Cloudland

As promised, here are the pictures from our trip to Cloudland Canyon, which turned out to be a really fun day, even if it was a bit on the chilly side. It was supposed to get to 72 degrees, but I don't think it ever quite made it. It must've been the breeze that kept things cool, because down in the canyon--out of the wind--it was pretty nice. I am so over March. The month is nothing but one big tease, and I've just about had enough. It's frigid outside today, and I am ready to put on a short-sleeve shirt and keep it on for crying out loud!

Anyways, here we are starting our hike. It was a really beautiful place. Everything was *just* starting to bud, and there were mountain laurels everywhere. In about two weeks, the scenery will be outta sight. It was unfortunate that our break was not a tad later so we could've enjoyed that. But they worked it around Easter and it was early, so too bad. I move that Easter be the third Sunday in April every year, like they do Thanksgiving. I see absolutely no reason to continue to base the date on moon cycles and equinoxes and whatnot, and if anyone knows why we should still be using this ancient system, please--enlighten me. Moving on...

The park has a 5-mile rim trail that we obviously skipped, having two preschoolers in tow. But there is also a hike down into the canyon that is only two miles round-trip and leads to two waterfalls. That was great for us, and there were only about five other people in the whole park, so we took it at a kid pace...which was good, because we got to pause and check things out. We explored some caves and overhanging rocks, watched for red-tailed hawks and noticed that the forest was beginning to emerge from winter. There were ferns starting to grow back and I saw lots and lots of toadshade sprouting up, a plant I discovered last year when Luke's mom found one growing in her woods. I had never seen it before, but since researching it, I have seen it everywhere. Anyway, it was in abundance on the canyon floor.


Ben zonked out on the way home. So did Patrick and I. Altogether a very good day. Yesterday Patrick had his first soccer game and dang it--it was freezing of course! But still a great experience. I got pictures from that too. They'll come later. See ya!

Egg-cellent Fun

Geez, that was corny. Oh, who cares? We have been having a lot of fun this week. Monday Luke went to work so the boys and I took a much-needed day of rest after the hectic weekend. Then on Tuesday, we couldn't get our act together and think of something to do, but that was okay because it was still kind of chilly after Monday's frigid temps. So yesterday we finally got in gear and headed to the Georgia Aquarium to let the boys see all the fishies. It was a great time--unfortunately, I have no documentation of that. I remembered to bring my camera but forgot that I had taken out the picture card to get egg hunt pictures developed. Oops. Stupid me. But it's probably for the best. Usually when I am trying to get a great shot, I miss out on half the fun. Patrick loved it all, especially the whale sharks. Ben was a little overwhelmed and spent most of the time with his hands over his eyes. I'm glad we didn't have to pay for him.

After that long day, we spent today in town, starting with a bike ride this morning. After the boys napped, we finally got around to coloring our eggs for Easter. Better late than never, I say! These were the eggs that sat unrefrigerated for over a day after the tornadoes, so I was more than happy to boil them for the sake of arts and crafts. Waste not, and all that...

Cute picture, huh? I thought the eggs turned out great. I was too lazy to make more than four colors (yellow, red, blue and light blue), but my laziness turned out to be a great lesson in color theory. We double-dyed lots of them and learned that yellow and red make orange and yellow and blue make green and blue and red and then blue again make purple. The key is to start with the lighter color. Anyway, it was a fun way to spend an hour outside.

Tomorrow we're going to Cloudland Canyon for some more good clean outdoor fun and a picnic as well. I've got the picture card back in the camera, so I'll be sure to come back with snaphots this time. Ciao!

Happy Easter 2008

Easter weekend was awesome, as usual! Such a great time of year...the weather, everything's in bloom or budding...not to mention the candy! We had an egg hunt at our house on Saturday, with about twelve kiddies on hand, and it was a great time. I hid two hundred eggs and they found all but about a dozen. Not too bad! Luke was the master hider. He came up with some very sneaky spots.

Patrick and Ben showed focus from the very get-go. Patrick had watched me fill the eggs and was on the look-out for a blue one with a toy watch inside. I have no idea why he coveted it so badly. It turned out that Ben found it, but since it was not edible, he gladly handed it over.

Rebeckah came and so did Mary Kate, who brought along new baby sister Claire. Claire is so very new that she stayed asleep in her sling for the whole time--never a peep! But Mary Kate had a great time and loaded up on eggs. And yes, that is Jenny--two weeks post-partum. I know...there are no words.

The kids took a while to find their eggs, but they took even longer afterwards opening them up to see what prizes were inside. It was gorgeous outside, so everyone enjoyed lounging in the sunshine.

This morning, the kids were excited to wake up and find their Easter baskets. I had warned Patrick that when Mommy was younger, that rascally Easter Bunny would hide her basket and make her look for it. Wouldn't you know...same thing! But he found it fast and had a good time looking at all the treats. Patrick got a soccer ball to practice with at home since he's on his first team this spring, and Ben got a set of golf clubs which became permanently attached to his grip today. He is sleeping with them.

On Friday we went to Wal-mart to get stuff for the weekend and the "fake" Easter Bunny was there doing free pictures, so we were game for that. Well...Patrick was. I couldn't get Ben any further into the picture. Doesn't he look...special?

My parents came up today and they brought me some great phlox cuttings and a hydrangea from their yard, so we spent some time transplanting those and then made a killer feast featuring Luke's signature smoked pork tenderloin. It is to die for. So today was another fun day and as I said, this week is our spring break. Aside from tomorrow, the weather's supposed to be great, so hopefully we'll get out to do all sorts of fun stuff.

Happy Easter!

St. Paddy's

Another year, another St. Patrick's Day...and I did get Patrick his annual St. Paddy's t-shirt from Old Navy and attempted to take his picture in it as well. However, we were in a playful mood and I got in the picture too and effectively covered up his logo with my arm, so instead you get shamrocks splattered all over the picture. I also realized that I don't have a single scrap of green clothing, so we know what I'll be adding to my wardrobe this spring. Nothing like a holiday to make you see gaping holes in your closet.

This weekend a monster storm came through the South and we kind of dodged a bullet inasmuch as an F3 tornado demolished a good chunk of our neighborhood. When I say neighborhood, I don't mean the group of houses on my street, I mean the area of town where I live. The main carnage occurred about 1.5 miles from our house, and I was totally clueless as to what was going on. Good for me, since I probably would have FREAKED...bad for Luke, who was at work and all he could gather is that a tornado hit our road. The power was out and I had INconveniently forgotten to switch on the ringer to the wall phone, the only one that worked. So as he called and called, I had stashed my cell phone, purse and flashlight in the closet under the stairs and was vigilantly watching for a reason to cram in there with the kiddies and dogs, wondering what the hail and the wind and the faint smell of smoke in the air really meant and completely unaware that the actual reason was just down the road. I became a little bit more aware of the situation a few minutes later when every emergency vehicle in the county plus some from surrounding counties started screaming past our house and continued for a steady hour. And it was at that point that Luke finally got hold of me and gave me the scoop. We were lucky, though...I found out just how lucky later that evening. With the power still out, the sun setting and nothing to do, we got in the car and drove down to see the wreckage and oh my gosh. It is amazing how one side of the street could be completely obliterated and the other side untouched. It was the kind of stuff you usually see in Texas and Oklahoma, and not a single trailer involved. Brick houses torn to the ground. Hundred-year-old oak trees either uprooted or snapped off of their huge trunks. And when I saw the power lines--the huge main lines that look like ski lifts--scattered across a pasture like tinker toys...well, I told Patrick it would be a while before we had power again. But the power company did an amazing job, and it was only a little over 24 hours that we had to go without. So as I said, we were lucky. A lot of people weren't.

Wilson was so freaked out he was practically molting, and had been since early that morning when the first major thunderstorm rolled through. I'm amazed he didn't have a heart attack sometime during the day. Even after everything had passed, it took him a little while to muster up enough courage to come out from underneath the end table.

So spring is here, and along with the blossoming trees and budding flowers comes occasional bad weather. It's truly a shame when people lose their homes and their lives to mother nature, but sometimes the humanity that comes out of it is the silver lining. The relief efforts from people in the community have been stellar, and the power company and the county trucks have been going by day and night working as fast as they can to get the area back to (relatively) normal.

Our spring break is next week and we don't have any concrete plans. We are going to take a lot of day trips, which are loosely planned depending on the weather. I had planned on taking the boys to the children's museum in Atlanta, but I'll have to check to see if it's open since the first tornado of the weekend ripped right through downtown--crazy. If not, there's an equally great discovery museum in Chattanooga we could go to. Whatever end up doing, I'll try to take some pictures and document the fun we plan on having. Hope everyone is enjoying this warm weather!

Contentment

Five Years Later

Then...
...and now.
And I thank God for every second in between. Happy 5th birthday Patrick. I love you.

Birthday Boy

Well, on Sunday we had The Birthday Party--which has earned its title inasmuch as it will go down in history as one of our better parties. I have to give myself credit here...I took the easiest route I could think of and it turned out GREAT. What more could a mother ask for?

We had the party at school and I raided the gym storage room for all the fun stuff the kids love to play with. I set out the hoola-hoops and yarn balls, blew up balloons for them to smack around (and hopefully not choke on) and made a maze for them to climb through. And then there was the piece de resistance--the scooters. Those kids LOVE the scooters. And we only had two minor injuries--one of which was my child--but it happens, ya know?

Then there was the requisite pizza and cake, most of which was thrown away after the kids made sure to breathe all over their slice, but not actually eat it. They were much more interested in getting back to the games. Eventually I was able to drag them outside for a treasure hunt that I had set up on the playground. I totally underestimated these kids' skills--they found everything in .3 seconds. But that was okay, because after that they just ran around the playground. The weather was gorgeous all weekend--we were so lucky. On March 2nd it can either be snowing or verging on hot, and we were definitely closer to the hot end. We couldn't have planned a better day.

Patrick's VERY FAVORITE present of the day was a total scream. His buddy Lucas' parents are both German and his dad makes frequent trips back to the homeland. Whenever he's there, he picks up a Donald Duck comic book (in German of course) for Lucas to look at. Well, Lucas has been bringing them to school to read during rest time, and Patrick thinks they are the coolest thing ever. Well, Lucas' mom bought Patrick a present and all, but Sunday morning he decided that he wanted to give Patrick one of his Donald Duck books too. So they picked one out and wrapped it up and I wish you could have seen the look on Patrick's face when he opened it. He was so excited, and he hasn't put it down since Sunday. It still warms my heart that Lucas thought to share his books with Patrick--what a sweet kid.

The kids spent the rest of the party running around the playground and enjoying the sunshine, and after everyone left and Luke and I got everything cleaned up, we went back outside to let the kids play more while we sat on the picnic tables to unwind. I was exhausted yesterday, but it was a great party, so it was totally worth it. Now I just have to figure out how to top it next year...