Cow Day!!

My boys and I enjoyed dressing up for Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A! The boys have a blast getting in any kind of costume, so getting to wear a costume AND go to Chick-fil-A was pretty awesome for the boys! We all enjoyed our delicious FREE lunch!

cow cuteness!!

Added bonus... we had no run-ins with the actual scary cow;)

Boys night backyard camp out

One of the reasons we are so thankful for our new home... is our backyard!! We are blessed with our own nature center in our backyard! The boys love exploring in the bamboo forest, climbing the trees, making lots of discoveries, learning about many types trees and birds, digging in the dirt to create watering holes for their toys, making a fire pit with Daddy for s'mores... and most recently camping out!

Josh had so much fun preparing for this time with the boys! He built a camp fire where we cooked authentic yummy hobo dinners. Even Samuel joined us outside for dinner:)

s'mores!

The boys always enjoy roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores! After s'mores the big guys settled in the tent for a fun boys night camp out. They read Boxcar Children and were having a blast with Daddy... 

Josh saving the tent from the storm!

...until the thunder and storms came in strong!! 

They brought the camping trip inside:) Maybe next time they'll actually get to sleep in the tent;)

Dinner in the Orient... our first Theme Dinner Night!

Themed dinners is going to be our new family tradition! I got the idea from some friends from college, the Tyner Family, who has really cute themed family dinners. We had our first themed dinner this weekend... "Dinner in the Orient." It all began the day before when I scored an awesome brand new Wok set (with chop sticks) at a yard sale. The boys, who have never tasted any ethnic food, begged me to make Chinese food!! The boys had a blast preparing for our meal and learning about the Chinese culture. We learned that the Chinese invented paper, looked at Chinese art, learned to count to 10 in Chinese, listened to Chinese traditional music, and learned about the history of fortune cookies (which actually originated in California:).
We also talked about how many people in the country of China do not know Jesus. Evan responded, "well that's the first place we're going to go when we missionaries". I love his heart to tell people about His Lord!

fighting ninjas!

We also learned about martial arts; the boys favorite character was a ninja!

Even though I explained ninjas are from Japan, their costumes for the evening reflect this favorite.

my little ninjas!

The Menu

Pork stir fry and white rice

Egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce

Fortune cookies

The stir fry turned our perfectly on my new Wok... even my hubby who doesn't like ethnic food really enjoyed the menu! Everyone had fun using chop sticks instead of utensils:)

 I learned how to make a ninja mask with a t-shirt via an on-line tutorial... not sure I did it correctly:) Josh came home from work and helped the boys look more like ninjas:)

Everyone had a blast at our first family themed dinner night! Look forward to another one soon!!