ToysRUs Birthday Club

Kaylee and her friend Linzy both have birthdays close together in March, so we met up for some free birthday fun at ToysRUs. They were two very happy (and very hyper) soon-to-be birthday girls!

Crazy Grandpa Shields

I have lots of crazy pictures of my dad, but it's rather unusual to see Roger's dad act like a loony! He was in rare form one evening during their brief visit, so we just had to document it. Love the pink goggle look.

There really are fish in there!

We had heard that there were decent sized fish in our pond, but we weren't sure we believed it. For all the fishing the kids have done, they've never had any success. Now that the lily pads have died down some and the pond is extra full from a wet winter, the fish finally started biting! This one was actually long enough to keep, but Dustin chose to let him live another day.

I never realized that bass were hollow in the front!

Disney "Day of Service"...and the beach

This year, Disney is giving away a million free tickets to people who do a service project through an approved organization. Our family excitedly jumped on the band wagon and arranged to help out the Boys and Girls Club in Apalachicola (about an hour and a half away). On the appointed day, we put on our grubbies and made the long (and very pretty) drive along the coast to Apalachicola. We thought we were arriving early, but then realized that we had crossed into the Eastern time zone, so we were really about 45 minutes late. Hoards of volunteers were already hard at work cleaning up an old facility used for after school care. We jumped in quickly, but because of the tremendous turnout, the job was done several hours ahead of schedule. We felt bad that we arrived late and got to leave early, but we were thankful for a little extra time to spend checking out the beaches in the afternoon. I forgot to take any pictures at the work site (we were working after all), but here are some pictures from a few stops we made on the way home. It was a little chilly in the wind, but a beautiful day for the most part!

Florida Snowman

This wasn't actually in Panama City,but about an hour north in a little town called Graceville. I traveled there to accompany a few band students at solo and ensemble. We were treated to some brief snow flurries. One of the elated students scraped up enough snow to make a mini-snowman. He was only about 6 inches tall. Still a rarity in Florida!

Extreme Pine Wood Derby

Our ward decided to join in the fun of the Pine Wood Derby this year. Kaylee and Brandon were the most excited since they haven't ever been able to participate before. Kaylee made a cute pink car and invited her friend Linzy along.

Brandon with his friend Cody.

Everyone had a great time!

Happy Valentine's Day

Kaylee worked hard to create her own Valentine's Day cards for her class this year. Brandon just wanted the store-bought kind. I happened to be "in town," so I picked some out for him. They were hot wheels, and he was ELATED! He looked at the box, pointed to a really cool looking car, and said, "Is this in there?" I said, "Yes, all of those are in there." He tore into the box to get started and almost immediately burst into tears. It turns out that he thought the actual CARS were in the box. He was depressed for a while and then got on with the business of bringing Valentine's joy to his friends!

A bad day to be a chicken

We hate to leave the chickens closed in all the time because we have a great big yard that they can find bugs in. In the warmer months, we were letting them run free almost all day. Then the cooler temperatures came, and the casualties began. After we lost 2 chickens and replaced them, we decided that they would have to stay closed up almost all the time. We were still occasionally letting them out, though because we felt sorry for them all cooped up. Well, this afternoon was apparently an unlucky time to go scratching. I let them out and then went in for a while. Later when I went out to check on them, I didn’t see or hear anything, so I feared the worst. Turns out that 5 of them were hiding because their friend was being eaten. We were wishing hawks weren't a protected species! I guess they will have to be supervised if we let them out again.