Out-takes

40 pictures.  That is what it took to get a nice picture of my kids together and a nice one of each of them separately.  Have I mentioned that they are 8 and 10?!?! 

I did finally get some keepers, but thought I would share a few of the ones that didn't make the cut...

Just for the record...

Each year our kids are visited by a Christmas elf.  No, I'm not talking about the little Elf-on-a-Shelf, but an elf that comes and delivers surprise presents under the little tree upstairs.  Last year and this year, they even got a letter from STAR the after-Christmas elf!

The kids are completely convinced that this elf is not real, but is actually one of our Averill family members (Katey says she has it narrowed down to Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jo or Aunt Christy).  And, for the last couple of years they have set traps in the playroom in a ploy to catch "the culprit". 

Because they are so very adamant about STAR not being real, that got me to wondering what else they deem to be real or not real.  Last night I asked them:

If STAR isn't real, is Santa?
K:  YES!
S:  Yeah.

How about the Easter Bunny?
K:  I don't know...maybe
S:  Probably

The tooth fairy? 
K:  YES!  I know for a fact that the tooth fairy is real!
S:  No...Katey, remember, Daddy told us.

The Grinch who Stole Christmas?
S:  I don't know
K:  No...Dr. Suess made him up

I love it!! 

Alabama!

As mentioned in my previous post, we took a little road trip to visit Mike's sister, Christy, in Louisiana Alabama a few weeks ago.  (After Christy moved there I could never remember if she lived in AL or LA!  No worries Christy, I have it straight now that we visited.)

Christy and her roommate, Stephanie, were wonderful hostesses and we had a great time hanging out at their apartment and going on our many adventures.  

We got to tour Beeson Divinity School where Christy is attending.  What a beautiful campus!  The kids had fun climbing trees and collecting nuts (where we found the infamous "Nutty" the acorn).

Then it was off to the botanical gardens to smell the roses, touch cacti plants, explore nature, enjoy time with Aunt Christy, hang out in some bamboo and, of course, collect more acorns!

Finally, our day ended with a tour of Hogwarts at the zoo!  We got to ride the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4, tried Butterbeer, which tasted oddly like warm rainbow sherbert..., got sorted into houses by the sorting hat, made wands, had faces painted and played on roller racers (which have nothing what-so-ever to do with Harry Potter but were awesome fun!).

Our weekend adventure ended with visiting Christy's church and getting to meet more of her friends.  It was such a blessing to get a glimpse into the life of our sister and to hear the words of praise her friends had to speak about Christy.  She is one incredible, giving, passionate and loving young woman!!  We love you, AC!!

Simplicity

We spent last weekend with Mike's sister, Christy, in Birmingham.  While I plan to do an entire post on all the fun things we did there, right now I want to focus on Seth and his wonderful ability to find fun in the simple.

For many years now Seth has snubbed most toys (unless they are the Wii or the DS) but preferred to entertain himself with things like stuffed animals, his hands or, in the latest case, an acorn.  We love that he uses his imagination to give life to inanimate objects.

Ever heard of Pee-lo and Pie-lo?  Didn't think so.  Seth made them up...and they are his hands.  Pee-lo is the right, Pie-lo is the left.  From age 3-5 or so they acted like spiders, they climbed up head mountains, they crawled across floors and tables, and they got blamed for things.  If a glass of milk was spilled and Seth was scolded the response would undoubtedly be, "It wasn't me, it was Pee-lo and Pie-lo".  Mike and I spent countless minutes and hours trying to pound in the fact calmly explain that if Pee-lo and Pie-lo did it then SETH did it.  Have I ever mentioned that Seth is a little on the stubborn side?  Wonder where he got that from?!


While Pee-lo and Pie-lo have been in hiding for a couple of years, they seem to have made a recent come-back.  It is fun to relive old times and watch our kids do the same!

So, the acorn.  While visiting Christy we spent a lot of time outside walking around.  The kids collected many acorns but none so special as "Nutty".  Seth found Nutty on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day, as well as all day on Sunday, playing various games with his new-found friend.  He spun Nutty around in a frisbee, rolled him along the floor, fished him out from under the couch more times than we can count, made up stories about Nutty, carried him in his pocket and gathered more acorns just so that Nutty would have friends.  And, after we got home, Seth drew a face on the beloved acorn!

I absolutely adore the little kid that still exists in our almost 8 year old!!  I know it won't be much longer before imagination games are pushed aside and the seriousness of "big kid stuff" takes over.  *sigh*  For now we are thoroughly enjoying Seth's simple creativity and nuttiness!

Costumed

In early October I was taking a trip down memory lane, thinking of all the cool home-made costumes that Shannon and I wore through the years to go trick-or-treating.  There was the Coke can, the Rubik's Cube, Mother nature, a baby...  Part of the fun was coming up with something creative that could be produced by Mom, then seeing it come to fruition. 

So, I announced to the kids that this year we would be making our Halloween costumes.  I hoped for excited squeals and cool creativity.  I got moans and groans and pleas for store-bought stuff.  But, after tossing out some ideas, the kids started to warm up to the plan.  Katey more-so than Seth, as she is the one who loves craft projects.

After some internet scouring (how did our parents do things without the wonder of online resources?!?) the kids landed on their desired masquerades - a box of popcorn and a tornado:

We got lots of compliments on the costumes and, in the end, the kids were pretty excited about them.  Seth picked out the eyes for his tornado - he wanted it to look like something was stuck inside the swirling mass.  Every time I look at the pictures the Martian character from Sesame Street comes to mind:

  HA!! 

I am hoping that now the kids are on board with future homemade costumes.  I had fun making them and they had fun wearing them (though Katey did let Mike take over with the box before the night of trick-or-treating was done.  Wish I had gotten a picture of that!). 

Happy Halloween!!

Eventful Hodge-Podge

We have had quite the eventful past few weeks around here.  First there was crazy-alien hair day at school:

Next came the Family Sports Night at school - Mike and I both helped with this event.  Mike was on the tug-o-war station and here he is battling it out with 7 kids:

The following day, I flew to Ohio and drove to Indiana with Shannon.  Wish I could say it was a fun sister trip, but unfortunately, it was for a funeral.  The funeral was for Bonnie, my best childhood friend, Erica's mom.  I have such wonderful memories of Bonnie and her very welcoming and loving spirit.  Erica and I lived 3+ hours apart but wrote letters faithfully from age 10 until college.  We saw each other at Camp Ohio every summer and our moms made it possible for us to usually get together another time or two throughout each year as well.  I hadn't seen Erica or Bonnie in 12 years but I still felt a huge pull to be there for the funeral to say goodbye and to support my friend.  While it was hard, it was also wonderful to see Erica again, to get to know her husband and to meet her 4 kids. 

I am so very thankful to Mike for his willingness to take on the kids for several days (including rearranging his work schedule...).  And especially so after Seth ended up being sick, which meant Mike worked from home for 2 days.  I am also thankful for Shannon and Jason and their willingness to host me on short notice, and to have Shannon accompany me on the trip.  For my dad, who picked me up at the airport and for Jason's aunt, Sandy, who was ready and willing to house Shannon and me for the night in Indiana (even though we left her hanging and didn't come!). This trip really reminded me that I am so very loved and cared for.

Speaking of Seth being sick, he kept saying he was dizzy and needed something to help him walk.  This is how he got around for about a week:

He used his N-Force battle toy as a cane to help steady himself.  Crazy kid!!

Weekend at the Beach

Thanks to Grammy, Mike and I got to take a nice weekend trip to Ocean Isle beach.  It truly was a wonderful weekend away!! 

We started out driving to Wilmington to see the USS North Carolina.   It was really cool to be on a ship and get a glimpse into what life was like as a sailor in WWII.  Gotta say, I was beginning to get downright claustrophobic in some of the areas!

 

 

 From there we headed to Ocean Isle.  What a beautiful view we had from our hotel room!!

 It was a little chilly while we were there, so no actual swimming took place, but Mike did brave the water and got in up to his calves.

 We ended up spending a lot of time walking on the beach and looking at all the seashells that had washed ashore.  Oh, we also decided to rent bikes to ride around the island.  When we got to the rental place we opted to try out a TANDEM bike!!  It took a little getting used to, but we had great fun riding together.

 Another highlight of the trip was sitting on our balcony Saturday evening eating pizza and watching 4 beach weddings take place!  I was pretty amazed that 3 of the 4 weddings involved tuxedos and full-on wedding dresses.  We had great fun talking about the brides and grooms and pondering various aspects of the ceremonies.

We returned home on Sunday.  While we were sad to leave the beautiful view, Mike and I were both ready to be home and see the kids.

Turned out the kids and Grammy had a great time while we were gone.  They had all-you-can-eat pancakes at IHOP.  Seth ate FIVE!!!

 They took the train Uptown and had fun exploring Imaginon:

And, they went to a little farm and rode horses!!

Thanks, Grammy, for a fun weekend for all of us!

Shades

This is what I have learned:  I love painting.  I do not love prepping to paint.  I despise cleaning up the painting supplies and mess when I am done.  The actual painting itself is quite relaxing and seeing a finished product, all clean and neat and new, is amazing.  But, perhaps I should limit the work to one room per year instead of 3 rooms per month...

It all started when I realized the kids' bathroom needed a coat of paint.  From there it was an "if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie" kind of a project.  I let the kids pick the bathroom color (the choices were green, orange or purple).  They choose orange.  4 coats of paint later (yes, I said FOUR!!), the finished product looks great and is much BRIGHTER than the builder white that did cover the walls.  Check it out:

Once we began talking of painting walls, the kids were really excited and both wanted their rooms re-painted.  Here are the before and after shots of both.  

We (Mike and I, not Seth) were sad to see the cute animal mural on Seth's wall go. A friend painted it on there 6 years ago when we moved in the house and Seth decided he was ready for something a little more "Big Kid". We are all really pleased with the results of all the rooms!!