Trick or Treat
Well this year we took Batman and a Princess trick or treating. It was quite exciting this year we got caught in the rain. It had cleared up nicely when we set out but a little half way through it started to rain and I don’t mean a drizzle. But the kids were troopers and did not seem to mind… the need for candy was a huge driving force. Even Boo had no interest in riding in the car with daddy as he followed us around from house to house. He opened the tail gate on the jeep and let all the cousins pile in between stops. The saying must be true “the more the merrier” because we sure had fun with all the cousins that were able to come. There were six in all Reed, Abbi, Madison, Ansley, Hallah and Katie. I know the Chickens greatly enjoyed the company.
The Cousins
The process of picking out costumes this year was a little bit of an adventure too. First Mason was going to be a Fireman he already had the costume from a dress up birthday party he had been invited to, but then he got it into his head that he was definitely going to be Batman. We spent quite a bit of time trying to convince him of the coolness factor of a fireman but firemen don’t wear capes and I think that was a big factor playing in his desire to be Batman. So of course being the spoiled chicken that he is we began our search for a Batman costume. This must of been a very popular costume this year because every store we looked in did not have it in his size. But we finally found one after much searching at Walmart and it was the last one. After we got home and tried it on it was a bit big so I had to practically take it apart and then put it back together again just to make it fit properly… ah the things we do for our kids. I remember my mom spending hours on one costume when I was little and now I especially appreciate the time she put into it. But the end result looked great and he was so excited and that made it all worth it. And besides Batman has been more then generous with his Halloween loot!
My Chickens…
When we decided to have a second baby as soon as we found out it was going to be a girl we started using her name. So early on Mason would point to my tummy and say ” Baby Kyra”
I was not really sure how he would react to to a sibling but when she came he called her ” his baby”.
Sometimes she was not so sure about this.
But he loved her from the beginning.
For a while it was really hard having a 2 year old and a new baby… I know Mason felt the change, babies take up more time. But at least at the time daycare was a constant for him he had the same teachers and his little classmates. But that changed when I quit my job to stay home full time. The adjustments were hard for both of us. I was suddenly with a toddler and a baby all day and he was without his little playmates. He would get frustrated sometimes that Kyboo could not play with him, he would try talking to her and then ask me why she would not talk back. But as she grew they became closer. And in the past six months they have really interacted more and it’s been so neat to see them start to play together.
She adores her older brother she wants to do whatever he does. She dragged this chair over to sit right next to him.
It’s been so cute to see her try and be the little mommy to him when he cries or is sad she will rub his back and go “ohhh” it’s so sweet. Don’t get me wrong they fight and the sibling rivalry is really starting to crank up.
But I am so glad we have our Chickens……
and I am so glad they have each other….
Happy Father’s Day… Ben!
I just wanted to wish my wonderful husband and daddy to my Chickens a Happy Father’s Day.. We had such a wonderful day with you and I hope that you enjoyed it too. Just wanted to tell you how much I love you and how lucky the Chickens are to have such a great daddy… We love you!
And I also wanted to thank you for my awesome new website design that you did for me this weekend.. I love it and you are so talented. I love you!!!
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.