BUEN GAUCHO

 Alex was selected to get the Buen Gaucho award at school.  We enjoyed going to school to celebrate with her.  Even though the kids get the Buen Gaucho award every year, I never tire of congratulating them on being good students.

LITTLE READER

 I love to read.  I have an ever growing library in our house and try to pass the love of reading on to my kids.  It makes me happy to see the kids curled up on the couch reading or sprawled out on the floor looking through books, even when they can't read.  It looks like McKenzie will also be a reader like the others.  I often find her flipping through board books.  After I read a book to her she takes it from me because she wants to look through it again.  Whenever I suggest we read a book, her face lights up and she runs to get some books.

COUPLE GET AWAY

 Mike and I have not had a night away from the kids since the week before Shane was born.  We traded with our friend and neighbor, Nicole.  We watched her kids for a night and the next weekend she watched our kids.  Mike and I tried out a new campground.  We were disappointed that, again, it was catered more to RVs.  Almost all of the tent sites had a steep slope.  The site we selected had a slight slope so it wasn't too bad.  The next day we went for a horseback ride and then headed home.  I love horses and enjoyed the ride.  Mike, however, had to fight his horse to stay on the trail and not eat so he didn't have as much fun as I did.  It was nice to get a break from the kids and have some time with just Mike.

PULLING A TOOTH

 For several days Shane has been complaining that he has a loose tooth and it hurts to eat.  However, he doesn't want to pull it out.  Tonight at dinner he didn't want to eat because it hurt, so I told him we were going to pull it out right then and there.  I took him into the library, tied one end of some floss to his tooth, and tied the other end to the hammock.  I had him stand on a chair and told him to jump.  Like magic the tooth came out.  He was then able to eat dinner.

CAMPING

 Due to all our trips and projects this year we weren't able to go camping.  We decided to make a quick last minute overnight camping trip and try out a new campground.  Unfortunately, all the campgrounds tend to favor RV camping and not tent camping.  We still haven't found a campground that we love but we will keep trying.  The good thing about this campground, though, is that it has a small lake within walking distance.  Mike took the older kids fishing and they caught several fish!  The kids were quite excited about it.