4-H Award and Achievement Night

 Tonight (after our big field trip to the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole this morning) we had our award night for 4-H.  Last year was our nine year old's first year in 4-H.

He worked hard - especially on his portfolio - and achieved gold status.  They keep an ongoing record of the points you earn each year (gold is worth three points) and if/when you get 19 points accumulated, you get a really nice belt buckle and "Honors" status.  By the way, gold is the highest level you can reach.

He was given a portfolio binder - a really heavy duty folder with metal prongs so you can add to it.  The record is ongoing for your entire time in 4-H, so it will get pretty fat if you do much.

He was also given this sturdy plastic sign (maybe 9x12 inches?)

And because he achieved gold status in three or more projects, he was awarded "Banner member" status and given this cool neoprene water bottle.  I didn't take pictures of the dinner, but we had a potluck style dinner.  They provided brisket and everyone was assigned to bring something based on the first letter of their last name.  It was a really good dinner.  They held it at the big meeting room connected to our library.

After the meeting I ran over to the library to pick up a book they had on hold for me... and ended up checking out six.  When I got home I thought it would be a good idea to clear a bookshelf and get all my library books on one shelf.  They didn't fit.  I have 26 books out  - just for me.  That doesn't count the kids books.  Last time I checked, I had 86 books checked out.  I've been reading much slower lately - or at least finishing books slower than I was earlier in the year.  I'm going to have to get in gear if I'm going to be able to finish these all by the end of the year (which is probably impossible anyway.)  Oh well, there's always next year ;)

Homeschool Field Trip: National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole

Our homeschool group had a field trip today in Jackson Hole at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.  We've done that a couple times before as a group and always enjoy it.  They do a good job with their programs.  I have to explain the fish in these pictures.  I'm guessing there was a contest with all the high school art programs participating.  There were three sets of fish like the one above on the pathway outside.

Inside, as we first entered were several that had "honorable mention" on them.  This one had hundreds of tiny scales made of duct tape.  Funny note - when I was explaining to my husband what this fish was made of, the two year old corrected me.  He said, "That's not a duck, that's a fish." :)

Can you tell what this one was made from?  Look closely.  It's Mountain Dew cans.  It was submitted by the students in ... get this ... Mountain View.  Ha.  Pretty creative.  

Unfortunately I missed getting a picture of the winning fish which was submitted by .... drumroll please ... our own local town!!!

When we all got to the museum, we were divided into three different groups, by age.  I stayed with my two little preschoolers.  They were supposed to talk about the weather in the paintings, but our little ones were pretty little, and not real interested in answering questions.  So we went to the children's room instead.  They have big displays - like the moose above.

 On the back side of the moose, there are examples of droppings, fur they can rub, and what they eat - small twigs.

They have letters on a roller that has pictures of moose when you roll them, and the ability to spell "moose" if you turn them all to letters.  They have displays like this for moose, coyote and bison.

This is the bison display, showing a cast of a bison hoof print.

The best thing about this area is that the kids are free to explore and touch everything.  While we were in here, the nine year old was with the oldest group doing a program geared toward his age group.  He had a lot of fun and learned a lot of interesting things.  He seems to have been most impressed with what he learned about Lewis and Clark, and the first cameras.

 This is my four year old, "hiding behind a tree."

They have a lot of animal dress up costumes and puppets to play with.

And they have an art room with two easels, and a place to hang up your artwork.

They have stamps, colored pencils, crayons, scissors, etc., and metal plates with scales and other things to do crayon rubbings.

This area is the puppet theater.

After the older kids were finished with their lessons, they were given time to draw and explore the kids' area.  

 My nine year old drew a skull and a moose.

There was a sign there that said if you leave your artwork hanging up, it might appear on their facebook page, so he left them there.

 They have lots of animal things that the kids can touch - like antlers, claws, skulls, etc.

Who ever said homeschooling isn't fun?

They had some cute ornaments for sale in the gift shop.  I decided to take pictures and try to make some myself.

I think I could whip these out pretty fast, if I ever take the time to sit down and do it. 

 Outside there are a bunch of different, huge bronze statues.  The kids had fun blowing off a little steam.  This is not our whole group - just my kids and one other family.  We went to Pizza Hut after the museum and had dinner with this family.

It was fairly nice today, but chilly.  When we started driving to Jackson, I nearly turned around because the road was so bad, but it got better and was even dry after a bit of driving.  But in Jackson, even though the weather was nice... they're already skiing at Snow King (the town of Jackson is at and around the base of the ski hill.  This ski hill isn't really that big - as far as number of runs goes.  But it's convenient to town.  It's also straight up and down.  In my opinion, Teton Village (aka Jackson Hole Mountain Resort) is much better.

A Couple of Calmer Days

 Well, it's been a couple of days since the two year old's big allergic reaction, and things are much calmer (despite our search for a mouse in our house).  We had one run across the kitchen counter - ACK - the night we got home from the clinic, and made several failed attempts to catch it.  It was like he was taunting us too - later that night he peeked his little nose out from under the couch ... twice - then ran across the room.  He's smart too.  We have traps all over the place and he has successfully avoided all of them.

Yesterday the two year old slept in until 10:30. Tuesday was so exhausting for him, but he refused to nap.  Well, he made up for it by sleeping in.  Then today he told me, "I not need a nap" but fell asleep on the couch anyway ;)

He looks so little on the couch.  Tonight when we went to pray with the boys before bedtime, he climbed up onto the lower bunk - and stood up with no danger of hitting his head.  So I guess that just proves that he IS little ;)

I was ambushed in my room tonight ...

By a cowboy who really could use some new jeans. ;)  I told him he's going to have to work on his stealthiness.  I could hear him breathing hard from the stairs before he came around the corner.

Drama of the Day - Allergic Emergency

 Our poor little two year old had a terrible reaction to Cheetos today.  It landed us in the emergency room.  This is what he looked like after he had Benadryl.  When we first headed up to the clinic, his left eye was nearly swollen shut.

The picture is blurry, but this shows how bad the reaction was.  He's allergic to a lot of things, but I think this must have been his reaction to corn, since that's the most prevalent ingredient in Cheetos.  They ended up using an epipen on him.  Not fun.  It's definitely the worst reaction we've seen, and totally unexpected.  He was completely out of it - staring off into space, and unresponsive, but awake ... barely.

I was a little worried when we headed up there about how the four year old would do.  He usually has panic attacks at doctor's offices.  But he did really well.  His brother read him a story and he sat right where I told him to and waited patiently.

Thankfully we're home now and it's all good.  I am definitely going to have to make sure no food is left within his reach anymore.  We had actually been planning (with our pediatrician's blessing) to try re-introducing some of the foods he had tested positive to - and I was thinking of starting with corn.  Now I'm thinking I will have blood tests done to see if he's over some of the allergies instead of doing trial and error with food to avoid another day like today.  Seems like it's a pretty dangerous way to test him.  We were not expecting a reaction like this.  It was as bad or worse than the reaction to peanuts- except that they said he didn't have the bronchospasm breath sounds he would have with an anaphalactic reaction.  Thankfully! It was just a bad reaction and the epipen was more precautionary than emergent.  SO THANKFUL he's doing well now :)  His face is still a little swollen, but he seems to be back to his normal, active self.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

 Yesterday (Monday) was my husband's birthday.  We didn't see him much. He ended up leaving for work really early (before anyone was up) and coming home from work around 10, when the youngest two were already in bed.

 He did open his gifts.  Our oldest son (22) sent him this cool new hoodie.  The two year old insisted on putting it on BEFORE his dad got a chance.

Today he saw my husband in the sweatshirt and started insisting that Daddy give him back his shirt - lol.  He said, "It fits me."

The Proper Way to Use an Incline Treadmill

 I walked upstairs to my room to find this one day...

Clearly, this is the best way to use an incline treadmill :)

 Of course the copy cat brother also had to lay there so I would take his picture too ;)

October Reading

Well, I'm still not up to par with my reading.  Sure seems like I read more than this, but I guess I must not have ... or else I forgot to record something. Anyway, here's what I read - all three books.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst (I read this one on my Nook ... shocker, I actually used the Nook)

October stats:
Total books: 3
Total pages: 1,056
Total inches: 2 3/4

Year to date stats:
Total books: 62
Total pages: 19,058
Total inches: 74 3/4

Cutting For Stone (fiction, set in Ethiopia) and A Long Way Gone (nonfiction-memoir, set in Sierra Leone) were both book club selections, and both were amazing books - especially A Long Way Gone.  I highly recommend them both.

Bugga's Chicken Rolls

 We spent most of Saturday at Bugga's.  We finished grinding the elk burger and got it all packaged.  The two year old was getting sleepy and snuggled up in his brother's lap, and said, "I love you T----" :)

For dinner, Bugga made chicken rolls, and they were amazing.  I didn't want to misplace the recipe, so here it is.  She served these with chicken gravy too, which was delicious, but they would have been fine plain too.

Chicken Rolls
2 pkgs crescent rolls
4 chicken breasts cooked and cubed
6 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. chopped mushrooms - fresh or canned
2 tsp dried chives
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together and place 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture in each crescent roll, then "diaper up" sealing the chicken mixture inside.  Dip in melted butter and crushed seasoned croutons.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes on greased cookie sheet. Serve with chicken gravy.

The nine year old was the last one to finish eating, and Bugga told him the last one at the table had to do the dishes.  He thought she was kidding, but she really made him wash them ;)  Go Bugga! :)

My Little Butcher

 We've been doing a little butchering this week (elk), and the four year old really wanted to get involved.  He asked for my knife, and I told him it was too sharp.  So I had his older brother bring him a butter knife.

He worked for about 30 minutes trying to cut up this meat.  At first he was working on the piece farther from him, but he was having too much success on that piece and it's the backstrap (aka the best piece of meat on the whole elk) so we gave him a different piece.

He was able to cut little chunks off the end and put them in the bucket we had set aside for grinding into burger. Then when we started grinding, he asked if we were grinding HIS meat - he was very proud of the contribution ... but he also thought it was worms that were coming out of the grinder - lol - and he kept referring to it as moose.  After about half an hour, he told me "This knife is too hard.  Can I use that one?" (pointing to my butcher knife ... Dad - it was the skinning knife Rick made - one of my favorites).  Lol.  I hope he's as interested and willing as this when he's 12 ;)

Oh and this morning, he wanted to know what the elk's name was.  I told him I didn't know, but that I was going to call it "Dinner."  :)

I don't have a picture of it, but the two year old was just as interested in the meat as his brother.  He kept coming down to watch, climbing up on a cooler so he could see better.  He was really hands-on too - poking at the meat and checking it all out.  He said, "Holy cow, that's awesome meat!"  I guess "awesome" is his favorite word these days.