Middle Name Meme

Meg tagged me a while back, and I am just now getting around to it. So...here goes.

Here are the rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

Thankfully, I have a short middle name!

Kelly LEE MacDonald

I have enjoyed my middle name even though I had friends who told me my parents must have stuttered when they named me. :) (Say my first and middle names together quickly.) How's that for a random fact?

LAUGHTER - has always been an important part of me and my life.

I love to smile and laugh!

ECLECTIC - I like a little bit of this and a little bit of that. This is true of everything from music (which greatly exasperates my husband) to clothes to literature and art. It even holds true with hobbies I like to try. Variety is great! I do tend to stick with a "theme" for a while before moving on to the next one.

CREATIVE - I'm not your stereotypical "artsy-fartsy" person, but I do love to draw, paint, decorate, create...basically I love doing things with my hands and adding color and fun to normal, everyday things.

All right...the three people I tag are:

Cherisse

Karen

Kathy

(and Amy when her blog is up and going)

Hitting the Trails

Last week Jim took the boys on their first off-road mountain bike adventure. Troy and Trent have been wanting to go for a while, but there are a few requirements.

1. No training wheels

2. Ability to mostly control the bike

3. No whining

The boys were finally deemed ready by their dad, so three very excited boys set off for the trails. They were still mostly excited when they returned. Two had a good time and one could have had his trip go a little better. Apparently, things went slowly for the first lap. (When I say lap I mean a small portion of the off-road trail.) After the first go-around the boys caught on and were moving along at a pretty good clip when - crash! Down went Trent...hard...in the prickly pear cactus. After screaming a bit at his first up-close experience with the rather sharp needles of the prickly pear, he got back on his bike and rode again until - crash! Down went Trent...hard...in the prickly pear cactus. And did I mention that some fire ants were hanging out around the cactus? Trent knows about rule #3, though, so he did his best and finished the loop. He only let a few tears slip later at home when Mom was removing many prickly pear needles from his knee and hand. If you have never been up close and personal with the prickly pear, let me tell you - they are a nasty little plant. We are still picking some needles out of his leg after bath times. Luckily, the fire ant bites are mostly gone. More importantly, Trent wants to go back out to the trail soon.

Troy had a good time on his ride and stayed upright the entire time. Both boys are already talking about how fun it will be when the whole family can go. Hmmm...that could be very entertaining.

From One Farm to Another

This past week we had our first field trip of the school year. We are studying animals in science right now and we had arrived at the typical farm animals. You know - cattle, horses, pigs, etc. Well, we just happen to have some friends who live on a real farm - unlike the MacDonald's farm we experience very day. :) Dru is the farm manager for the ACU farm and she agreed to let us come out there for a few hours and even agreed to answer some questions and tell us a little bit about farm life.

First order of business was greeting the kittens, who have grown a bit since the last time we saw them.

Next came the cattle. The cows came right over to where we were and hung around long enough for us to get a look and try and decide who was going to have the next calf. Some of them looked pretty big!

The bull didn't want to get that close to us. (Which Reese was very happy about! She was not convinced that the fence would keep the bull from getting too close to us.)

The week-old piglet was visited next. It was pretty cute and quite the squealer! It has a good set of lungs. The kids enjoyed petting it and watching it run around its momma. I've seen pigs before but never any quite the size of these. They are HUGE! As in 500-600 pounds, as big as my couch huge!

The horses were the last animals we visited. The girls especially love this part and every time they go out to the farm, they talk about Chica (their favorite horse) for weeks afterward. This time we got to see Chica, Jenny, and Gus. If I remember right, Jenny is Chica's mom and has also adopted Gus, a 6 month old colt. Gus is pretty cute. He has light blue eyes! In a few months he will be receiving a tattoo around his right eye because it is very pale there, almost albino. The hope is that the tattoo will prevent skin cancer from forming in that pale skin (which is what happened to his mother). The kids got to help feed Gus and one of the kittens came up to have a little food, too.

Of course, what trip to the farm would be complete without a ride on the tractor? The boys went first and we could hear them honking the horn from a long way down the road. Paige had her turn by herself because Reese did not want to get in that "loud thing." She says next time she'll "wide in the twactor." Dru was very brave and let each of the kids drive it - well, at least control the steering wheel. The older three loved it.

The trip to the farm was great. We learned quite a bit and had an absolutely wonderful time. Dru - thanks so much for taking time out of your day to show us around. You did a great job teaching us! Bo - sorry we missed you - the boys were asking about lassoing the hay. Maybe next time. :)

Boys and Girls - Born Different

I know there are many people who say that being a boy or girl is "learned" behavior and not behavior that is born in us. I am NOT one of them! (I know - not a real big surprise to those who know me.) Now, I know that there are many different variations of boys and girls out there. I, for one, hated dresses, lived in jeans and gave my mom and grandmother fits because I didn't want dolls to play with. I preferred my big brother's toy cars and dirt bike. Now I have two very girly girls so I am learning to play with dolls and use hairbows and loving every minute of it. Different variations aside, there are definitely God-given behavior traits of male and female that are with us from day one! My boys and girls acted very different from each other from the very first. It hasn't changed. The other day the boys were playing in one room and the girls in another. I just had to laugh when I saw what each was doing. Here are the boys with their dinosaurs all set up in mock battle formation. The good guys won, by the way.

And here are the girls playing house with their favorite dolls and stuffed animals. I guess under a table makes a great playhouse.

Boys and girls are sooo different from each other - and aren't we sooo glad?

West Texas Fair and Rodeo

Yippee-Ki-Ay! It's that time of year - time for animals, rides, greasy food and the exciting rodeo! Every September the West Texas Fair and Rodeo comes to town and brings its many attractions with it. We always start out with the parade on Saturday morning downtown. This year, Aunt Cherisse, Hannah, and Kyla joined us for the fun-filled time of watching bands, floats, and many, many horses parade down the streets of downtown Abilene. The kids always enjoy it and this year found a new entertainment as well - catching crickets. Troy and Trent joined some boys who were chasing the things and managed to catch a few. Hannah pointed some out but allowed the boys to do the dirty work. We didn't quite make it through the whole parade, but did see what we wanted to. (The AHS band, Angie's girls, and the BCHE float) Our home school group entered a float this year and won 1st place in its division. Maybe next year the kids will ride on it.

On Monday morning we went with our friends the Parkers to the fair to see the petting zoo and some of the art entries. The petting zoo was a big hit as always. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this since it was a rainy day and I didn't want to deal with the camera in the rain. We did have fun, though, having a picnic lunch in the covered seating area while watching it downpour. Back to the normal type of West Texas rain! Trent and I got soaked since we had to venture back to the car to get our lunches. Wouldn't you know - there was a break in the rain when we headed out there, but as soon as we had the lunch bag and were heading back the sky let loose! We were drenched, but did have fun in some ankle-deep puddles. :)

Thursday night we all went to "cantastic night." For the price of 6 coca-cola cans, you get a ticket to the fair. That's a pretty good deal for us! We just raid BikeTown's "recycling bin" and into the fair we go. We dined on always yummy fair food, rode some rides (the Ferris Wheel was a big hit), and went to the rodeo. The kids loved it! We made it all the way to the end and got to watch some real, live bull riding. The kids liked the steer wrestling, the bucking broncos, the calf scramble, the barrel racing, pretty much everything, but the bull riding took the cake. I'm glad they made it to the end so they could watch it!

The MacDonald clan at the rodeo!

We had some very tired kiddoes on Friday morning, but it was worth it and I know we'll do it all over again next year.

It Must be Fall!

Fall is in the air! Is it the cooler temperatures? Or maybe the changing colors? No! In this part of the country we can't even think about fall colors and cool temperatures for at least another month or two. So why is fall in the air? Friday night high school FOOTBALL! :) Yes - our Friday night family entertainment is back. The kids have been counting the days. For the last several years (8 or 9 at least), just about every Friday evening during football season we are at the stadium enjoying the game. When I first was dating Jim, I told him that he needed to go to the crosstown rivalry football game. He asked, "Why? It's a high school game." Obviously, he is not from around here. :) He was quite impressed that thousands of people showed up for the game. Really, from then on he was hooked. Our kids all love attending the games. They like watching the players, the bands, really just about everything. We always sit in the same general area and apparently we are known as regulars. The other night at the first game of the season, a man stopped us on our way in and told us that it was good to see us. I assumed it was someone Jim knew from the store until the man said that he and his wife were watching for that couple with the four kids. He told his wife not to worry - if we weren't at this game we would be at the next. I guess it is nice to be noticed. :) Anyway...we are back to enjoying the first sign of fall every Friday night. Hopefully, those cooler days and fall colors won't be far behind.

Our passel of football fans

Bicycle Teeter-Totter

The other day while Jim was working on our fence, Trent gathered some scraps of wood and built a ramp for his bicycle. He then spent the next hour riding over it. He would ride up one end and then let the ramp "teeter-totter" as he rode down it. Let me tell you - it is not as easy as it looks! Troy eventually got in on the act as well. Paige and Reese just liked running up and down it and cheering the boys on. Bicycle teeter-totter turned out to be a lot of fun!

Trent going up...

...Trent coming down.

Troy giving it a go.

A Fruitful Labor Day

Labor Day brought a lot of laboring around here! For a while now, we have needed to replace a portion of our fence. There have been several temporary fixes, like rope wrapped around the rotting wood trying to hold it together, but since Zeke has been regularly following us down the street even though we put him in the backyard, we knew it was finally time. Rope will only hold a fence together for so long. So, Jim's day off arrived and he went to work. Paul (Jim's dad) came over bright and early and helped with the fencing project all day long. Thanks, Paul! The job, of course, had its hard parts, like cutting down some trees that were in the way, and its frustrating parts, like 4 trips to Lowe's, but overall went well. My job basically consisted of keeping the kids busy and somewhat out of the way. The boys did help some and really enjoyed it. When things weren't moving as fast as the kids wanted, they went looking for other things to entertain themselves. Aflac provided some of that entertainment. At one point during the day, Troy and Paige came running up to Jim, calling "He caught him! He caught him!" Jim turned around to see Trent walking up holding his bug net in front of him. (This bug net has an opening about 7 or 8 inches in diameter.) In the net was.....Aflac! (Not a frozen chicken as Paul originally thought!) We are not sure how Trent got him in there because he is definitely a large duck, but when Trent puts his mind to something you never know what might happen. Duck escapades aside, the fence got replaced and we once again have a safe place for Zeke to stay. (For which Aflac is extremely grateful!)

The old fence

Jim and Paul hard at work

Aflac after being rescued from the net

The new fence

Aflac

Recently we have acquired a new pet. A large white duck has claimed our yard as his hangout. He looks just like the Aflac duck, so that is what the kids dubbed him. Apparently, the pond at the nearby park is not as enticing as our front yard. He's a rather friendly duck. He likes to be around us and just hang out, so to speak. He is fond of pecking our ankles just to let us know he's there. He also likes pooping in our garage. There is nothing quite like a new pet. We like to let our dog, Zeke, play with him occasionally just so he'll feel welcome at his new place. However, Aflac is not fond of Zeke. Unfortunately, the dislike is not enough to send him back to the park. Just the other morning Aflac was waiting for Jim on our front porch to share in the morning ritual of bringing in the paper. Jim was so happy. We'll keep you posted on our new pet. Until then enjoy some beautiful pictures of Aflac.

Aflac having a little chat with Troy

Aflac hanging out in the garage - Paige is so fond of him

Zeke loves to play with Aflac, but we had to leash him because, as you can see...

...Aflac is not so fond of him. The suburban made for a good hiding place.