Busy Weekend Updates

We had a busy weekend the other week, including...

Field Days of the Past (by E) - “Field Days of the Past” is the Goochland County Fair. We went on Friday night. A family came with us that had just moved here from Arizona. We wanted to show them a bit of country life at the fair. We rode the Ferris Wheel, the scrambler, and the gigantic slide. We freaked out on the Ferris Wheel when we started to go down because it makes your belly flip.

When it started to get dark, we watched a tractor pull event. That is when a big truck or tractor is attached to something really heavy and pulls it as far as it can. It was really loud. We ate treats while we watched. Yummy funnel cakes!

We had a great time in a trailer full of dried corn. We filled up our shirts with corn and buried each other. It felt cool and tickly! I even got corn in my pants! The corn was our favorite part! We had a great time.

Tiger Trot Race (by E) - On Saturday we ran in the Tiger Trot Race. That is a race where there is a half-mile run, a mile-run, and a three-mile run. It is held at a school called Henry Clay Elementary in Ashland, Virginia. Olivia did the half-mile run with Daddy, and Hannah and I did the mile-run. Last year I did it and came in at about ten minutes. This year I came in under 10 minutes.

We met a lot of people there we know. We met my third grade teacher, a family from church, another school teacher, and somebody from my class. We ran the race with a friend from church. When I was finished I was very happy , although I felt like I did not have any legs. I was very glad we did it because I had a lot of fun. We all had a great time.

New Chicks! (by H) - On Saturday we went to the Gilman Farm Trading Day and we got new chicks for three dollars a piece! They are very cute. They are Barred Rocks, and they are about 9 weeks old. They are gray and white. They are so small that they can fit in the palm of your hand. They can run very fast and their favorite food is sunflower seeds. When we brought them home, we gave them the top of one of our biggest sunflowers and they chowed down.

Why did we get NEW chicks? Our old chickens died because an opossum ate them. They were about ready to start laying eggs when they started to be killed off. For a while we didn’t know what was happening, but then we noticed there didn’t seem to be many chickens running around. Then about everyday we found one or two dead until we had five left. We decided we should lock them in their chicken coop for safety instead of letting them roost in the trees at night. That was hard because they liked running free. Cooping them up didn’t work either because the opossum got INTO the coop somehow and kept on killing them. It was really sad. We had set a trap for the predator before we knew what it was, but we didn’t catch it until all of the chickens were gone. We caught it in a live trap that someone lent us, and we baited it. What we caught was a very fat opossum with a dragon-like tail. The opossum was gray with lots of teeth. Daddy killed it. It was cute and stinky. Hopefully the possum’s friends won’t come for our new little chicks. Daddy and us worked hard on finding and plugging any holes in the chicken coop. So far, all the new chicks are still there.

Ward Talent Show (by H) - At the ward talent show we played a little family skit. It was called “The Ugliest Man In The World”. Daddy played the “Ugliest Man” with a pillowcase over his head, so no one would die of fright by seeing him. Ella, Olivia, and I got the people who volunteered to help and when they peeked under the pillow case they fell down dead on the stage. The last person (Brother Kirby) when he fell over Daddy screamed and fell over and Brother Kirby was the real ugliest man in the world!

Also, later in the talent show, Ella played the duet part in the song “I Love To See The Temple” with Mommy and when she came back from doing that she looked happy. Olivia recited the scripture “1 Nephi 3:7” for the talent show and I displayed a piece of art work, a painting I had done of the horse Sea Biscuit.

As a bonus for our loyal listeners, here is a recent photo of the little prince, doing his best "hey there ladies" smile.