let's Get Real

Before we Get Real...
Check out Lauren on her first day of Gymnastics. She really loved the balance beam but her least favorite activity was the bars. Of course, it turned out the only good picture I took was of her on the bars. Oh well. She did say she liked gymnastics better than dance.

Now let's Get Real...

On second thought...let me stall and tell you a funny Tyler conversation first.

Tyler and I were watching a Hot Wheels cartoon this morning (yes, these cartoons actually exist.) It appeared to me to be action-packed and quite violent. I asked him to tell me who the good guys were (he did) and who the bad guys were (he did.) Our quick conversation continued as follows:

Me: What are the bad guys trying to do?
Tyler: They're trying to die people.
(get it? die people instead of kill people? how cute is that...or..um...or not.)

Okay it's time...time to Get Real.
I love to blog about how sweet.beautiful.precious.smart.wonderful my children are but sometimes I need to Get Real and share what occasionally takes place.

Sometimes Lauren throws a fit/has a major meltdown/shows she is the UFC of TANTRUMS.

Keep in mind this was L's 3rd day back to school (7am - 3pm) and then she had an hour of gymnastics added onto it. (It was a LONG day.) Plus, this morning she chose not to eat breakfast because she "wasn't hungry" and would rather just sit in her chair in front of her Lucky Charms and wait the 30 minutes until the school bus came around.

So anyway, after gymnastics, she got in trouble for not listening to me. I sent her to the "naughty chair."

While serving her 6 minutes on the "naughty chair" my sweet angel completely lost her mind. She began to yell.

From the kitchen I heard a number of shouts.cries.screams which I ignored to her knowledge...but wrote down on a piece of paper. They went like this...
1. (scream/yelling) "Mama's an idiot and stupid and does nothing I want to do." (wow!)
2. "bwaaaaaak" (noise she made to resemble throwing up)
3. "You're so mean...meaner than other people."
4. "I want you to make the timer ring!" (the timer counting down the 6 minutes)
5. "I don't like you anymore."
6. "All I want to do is run away" (where did she hear that one?!)

During her fit I channeled my inner "Super Nanny" and remained calm. I had to reset the timer 2 times because she got out of the naughty chair without permission but once it was all done and over with she was my sweet.beautiful.precious.smart.wonderful child all over again...like nothing ever happened. She ate a great dinner and we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our evening.

I absolutely love that girl with all my heart.

dog days of summer

This summer has been HOT and HUMID. I swore to myself I'd never complain about the heat after growing up in rainy, often overcast Oregon so I'm not complaining...I'm just stating. This summer has been H-O-T.

It's been hot (and I got tired of the daily-epic-hair-brushing battle) so Lauren got her hair chopped. We had about 6 inches of tangled chlorine damaged hair cut off of her head. Both of us just love it!

(it's so short!)

Tyler got a back-to-school haircut as well.

and not to be left out...
(it was straight only because my hair stylist straightened it...it looks a little different curly and I'm still getting used to it)
Y'all like it?

It's a good thing we all got our locks chopped because on a seriously hot and humid day our upstairs A/C unit quit working. Lauren, luckily, was sleeping over at Emma's. The rest of us slept in the basement bedroom that night.
upstairs

outside

We spent our last dog days of summer playing with Tera. She had her 6th birthday over the summer so we got her a gift. Moped Barbie...everyone needs one.

Tyler tried to gift himself.
(adorable, no?!)
Finally, the inevitable happened. Summer came to an abrupt end (8-9-10) and my sweet-beautiful-precious-smart-wonderful baby girl went to the 1st Grade!

Tyler starts Pre-K at his church school next week but he wanted to be in the picture as well.

And off she goes
(accompanied by Emma and Miss Linda the bus driver)

So far she's enjoying school. She been bummed because it's been too hot for them to go on the playground but she enjoyed talking about her BP oil collection during show-and-tell. (While in Pensacola, FL I collected some clumps of oil and saved them in an empty spice jar...yes I know I'm ridiculous.)

Since Tyler has a week and a half until his school starts (he'll be going M-F for just 3 hours per day) we've been spending some quality time together.

Mom's Club Park Day

Eric & Tyler

Eric, Tyler, William (W's momma. Nikki) and Grant

It's hard for me to accept that school starts the first part of August now. I would have loved to have another month off. To me the "dog days of summer" take place in August. We would lounge around, bask in the heat, be bored, but all the while make great memories of Summer Vacation.

I could maybe-also just be mourning the fact that my babies are growing up and for the first time I will have a chunk of the day (3 hours) with only myself.
I'm off to grab a tissue. ;)

Sacramento 2010

(the final recap of our Family Vacation 2010)

We spent most of our time in SAC at the pool. We were either at Uncle CD & Aunt Melanie's or Uncle Brian & Aunt Amie's. (Everyone, who's anyone, has a pool in Sacramento.)

Hailey and Lauren show off their wet ponies.

We happened to be in town during the California State Fair. So we joined the masses and attended opening day. It was hot but tolerable. (tolerable = not humid!!) It was a lot of fun.

Daddy made sure to win the sweethearts plenty of stuffed animals. (Enough stuffed animals we had to ship them home because they wouldn't fit in our checked baggage.)

Here are the first two...

tomato faces
(Lauren)

(Tyler)

A clown on a unicycle made up balloon animals.
Lauren requested a purple (her favorite color) dragon.

Tyler opted for a purple (his sister's favorite color) sword.
He immediately made friends with and then tried to slice up a nice boy in the pavilion.

We bought the children wristbands so they did each and every kiddie ride close to 20 times.
Hailey and Lauren

Tyler on the bridge

Hailey and Lauren on the boat ride

Hailey, Lauren & Tyler on the train

We all had a blast in Sacramento. To this day Lauren still talks about cousin Hailey and Tyler still talks about Aunt Melanie and how she did flips on the trampoline and let her bulldog "Zsa Zsa" go swimming in the pool. I love that they are making memories.

On our way back to Boise to catch our flight home we stopped for a night in Reno. PaPa and MeMa are VIPs in Reno so thanks to them we enjoyed a complimentary suite at the Peppermill Casino.

Matt and I took turns gambling and the kiddos thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the spacious hotel room.
L & T played Wipeout while Matt turned $100 into $300 at the craps tables and then they played Wipeout while I turned $20 into $200 at the video poker machines. I'm sure the Peppermill won't be forgetting us anytime soon. We pretty much cleaned them out. (ha!) Even Papa and MeMa came out ahead. It was a good night for all.
Finally we called it a night.
The next morning we made the beautiful, I mean, boring drive from Reno, Nevada to Boise, Idaho. We stayed one night with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Michael and then we caught a flight back to the good old ATL. Home Sweet Home. It was bitter, bittersweet...we really loved spending time with our family but it was also great to be back in our own home.

Vacation 2010: Redwood Forest

On our way to Sacramento, CA (to visit PaPa, Mema and numerous Aunts, Uncles and Cousins) we took a detour off of I-5 at Grants Pass, Oregon and headed toward the Pacific. I wanted to take a detour through the Redwood Forest. I have great memories of the giant trees and I want to make sure my children remember (and love) them as well. On our way to the Redwoods we stopped a number of times just to take in the scenery.



We finally stopped for the night in Crescent City, CA. (one of the Northern most coastal cities in California) We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites. Much to my enjoyment...$$not so much Matt's$$... they only had the suites left.

our room

our view
Matt and Lauren are down below flying the kite.
(see them? see the kite?)
(It was too cold for Tyler and I.)

The next day we made our way to the Redwood Forest. "This Land was Made for You and Me."

We had to stop by and see Paul Bunyan and is ox, Babe.

poor Babe...he remained steady and calm though.

We decided not to pay to see the Trees of Mystery. Instead we stopped along the way to check out (free of charge) the other giant trees of the Redwood Forest.

These were some HUGE trees. Awe-mazing!

L & T are playing INSIDE of a tree.

This was such an amazing detour that Matt and I plan to do this again and again.

Finally we made our way to the suburbs of Sacramento, CA and enjoyed time with our family.

cousins: Hailey, Lauren and Joseph

more of SAC to come!

Vacation 2010: Oregon Again

(no time to count takes anymore...school starts in a few days so it's time to finish up the Vacation 2010 posts!)

Oregon Zoo
What fun!

That is not a real fire burning behind Tyler but he really is eating some sort of paper.

They dressed up and played their parts.
I'm sure the sign says, "Do not touch the dinosaur."

There is probably a sign saying not to abuse the Hippo as well.

Oregon Coast
(L & T have a blast...despite the fact their legs turn bright red due to the COLD water)

Pacific Ocean in JULY!
(jackets y'all)

getting warm at Grammy's Beach House

Grammy's (and part Uncle Monkey & Aunt Mili's) Beach House
(2 1/2 blocks from the Ocean with a peek-a-boo Ocean View!!)

inside the front door

living room

kitchen

more kitchen
(with my mess from making dinner)

view down the hall
the stairs to the loft bedroom
more shots from the beach
The firemen actually stopped and took pictures of Matt and the kids flying the kite.
Let me know if you see them in a Coastal Living magazine.

We spent two days and nights at the beach house which was very relaxing and then it was back to the valley.

On our way home we met some cousins at the Enchanted Forest.

Jared, Hillary, Lauren, Thomas, me and Tyler

I love the Enchanted Forest
and will make sure Lauren and Tyler love it as well!

the Muzium

We saw a Forest performance of Hansel and Gretel.
It was awesome and I'm sure the next stop for the wonderful actors will be Broadway!

The kids loved the performance so much they asked me to take a picture with them and the cast.

more Enchantment

We came back to Grammy's Springfield house for a night before packing up the Vera Cruz for the next part of our Western Vacation.

California or bust!