Who knew

that cleaning up the garage could be such hard work? So that's why Kevin put the little TV out there...

No one's richer...

Some may own castles on the banks of the Rhine,
and hire orchestras each morning at nine.
But richer than I they will never be…
I had a dad who spent time with me.

Play Ball?

The girls begged to play tee-ball this year at the Y. Our friends, the Sedgleys, signed their daughters up too and they're all on the same team. It has been quite fascinating to observe the different way that Olivia, Katy, Rory & Delaney approach tee-ball as compared to Ryan...

At the beginning of a game, they are quite engaged. Olivia did a nice job of hitting and running the bases...















Katy was quite good at getting into the "ready" position as each batter came up to bat...















Katy did well sitting with her teammates and cheering them on as they took their turns at the tee...















But it has been quite hot around here lately. We've been in the upper 90s and even in the 100s for days, and by the middle of the game boredom has set in. Or perhaps it's exhaustion. They're pitiful! Look at them--they can't even stand up in the field!















And instead of sitting patiently and waiting for her turn to bat, Olivia starts being silly with the batting helmet (yes, that IS Olivia under there!)...















Kevin finally had to go have a little talk with them to encourage them to stay engaged with the game that they so wanted to play.

In the end, I'm not sure if it was Kevin's talk, or the bribery that worked best...

Les Artistes

"Mommy, can we please paint today?" The looks on their faces when they were done was worth the little bit of clean up.

Cue Alice Cooper...

because School's Out for Summer! Seventy-five long, hazy, lazy days stretch before us without any real obligations other than to go to the pool, go to the beach, go out on the lake, visit our friends and family, and work on our tans. Sigh. No need to rise at 6 a.m. to get Ryan on the bus. Just need to continue making it to the Y on a regular basis! Of course the housework is neverending, but at least there are no other "to do lists" hanging over our head.

To celebrate the end of school and start of summer, our neighborhood (me) planned and organized an ambush at the bus stop this afternoon. The parents and younger brothers and sisters all gathered with water balloons and super soakers to await the arrival of the bus... (and considering that temperatures climbed over 100 again today, we were all congratulating ourselves on a fun plan!)

And when the bus arrived and our kids emerged, we opened fire! They were stunned, and dying with laughter as we thoroughly doused them with water while shouting "Happy Summer Vacation!" and "Happy Last Day of School!" Once the super soakers were emptied, we turned the new toys over to the kids so that they could orchestrate their own water battles throughout the summer.

Oooops....

Guess it wasn't "dishwasher safe" for the bottom rack...

















The kids got a laugh, and one of my neighbors said it looked like art. Maybe I'll keep it?

Little Swimmers!

Okay, don't have any pictures because I was too busy in the pool this past weekend to be worrying about a camera...

On Thursday the girls and I went over to the home of one of their friends from preschool. Emily has a pool and it was HOT, so we were pretty excited to get the invitation. Katy was her normal swimming self--paddling all over the place in her vest, attempting cannon balls off the diving board, etc. Olivia was her typical skittish self and stuck to the stairs (which I totally understand!). But by the end of the day, Olivia had finally worked up the nerve to start going off the steps, and discovered that she didn't sink with that life jacket on! She spent the last 10 minutes paddling all over the pool--and was SO PROUD of herself.

Today I took all three kids to one of the YMCA branches that has an outdoor pool. Ryan has been swimming pretty well for the past 2 years, and he just keeps improving. Olivia was a little timid at first, but started heading into the slightly deeper water after a few test runs. Katy asked me to try taking off her vest...

I said "sure!" And we gave it a try. Katy sank the first two times, but was paddling for all she was worth. But then the next time she kept her head up a little better. And the next time she just flopped in and did a great prone float! Before I knew it she was swimming all around me, and then she figured out how to do forward somersaults in the water, and then she started to do backward somersaults under water! She is a total little fish.

Way to swim, girls! I'm so proud of you both!

Paybacks can be nice

So I spent half of April and most of May watching our neighbor's 7-month-old and 3-year-old daughters. They had lost their au pair, and I had a case of diarhea of the mouth when I said "I'd be happy to help out" until the new au pair came. Oh, and then I said that I wouldn't accept any payment--they are good friends, and have money issues, and I also wanted to have the freedom to not be available on certain days without feeling any guilt about it.

Anyway, long story short. These neighbors have a boat, and we now get to use the boat on our own pretty much any time we want. And we get invited out on the boat a lot. And we've been taken out to dinner, and they've watched the kids for us to go out by our selves, and we've gotten to go to NASCAR races, etc., etc., etc. It's been a pretty good trade now that I look back on it--especially since I'm done with the babysitting, but they're still feeling indebted to us!

We took the boat out while the Zirkles were here last week and went fishing near the island where we usually go for cookouts. Turns out that it's quite the fishing hole! As soon as those lines hit the water, the kids were reeling in fish. It kept up for over an hour, and we all had a blast. And I got to blame my camera for not being able to help out with the baiting...

I am not a MOP anymore...

I have spent the last 8 1/2 years of my life as a MOP (mother of preschoolers). As of yesterday, the girls' last day of preschool, I am no longer a MOP. At one point in my life I thought that this would be a bittersweet day, but as it turns out I'm quite delighted! It has been a long 8 1/2 years, and I am ready to have all of my kids in elementary school--especially since kindergarten is now a full-day thing (unlike for Ryan).

Now just 86 days of summer vacation lie in front of us, and then it will be time for the girls' first of many trips on a school bus...

Hey, is my neck red?

When Kevin and I moved to Mooresville, NC, aka "Race City USA" in June 2006, we were both fairly indifferent to NASCAR. It was kind of neat in October when the big race came to Lowe's Motor Speedway over in Concord (about 35 minutes from us) and all the race fans came through Mooresville to go to the NC Auto Racing Hall of Fame and visit all the different race shops and see where all the teams trained. We even got to see some of the teams practicing their tire changing which is really pretty cool--4 tires changed in under 30 seconds?! Wow.

But that's as close to NASCAR as we got. Okay, our neighbor across the street owns the company that caters for 3/4 of the NASCAR teams each week. THAT's really as close as we got to NASCAR.

This year, one of the boys from Ryan's class at school had a father who had a fairly large share in Waltrip Racing and Ryan started to show a little interest in the races. Then the school had a fundraiser featuring a pizza party with David Gilliland, the #38 driver as a prize. Next we realized that David Gilliland's son, Todd, was in Ryan's cub scout troop.

Then, in January, one of our neighbors roped my gullible husband into a NASCAR "fantasy" league. Now Kevin has been doing fantasy baseball since his early teenage years, and fantasy football for as long as I've known him, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. But I was. And so we started following the races on Sundays. Ugh.

Charlotte is host to two large races in May: the Sprint All-Star Race one weekend and the Coca Cola 600 over Memorial Day weekend.

Our neighbor, Michael Kennedy, got luxury box seat tickets to both races. He and his wife were supposed to go together, but then when they lost their au pair and I helped them babysit their 2 young (7 months old and 3 years old) daughters for 6 weeks, I was invited to one of the races with Wendy while Michael would stay home with their kids.
















I was a little curious about the whole thing and figured that if I was ever going to go see a race, sitting in a luxury box would be the only way I'd consider it! It was quite an event. I'm glad that I got a chance to see the spectacle, because it is truly one-of-a-kind. And hearing the roar of those engines when the green flag goes down is really quite awesome (in the true sense of the word). The power of those machines is just incredible and it actually takes your breath away as they roar past. Television does not begin to do the "sport" justice because you really don't have any sense of how fast those cars are actually going.
















The respect that was shown for our military was so heartfelt as the Army chorus performed a long set of songs in honor of Memorial Day. We got to see more than a dozen military helicopters fly over head, and the F-14 flyover in the Missing Man formation, and watched as the army inserted troops into "enemy territory" with helicopters.

















Oh, and the spectacle of the people camping in the in-field is like nothing I've seen. Not to mention the drunk woman who proceeded to vomit behind Wendy and I the one time we ventured out of the box...
















So, I've been to a NASCAR race, and I have a favorite driver--Kasey Kahne who incidentally won the race. But considering the fact that Wendy and I were both done with the whole thing by lap 90 (there were 400 laps in the race) and couldn't manage to stay past lap 150,

























I don't think that my neck has turned red... yet.

Mountaineers in the Making

Our friends Don & Erin invited our family to spend a weekend with their family in the mountains. They have friends who own a mountain rental cabin in the Boone, NC area and got a discount on the weekend rate. Their children: Brady (7), Rory (6), and Delaney (4) are great playmates with our crew.















The cabin had 4 bedrooms so each family got 2 - one for the grown-ups and one for the kids. The kids all slept on the lower level of the cabin which also had a nice sized rec room complete with foosball, lots of toys and a karaoke machine. We got to hear the girls sing a LOT of Hannah Montana over the course of the weekend...

We were situated at almost the top of a mountain and had a spectacular view from the front decks. It was at 3600 feet, so there was no humidity and the temperatures were mild all day and cool at night.

























We took a nice hike down the mountain on Saturday morning. The kids really enjoyed the trek down. Katy needed to take a potty break just after we got started so Kevin gave her a hand up the steep hill to the cabin. He had a brilliant idea while waiting for her to get finished (you'll be able to see the brainstorm in one of the upcoming pictures).















The kids had fun with the walking sticks and did a great job setting a nice pace down the mountain. About 3/4 of the way down, Olivia began to complain that she was tired and couldn't go much further... we convinced her to go just a little further so that we could go see the waterfall at the bottom.















The kids had so much fun at the waterfall. They climbed all over the rocks and spent a good amount of time collecting small (and large!) stones to throw in the creek. Several of them ended up getting fairly wet when they "accidentally" sat down in the water...
















Even though it was fun at the waterfall and creek, everyone was ready to head back to the cabin for lunch. It would just be a nice, quick mile-long trek back up the mountain...
















Fortunately Kevin had had the amazing idea to drive the van to the bottom of the mountain to help ferry the kids back up! I can not even begin to imagine the amount of whining and complaining we would have had to endure on the hike back. Ryan was the only kid who hiked the whole way back, and most of the adults were feeling the burn by the time we reached our cabin.
















After a relaxing lunch and some free play time, we were ready to load up the vans with the canoe and the kids and head back down the mountain to the lake below. The guys took the first group of kids out for a ride,
















and then we each took turns going out as families. It was so fun to paddle around the lake and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. I got a little (!) nervous when the kids started moving around in the canoe and we would start to rock. I didn't like feeling like we were going to capsize, although Kevin assured me we were not even close to having that happen.
















Olivia had found a wooden paddle back at the cabin. It was too short to use in the canoe, but she and Delaney found their own version of a canoe to play with while waiting their turns. Gotta love the imagination!
















That evening we had a nice cookout on the back deck, and then the guys built a fire in the pit behind the cabin to roast marshmallows and make s'mores (Livvy called them 'snores'). There is nothing quite like s'mores and roasted marshmallows after a full day of activity.

















We woke Sunday morning to lots of fog which turned into rain. Erin and I enjoyed our coffee on the covered deck while the guys loaded the vans and got the cabin back in order--it was Mother's Day, after all! Definitely a weekend to remember and one that we hope to repeat.

Seriously.

I was talking to my neighbor Alyson on the phone on Friday afternoon. My girls were over at her house playing with her daughter, Sydney. All of a sudden I heard her take in a sharp breath and she quietly asked me if I'd seen our girls recently...

I hadn't seen them since they had gone to Sydney's house. She apologized for their new appearance, but wouldn't give me any details as I listened to her send them home and begin to scold her daughter. About 30 seconds later I heard Kevin say "you have GOT to be kidding" and then they appeared...


























It would seem that Sydney had gotten some new body markers. Fortunately they were washable and came off relatively easily...

A Princess!

We took another trip to the mall today and I'm proud to report that Katy is no longer a pirate. She got her second ear pierced. After many attempts at bribing her, she finally decided to do it so that she could get......















a piece of gum. That's my Katy!

Princess? or Pirate...

Katy has been asking to have her ears pierced ever since 4 of her close friends got theirs pierced nearly a year ago. I told her that if she still wanted it done when she turned 5, I'd take her to have them done.

So this morning, she and Livvy had a day off from school and I had to pick up a few things from our mall and we took a trip to Libby Lu to get her ears done.

We arrived, and discovered there was only one woman working at the time. Now, Katy is a VERY brave little girl. She barely even flinches when she gets a shot, doesn't even shed a tear, so I figured that she would be fine having her ears done one at a time... can you see where I'm going with this yet?

She selected some pretty pink c.z. heart earrings, and then she hopped up in the chair and sat very still with a slightly nervous grin on her face, waiting to get her first ear pierced. As soon as it was done, she looked over at me with a look of horror as she realized that her other ear still needed to be pierced...

The nice lady at the store gave us all the time we needed to try to convince her to do her other ear, but Katy wanted no parts of it. Not even for a Webkinz.

Fortunately, the package holding the second earring cartridge had not yet been opened, so the lady explained that we could come back another time when she was ready to have her other ear pierced. Katy decided that that was what she wanted to do.

On our way home, she told me that she would get her other ear pierced. She'd do it for her 6th birthday.

So instead of a little princess for a daughter, I now have a little pirate. Why am I really not surprised?

Happy Birthday x Two!

My babies are now one whole hand old. Not really babies anymore. I'm not exactly sure how it's been five years already since they joined our family, while at the same time I can't believe that it's only been five years.

My "babies" can feed themselves, make their own PB&J sandwiches, use the potty, swing themselves, walk to the bus, communicate their wants, needs, hopes and dreams eloquently with words, write their names, sing songs, dribble a basketball, ride a bicycle with training wheels, play hopscotch, blow bubbles, wink their eyes, whistle, buckle their own seatbelts, climb a ladder, jumprope, twirl until they can't stand up anymore, turn on the TV and find their favorite channel, brush their own teeth, wash their bodies in the shower, lather their hair, and the list just goes on and on...

I've been there for all of their firsts, and look forward to the many firsts that are still to come as they continue to learn and grow and become people who are independent of me. I applaud that independence and encourage it and will do everything I can to allow them to be strong, happy, and independent adults some day.

At the same time, I will be sure that they know that there is always someone that they can come to for a hug, a kiss, and a listening and nonjudgemental ear. Someone who will cheer for them and encourage them anytime they need it, no matter how many hands (or feet!) it takes to count their age.

Five Things

Katy has been trying my patience for the past few weeks, and yesterday was no exception. If anything, it was one of the worst days we've had in a while. I seem to remember Ryan getting this way close to his 5th birthday too. Some sort of need to push the limits and see what she can get away with now.

Lately she has been acting extremely ungrateful for her possesions. She has been treating her things with a total disregard for their value. I reached my breaking point yesterday and told her to go to her room and pick 5 things (pulled this one from Stephanie's mommy playbook).

She brought back a fabric baby book, an eraser, a broken mobile to her doll crib, a stuffed animal she hasn't played with in months, and a tube of lip gloss. She looked rather smug until I told her that this was all that she would have to play with for the following week!

I then put all other toys in her room into her closet or the playroom. I gated off the playroom and locked her closet and declared Olivia's room off-limits.

I was expecting a fit of monstrous proportions but she actually accepted the punishment gracefully. I let her play with her five 'toys' for a little while to let things sink in a bit, and then I told her how proud I was of her acceptance of the punishment without any arguing or crying. Since she had acted so maturely, I allowed her to choose 2 additional items that she would be able to play with that week. This time she chose much more carefully and selected a webkin and her leapster.

Hopefully she will become a bit more appreciative of her numerous blessings over the next week!