Say, Huh? (#9)

Gman was being particularly adorable at the dinner table.
Sitting next to Princess, the conversation went like this:

Mom: Gman, could you *BE* any cuter?
Gman (pointing at sister): No. But she can.

Same old tricks

Recall when a toddler-aged Gman hung the toy pan on the entertainment stand?

He's at it again a few years later...It's a sword on a light switch in the hallway. In case he needs to do battle with an intruder?

Order of Importance

This summer, the kids are keeping a daily journal of what they do each day.
Gman had an eventful day today...especially by 5 y.o. standards.

• He went to day camp.
• They went to the pool.
• He got to pick Chick-fil-a for dinner.
• He fell on the Chick-fil-a playground and got a big black goose-egg right next to his eye.
• We took a little trip to the ER since his pupil didn't appear to be dilating (btw, he's fine).

His journal entry sums up his exciting day. He had to be reminded of the 2nd part.

Dance Recital Videos!

Gman's Boys HipHop Dance Class Recital video.
They just couldn't be any more cute/funny!


Princess's Dance Recital video.
She did fabulous!

Future Loggers of America

Those are dead tree branches from the forest near Craig's mom's house.
Can we go back to the days when they played outside and all they brought in were rocks?

Say, Huh? (#8)

The conversation went like this:
Gman: How long has it been?
Craig: Since what?
G: How long has it been?
C: Since what?
G: HOW. LONG. HAS. IT. BEEN?
C: How long has it been since what?
G: Since the start.
P: 8 million years
C: Since the start of what?
Al: *snicker*
G: What time is it?
C: It's 7:10
G: But what WAS the time?
P: Who's on first?
A: *snicker*
C: When?
G: what time was it THEN?
C: THEN what?
G: *Sigh* Just tell me how long has it been.
C: How long has it been since what?
G: Since then!!!!!
C: *SIGH* What do you want?
G: One of the orange juice popsicles Mom made in the freezer. How long has it been?
P: 8 million years.

Cat and Scratch Fever!!!

A few weeks ago, the kids received tickets to see a girls UK basketball game for perfect attendance in January at school. The girls play in Memorial Coloseum....where the boys team played before the city built Rupp Arena for them. So this is pretty hallowed ground, many of the historical noteworthy UK teams played in this building. Not that the kids grasp the significance of it all.

We walked in only 15 minutes before the game and were trying to figure out what to get for dinner. (Not the healthiest of ideas, but it was a school night, and there was homework to do first, etc etc, sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do!)
As we're standing there, one of the UK relations guys runs up to me, hands me 2 ticket-looking-things and says, "Here's my last 2 kids' pre-game passes, RUN!" and points towards a specific corner of the court. Not knowing what I've just volunteered my kids for, we ran!

They got to stand on the court sideline for the pre-game show. Both mascots (Scratch and the Wildcat) came over to 'high 5' the kids. And as the players were introduced, they'd run down a tunnel of cheerleaders & UK flags and hand a small auto-graphed ball to 1 of the kids!!!

This one is Scratch.








































This one is Wildcat...ignore the other random kids....they were trying to usher us all out...I had to hurry...this is the first time our kids would get within 50 feet of large costumed-beings!

Alligator Math

We went to The Newport Aquarium yesterday! "It's a Million gallons of Fun!"

Gman + Princess + Al = 14 foot Mighty Mike

I now have proof!

Herding my 3 kids is like wrestling a 14 foot alligator!!

Look at that kid go!

Both of my guys have started new sports! And we are very proud Sports Parents!
Al is rockin' the cross country scene. This pic is at the finish line of his first 5K, time: 22:17. His next 5K was on a much harder course, but his time was still 22:33!!


Gman had his first soccer game today! The other team's players were all 4 inches taller than Gman (and his own team mates are all shorter/younger than him). Despite the mismatch, the Jaguars held their own!!!!!

Color Commentary by Gman

Gman was feeling artistic today! He's not generally one to sit long enough to draw even one picture...much less two in one sitting!! I've included text of his comments when showing me his drawings.
ps....The 57 cents and 58 cents are his prices, if you are so inclined. ;-)

First Day of School--2010!

First to leave were the little ones.
Princess: "Hey Gman, now pose like this. Now like this. And this way...."
Oh what a difference 1 year and a gender makes...Gman lost interest after the 2nd picture.




Oh what a difference 8 yrs and a gender makes....New high schooler who seriously did not want his picture. At all. Then agreed only if it wasn't taken outside. So I had to sneak one.

Special Kind of Tired

Have you ever been so tired that, when you woke up in the middle of the night to go potty, you were just tooooo tired to pull your pants back up? Or to go back to your own bed? So instead, you just laid on the floor next to the toilet with your jammies half on.

Yeah, my kid's that tired.

Horse Mania 2010!

New art project in town in preparations for the World Equestrian Games. The little ones and I managed to get around to about a third of them in just a couple hours. (Al didn't want to go since he'd already been to half with his camp friends.) Great time and some beautiful horses!

PS--The foals were all decorated by schools in Fayette County. The American Flag foal was made by Princess's school. The red with yellow lightening bolts foal was made by Al's school.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Test results: Positive

Gman walks into the bathroom and starts to brush his teeth.

Gman: "Mom, do we need to clean my ears out?"
Me: "I don't know. Can you hear me?"
Gman:
(crickets chirp in the background)

Vacay, Day 3.....aka Parade-palooza

Day 2 was just driving the rest of the way to Orlando. Made it to the condo in time to stock the kitchen, then head to the pool for a luau complete with Hawaiian dancers!
Day 3-- Went to Disney World...Where all your Dreams Come True (c)
Of course, we had to take a pic with The Castle! (all these pics can be clicked on to see them enlarged)

Disney does not do anything by half!! Including parades!
The afternoon parade at Magic Kingdom had ALL the characters owned by Disney...here's just a few:




It's not disney if you don't get a few pics with characters! Gman R-E-F-U-S-E-D to get in a picture without Daddy to protect him from imminent danger posed by giant creatures, no matter how beloved.


They also have a night-time parade--supposedly for this summer. Story has it these were from a parade many years ago and they are going to throw it out after getting one more season's usage.
I personally thought it was the coolest thing all day!!! We went back and watched it another day (I'll most more pics then)

Mother's Day conversation

ooops....a little late in posting, but for the sake of Gman's baby/childhood book, didn't want to lose this. He came into my bedroom the morning of Mother's Day. The conversation at 6:42am went like this:

Gman: Mom!

Me: "What?"

Gman: Great news!

Me: What?

Gman: It's Mother's Day!

Vacation 2010

Last year, we didn't do a real "vacation vacation" because we were saving up for Vacay 2010....boy it's a good thing!

Day 1--Driving & visiting:
Taken while still in the garage I think (they're still smiling because at this point, they didn't realize that it would be 2 days in the van):


We stopped off in Atlanta for a visit with the Fun Family at the World Of Coke. The girls were like best friends all over again! And nothing like good ol' American Coke to clear away the after taste from the Beverly.



After driving a little bit past that, we stopped in Macon, GA for dinner and a visit with some other friends--MamaBrande & her crew. After many attempts to get a smiling pic of all the little kids, I gave up and opted for silly faces:

Memory Lane Monday #21

I took a road trip this Memorial Day weekend--literally and figuratively! My carmates (or should I say new-van-mates? I traded in the Uplander last week): Princess, Gman, and my mom & dad made the looong drive to Enterprise, in southern Alabama on Saturday--I lived there for 9th-12th grade. It's the one place we lived in all my military-brat days that I truly did not want to leave and consider to be "home".

Enjoyed a BBQ and pool party that evening at my folk's friends' house--John & Debbie Railsback. Their sons Travis & Shawn are my age--Shawn and I were friends in Germany first, then our dads were both sent to Ft. Rucker, Alabama at the same time! Few military brats get to go to school for 7 years on 2 different continents with the same person!

On Sunday morning I had brunch with my girlfriends from high school....although honestly, we couldn't tell that 21 years had past! We had sooo much fun traveling down Memory Lane together!!!! Unfortunately it was too short and incomplete with Alison not being there (she was very ill). But we'll definitely be planning a REAL get together soon!!!

May 1989, l-r: Alison, Cynthia, Cathy, Marissa, me
May 2010, clockwise from top: Marissa, Cynthia, Cathy, me



After brunch, the folks, kids & I packed back in the van and drove to central Alabama for a surprise 50th Anniversary celebration for some dear family friends my parents have had since I was 5. It was wonderful to see them again!

Long trip, short time, but oh so very worth it!

Pass the tartar sauce, Matey!

Craig brought home Long John Silver's for his & my dinner last night. Not my fave in the world, but the kids' dance class was in less than hour and I was behind schedule.

Princess: Are those just big chicken nuggets?
Me: Yes. But most restaurants call them chicken fingers when they're big. Long John's calls them chicken planks. To sound more piratey.

Princess & Gman giggle.

Me: You know, there was a pirate named Long John Silver.
Gman: Whaaaatttt? How can he be a pirate if he's a chef?

Trees, eggs, and sunglasses

It was only an 8 minute drive, during which I never said a word. But it was a marathon of non sequiturs from my children:

Rainbow Watchers. (reading from a car window sign)

Little boy blue, come blow your horn........

Tree huggers.

My hands! (nothing further for explanation, just discovered her hands)

Rockets are faster than cars.

Twinkle Twinkle little star...........

Hug a tree.

Dance class is straight. (not really...it was to the left)

350Z. That'll be my dream car.

Turn right. (as I'm turning left)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall..........

So! There's a sensor to tell the light to go on/off! (refering to the visor mirror)

Where's my coat?

My future's so bright, I wear a hat, cuz sunglasses aren't my thang.

Today is Wednesday.

This is what our everyday life is like. I swear to you, none of this was embellished. Every word really was said by the children, and there was more that I just couldn't remember.

In the year 2024, when Gman graduates high school, somewhere there's going to be a padded room waiting for me. I hope it has good music.