A perfect day

Last weekend, we had lots of plans. Many scheduled events, and some things that we had to get done. It was the beginning of our Spring Break - yay sleeping in! Plus, David had a 4 day weekend for the Easter Holiday. (The army is good about that in places where you deploy a lot. They schedule extra days off during the year that you are home because nearly every other year you are not home.)

So Friday we had lots to do. It is our regular commissary day, plus David and Spencer were in need of a trip to the barber shop. And once Jessa was home from school, we had planned to drive to Savannah to eat supper and procure a new drinking fountain for our precious Stewart, as his is "hard broke." Busy day! (and we still had to order the fountain on-line when we got home!)

And then Saturday we had our last 2 egg hunts scheduled (oh, by the way, if anyone needs about 5,000 plastic eggs, let me know. . .). The first was at 10 AM to be followed by a little fun fair. This was crowded and nuts. It is a post wide egg hunt, so every child who has a parent stationed at Ft. Stewart was invited. Spencer refused because they do not allow parents to be near the children for fear the parents will get too competitive. And as much as you and I know that I would NEVER do anything but hold his hand, I guess the folks in charge don't know me that well. In Jessa's age group, she was happy to go hunt. But then ever so sad after some children pushed her, took eggs out of her basket, and even slapped her hand away from an egg! She ended up with a full basket anyway, and sweetly shared her eggs with her brother since his basket was empty.

On the way to Egg Hunt #1 - before Spencer was holding on to my leg and tossing his basket. . .

The fun fair had bounce houses, crafts, slides, snacks, and all kinds of fun. Spencer is not a fan of bounce houses. None of us are fans of the crazy long lines. Spencer did not wish to stay, so Jessa and I stuck it out alone while he and David headed home. Jessa was in extra kind mode and after she did the bunny hop race, she asked for two prizes . This was not allowed, so my precious girl stood in line and bunny hopped again to claim a prize in her brother! I was so proud!

We then had a neighborhood egg hunt. All the houses on our street hid eggs in their yards for all the kids on our street to find. They were really excited about this all day. David and I made them stay inside while we hid the eggs in our yard. They watched the window waiting for everyone to head out to meet in the middle. Once we got out there, Spencer started freaking out. He did not want people to hunt "our eggs." He wanted everyone to stay in their own yard and leave ours alone. I ha to take him inside several times to calm him down. We were 0 for 2 egg hunt wise! At least he enjoyed his class egg hunt, right? It is sort of my fault, I guess. I have always had mini-hunts in our yard for them to look for eggs. This is the first time other people were hunting at our house. . . Oh well! That was a long and crazy day that left us all exhausted and me terribly sun-burned. (Since I had children, I always worry about them and sunscreen and seem to forget me!)

Jessa the professional egg hunter and Spencer, pouting because people are taking OUR eggs!

We had been planning our Sunday for weeks. We watched the weather to pick the perfect day to head to the beach. Jessa is obsessed with the beach. If we ever watch a home movie from our trip to Hawaii, she disappears and then comes running in with her bathing suit on. She has been so anxious to go back to the beach since we are finally back near Jekyll Island again. We were pumped also because it was (as far as we know) Max's first beach trip ever.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, BUT the wind was brutal. It had to be the most miserable day we have ever had at the beach. We had sand in our picnic, sand in our drinks, sand in our eyes. We could not spread out a towel because they blew away. Our shoes blew over, the dogs water blew away, MISERABLE! Plus, despite the 75 degree weather, we were FREEZING. Jessa ended up having a great time, though. She loves the beach unconditionally!! Her chin was quivering and she was covered in goose bumps, but she ran and played and swam. What a day. I am pretty sure my camera is ruined because the sand blew in it even when it was tucked away in a towel in a bag. What a mess!

Our windblown doggies

They had to keep their eyes closed as they ate their SANDwiches.

Spencer still had a pretty good time - until he got wet. . .

That is pure joy- she could have cared less that her lips were blue!

Then there was Monday. We had nothing planned. It was David's last day to sleep in without a 5:30 wake up for PT (one of the many reasons I am not in the army, who wants to have group exercise that early - not me!) We got up and started cleaning the house up. We had neglected it all weekend with all of our comings and goings. The kids were in great moods. We cleaned up each room together. Then David would come through with the vacuum. We had great talks while we were cleaning. Jessa would find any things that could be thrown away. Spencer was great at finding where things went. And the house looked great!

They helped me sort laundry and wash clothes. They played nicely together all day. The weather was rainy and dreary, so we never even took off our jommies. The kids ate a nice lunch together. They colored, they danced, they played some more. We even got cleaned up and went out to eat for supper, per our Monday tradition. We did not have to referee any fights or deal with any discord. A perfect day. . .

Drawing and enjoying a "dinner date," as they called it.

This may not have been the high point of the day for David,

but Jessa dressed them in matching gowns to dance together.
And I stopped and thought how funny it was that of the 4 days we were all together, this was by far the best one. The one day that we did not have anything special or out of the ordinary planned. The one day we did not do anything that would be considered "fun." I have said it before, but my favorite place to be is at home with my family! I guess this weekend just proved my point, huh?

Quiet now cobwebs. . .

After I became a Mommy, my Momma told me about this poem. I instantly loved it. It has become my mantra:

I hope my children look back on today,
And see a Mother who had time to play!
Children grow up while you’re not looking.
There’ll be years ahead for cleaning and cooking,
So quiet now cobwebs; dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby, and babies don’t keep.

Today it has special meaning to me.
To me, its message boils down to not taking anything for granted.


This whole blog world is sort of new to me. I always wander around and find blogs from the lists of blogs that other people have. It is in this way that I learned of a sweet little girl named Madeline Spohr. She had a tough little life from the start, and her parents lost her last week. I know that any given day so many children are lost, but for some reason, her story really moved me. I spent the weekend reading all of the archived posts by her mother, Heather. I swear, I feel like I know them, I guess that is one of the cool things about this whole blog Internet thing - you can be touched by people that you never meet.

I have had Maddie, Heather, and Mike on my mind all weekend. It is so unimaginable to me. I cannot fathom losing a child. My babies are my life, my purpose, my heart. I simply cannot comprehend what Maddie's parents are going through.

I can say that I have tried to enjoy every little moment with my two babies the past few days. Today is all we have. You never know what tomorrow will bring, so I guess you have to enjoy each day as it comes. You have to be thank God for each moment you are here and that you can spend with the ones you love.

I feel so thankful for all the blessings in my life. And I think the most remarkable thing about Maddie's mom and dad is that despite their overwhelming grief, they are simply thankful for Maddie's life. If you are interested in checking them out or learning about sweet Maddie,
http://www.remembermaddie.com/index.php/2009/04/14/my-little-maddie-moo/


God bless the Spohr family, especially Madeline.

ketchup - it goes with everything?

I was getting supper ready. It was lasagna. I do not make it that often because it is an all day kind of supper, you know? I cook the sauce in the morning so it can cook all day, then you have to assemble all the layers. Anyway, I was busy in the kitchen getting it all ready. I was also trying to make the salads and make the tea. You know, a crazed time in the kitchen trying to get supper ready. Spencer came in and opened the fridge and got out the ketchup. I watched him and waited to see what his plan was. He walked in to the dining room and put the ketchup on the table. I did not say anything because I figured when he saw what we were having, he would change his mind.

So supper is ready. We all go to sit down and eat. I fixed the kiddos plates first so that the lasagna could cool. And instead of salad, I always give them celery, carrots, and some ranch dressing for dipping. They are not big on lettuce, and I'll do anything to get them to eat some raw veggies, you know?

We all sat down, said the blessing, and were ready to dig in. Spencer reached for the ketchup. I tried to explain to him that ketchup does not really "go" with this supper. He was pretty convinced he wanted the ketchup. I decided, what the heck?! So I helped him put it on his plate, thinking that he would change his mind. I mean, I love ketchup. I even eat it on eggs, but I could not even imagine it with this meal. But, always one to choose my battles, I told myself that it is just sweet tomato sauce, right? And the lasagna was chock full of tomatoes and sauce, right?

Well, my hard-headed, culinary adventurous son dipped each forkful of lasagna into his ketchup. He made yummy noises the whole time. He dipped his carrots and celery into his ketchup, as well. He ate a great supper. Maybe not the way I would have imagined, but like I said, I pick my battles. And ANY time that my babies eat something decent, I put that in the "win" column.

Crafty Keys: Easter Eggs

Dyeing Easter eggs is messy. Frankly, it is not even that fun. To be honest, I do not even have a ton of fond egg dyeing memories from my childhood. But for some reason, I feel like it is my supreme Mommy duty to dye Easter eggs. Last year was the first year that I felt like they were both ready. We did it. They did enjoy it. So I decided to try it again. I tried to get clever and bought 2 new kinds. One was magic glitter eggs and the other was tye dye eggs - how can you tye dye a hard boiled egg you may ask? You can't. And frankly none of the eggs ended up looking remotely like the boxes. . .

My first gripe is this. These egg dye people are so helpful. They print all the instructions on the back of the box. How nice, right? These egg dye people are also efficient - the boxes can serve as egg holders to let them dry. The problem: the instructions are printed on the box where you punch out the holes to create the egg holder. Last year, I was so frustrated because I could not remember what to do when, and the instructions were all jumbled on the punched out circles. This year, I did make copies of the boxes with my scanner so that I could consult them throughout the process.

My second gripe was that only one box had the egg dipper holder thingy. This caused some trouble because there was waiting and turn taking involved. Not easy when you have 2 excited children!

The picture of impatience waiting in the dipper thngy
The glitter kit was iffy - we were supposed to have enough for a bunch of eggs, but it all get wet and clumpy. Oh well, we tried! Jessa claimed this kit and was disappointed that she could not do more eggs with it.

Not enough sparkles for more eggs. . .

Note the drying tray with incomplete instructions.

Tye Dyeing involved dyeing them one color and then dropping a few drops of another color on the already dyed egg. Then you rubbed the egg while it was in a bag. It worked out OK, I guess. Spencer enjoyed that part and did a good job.

They never actually looked tye dyed, but Spencer enjoyed the process!

I think this project was just OK. They were occupied, we were glad we did it, but I am not anxiously awaiting next year. . .

I saw a commercial the other day. You know the black and white ones where only the Rice Krispies are colored blue and it is a tender moment with a mommy or daddy and their children. Then the voice over lady says, "Childhood is calling." Well, this commercial had them making rice krispie treat eggs. Yum, right? So after the just OK egg dyeing day, I thought we'd try the new idea. Plus, wouldn't you rather eat rice krispies instead of pink hard boiled eggs?? I thought so.

We put the warm krispie and marshmallow mixture in plastic eggs - like a mold.

Then we dipped the ends in some melted chocolate.

Then we sprinkled the ends. Wow!

Molding the concoction into an egg and Jessa holding the molded treat

Dipping the ends in delicious melted chocolate

Adding sprinkles to our delicious, lovely eggs
This was way more fun! Our fingers were a little sticky, but they were still their natural color. I was not stressing about staining the army's house, and we got lots of delicious nibbles.

After the Crazy Key Family tried both, we if you are going to only do one Easter egg afternoon, I would recommend the updated version. It's not that I am against the old school dyeing method, but the rice krispies were more fun, less messy, and way more yummy!

Tales from Preschool: Easter Eggs and 100!!!!!

First, I have been anticipating this post for weeks. It is my 100th post! Yikes! Can you believe it? I am so proud. I was planning to do a top 100 list of some sort, but 100 is a lot. I had trouble coming up with 100 anythings that I would be interested in typing, not to mention 100 things that y'all would be interested in actually reading. I could not come up with anything else terribly clever to celebrate, either. So we'll just leave it at a "yay me" for posting 1oo times and more importantly, a "yay you" for reading my rambling thoughts, crazy stories, and my obsessive feelings for my precious babies and awesome family. And now, on with the 100th post. . .

This week, our preschool is celebrating Easter. Besides all the stories and discussions of the true meaning of Easter, they are having Easter Egg Hunts. They are spreading out the egg hunts over the whole week. This is because of limited egg-hiding space on the church grounds, but I LOVE it because I get a day to focus on each of my children. Tuesday was Spencer's class egg hunt, and Jessa's class day was Wednesday.

Each child brings in 12 candy filled eggs, so each child leaves with 12. A great idea and a good way to keep it fair (plus, we have 2 more egg hunts to attend, so I am happy to limit the number that enter this house!!!).

I walked into Spencer's class Tuesday during lunchtime. I was so excited that I even wore some bunny ears to get in the mood! I went to sit with Spencer at his spot at the table. The little girl next to him, immediately looked at me and said, "Who are you?" I told her I was Spencer's Mommy. She said, "Oh. Well, what are you doing here?" I said I was here to help hide eggs for their Easter Egg Hunt. She said, "Why are you wearing those ears?" I explained that I just love holidays and I was excited about Easter and hunting eggs. She looked at me hard and said, "Well, Easter is not really about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Easter is about Jesus." I smiled and told her that she was exactly right. She told me, huh??

Spencer at the lunch table - look at his grin!!

After I sat there for a minute, another little girl walked over to me (I just sat on the floor by Spencer). She stood in front of me and gave me several "once overs." She never said a word, but after a few seconds, she leaned over and kissed me on the shoulder. Then she turned and walked away. I was puzzled but tickled. Ms. Christina said, "Did she kiss you?" I laughed and said, "Uh-huh!" Miss Christina laughed and said, "She is just very affectionate!" I guess I should feel honored that I made the cut! She definitely thought it over before she gave me my shoulder kiss. . . Aren't they all cute??

After lunch, I helped hide the eggs. Then they lined up to head out - we were all very excited!!

We hid their eggs in plain sight, and some of them still had some trouble! They were so funny! Their teachers gave them these cute baskets with 12 small holes in the bottom. It was perfect to help them make sure they only got 12 eggs. The teachers kept reminding them "only 12 eggs per person." It was clear that some of them could not count to 12! And Spencer (who I call "little Emory" because he is so anal and precise and deliberate just like my Poppy) found an egg and lined it up with a hole in his basket. He walked 2 steps, and the egg rolled out. So he stopped and lined it up again. He took off, the egg rolled, he stopped, he fixed it, he was on his way.

Needless to say, his hunt was somewhat frustrating and very slow because he did not like it when his eggs were not properly placed in their hole! These holes were not meant to hold the eggs. They were more for decorating, you know, or even for deviled eggs. Anyway, "little Emory" found his 12 and sat proudly with the other kiddos. SO much fun!! They were so cute and so excited. I love to watch the babies interact with their little friends and their teachers!!

Spencer counting and recounting his 12 eggs and posing with his full basket!!

Wednesday, I got to Jessa's class after lunch. They were all in a circle after a story trying to kill time waiting on another class to finish with the playground. After the story, one of her teacher's opened up the floor for some jokes. Jessa's hand was up first. Her joke: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Her punchline: "To get a smoothie on its head." Well, it killed - who knew she was such a comedian! They were rolling on the floor and fake laughing up a storm. So then, each of the next jokes involved things crossing the road. There were also a few smoothies in the mix. And one little boy added "poop" to his punchline. This made them all crack up even more!

I also got to see them play a game called "shoot out." The kids stand back to back and whoever raises their hand first and answers the question correctly wins. Jessa was not always fast on the hand, but she did get her question right when she was fastest. The funniest part of the game was when the teacher asked during one round, "What is something that starts with the letter of the week: T?" Guess what answer they call came up with first?? Yep, you guessed it, "Toilet!" And with the mention of the word toilet, they all erupt into silly giggles.

Finally it was time for the Mommies to hide the eggs. Since they are all 4 and 5, we could really hide theirs. It was more challenging to hide them! They were so funny running around like crazy. Jessa and one of her little friends were cracking me up keeping each other posted on their progress. Jessa would holler, "I found one. It is purple." Her friend would holler back, "I just got one, too. Mine is green!"

Hard to get a good picture because I was having to chase her - she was serious about this hunting thing.

Jess posing with her haul and counting up her eggs. She had to share 1 because she got 13.

And she parted with it without too much coaxing. . .

Jessa even found one of the 2 prize eggs! She found the silver one and was ever so proud. I had no idea what was in it. They were supposed to wait until they got home to open them. Once she was home for like 2 seconds, she cracked them all open. Her big special, shiny egg had a whole dollar in it! I asked her to let me see it, and she said she couldn't. I asked again and she said in a very exasperated tone, "Mom, I already put it in my piggy bank." I guess that was a good place for it, huh??

Posing with her prize egg

After the hunt, we hung with her class until the end of the day. They had races (Jess was the only girl that wanted to race over and over. She did not win, but I was proud of her for trying!), played horseshoes, and even chased bubbles that Ms. V blew. Such a fun day!

Note the proper technique - she is a natural!

I am so glad that I got to have an egg hunt with each child where I could focus on just them. AND I always love my funny preschool moments with their friends. Yay!

A puddle wonderland

I love the rain. OK, I mostly like sleeping with the window cracked so I can hear it. And I like being chilly and needing to put on a warm sweatshirt or snuggle under a warm blanket. I also like stomping in puddles and enjoying the fresh, wet world.

Once Jessa could walk, I taught her to seek out puddles and splash away. Mimi told me I would regret it when she was older, but I taught her anyway. She has always enjoyed playing in the rain, too. And of course, Spencer likes it now, too.

Wednesday, when were leaving school, we came straight home to put on our boots and splash around. There were not a lot of puddles at the house. And the rain had stopped for the time being. We had our rain boots and coats on for nothing! Bummer!

When I was leaving to pick them up Thursday afternoon, I noticed the rain was coming down pretty well. So I packed their rain boots in a plastic bag to take with me. Their rain boots are cool, but they are not comfortable shoes for all day wear. Once I picked them up at their classes, we stopped and changed their shoes. The parking lot is old and was full of cool puddles. We splashed, we jumped, we ran - it was so much fun!

Once we got home, the fun continued. Since we have had a lot of rain, we have standing water in the yard, the sidewalks, the patio, the street. Standing water = puddles







After several minutes, Jessa looked up at me and hollered, "Mommy! It's a puddle wonderland!" I must agree. It was pretty wonderful. We had lots of wet fun splashing in the mud, stomping in the water, and enjoying the rain. We were all drenched when we came in, but it was so worth it. Plus, after a warm bath and hot chocolate, they were good as new!

It worked for me, even though it looked black.

Just push play, and it should work, I hope. . .

A puddle wonderland indeed!

ZOO

We are zoo people. Unfortunately, there is not a zoo very close to us. The closest one is in Jacksonville, FL! As soon as we moved here, Jessa could not wait for her Daddy to "find us a new zoo." The kids were thrilled when he told them that we found one. They really do love the zoo. I mean, I guess all kids love the zoo, don't they? We have been taking them since before they could walk, so they are veterans. They know their animals and so enjoy visiting with them.

My little Zoo Lovers

The first thing we did was ride the train.

THE TRAIN

Spencer could hear the whistle as soon as we got out of the car. It was not an option to wait until later to take the train ride. We headed right up to stand in line for the train. The funny part was that we could see the back sides of all of the exhibits. We had a great view of the rhinos and elephants and giraffes. Observant Jessa noticed that the giraffe "barn" had a special door.

Jessa said, "That's one tall door."

Next we ate lunch. David got somewhat frustrated that we had driven 2 hours, spent $50, and after an hour there, all we had done was ride the train and order food. Jessa and I were sad to be in Florida where there is no Coke, only Pepsi, but we managed. We got a pager to tell us when our lunch was ready. The kids cracked me up watching and waiting.

Hurry up, LUNCH!!

After lunch, the kids headed straight for the carousel and playground. OK, so it was close to 2 hours before we actually saw an animal. . . But like I told David at the time, it is all about them, so we just went with the flow.

Silly Daddy poses with J and S on the carousel!!

Also in the kids area was a small petting zoo for goats. Finally, animals! I may have mentioned this before, but Jessa has a deep love of goats. For some reason, every petting zoo area has goats. And we have been to our fair shre of petting zoos. She loves to feed them and brush them. She talks to them and hugs them. She is truly a goat gal.

Jessa with Sally

(all goats regardless of gender are Sally).

I am not crazy about snake areas or reptile houses, but on a hot day, they are usually nice and cool. We saw huge snakes (a 17 foot anaconda - yikes! I always have Harry Potter moments at snake exhibits. I am not ugly like Dudley, but what if someone around me is a parselmouth?) We also saw cute little tree frogs with big red eyes. The kids posed with some inspiration from these frogs.

Spencer was not a fan of the strong smells. He comes by this very honestly - I am not a fan of any odor, pleasant or unpleasant. There were moments when Spencer's nose interrupted his fun.

Spencer was so precious all day with a stick playing "air drums" and marching along. He is such a happy boy most of the time.

When we were in an aviary, there were tons of birds all flying and walking free. There were some really unique birds that I had never seen before. At one point, Jessa was looking in an area with several birds. She said, "Look, Momma, a Toucan." At first, I did not see one. But I followed where her eyes were looking and sure enough, a toucan! A lady next to us got so tickled! She did not say, " a bird," she knew what it was. I did say we visit a lot of zoos.

I will say that by the end of our afternoon, we were all hot and tired. I spent some time with Spencer on my back. It was a long day, I guess. . .

BUT one of the last animals we visited ended up being the highlight of our whole day! I mentioned that we saw the giraffes from the train. But they have this awesome giraffe overlook where you can almost touch them. And for a mere $2 you can buy a branch with leaves and actually feed a giraffe. Jessa was all over this. I missed capturing the actual moment where the giraffe ate her leaves because a lady held her daughter up right in my line of sight. Darn it! But Jessa was so tickled - she has always loved giraffes. What a cool opportunity!!

When we called May to tell her about our fun fun day, the first question she asked was, "Well, what animals did you see at the zoo?" And our boy Spencer said, "May, we saw a train!" Bless his heart, he does love trains. Forget the elephants, lions, and giraffes, the zoo had a train!