Happy Birthday, Ben!

Or, maybe I should have titled this, "Keep the Feds off My Farm!"

This post will probably lead to me getting some kind of red flag on my "PERMANENT RECORD," but I think I will take my chances. After all... Homeland security, if you are reading this, just because Christians are pro-life, homeschool, and own weapons, that does not make us a threat to society... Wait, this isn't supposed to be a political post. I'll save that for another day.

Ben, the son of our friends Ginny and Nathan, wanted to have a shooting party for his 9th birthday. Since we have a considerable amount of land, we got to host the party! I am not sure, but I don't think it could have possibly gotten any HOTTER for his big day... But heat is much to be preferred over rain, when shooting guns is involved.

Before I even get started, let me say that any and every safety precaution that could have possibly been thought of was put into practice. I know that young children shooting semi-automatic firearms can be a crazy thought, especially for y'all who live in cities! However, Nathan made sure that every child shooting had his or her dad there, the kids had to stay behind a bright orange spray painted line, only one child could go to the table at a time (with his dad escorting), no bullets were in the guns until right before firing, the safety was kept on, guns pointed in a safe direction, etc., etc., etc. My hunter safety teacher would have been proud!

Ben got to be the first one to shoot, and he started the day off right! (Did I mention how hot it was?) Way, to go, Ben!

Neo got first place... it was clear that he had done this before!

The girls with their targets... Sarah, Kelley, and Ruth had as much fun as the boys!

Will and Scott

Josh and Scott

After we finished shooting, the kids went back up to the house to have lunch and play with water guns! Most of the dads stayed out in the field to shoot a little bit, and I made it back down just in time to shoot the "big gun" that one dad brought (he will remain anonymous for security reasons... ha, ha... just kidding!). It was a civilian version of an M-16, but I forget what it is called. I just call it really cool; I have never gotten to shoot a large automatic weapon before!

We all headed in and had a great afternoon visiting with the families who were able to attend.