Greyson's Me Mobile

Greyson's first homework assignment - a Me Mobile. I think he did a great job. It was very hard not to help but he did it all himself!!

Mispronunciation or Freudian Slip??

Raif was helping Greyson work on his "Me Mobile" for school by printing out pictures of him on the computer...

Raif: Is this the picture you want - of you and the shell? I can crop your sister out.

Greyson: Yes, that is the picture I want without the crap sister.

A Simple Bike Ride

I have learned a lot of things since becoming a parent, like Band-Aids have magical healing powers far beyond science's comprehension. But the biggest lesson I have learned is that nothing is very straight forward or simple with children, especially mine.

With the horrific heat finally easing a bit, the kids and I were actually able to go out yesterday and enjoy some outdoor time. Since we have been cooped up in the house due to the 100 degree plus days I thought we needed a bit of exercise and suggested a bike ride. They were all for it so off we went. But my simple bike ride became an extreme adventure. We first had to pick up Dad (aka Greyson) at work. Once he finished on the phone we were able to get on our bikes and start moving. I was then informed that we were off to a hockey game. We rode maybe 1/10 mile when we had to stop since we made it to the game. But wait!! Apparently we drove to the basketball game instead of the hockey game. Back on the bikes for another 20 feet when we came to Dad's work. He then informed us that he had a meeting and would be late for the game and we should leave without him. So Mom (aka Quinn) and I rode another 50 feet when we hit the game and had to patiently wait for Dad to finish his meeting. Once he did we had to sit and watch the game....and on and on and on.

An hour into our 'bike ride' we had managed to make it, oh about 1/4 mile. Hardly the aerobic workout I was hoping for but hey at least I got to watch the Predators win.

Lake Weekend

It is amazing how becoming grown-ups with kids complicates your life. When Raif and I were young and fancy-free, so to speak, somehow we managed to come up to Nashville at least once if not twice a summer to spend the weekend on our friend Ryan's houseboat. Now that we live here and have kids this past weekend was the first time in 3 years that we were able to coordinate schedules and finally get out on the lake.

But we made up for lost time by spending the whole day on the water (we used to get up at noon at the earliest on those oh so fancy free days) this weekend.

We Jet skied

and surfed


and dove

and tubed

and of course swam.

But best of all we got to spend the weekend with friends new....

and old....


Thanks to all the Wagers for an incredible weekend. Hopefully it won't be 3 years until we can do it again.

The Golden Rule - Interpreted

This afternoon on our drive home from school Quinn was teasing Greyson about a Predator pin and thus lost the pin to Greyson. No more than 5 minutes later Greyson was teasing Quinn about the very same thing.

"Alright Greyson, stop teasing Quinn. You have lost your Predator pin."

"No. I am allowed to tease Quinn."

"No you are not."

"But you said it was OK. The Golden Rule - Do onto others as they do onto you. Quinn teased me so I get to tease her back."

Hmmmm - well at least this proves he is listening, sort of.

The Finished Work

Greyson and I were finally able to pick up his fired pieces from art camp a few weeks ago. I was a tad nervous about picking them up. While as you may remember, Greyson was in charge of the artistic aspects of his work, I was in charge of the technical aspects. Was the clay thick enough? Were the pieces scored correctly in order to ensure they didn't pop off during firing?? As we drove in to Cheekwood I started to imagine a pig with only one eye or a cracked whale and a very sad and upset Greyson. But thankfully I did my job well and with the exception of one small crack in his turtle, which he has yet to notice, all the pieces turned out splendidly!!

Crazy Sleeper

Why my son will never sleep on the top bunk.....

Treading Water

Let me tell you, Kindergarten is overwhelming.

Now, Greyson is handling it like a champ. He seems to be enjoying school, has met new friends, found his rhythm and comes home every day smiling.

It is his mother that is overwhelmed.

There are far too many things that I have to remember and do and for a mind that is already starting to grow some cobwebs it has been a struggle. Greyson's got dress uniform Wednesdays, and late start Tuesdays and an occasional spirit shirt day Fridays. He has to have his library books back a week after he checks them out and has Tuesday folders that come home and I have to sign and send back. Plus I have to remember to send his lunch, pack his lunch the night before and oh yes buy food for said lunch at the grocery store (which admittedly I have forgotten). AHHHHH!!

Then add in the different requirements that Quinn has like water play Wednesdays where she has to go to school in a bathing suit and bring a change of clothes (which also admittedly I have forgotten to pack underwear with. Oy vey).

I spent last week putting all these things in my calendar and then updating them on my phone and now my phone is constantly ringing to remind me of things and is driving me crazy!!

With Greyson starting full school days today I am hoping to be able to start getting into a normal rhythm and not be so flustered and going to bed every night trying to think of what I am sure I forgot. Then hopefully I will have a bit more time to update everyone on the fabulous happenings of the Erim family because as always we are a barrel of fun!!

Blast Off!!

Quinn started her first day of Cosmic Kids at Susan Gray Preschool today. She was so excited because she is now on the 'big girl' side of the school (for the 4 and 5 year olds) so she can now go on the 'real' playground (formerly reserved for her big brother). I am excited because we have Ms. Tina again, one of our FAVORITE teachers of Greyson's. Congratulations Quinn!!

Greyson's 5 Year Portraits

Kudos to the little man who made it through this photo session outside in the 100 degree heat with the oxford and pants his mean mother made him wear.


For the rest of the shoot visit Raif's smugmug page.

Restaurant Critic

We went out to lunch today and as we were leaving I asked Quinn if she liked lunch or not.

"Well, they didn't have very good pictures in the bathroom. So that disappointed me."

First Day Pictures

So It Begins...

Today was registration at BGA for Greyson. He got to meet his new teacher and new friends in his class. I got to fill out lots of forms. Here are some pictures from the big day. For all you betting friends out there - I didn't cry today, now tomorrow, his first day, might be a different story.

Boys of Fall

For football fans and country fans alike - here is Kenny Chesney's latest music video. The reason I am pimping it out is that it features Greyson's new school Battle Ground Academy (BGA). Pretty cool that our little school (which is not known for football) is getting some of the limelight. So sit back, enjoy and get excited for the upcoming football season.

The Cake

My children's birthdays are always a tad difficult for me. I am not into parties because frankly the type of party I would want to do I can't afford. But I still want to make it a memorable day...ahh dilemmas.

I think it was probably too many episodes of Cake Boss, but I decided that I was going to make Greyson's birthday special by making a fancy cake this year. As everyone knows his favorite thing in the whole wide world is hockey so I had the epiphany of making a cake in the shape of a hockey puck. I mean really how hard could a hockey puck cake be? It is round, singular color, no design on it to speak of. Slam Dunk. But of course I just couldn't make a round cake and frost it black, oh no, it had to look authentic so a la Cake Boss I decided I was going to put fondant on it.

So my first field trip was off to the cake decorating aisle of Michael's. While they had fondant, they didn't have singular colors and what packages they did have with black fondant were in such small amounts that I would have spent like $300 to get enough. So to the internet I went and found the only specialty cake store in Nashville. Field trip number two was to Sweetwise, which of course was no where near my house. At Sweetwise I learned a valuable lesson - fondant is not cheap. No wonder my wedding cake was so darned expensive. They had a sign up giving me a handy guide to how much fondant to purchase. One 8 inch round cake needed 2 pounds of fondant. Really?? So after a quick call to Raif we calculated I would need 6 lbs of fondant for Greyson's cake and the cakes for his birthday party at school.** I therefore left Sweetwise with $60 bucks and 6 pounds of black sugar.

The night before Greyson's birthday I baked a chocolate cake, had Raif slice off the top to make it level (we all know how good he is with knives) and settled in to work.

Fondant is sold in big tubs akin to Play-Doh. Although it is much tougher and thicker and far less pliable than Play-Doh. It is also extremely sticky - sticking to my rolling pin and the counter. The directions say to use powdered sugar to stop it from sticking but then I got white all over my black fondant which wasn't exactly the look I was going for. Finally after a team effort with multiple spatulas we finally got it off the counter and on to the cake. Now on Cake Boss the fondant falls effortlessly into place and is smooth everywhere. In real life, however, putting a flat circle on a round 3-D shape leaves you with lots of puckers and slits and all sorts of things I didn't know how to fix. But at the end of the day I ended up with this.....


Hey it wasn't perfect but then again Greyson is 5 and doesn't really know what a perfect cake was suppose to be.

The big day came and went and after dinner we turned off the lights and I popped in his candle and was all set for astonishment, adoration and one of his famous "Are you kidding me!!!?" or "YES!!!" What I got was a big fat blank look....

"Greyson what does your cake look like?"
"I don't know."
"What is your favorite thing ever?"
"Motorcycles!!!"
"No, what is your favorite sport?"
"Soccer!!"
"No, it is hockey. Does your cake look like anything you would see at a hockey game?"
Long pause. "No."
"It's a hockey puck. I made you a hockey puck cake, isn't that cool?"
"Yeah, can we eat it now?"

sigh. Happy Birthday to my baby boy. If you remember nothing of this birthday or this cake at least try to remember that I tried.



**So in my exuberance about the hockey puck cakes I not only decided to do one for the family but to also make individual ones for his class party. Talk about biting off more than you can chew.

Family Bonding

So this morning whilst I was doing a little cleaning I noticed the stash of face paints and a wicked thought came in my head.....Raif has never experienced Erim family face painting. And so without further ado I give you our fun Sunday family bonding moment..... (Raif still really isn't talking to me)

The Show

They say that the Great White Way in New York City is home to more shows than anywhere in the world...but they would be mistaken.

A day does not pass in this household where I am not treated to 'a show.' I have been to cooking shows and kitty shows, ballet shows and dancing shows and sometimes just shows - which usually consist of my children doing silly things until they end up in a pile of laughter on the floor.

But ever since we saw Playing By Air perform a couple weeks ago our shows have been singular in focus: juggling.

We have juggled rings and balls and anything we can throw up in the air. And as an homage to the performers in Playing By Air, Greyson insists on suiting up for each and every performance.

There are singular performances.


And occasionally duets.


And unfortunately there is even an audience participation number to two.


If you are ever interested, there is always an open seat to the Juggling Erims.

Groovy Saturday Morning

Clay and Play

A few weeks ago it was Greyson's turn to go to Art Camp at Cheekwood. We signed up for the Mommy and Me Clay week. As with Quinn, I just enjoyed spending some quality alone time with Greyson. He did an amazing job making a whale, a piggy bank, a frog, a turtle, a snake pot and a couple of other little things. With the exception of a few scoring parts (how you attach one piece of clay to another) and some painting (you need to put 3 coats of paint on for it to show up - getting my child to do one coat was easy the additional 2 not so much so I did the second coats only over what he painted) he did everything by himself. They are a little behind in firing the pieces so we won't get them back for a few weeks but here is a preview of some of his work....