We've Been Busy...

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at Camp Berger.  Between my parents visiting and Squish's birthday, there has been plenty of things to do and food to eat.

While my parents were here, my dad and I had a chance to run a local 5k race.  The race was run on a Friday night in conjunction with the local Balloon Fest.  The weather didn't really cooperate for us.  A couple minutes before the gun went off, the rain started coming down.  But that didn't keep us from running a good race.

My dad took second in his age group (4 seconds behind 1st) and I took 1st female.  The medals were really cool laser engraved wood.

On Saturday we spent the entire day at the festival and then went out to eat at a local restaurant.  And there was a little bit of excitement.

We were able to watch one of the balloons crash land in the parking lot across the road.  Thankfully everyone was okay.

Since my parents were here, we decided to celebrate Squish's birthday a few days early.  He requested a construction cake, and this is what I came up with.

I think he was more excited that he got to play with the decorations after the cake was gone =)

Papa spent some time fixing up the kids' bikes...  And then took one of them for a spin. (anyone else hearing the clown college theme song?)

Safety first!

Papa built the kids some new toys.

Sweet Pea took a break reading a book.

Out of the seven eggs we wanted to hatch, we got five chicks.  Sweet Pea wasn't too sure about them and tried to keep her distance. 

Sarge picked up a new cooking toy.

We filled it up with some meat, potatoes, carrots...

And set it to cook.

It was delicious and was more than enough for the 12 people who ate that day =)

So, you can see that I've been keeping pretty busy.  I'm hoping that things start slowing down just a bit so I can catch up on all the chores that have gotten missed the last couple weeks (the kids don't really need clean clothes, do they?)

Country Living

We're settling into an easy rhythm around here.  Most mornings are pretty slow.  Once the kids are all awake, we head down to the main house to spend the day.  

Girly's first job when we get there is to check for eggs and make sure that the chickens have been let out for the day.

Junior has to make sure that they have water.

In the afternoons, I head out to the garden to pick vegetables for supper.  The tomatoes are just starting to ripen =)

Thankfully only one zucchini plant.  So far we've been able to keep up with it.

Along with the tomatoes and zucchini, we have been picking beets, onions, chard and lots of fresh herbs.  

The kids have been having lots of fun identifying the many bugs around the camper.  

We're still trying to identify this little guy.

I never realized walking sticks could be this bright green.

And they are huge!  This one was close to 6 inches in length!

And then there's the wildlife to identify.

Okay, this one wasn't too hard.  It was neat to see it so close up and not dead on the side of the road ;)

I'm slowly finding my schedule with my running.  I've even managed a couple of later evening runs around the camper site.  One night Girly joined me for a couple loops!

My favorite part of running out here is the beautiful scenery.  

And all the different flowers I get to see.

But I especially love the blackberries!

They were delicious!

I'm really enjoying this slower paced life.  It's challenging in it's own way, but so much more relaxing =)

Who knew that I would love being a country girl!

Go pick up your room!

Things have been busy around here.  Which is really becoming the norm.  I'm not sure my life will ever settle down...  Not that I really want it to lol!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the last few days, so the boys have been spending a lot of time outside.

Giving this mama brief moments of panic...

And we had our spa day at our MOPs group.  

I made chocolate roses for the ladies.

This weekend I threatened asked the kids to help me clean up their room.  It went much better than I expected.

This is only one corner of the room.  The rest wasn't much better =(  I've been ignoring afraid to tackle the room...

And the after picture.  The boys' clothes are organized, all the broken toys are gone and a bunch more donated.  Girly's side looks as good.  

I also ran another virtual race this weekend.  The race was the Heart Throb Virtual 5k.  The non- virtual version was run Saturday morning in CO.

It was a bit tougher to get it in, because Sarge had drill, but the mutt and I went out (in the semi- dark and mist) as soon as he got home.

I was glowing when I finished ;)

It was an interesting run.  Usually when the mutt and I go out, he meanders around for the first mile and then we start running.  But, this time we started running right away and he didn't get his usual chance to leave a message for all the other neighborhood dogs lol!

My other project, Mom 4ce, kicked off this last week.  My friend, Kelli, and I wanted a place that we could encourage other moms to take the steps needed to get fit and healthy.  And to have their families join them.  We have been completely blown away with the response to our endeavor.  

And, I can't end this post without a random cute picture of Sweet Pea.

Whirlwind

The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of busyness.  Between Sarge testing for his first Dan black belt, a Christmas party, getting everything ready to travel over Christmas...  Yup, December was a busy month.

Sarge tested for his first Dan ranking.  This was the breaking portion of the test.  

First were the boards.  A rising elbow and a downward chop.

Second were the bricks.  He broke four with his forearm and then, for his *second break,* 5 with a downward palm strike.

Yeah, he rocks =)

The day after his test, his unit had their family Christmas party.  He had to show up with black eyes and bruises.  But he still looked really good in his dress blues.

The next week was spent getting everything ready to head up to my parents' house for Christmas.  Had to make sure we had everything a family of 6 needs to travel, plus Christmas presents.  

After dropping the mutt off with my in- laws, we finished the drive to WI.  It was long, but thankfully the roads were clear and there was no bad weather.

A couple days before we got there, my parents got 15" of snow.  There was definitely plenty of snow for us to play =)

  

 

  

 I even managed to get out and run in the snow.  Four miles of soul satisfying snow and quiet =) 

We had Christmas brunch with Grand Papa Bill...

The kids were entertained by watching the deer running across the tennis courts in the background.

We made the traditional sweet cream cut out cookies.

And after a few fun packed days, we headed back to OK to spend some time with my in- laws.

And saw that we had left snowy WI to come to snowy OK.  But that didn't stop us from climbing to the peak of our mountain.

Gorgeous views out across the valley...

I did manage to finish Squish's cross stitch.  Only took me 5 years.  Wonder how long Sweet Pea's will take...

It's been a busy few weeks, but I completely enjoyed all of them.  I'm looking forward to everything that 2013 has to offer us =)