Not my thing

We went fishing today.

The things I don't like about fishing:

1. I think it's cruel to hook a fish by its mouth and throw it back all in the name of fun. I don't like to watch Vic take the hook out.

2. I worry constantly about my kids falling in the water and hurting themselves.

3. I worry about one of them getting a hook in the eye.

4. I worry that I am constantly sounding like a nagging mother in my attempt to prevent an accident.

5. Catching a turtle and then not being able to get the hook out. Now that's just not right; I was completely done after that!

The thing I like about fishing:

1. Taking pictures of the kids and Daddy having fun.

As Victor told the kids today. "This is Mommy's last time fishing." No argument here. I'll let him have all the fun from now on. Fishing is just not my thing.

All photos taken with my point and shoot camera (Power Shot D10) on auto mode.

Good Intentions

I always start a project with the kids, intending to photograph each step of it and then...I don't really know what happens. I am impressed by the bloggers that are able to give step by step directions with photos, because it just isn't happening on this blog.

Here is a project I saw in this months issue of Family Fun. I must warn you ahead of time, you will NOT see the end product (sorry). Maybe it will make an appearance in a future post if I get around to taking a picture of it. The good new is, you can see a version of it here.

Little Miss has really been into scissors these days. She paints detailed pictures and then cuts them up into millions of pieces. I think this project was what gave her the cutting bug. As you can see, she really didn't have the grip quite right yet.

Yeah, so that's it. Isn't that great? Maybe I should try to set a goal for myself to try really hard to capture the ENTIRE process. It really isn't as easy as it sounds, especially when you have kids using scissors.

Random Thursday

So, I'm going to do a random blog post once a week. I need to do something to make this place a little more exciting. I'm getting bored with myself. I'm not sure that the weekly random posts will do it, but it's worth a shot.

E trying to make it look like he has a missing tooth by using a blueberry. All his friends and cousins have lost teeth; he is feeling a bit left out.

This is Little Miss' favorite spot in the backyard. She has mastered the "seesaw" swing (that's what she calls it).

A summer lunch, grilled pizza, homegrown tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, cucumbers and green beans...YUM!

A rainbow viewed from the BJ's parking lot while waiting for Daddy to grab a few things inside the store.

A (barely alive) crab on the shore at Bullock's Point. Apparently there used to be a lighthouse nearby. Now there is a beautiful view, but horribly dirty, gross water! We found many crabs (not alive at all) and some other treasures as well. Walking along places like this make me so disgusted! Why is it necessary for people to destroy things that potentially could be beautiful?

No, Little Miss does not have wet pants because she sat in the water, she went to the bathroom in her pants. There is something about the sound of water that just make the girl lose it (literally).

Another (dead) treasure. Visiting this shoreline made me think of the horrible catastrophe with the Gulf Oil Spill. I can't imagine the devastation that exists there. It was a good lesson for the kids because they were curious as to why the water was so murky and why the sealife was dead along the shore. It became a teachable moment...hopefully it sticks!

As I write this, I also think of the people in the world who do not have clean drinking water. I did not want my children to even put their hands in the water, never mind drink from it. Some people have no choice. Take a few minutes and visit Charity Water.

"Take care of the earth and she will take care of you."

~Author Unknown

Picture of the Week

I've decided to start a new weekly event here on A Better Dream. Each Monday I am going to post a photo of the week. It may be silly, serious, old, or new. This week's photo features my nephew posing as a meerkat.

I think I'd put this in the silly category. Happy Monday everyone.

Geocaching

If you've never gone geocaching, you really must; it is so much fun! Yesterday, E and I invited ourselves along with my brother and sister-in-law and their two oldest boys when they went "treasure" hunting. Geocaching is essentially a "treasure" hunt guided by a GPS device that leads you to a cache. There are millions of these caches hidden all over the world. We found 3 yesterday in our city. The fun part really was the journey in getting there because we visited places that we typically would not have seen so "close up".

I have seen this old steam roller multiple times per week and I've wanted to stop and take pictures of the kids on it. Well...guess what! There was a small cache in one of the spokes.

E's first instinct was to climb the steam roller...of course!

The boys looked and looked...

...until E found it in the spoke. He was very excited!

This cache, along with the other 2, were small and basically contained the log to sign. As I said, the fun really was in getting to the treasure, not necessarily what there was at the end.

If there is something in cache that you want to have, you are supposed to leave something behind in exchange for what you take.

One last picture before moving on.

The next "treasure" brought us to the art museum two minutes away

This treasure had an added bonus along with the log.

A small naked baby. This was quite funny to a 6, 7, and 9 year old!

One of the "geocachers" who signed the log had the title Naked Baby, so we're assuming he/she leaves this token behind....so fun!
The GPS went a little haywire and led us through this old cemetery. Ultimately we discovered that there had originally been a cache hidden in the Veteran's Memorial Site, around the block from the cemetery, but it was removed.

Onto the next site.....

Yes, at Del's, under one of the picnic tables. We finished out our two hour long treasure hunt with frozen lemonade.

Imagine the fun that you could have taking your geocache GPS with you on vacation?

"It's not the end, but the journey in getting there."