New hobbies

My new hobby? Dressing the kids up and taking their picture. (Actually we were just going to church and I took their picture but I'm trying to stick to the theme here)

The kids' new hobby? Piling stuff up around the house. They asked if they could put all of the stuffed animals in a pile in the office. I made them promise that they would put them away when they were done. I had them sign a contract in front of a notary and offer up all of their possessions as collateral. They actually cleaned up afterward. I'm not as hopeful about this pile of blankets behind me right now.

Mike has three friends deployed right now. The kids and I made them some cookies. They almost got an ever bigger surprise.

Tommy's new dream hobby? Beekeeping. Our neighbors discovered this swarm of bees on a small bush in front of their house the day they were leaving town. They tried calling pest control but they said they couldn't get their until after the weekend. Mike found a beekeeper online and gave him a call. He was very grateful and came out the next morning. We all got to watch him and his wife vacuum up the bees. It was so interesting. The thing I really love about Mike is that he is knowledgeable about so many different topics. He was able to ask so many great questions of the beekeepers. They estimated that there were 10,000 bees in this swarm.

So after all this, Tommy keeps asking us to order a package of bees. He watches every beekeeping related video on Youtube. I feel confident that I could install a bee package now after watching it 100 times. Don't get me wrong, it would still freak me out. We actually like our neighbors and Mike's bee allergic mother so I don't think we will be starting this hobby anytime soon. But who knows.......

Rocketing is a new hobby for the whole family. If you haven't seen the movie October Sky yet, you need to. It is so great. Tommy loved it. The kids are really excited about this. Another great thing about Mike is he really likes to support local businesses. He found a rocket shop in town. It was pretty amazing. The kids (all three of them) had a great time looking around. This was our first attempt.

Is Katie doing some kind of Egyptian dance for luck?

It was a windy day, but the launch was successful. Oh, except for the devastating explosion.

That's OK, it's just the first try. The kids are pretty reluctant to let Mike launch their rockets though. I have to keep telling them that's what rockets are for. Up next, the Saturn V, which is the model of rocket the Apollo astronauts used to go to the moon.

Puzzle building is a constant hobby. So is this face Katie is making.

Even the puppy has a new hobby.

He figures just a few more rolls in the mud and he will look just like this...