Birthday Morning

We have a tradition at our house. Birthday boy or girl gets to choose his homemade breakfast... anything they want. In past years we have had chocolate waffles, oatmeal, cereal, pumpkin doughnuts, shaped pancakes, etc... This year Rachel wanted Daddy to make waffles. He was flattered and even put off his planned morning run to make birthday breakfast for his oldest little girl. We served the waffles with homemade berry topping, apples and cinnamon, yogurt, maple syrup and even chocolate syrup. Better than Denny's! What a great way to start the celebration! After breakfast the birthday girl got to open her gifts from mom and dad and from her grandparents. She was pleased with all of her gifts. The following video is of Rachel opening her gift from Melissa's parents. Since you guys couldn't be here, I thought you would enjoy seeing it on video.

My oldest girl turns 11!

Happy birthday to you...
Today is actually Rachel's birthday, but she had her campout slumber party last weekend so her closest friend could come. We had planned to campout near the woods at the Cornerstone mission base. However, rain forced us to improvise. We set up the tent in the newly built sunroom. We decorated the table and built a rock "fire ring" for our electric grill to be our camp fire. After the guests arrived, we sang happy birthday and ate the camping themed birthday cake. As a side note, the cake was a lot of fun to make. Other birthday events included gifts, roasting marshmallows over the "fire," watching a movie and playing wild horse. In the morning the girls made pancakes together, then went out in the chilly air to play. Rachel really enjoyed her party! Thanks to all who had a part in it!

Our newest pet

Meet the newest pet in the Trimble home: a praying mantis. We are enjoying this unique creature that God made. We caught it at Cornerstone after prayer one day. The girls have fittingly named it "warrior." A week before catching it, another prayer missionary found a mantis eating a baby snake. We thought it was a good prophetic picture of the "pray-er" or one who prays having victory over our enemy, Satan, symbolized by the snake. We don't know if we caught that same mantis or a different one. Anyway, we brought the mantis home and have been taking care of it for a week or so. We catch flies and put them into the cage live. Then the mantis hunts it, catches it and eats it. It is gross but fascinating. The following videos are rare footage of the actual hunt and eating of the prey. The first video is of the mantis hunting. He misses in this video but you can get the idea. I wasn't quite quick enough to film him actually catching the fly. The second one is him eating that same fly. The videos are not National Geographic quality cause I am still learning to use this crazy camera, but I know someone who reads our blog will like them.

video...finally

This video is of Silas playing chase with Keenan. The boys love to play together. Silas is already learning "boy stuff" from his brothers. As I was starting this blog, Silas was grunting (his way of asking for something) for a sword. He goes to the fridge where we keep them and points to the top and grunts persistently :) He also likes to wrestle. Beware lying on the floor. He will run (as best he can, which is cute in itself), smile a big smile and jump right on you!

A little glance at life

Life has gotten so busy with the start of school. My days are so full with planning, teaching, taking to and from school and extra activities, cooking, cleaning, praying, teaching some more... I am so thankful for this life God has given me! But it is busy. So I have not had time to sit down and blog. I really haven't been taking photos or videos much. But for those of you who do want to see our children... Here are some pictures. Most of them are of the boys. The girls are usually reading or doing school work or riding their bikes. I just don't think to take pictures unless someone is doing something cute! Here you will see sidewalk art, a birthday cake for mama made in the Trimble boy bakery, morning cuddle time, and some wrestling. Silas wanted to get in on it, too!

Silent Movies

My dad is letting me use another of his cameras. So I am experimenting. Why are these electronic gadgets so difficult to work properly? First I have to learn how to use the camera to take a picture. Then, I have to learn how to make a video with the camera. Next, I have to download the pictures and videos onto my computer. Then I have figure out why my videos are not showing up on the computer when they are there on the playback of the camera. After some time, I determine that the formatting of the videos from the camera is not compatible with the programs already on my computer so then I have to download "Quicktime." And when I finally get the video to play on the computer, I learn that it has no sound! So now I guess I have to learn how to turn the sound on the camera, too! Oh well! Here is a video of Silas, without the clicking, but with no sound at all! It would be much better with sound, 'cause then you could hear all his babbling and laughing! I guess that's why they added sound to movies all those years ago.
On the brighter side... I figured out how to solve my problem all by myself! God has given me a good brain!

Hahahahaha! After all that, I guess there is still more I have to learn. After 3 tries and several hours, I could not get the video to upload. It is not the first time I have had this problem, but there seems to be others in the blogging community that have struggled with this too. Anyway, hope you enjoyed a laugh today. And I will try to get a video up soon! I will not let the electronic monsters win!

Kentucky State Fair

We have a tradition in our family. A state fair tradition. Almost every year since I was a small child, my parents have taken me to the state fair. When our children came along, they wanted to continue that tradition, even though at the time we were living in Kentucky and they were in SC. So they drove up to our house, we loaded our van and drove to Louisville for the annual state fair. We are now back in Kentucky, but that did not stop the tradition. Once again, they made the long trip from SC to Kentucky so that we could pile into two cars (our family has grown!) and make our way to the Grand Event. So what draws us back there year after year, spending loads of money and time in the car? David asks that question too! Maybe its the fun of watching the children laugh as they are are tossed around on the dragon mini-roller coaster or fly through the air on the swings. Maybe its riding the tilt-a-whirl (with my mom!) to see how fast we can get our car to spin! Maybe its the funnel cakes. Maybe its the excitement of my dad playing a game to win a prize for his girls. He almost always wins, too. Its probably a little bit of all of that plus the memories of all the previous years at the fair that draws us back each year. Fun, excitement, rides, and sweet treats + nostalgia = the state fair for the Cockrell family. Thanks mom and dad for a fun night!
Here are some pictures of our adventures. The boys had so much fun on the rides, squealing with delight. Their favorite was the swing ride. The girls are getting older and wanted to try out some of the bigger rides, which made their mother a little nervous :) Their favorite was the pirate ship that swings way up!