Back to School

Well, for me, not the kids, yet. Today was the first day of pre-planning for teachers and while it was fun to see all of my co-workers and listen to the best motivational speaker I think I've ever heard, the highlight of my day was our church back-to-school cookout. The party was complete with a GIANT slip-and-slide which all the children loved.

Camp Fun

A few pics from our campsite:

Splashing in the creek

Roasting marshmallows

Yummy smores

Max buttering toast for breakfast

Dog pile!!!

Christmas in July

Literally! After riding Thomas, we decided to go drive to nearby Cherokee and check out the town. In Cherokee, we saw a billboard for Santaland which I had heard of before but didn't know anything about. So we drive the few extra miles to find this little theme park dedicated completely to Christmas--elves, reindeer, manger scenes, you name it! We got there so late in the day that they let us play around a while then gave us a rain check to come back Sunday. Kinsey's highlight was the Rudicoaster, which we rode almost 20 times and Max's, no doubt, was the Santa Express train.

Day Out With Thomas

For the last week, all we've heard around the house is "I wanna see reeeeal Thomas" and this weekend, we were able to provide for Max. We took the kids (and the camper) up to Bryson City this weekend to go ride the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad's special Thomas the Tank Engine. The kids had a wonderful time playing all the games and activities and of course enjoyed the main event, riding on the "biiiggg" train! We also got a big suprise seeing one of my old hometown friends, Jane, who works for the GSMR.

Guess Who...

...got into the mascara while someone was on the computer???

Water Baby

Here's a quick clip I got of Max swimming. Almost exactly the same age as Kinsey when she first swam on her own.

Lovin' Lake Lanier!

Thanks to our friends who hosted a wonderful Sunday School social at their lakehouse this weekend, we were able to make our first family trip to Lake Lanier for something other than the Christmas lights. Saturday, we loaded the camper and headed to Duckett Mill campground right on the lake. After a quick setup, we drove over to the party for hours of water fun and a yummy cookout dinner. My favorite lake memory was when all four of us piled on the jetski for a cruise around the lake (my dad is cringing right now just thinking of me on a jetski!) We also all enjoyed taking turns on the kayaks. Jack made some delish homemade blueberry ice cream that I was sad to see disappear. Back at the campsite, the kids hit the sack while Jack and I watched the last part of the sunset and listened to crickets with drink in hand. This morning, the kids actually slept in on my one morning off! Wahoo!!! Jack made us pancakes and bacon for breakfast and then we played in the lake one more time, grilled burgers for lunch and hit the road to head home. I could really get used to this!

Fine Arts Fun Day

So maybe we didn't have the next Claude Monet or Jim Henson on our hands today, but we still had an awesome experience, nonetheless! Today, while Max visited his favorite babysitter, Kinsey and I went on a learning adventure to Atlanta with the Griner crew. Our second visit to the Puppetry Center was a hand-puppet show of The Emperor's New Clothes, featuring an all-animal cast of puppets. The kids laughed a lot and had a great time making the pig emperor puppet at the create-a-puppet workshop afterwards.


We left the CPA and headed to the Atlanta High Museum of Art.


The High had a special Claude Monet exhibit that we took the kids through first and they did rather well with it. They loved posing with the live water lilies after our tour.

The kid activity of the day at the museum was "sun prints" which involved special sunlight reactive photopaper that they got to "develop" in a "chemical bath" after they'd designed the picture. Really cool stuff.



Finally, our little Picassos had their turn at creating some still art that they all proudly put on display.


Did I mention, who can have a civilized day of art appreciation without a little trip to the Varsity?!? ;)


In other news, my touchpad on my laptop is busted, Max removed the spacebar and now the "W" key is almost useless, so I guess I'm going to have to start using the thesaurus a little more to come up with some "w-less" words. Should be interesting!!!

"Awww Bord"

For the past few weeks, Conductor Max has found a new obsession with "choo choos." It actually started several months ago when he sat still for an entire 3 minutes to watch a video clip on Disney Channel called CHOO CHOO SOUL, but hit a new peak when Nanny and Papa took him to ride the train at Stone Mountain. So we made our annual trip up to Blowing Rock this weekend, knowing that a trip to Tweetsie Railroad would bring good times for Max (and of course Kinsey.) 8 train rides later, our predictions had materialized. Granny and Sherry came along again and we were so lucky that my cousin Catherine and her precious baby Graham met us for the day too. At 7 months old, that little buckaroo was a trooper! He wasn't afraid of the train or the gunfights between the cowboys and indians one bit! What a great weekend and I'm sure there will be another Tweetsie trip in our near future!!!

Tube Time

Max's first ride and Kinsey's first solo ride on the tube at Keowee this weekend.

Fourth Fun

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Catch of the Day!

The kids and I are at Lake Keowee at my parents house for a long 4th weekend. After a fun afternoon of swimming and tubing yesterday, Kinsey and Papadad woke up this morning and decided to go fishing. Here's Kinsey's catch: 1 lb and 12 inches!!! Way to go girl!