Wild (Murphy) Krats

So Corbin and Adaline are both fascinated by wild life. There is this show on PBS called Wild Krats and they love to watch and see the animals on the show and learn all about the animals characteristics.

Here are a few snapshots of our experiences with creatures the last few months. 

Corbin has been begging for a pet. What a better idea than to catch some tadpoles and watch them grow and change in our fish pond? Free and easy pet.

So, we set out for grandma and grandpa Murphy's farm and the creek was pretty cold.

No luck at one side, so we hiked over to the other.

We saw a few tadpoles, but no catch...

 Blowing some dandelions during the hunt.

Dad joined in the action, and we caught a tiny minnow.

I have such good memories of playing in the creek when I was little. Looking forward to many days out at the creek.

So, while we had no luck at grandmas. (the minnow has never been seen in our pond. Either it hides really well, or something ate it). We did have fun catching two frogs at Chuck and Lorillas. Two water frogs have been added to our pond. As you can see, Addie just loves hers.

 

Many days followed where they would rush out to the pond and pick up the frogs and mom fusses at them to put them down and please be gentle. One frog did not make it through one week of this abuse. But the other made it about a month. I think it finally decided to run away.

Corbin found this snail while I was working on getting poison ivy the landscaping. It is so cool to see a large snail with its shell still in tact.

 See it now...

 I talked Corbin into letting it go back to his family. He did.

Corbin has also managed to catch a salamander which he kept in a jar for a day and then let it go.
A friend also gave us a gang of tadpoles to watch in our pond. While we saw them a little bit, we have not seen them since the big rain. Don't know if they have settled to the bottom or if they have lost the cause.

Now I am petrified of snakes and cannot stay around when one is found. Matt took this photo. Yikes! Addie seems to have no fear sometimes. Yet she wouldn't hold her guinea pig tonight. Go figure. This was a garden snake I would guess. It was bright green and black with a little bit of a pointed head. It must have eaten something because there was a lump in its belly. Maybe it got one of the moles that pesters my garden. We do not keep snakes for pets ever! Corbin will just have to get over that fact.

 But we have adopted a real pet over this last week! Two guinea pigs that one of Corbin's classmates had given us. I thought this might be a good way to jump into pet ownership. They can be pet, picked up, played with and fed. Great things that Corbin asks me repeatedly to do everyday.

We were blessed by Mark and Kara (ultimately Lauren's old rabbit cage) with this awsome cage! Much better than the aquarium we had planned to use.

These two little buddies, whom we are praying are sisters, are getting along at the Murphy's great.

Corbin has no fear, and is learning to hold them and be really careful with them.

 The one above is Adaline's. She picked her out as the only smooth haired pig they had. She calls her a different name ever time. Mostly Reah. We have not settled on a name for her.

While we are praying they are both girls. The nicest of the breed. We are letting Addies be a girl and Corbin's a boy. If this is true we are in trouble. I have not noticed any love making.

Corbin has named his Smokey the Lollipop King. He is so sweet and soft and cuddly.

 Corbin thought the word mustache was just hilarious last fall and this spring his word has been lollipop, thus the use of it in his guinea pigs name.

 Matt wants to call the pair Lewis and Clark. I told Matt that these are the kids pets and they get to name them no matter how cleaver his names can be.

 Corbin really had pure joy with his new little buddy. The cage is in Corbin's room, but we have a lock on the cage for fear they will not be left alone or even lost.

So our adventures will continue. Hopefully no more snakes will be spotted this summer, but I would like for our frogs to come back.

The Mid America VW Funfest

If you didn't know I love the old beetles. I have a 1979 Convertible Super Beetle. I just love it. We have had it about 8 years. Bought before children and now that we have more kids that seats we have decided to sell.

Recognize these hippies?

Matt and I tooled on up to Effingham, IL to this spectacular car show. We had an ulterior motive to sell our bug, but that didn't happen. 

Mid America puts on the midwests largest Volkswagen car show and I'll tell you they had all the details taken care of. Everything was simple and smooth with registration and questions. The only problem was the rain. It rained both days. Not just a sprinkle but a good douse several times. The field was a monsoon. The ground was so saturated there was nowhere for the water to go.

My favorite part of the whole show was our fun run. We signed up to drive in the "parade" of vw's. It was a twelve mile drive through the country and then into the old square.

This bug was a pixar executive made car. Can you tell why? Here's a hint - Bugs Life.

This is the world's Largest Baja Beetle. It was rocking the square. All 10,000 pounds of her called Big Red

The square was filled with all kinds of volkswagons. There were dumbuggies, buses, and beetles. There were so many in the fun run that we ran out of room on the square to park.

Doesn't this make you think of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

So cool. These owners have thought of every detail.

Everyone had their cars all shined up. See me in the hubcap?

Matt thinks our family would look good in a bus since we have outgrown our bug.

Good weekend for Matt and I to have some couple time. But not a great weekend for a sale. No one sold their bug. I guess buyers didn't make it through the rain.

Memorial Day in Memphis

The Murphy clan made the big journey to Memphis. We say Memphis, but Matt's twin Melanie and her family live outside of Memphis in Olivebranch, Mississippi. (Had to run through the sing song spelling of that state from elementary school). 

Friday morning by 9a three small children, and four adults piled into the mini-van for what tuned out to be an eight hour trip down south. All in all the kids did well, the adults faired okay too. 

We cannot say how much everyone enjoyed our weekend. Melanie had the weekend planned and executed splendidly. Melanie is such a good cook. While the Porter hospitality was tremendous we did opt to take our zoo to a hotel for all three nights. Kids are so funny in a hotel. They were so excited. We had a hotel and free warm breakfast. Perfect for us.

Here are the family pics first. We had come down south to see Karter graduate from High School!

Karl, proud papa to the grad, and Matt out back grilling for the graduation party.

Corbin is consumed with watching, looking for, and catching creatures. Tonight the lucky animal was a toad.

He caught this little guy and kept him in the crate to watch and pick up at random.

Matt's sis Melanie was such a good hostess. Karter has such great parents.

The kids with cousin Kensie(15)

 Carolyn helped out with party preparations and cake detail. I know Melanie loved having her mom close for such a big weekend.

We kept the kids happy at the park during party prep and joined everyone at the party later.

This is Melanie's coworker and old roommate and good friend Stacy

 And here is the star of the show! Karter turned 18 today. So he got a graduation cake and a birthday cheesecake.

 Karter had gotten a scholarship to play soccer and is gearing up for college this fall. He will be an hour away from home. Karter was awsome with the kids and loved on them. The kids had such a memorable trip with the Murphy and Porter family. What good cousins they have.

Corbin found my camera and took a few pics on his own.

 Grandma and Grandpa say cheese for the camera!

As a mom one of our big milestones happened this weekend. Corbin pulled his tooth out during church Sun!!!!!! I went to get him and he was talking to me with the gap in his bottom row of teeth! Corbin where is your tooth? In my pocket. He says, "Dad said he was going to pull it out with a string, so I had to pull it out before he could."

Posing at the hotel

 Saturday morning during party preparations we took the kids to the park. The hotel pool was way too coooollllllddd, teeth chattering and blue lips, to enjoy. The day was gorgeous. We took icee's and fudge bars to the park for our morning snack.

 We were able to have our family photos taken. We hadn't gotten a family picture all together since Karter was 5. They turned out so well. I'll have to try and post some family pics from my cd.


After pics we had a late lunch downtown at Gus's fried chicken. A lady Matt knows at the bank raved about this diner and dive place that was one the cooking show, she had gone to. So we took the adventure with three kids downtown Memphis by Beal Street. By the time we got there after pics Aiden and Adaline were asleep. So we ended up getting chicken to go. Can we say spicy! We ended up getting the kids happy meals as they would not eat the chicken.

 While my kids fell in love with the Porter family this weekend, they were not going to make it through a graduation. So I got to take them to Chuck E. Cheese. Many of you loathe taking your kids to this crazy house, but we had a great time. I think we were the only white folks in the place but it was awsome. There was hardly anyone there with graduation and a holiday weekend everyone had other plans. Our tokens lasted us for 90 minutes, with a trip by WalMart, we got home right as the rest of the family did.

 Fun Times!

Sunday was church (losing a tooth), lunch with the Porter's, swimming at the much warmer pool, attempts at taking a nap, then dinner back at the Porters.

Memorial Day Melanie and Karl fried up an awsome fish dinner. They made hush puppies, onion rings, corn on the cob and fish. Delicious!