Slugger

Another video showing the hand eye coordination of my son. I tried to think of professional slugger to title this blog but everyone I thought of seemed to be linked to some steroid scandal (sigh).

The Noble Savage

Leslie and I were friends in high school having met, I think, my junior year. We spent many a Friday and Saturday night down in the pit that was Paul's basement doing all the ridiculous and juvenile things that high schoolers do.

When we went off to college (me to Wake and she to KU) I dropped in on her any time I visited KU doing the school year (she made a sangria that would kick your ass) and during the summers we spent an inordinate amount of time drinking margaritas and eating far too many chips at our local Mexican restaurant.

After college she landed outside of DC and I saw her frequently anytime I went to see Cindy. She was the first one of my friends to get married and with her husband went off to see the world. And though after that we saw less of each other I still kept in touch (though infrequently) and learned of her escapades through our various mutual high school friends.

She had a wicked sense of humor and a bit of a dark and brooding side I admired. She always made me laugh and was always, ALWAYS up for an adventure.

Three years ago today, on a beautiful sunny day in Kansas, she went to Target to do some shopping where some psychopath with an axe to grind with no one in particular shot her dead in her car in the parking lot. Senseless just isn't a good enough word to describe the end to her life. I think about her often and mourn the laughter that was silenced that day. If there was anyone that I knew that epitomized living life to its fullest it was Leslie Noble. So today I think I am going to live a little on the wild side and relish in the moment. I think that is what Leslie would have wanted us all to do a little more.....

Bouncy, Bouncy

I got an irate call from my father last night letting me know that it has been over a week since I last posted any pictures or any stories about his grand kids. I figured since he never commented he never read my blog. :) I have a couple posts in me but have been quite busy with the other set of grandparents that just left on Sunday (though my father did kindly mention that they did leave 3 days ago). So I will try to post some over the next couple of days Dad so you can get your fix. In the meantime I thought I would start with this video Raif took from a little while back. This is what my husband teaches the kids when I go into the house to do something.....

Ultimate Punishment

This afternoon the kids and I were playing outside when the kids decided to play a little make believe with Quinn as Mama, Greyson as Papa and me as the belligerent sister. After a couple of missteps, my 'parents' sent me to time-out. After several minutes of 'crying' in time-out I was barraged with additional punishments. When none of those seemed to work Greyson pulled out the big guns.

"If you don't behave you will lose your wine for the rest of the night."

I was a perfect angel from that moment on.

The things we do...

Michael's is a cornucopia of surprises, in my opinion. Wandering the aisles you never know what you are going to find in terms of little projects for the little ones. Last week, I found, in the bargain bin, (clearly leftover from Halloween) a face painting kit. Every time we go anywhere there is a face painter my kids are all over him/her so I thought this would be a great afternoon activity. Yesterday I pulled the kit out since they were dressed up in their polka dot best, figuring they couldn't ruin a shirt we had already ruined and was prepared to spend the afternoon painting faces. Painting faces is what they wanted to do unfortunately it wasn't their faces they wanted painted - it was mine. So in the spirit of "The Things We Do for Our Children" I let them paint me - Greyson one side of my face and Quinn the other. After I was completed they were more than happy to let me do theirs. I don't know what I enjoyed more - their giggles as they painted me or the look on my husbands face when he walked in the door.....

Polka Dots

It started as a simple 5 year old question. "Why does Patrick get a day and I don't?" Patrick is Daniel's brother. Daniel is a boy in Greyson's class. You see Patrick's favorite color is green and Daniel was so upset that he got a day named after him where everyone wore his brother's favorite color. Well to be fair to Daniel, Ms. Ashley (their teacher) declared a Daniel Day where everyone wore orange and then to be fair to everyone else every one of the kids got their own day. So for the past 2 weeks I have been dressing my son in the daily required color - some days (like Greyson's red day) were easier than others (Kristianna's pink day). But every day I managed to find something to put my son in - until Thursday. Thursday was Ms. Ashley's day and she chose polka dots. Now being a participatory kind of gal I wasn't going to let my child go to school without his required dots so we got a little creative around here. I pulled out this old box of paint dots that we haven't used in years and some shirts from the rag bag and voila - not only an afternoon of fun but clearly the best polka dotted kid in class....

Curious Garden

The kids are smitten with the book The Curious Garden and once again we were on a quest to grow some plants so Raif bought us some wonderful terrariums. They painted, planted and watered now here is hoping they grow....

Country Fun

Another weekend, another adventure.

This time we headed south to Birmingham to see our friends John and Ashley. On Saturday we spent some time at the local state park which had a stocked fishing pond. Raif had gotten the kids fishing poles awhile back and we were excited to try them out. Honestly, I thought that this exercise would last about 15 minutes. I frankly find fishing a tad boring and assumed the kids would cast a couple of lines, not catch anything and be done with it. How wrong I was. They were excited to reel the line back in to find the worm still there (Mommy, I didn't lose my worm!!) They were excited to reel the line back in to find the worm gone (Mommy, a fish must have eaten my worm!!). They were excited to watch the bobber go up and down (Mommy, look I got a nibble!!). They were excited like this for over an hour. Finally right about the time that little Sophie was bored with the whole thing Quinn (with a little help from Dad) caught her very own fish (thanks to the nice gentleman fishing next to us who showed us the best spot to catch them). And thanks to some quick thinking and a little slight of hand from Mr. John, Greyson managed to catch a very similar looking fish right after Quinn. Both kids were ecstatic over their mad fishing skills.


After fishing the kids went on to spend some more time communing with nature. Ashley and John have a bluebird house in their backyard with newly hatched babies. The bluebird Mom and Dad spent the afternoon going in and out of the house with food and my kids sat in the backyard and watched, giggling with delight every time one of them came back with a worm.


Sunday it was Dad's turn to play - the men (Raif, Greyson and John) went to the IRL (Indy Car) race at Barber speedway. Greyson was in heaven (as was his father). He flirted with everyone and managed to convince some woman to give him her checkered flag which he clung to all day (even on the drive home at 11 when we pulled into the house he was dead asleep clinging to that flag). The ladies preferred a more civilized day with a nice leisurely lunch and some shopping.

All in all a great weekend - thanks to John and Ashley for your hospitality.

Welcome Sprouts!!

For this first time in my garden I planted seeds - carrot and cucumber seeds to be exact. Over the weekend while I wasn't looking they sprouted up, as seeds tend to do I guess!

The kids are excited to watch them grow and I am excited that they are actually growing. Hopefully they will mature into something edible....

Easter Portraits

I know what you are thinking - it's a holiday - where are the adorable kids' pictures? Michele and Raif ALWAYS take portraits of the kids at EVERY holiday. Fear not, friends here they are!!!

Savoring Easter

I am a follower of SouleMama's blog and each Friday she posts what she considers her "Moment." A random picture from her week that she wants to remember and savor.

For some reason I was thinking about that this morning as the kids dashed around the yard with glee snatching Easter eggs from tree trunks and flower beds. The holidays like these - where children truly believe that there is a Santa Claus or that a bunny brings presents and chocolate eggs (or actually 5 bunnies if you, like me, ascribe to the Country Bunny and the golden shoes theory) - are fleeting. In a few years they will be too old to truly believe and though these moments will still excite them the true magic and wonder of the day will be gone. So I stopped for a moment, stood back and tried to savor the morning. To simply watch the wonder and awe of my children as they giggled and pranced and discovered and believed.


Here's hoping that you got to savor the magic of Easter.

Spring Art Hop

The last two Easters here have either been cold or rainy so when a perfect spring weekend presented itself on Easter we had to soak up every minute of it. We spent Saturday at Cheekwood Botanical Garden's Spring Art Hop admiring Mother Nature's spectacular color palette


Hunting Easter Eggs and meeting a very special friend


Doing tons of arts and crafts including making a giant spring caterpillar


Indulging in face painting, balloon art and just plain frivolity


And of course posing for the requisite group shot


I think we managed to have the perfect spring day....