Atlanta
So we took a mini family vacation over Memorial Day weekend. We had so much fun but I quickly found out when you vacation with kids it is so exhausting! Being in a hotel room has it’s drawbacks. Your kids go to bed when you go to bed and since we did not want to go to bed at 8 our kids went to bed at 10 or 11. Which made them slightly grumpier the next day, plus there were no naps to be had since we were on the go the entire time.
We went to the World of Coke the first day and that was fun the Chickens liked tasting all the different coke flavors from around the world and they had some crazy ones. The rest of the trip we managed to cram in the Georgia Aquarium, The Fern-bank Museum, The Zoo and the High Art Museum which Ben really loved.
I would say the Georgia Aquarium was the biggest hit though. I swear these places are ingenious for finding ways to part you from your money. We came out of one exhibit and they had face painting all set up and Mason wanted one. So he got this Spider-man on his cheek and he was sooo proud…cost $5 we got off cheap he wanted his entire face painted and that was $25 his daddy said no way!
It was neat to compare pictures from the last time we came to the Aquarium Mason was only 8 months old.
He was such a cute fat baby!
Staying in a hotel was a new experience for the Chickens they loved it. Kyboo really liked the huge mirror. Mason kept calling the hotel our new home.
This is the picture I took from our balcony..
And Mason took this one…
I think he was going for the artistic thing like his daddy.
All in all it was a really fun vacation. Now I am making plans for the beach in September….
The Zoo…
We went to the zoo for the first time since Mason was 18 months old.. And as you can see he LOVED it.
And well Boo just looked longingly at the “kitties” aka lions behind the glass.
Some days I feel like this…
Some days this is how I feel. I know I have it good not everybody gets to stay home with their kids. I am thankful to be a SAHM but some days it’s just so hard. I used to work full time and I thought that was hard. But somehow the house managed to stay cleaner because no one was in it all day. I am not one of those highly organized people to begin with and I am not self motivated much to my husband’s chagrin.
So put me in the house all day with two kids 3 and 1 and well simply put the house gets trashed. And toys, toys I HATE them they are everywhere and when you ask the 3 year old to help he says “oh it’s too hard.” So I end up doing it myself because he takes so long to clean up. Then there are days like today… Things are going pretty good the house is trashed from the weekend I won’t even talk about that. But I was trying to clean it up as Kyboo (18 months) drags everything back out that I JUST put away.
So I decide to take a break an make some phone calls and all of a sudden Mason starts screaming bloody murder from the bathroom at the top of his lungs. Why are you always on the phone when they decide to either freak out or pee on the floor?
I tried to finish the conversation with the nice lady while my child is shrieking from the other room about pee on the floor. I get off the phone go in the bathroom and he has indeed peed a lake in front of the potty not IN it in FRONT of it. And then Kyra decides to take a stroll in the pee as I am scrambling around trying to find anything big enough to sop up this lake of pee. And I lose it. Yep impromptu baths ensue…and a little yelling…for Kyboo to get out of the pee for Mason to get in the tub it was a three ring circus.
So dear husbands when your come home and your wife is wilded eyed and the kids are in front of the tv eating junk food. Don’t ask why just give her a kiss and be thankful you were not the one sopping of the pee.
Finishing my “Leaf” Bracelet pt. 1
A friend of my husband’s Melissa Ringler is a blacksmith. She made my beautiful “leaf” bracelet that I got from the Chickens on Mother’s Day. We left the Chickens with my mom for a couple of hours and went to Melissa’s blacksmith shop Magic Metals to get my bracelet finished. It had not been sealed and the colors had not been brought out in the metal yet. When I first saw some of Melissa’s work I thought she added the colors to the metal with a varnish, I was surprised to find out that the colors already existed in the metal and all she does is heat it up with a propane torch to bring them out. The different colors are determined by how long you expose it to the heat. She asked if I wanted blues or if I wanted more purples and browns. I, of course, asked for Purple for Maddie.
The bracelet turned out beautiful it’s a pretty wheat color and yes there is some purple in there too. We made the following video to show the process of her finishing it up. It was fascinating to watch her work. I was even more surprised when she told me that I was going to make an arrow head. We took a video of that too. Tune in later for Part 2 my first blacksmith lesson.
If you would like more information on Magic Metals please click on the following link Magic Metals LTD.
Wordless Wednesdays
These are pictures of Kyboo and Mason taken by our good friend Jim Ferguson at Artisphere last weekend. Check out his website Sandlapper Studio he is incredible.
A leaf
I had the most wonderful Mother’s Day. My husband and my Chickens did a really good job.
On Saturday I was hopelessly trying to pump my 3 year old for information on my Mother’s Day present… I would ask him, “What did you get mommy?” He kept saying ” A leaf”. I was thinking ok this should be interesting. He is not above picking up a stick or a leaf and saying, “Mommy here is a present for you.” So I did not know what to expect a box of leaves? He is after all three, but Daddy was involved so I need not worry. Besides any mommy would be thankful for a box of leaves from their three year old right?
We were frantically getting ready for church we are always running late and Ben said he had a surprise for me. He opened up one side of a wardrobe we have and said I have door number one. He had the cutest card from Mason and Kyra it said that I got to go shopping and I could pick out one bracelet and one necklace.
Then he opened door number two and had laid out some of the prettiest necklaces and bracelets. He said I got to pick one bracelet and one necklace and as you can see they are leaves. Thank you Chicken!
These are the two that I picked. They are handmade by a local artist who is actually a women blacksmith Magic Metals LTD.
Happy Mother’s Day
I just wanted to wish all the mothers out there Happy Mother’s Day. No matter if you adopted a child or if your children are grown or if your child is in heaven. You are all mothers…….big ((HUGS)) to you all and much love. Happy Mother’s Day!!
They grow up so fast…
I took this picture of Kyboo last week. She was headed off to some corner of our “front yard” by herself . Sniff. She is only 18 months old but she is already asserting her own brand of independence. She can put her own shoes on well one pair of shoes she can put on by herself. She can feed herself with a spoon and tries to put her bowl in the sink like her brother when she is done eating. She tries to buckle herself in the car seat, when we come home she closes the front door and wants to lock it. These are all little things, but it seems like she is doing them so much sooner then Mason did.
Funny how with the first you can’t wait until they start to walk and talk because you want to see them do new things. But with your second you realize how quickly they change how FAST they learn to walk and talk . And you want them to stay small just a little longer…….
This is Kyra at about 8 weeks.
50 YEARS
These are my parents, Bill and Cathy German, on their wedding day April 24, 1959. They just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They have 6 children ( I am the baby in case you were wondering) and 23 grand children. They met in the navy and dated for only three months before they got married. Needless to say raising six children was not easy. They never had a lot of money but they worked hard to care for their kids and provide for them the best they could. With the divorce rate so high it is kind of rare in this day and age to see someone make it to 50 years of marriage. So I thought it would just be nice to share that it still can happen. My dad writes poems and he wrote this one for their 50th. I just wanted to include it.
Once upon a time
As our story will show,
A young Navy coupld
Cupid shot with his bow
He was a sailor
She a cute WAVE in blue.
Three months of courting
And they both said “I do.”
In a small Navy Chapel
At Millington, Tennessee,
A few friends and no flowers
And the best part, it was free.
On April twenty-fourth
It will be fifty years.
A life full of blessings
With laughter and tears.
Not in the beginning
But now Christ leads our way.
We have been nothing but blessed
Is all we both can say.
Six lovely children,
A quiver full you see.
Brenda, Kenny , and Mike
Cindy, Dana and Jodee
To top everything off
As we’ve been in God’s hands.
We are ever so blessed
With twenty-three grands.
That’s our story for now
I will lay down my pen.
And if given a chance
We would do it again.
