Spring Break Adventure #1: Camp Out

Monday night, we camped out under the stars in our backyard. With Rob's tent help and Graham's scary stories, it was a great success!

After putting up our tent, laying out our sleeping bags and arming ourselves with our flashlights, we trekked into the backyard to our tent. Graham was very concerned we didn't have a campfire. When Mommy explained that we didn't have the wood for it (nor the city's approval) he quickly pointed to my wax ligustrum and said we could burn it, blooms and all. Yeah, no. With the sun dome off the tent, we were able to look at the stars and watch the airplanes that flew high overhead, which some we were certain were shooting stars or spaceships!


Graham entertained us with his scary stories. Stories of boys and girls not wearing their sunscreen when they were outside and the sun burning them. (He told it like a ghost story, with the flashlight under his chin. It was the single hardest thing I've ever had to do to not laugh, especially when Rob shook in fear.)

They boys slept so hard, they never knew when Daddy came in the tent after work!

It was a beautiful night for a campout. When we woke up this morning, it was like the birds were singing to us personally! When Rob opened his eyes, he said "The sun is up, and I'm a camper!"

Spring Break!

It's Spring Break and the boys have exclaimed, "We want an adventure!"

They've asked to go camping, to plant flowers (seriously), to have a picnic lunch, to go fishing, to fly our kites, to watch a movie, to paint birdhouses, and maybe go hiking. Everything we'll do will be close to home, but we're trying to fit it all in.

Check back this week and we'll have updates!

Continuing the Irish...

A little more research on Ancestry.com and we found that Paul has Irish blood in him, too! His 4th great grandfather left Londonberry, Ireland to come to North America!

So, we doubled the green pancakes the boys ate Saturday morning.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We hope the luck of the Irish is with you!

Thanks to all our ancestry work, we can celebrate our Irish heritage! On Candice's maternal grandmother's side, there are strong Irish roots. The Murphree family (Irish enough, huh?) came over in the early to mid 1700s from Dublin, Ireland. Daniel Murphree and his wife Sarah Dempsey Muphree left Ireland sometime after their marriage and salting a family. They died in Chatham, North Carolina. Below is the legend of the Murphrees arriving in the Americas.

LEGENDARY BEGINNING

One well-known legend traces the roots of the family tree to the household of Daniel and Sarah Dempsey (Rowland ?) in the 18th century Ireland. According to this tradidion, there was a rebellion in Ireland in the 1740's against British rule. Among those taking part in the uprising were seven sons of Daniel Murphry. When the rebels were suppressed, the Murphy boys fled from the British and found a sympathetic ship-captain who agreed to furnish them with passage to America. As the story goes, Daniel Murphy had all his property confiscated by the authorities even though he had not himself taken part in the uprising. Afterward it is said that he lived a wretched existence in a sod hut until his death in 1762 at over 80 years of age. Had seven sons, William, Nimrod, David, Solomon, Daniel, Mills and James. The came to America sometime between 1745 and 1755 and found a refuge from the British. The change in the spelling of their surname is said by some to have been to conceal their identity but others suggest that the use of "free" instead of "phy" in the name was in commemoration of their new-found freedom.

Cursillo

Last weekend we had a wonderful experience at Cursillo, #181. We cannot even find words to describe our experience. Hopefully we'll find words to share more in the coming weeks. Right now, it is sinking in and we are still tired.

De Colores!

The Lorax, the movie

We went to see The Lorax and loved it! It was a great success with the boys!

Graham reports his favorite part was the planting of the tree. Rob's favorite part is the Lorax's yellow mustache. 

It gets thumbs up from the Chenaults. We adults said it wasn't as entertaining as Despicable Me but the boys didn't even flinch the entire movie. It was very much like Horton Hears a Who, which is one of our favorites.