day. I did not need it, but I recieved another dose of how much I appreciate what my wife does everyday. No wonder she is crazy. (Just Kidding). She left me a schedule of everything that I should expect during the day. She even included expected poop times. Our first feeding went very well. I hate spoon food. Mr. Wesley eats very well, but Mr. Will only sucks it off of your spoon and will not open his mouth to eat. This makes things difficult and messy. Tonya claims that I have taught him this. Maybe I did, I try to get it down the hatch any way it will go in. Here is a picture of our first feeding. Notice everyone is happy. I am not including suppertime, because it was not one of my best moments. I took pictures, but I did not think you would like seeing Wesley yak. I do have standards you know.

We then had to bake cupcakes for Jackson's birthday. Ashton loved this part as you can tell.

Then we rocked the house with some guitar hero. We had quite an audience. I never thought that I would have almost enough kids to have our very own mosh pit. Ashton was teaching the boys some new moves.

Tonya finally rolled in around midnight. I then explained to her how easy the kids were and that I did not understand what was so hard about what she does everyday. I know that she knew that I was kidding, because she did not punch me in the mouth.

On another note, thank you Shawn for your binary joke in your comments. That is a classic. I will have to annoy someone with that one soon.