my blessed life

This past weekend we were in Fort Smith, Arkansas --the city where I was born and where our children were born.  Even though we no longer live there we have lots and lots of extended family and friends in the area and were in town for a couple of family reunions.   While there we just had to check out the latest project that Fort Smith is doing as part of the revitalization of the downtown riverfront area: The Unexpected Project .  This project is a celebration of street art and they have placed it beautifully all over the downtown area.   My sister , my daughter, and I had fun on our scavenger hunt of sorts looking for all of these amazing murals!  They are just so beautiful and creative!   The Fort is such an interesting area anyway.  It was the border to Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a state in 1907--so not that long ago really.  And it was one wild west town back then!  If you've seen any version o...

This week has been full and fun!!  We began Mr. B's 10th birthday celebration on Sunday (a day early) with our special meal out with my parents and sister (my parents are so awesome to take us all out on each birthday!).  Mr. B picked Chili's this year.     On his actual birthday, Monday, he opened his gifts here at home.  Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (his total fave!) where we also enjoyed a birthday cookie cake.  Yes, celebrations around here involve LOTS of good food! :) Then Monday evening we drove to Union City, TN to spend the night and visit the Discovery Park of America on Tuesday.  The whole family went and we had SO much fun!!   If you have never heard of the Discovery Park of America it could be because it's practically brand new!  It's been open only about a year and a half.  It's located in a small town about 3 hours west of Nashville but it is well worth the drive!  And the ticket prices...

A week ago today we took the kids on a field trip to Little Rock, our state capitol. It was Homeschool Day at the Capitol and we joined several families from our local homeschool group and also hundreds of other homeschoolers from around the state. (the rotunda) The purpose of this day was to promote good will between homeschoolers and legislators and bring more awareness of the homeschool community to our leaders. Of course, we also schmoozed them with desserts...ha! Oh~and it was a great educational field trip for our family! Our group was able to receive a personal tour from one of our area's senators. He did a great job of explaining to all of the kiddos (and parents) just how everything works. (our state seal...in carpet!) (the ceiling of the state senate) (where the state senate meets) We also had some time on our own to explore the capitol a bit. The upper level was filled with kid-friendly displays telling all about our state. Our kiddos were a tad yo...

This past weekend we had the opportunity to visit another one of our national parks: Cumberland Gap National Historic Park . I visited there as a child with my parents years ago~I think I was the age that The Princess is now~and remembered how beautiful it was. Since my last visit there however, they have made a lot of improvements, including building a beautiful new visitor center. We all had a lot of fun exploring their displays and browsing in their gift shop. They even had these adorable little Junior Ranger uniforms for sale. I would've bought a couple of them just for fun if they hadn't been $40, but I did get Mr. B to try on a hat for a quick photo. Isn't he cute?:) We had a lovely day to visit, it was actually under 100F! We didn't start sweating till late in the afternoon...lol While enjoying our picnic beside a mountain creek we got to see a host of swallowtail butterflies flying around over the water. They would cluster on the rocks beside the creek~t...