Birthday done...now onto to HUNTING

**Warning: This post contains images of dead deer, cute mud babies & silly faces....continue at your own risk :)!***

Wisconsin has a new rule. A rule that has made my son's world a better place. A rule that states you can now hunt, with a real gun, at the age of 10. No more waiting until you are 12. Granted the rule also states that the 10 year old hunter MUST be within arms reach of a licensed adult hunter and only have 1 weapon between them. It is called the mentorship program and it has made our hunting season VERY fun so far :)

Jack saved every penny, nickel and dime he was given. He also did chores...lots of chores...dishes, garbage, cleaned bathrooms (yay for me!). All of this for his very own gun. It took him a year but he saved up $427 to be exact.

All this work paid off. Youth Deer Hunt weekend was finally here. The gun had been sited in weeks before at Nana's house.

He hit the inner bullseye every time!

Grace thought it was a little loud!

The bullets were bought and the jr. hunters were dressed in blaze orange. Ready to go at 5 am. They had a bet between the boys (each put in $5.00)...the first boy to shoot a deer would get all the money. $20 total. The game was on!

We waited and listened for gun shots. The only shots we heard came from neighboring fields so I was pretty sure the bet would still be standing for the evening hunt, until I got a call about 10 a.m. Jared said we have an official deer slayer! Yep, Jack shot a doe!

They were just packing up the gun (took the bullets out) and put away the camcorder (Jared was hoping to videotape Jack's first kill). They were JUST going to get out of the stand and Jared saw 2 doe come over the ridge. He quickly told Jack to get a bullet back in his gun. The first doe shot by and the next doe was coming just as fast. Jared made a grunt noise and the doe stopped...Jack took that 2 second window of opportunity to take a shot. The deer ran about 30 yards and dropped.

The rest of the morning was spent getting the deer ready for processing and getting it to the processor as soon as they could. It was 80 degrees that day. Jack was so excited to win the bet but even more excited that he shot his first deer and provided food for our family :).

And what did Kate do while the boys are out sitting in tree's, waiting for a deer to walk by? What else, but PLAY IN THE MUD! Oh yeah...both of my girls are drawn to mud. They can't stay away from it. Grace had spent an afternoon making "soup" in a bucket. It keeps her busy. All was clean until Miss Kate figured out what she was doing. They had so much fun and her clothes actually got clean :).

I am trying to catch up on posting so keep reading for the post I just put up on Kate's 2nd birthday :).