Dragon Con

So while we were in Atlanta, we started to realize things weren't normal.
Our first indication was when we were trying to find the Varsity.  Darian was busy looking at street signs and watching traffic and Crystal and I were looking at GPS to figure things out, when Colin comments, "let's just ask the storm trooper."  We all look up in question to see a storm trooper walking on the sidewalk.  I mean a full on storm trooper, white suite, helmet and all.

Then we just kept on seeing more and more costumes.  At first we thought it must be a Star Wars convention, but then started seeing all kinds of costumes.

We couldn't figure it out!  There was no unifying theme that we were seeing.  It was just dress up.
Crystal finally asked concierges at the hotel.  They said the convention was "Dragon Con"  which is apparently a little bit of everything, which is why we couldn't pick out the theme.
We saw The Incredible Hulk with his gamma keg, Gene Simmons, and anything and everything else.
It made for an interesting weekend.

The Varsity

Ok, so the road trippin' wasn't so extreme.  We didn't go down to Baton Rouge, the game came up our way.  We went to Atlanta to the LSU season opener against UNC.  It was the first time LSU played their season opener on a neutral field and we just couldn't miss it.
So The Siscoe's, The Wagoner's, and The W-T's packed up and went!
We went down on Saturday morning and we were in Atlanta by lunch.  We had lunch at The Varsity, the world's largest drive-in restaurant.

This was the entrance we went through.

The Siscoe's parked at the parking deck and entered on the upper level

The Varsity was an experience of it's own.  They serve about 1500 people on an average day, so I know there must have been double that on the day we were there.  It was amazing how they served everyone.  There must have been 60 people ordering all at once at any given time.  The counter was as long as my house and it was about 6 families deep all the way across.

Keep in mind, this is in one direction.  This picture was taken from around the middle of the counter.

When you get to the counter, you better know what you are going to order because they are not going to sit and wait for you to decide.  This is the key to their efficiency.  They are ready for you so you had better be ready for them!

Some of the interesting facts about the Varsity from their website:

It's the Worlds Largest Drive-In
Our Downtown Atlanta location is on more than two acres and can accommodate 600 cars and over 800 people inside. On days when the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets are playing a home game, over 30,000 people visit The Varsity.


We actually got to see the top of the Georgia Tech stands from where we were eating.  There was a game while we were eating.  Very cool!


Legendary Volume
Two miles of hot dogs, a ton of onions, 2500 pounds of potatoes, 5000 fried pies and 300 gallons of chili are made from scratch daily.

Amazing!!!!


We had a great lunch standing at the counter looking out the window to the GA Tech stadium.
It was great food (some REALLY sloppy chili cheese burgers and chili dogs with onion rings..... YUMMY).

Geaux Tigers!!!!! Pt. Deux

Go see our video from Atlanta HERE

Geaux Tigers!!!!!

We had a great time with our friends at the LSU home opener in Atlanta.  I'll be posting lots of pics soon.  Colin and I even made a little movie we'll be posting soon.
Stay tuned, it's coming soon!

Soccer Practice

Just a couple of cute little picture of our little Penguin soccer star.
The Penguin coach (Daddy) had the kiddos kicking into the goal after a morning of skills.  He's an awesome coach!
Can't wait for the season to start!

Look at that "game face"

Shopping Spree!!!!

Today Drew and I played "Shopping Spree" while Emma was napping.
First off, I think it's so funny how technology has changed what our kids see and experience so much from when we were little.  When Drew sees a credit card, he calls it money.  I rarely use cash so this makes sense.
I had a used a gift card online yesterday and I know how much Drew loves to play pretend, so I told him that we could play Shopping Spree.  I gave him the card and his shopping cart and told him to pick out what he wanted from the store.  He went around the house collecting things that he wanted to buy in his shopping cart.  Then he would bring them to me to "check out" at the cash register.
I would scan them across my mouse pad (which kind of looks like the scanner at the grocery) and then tell him the total.

He would hand me his card and I would ask him to scan it (through the pages of a board book, but it worked for him).

I was amazed at how observant he is.  He really had this whole process down pat.  He told me he'd like to use his card as "debit please" without me prompting him...hahaha!  I was so tickled by that.
Then I handed him an old phone that is now a play toy for the kids and told him to "enter his PIN number."  He pushed a few keys and handed me the phone.

I waited a second and told him he was "approved."  (Melinda, you know I did this like the "Terrrget" lady on SNL).  Then I bagged his goodies up and gave him his bag.

He was quite pleased with himself and then went for another round of shopping.
Maybe he has a bit of retail therapy going on.  He has been doing a lot of shopping now that he's learned how.

Rainy Day Art

It was one of those rainy days...

where all you want to do is curl up with a good book... or at least that's what I use to want to do before I was a mommy.  Now I'd rather get out the art supplies and play with the kids.
While Emma was napping, Drew and I decided that we would paint, color, and "marker" some of his work from his "Creation" lapbook.
Drew loved painting the best (as most kids do) and painted a great picture of the world.  He picked out blue and green after looking at a picture of the earth in his Bible.

Then we were on to the cover page of his lapbook.  He drew a picture of himself...

The picture of him and his family are in that top bubble in purple marker.  Mommy was an "M" and everyone else, including Lily, was just a scribble.

I barely caught this in a picture because we actually drew the picture in marker before we got the paints out, as soon as he got the paints out he smeared it.

       

Then he wanted to paint a rainbow

Drew also asked if he could "scissor" his paper.  I said he could.  Look at those "scissoring" skills!!!!!!!

Next it was just a free for all

He asked if he could scissor me out and I said no and told him that I didn't want to be cut out of the picture and gave him a very sad look.  He looked at me and gave me a hug and told me he wouldn't.  Then he pulled away and looked at me with a smile... just like I do to him when he needs to be comforted.  It was cute.
I'll post more about the Creation Lapbbook later as we complete more activities.

I'm Officially A Soccer Mom!!!!!!

Soccer practice has begun.  Daddy is the coach and Drew is adorable!

I'll keep everyone posted on the games and how the "Penguins" are doing!  I'll be posting videos to our YouTube accounts so stay tuned!

Monkeyin' Around

Monkeyin' around at Monkey Joe's is what we decided to do the other day.  Carter and Kylee invited everyone out to enjoy the last day of summer at Monkey Joe's, so we joined them.

When we first got there Drew was very apprehensive.  That never fully went away, but he got better as time went on.  Emma, on the other hand, was full steam ahead as usual.

Drew and Emma were the admirals of their fleet in this area.

 This picture cracks me up because it looks like a cell phone ad.  We're getting full coverage here with Isaiah, Kylee, Drew, and Emma

Drew's First Crop

Remember Drew's seeds he planted back in spring?  He always wanted to go outside and "grow" his seeds (aka water them).  Well, those seeds turned into sprouts, and those sprouts turned into our "garden." (well, kind of)
It was a great surprise when we found our first cucumber!
Drew was so proud of it!
So we cut it up and all had some of our celebratory cucumber as an appetizer at dinner tonight.

Don't you love messy Emma in the background!

The Juice Box Hero

Drew asked me about the "juke box" when we were coming home today.  I asked him where he had even ever heard of a juke box.  He mumbled "I don't know" and shrugged (those of you that know Drew well, know exactly what I'm talking about).  Then when he came home he walked into the kitchen and asked for the juke box again.
..... OH!  I know what you want!

Can't you see "the stars in his eyes"

Abra Cadabra!!!!!

Tonight we went to "Stories Under The Stars" at our local library.  I was really looking forward to taking the kids.  Daddy was going to a Panthers game so it was the perfect activity to take our minds off of him being away for the night.
The "Story" ended up being a magic show.  I was pleasantly surprised when we got there.  I was really looking forward to some good story telling, but I knew the kids would love a magic show.... and truth be told, the kid in me was really excited too.
So we grabbed our popcorn and sat down "under the stars" to enjoy the show!

The show was cute and Drew's favorite part was the "wiffle dust" that came from the wiffle's tail.  You see, a "wiffle" is a magical creature with a fox's face, a weasel's body, and the tail of a raccoon.
The wiffle that he pulled out of his hat was far better than any rabbit I've ever seen (as cute as they are).

I didn't get a picture of when Drew got to pet the wiffle because I was too busy enjoying watching to get a picture.

But I did get a picture of when the magician was showing Drew that the wiffle's body had disappeared.

So Drew really enjoyed the show and the whole way home he kept saying "hocus pocus" and "abra cadabra"  It really made me chuckle.

Even after we got home, when he fed Lily he said "abra cadabra!!!!!" and made the food "appear" in Lily's bowl.  Lily was quite impressed.

It's Been So Worth It!

So I have finally gotten around to creating those books that I always envisioned this blog to turn into.
Here's a link to the first one for Drew or click HERE to see the blog form of it (which is chronologically backwards).
I am so glad that I will have this to give to him.  I can't wait to share it with him.
It makes all of the time that I spent journaling and uploading photos etc.  totally worth it!

PS. I'm going to stop with the cute little signatures after every post.  I had to remove each one and it was a pain in my patutee, so bye bye
                                                  

The Ketchup Snob

"Mama, this ketchup doesn't have an apple on it!" says our little Drew the other night at an undisclosed restaurant (I wouldn't want to contribute to this restaurant losing business due to all of the ketchup snobs reading this post).
I laughed immediately.  I knew exactly what he was talking about.

Not exactly an apple... but I knew what he meant.

I think it's time for a lesson on where ketchup comes from.

Our First Day

Well, today was suppose to be my first day back to school.  I am very much at peace (and actually very excited) about our decision for me to stay home with the kids.
Since the summer didn't really count because I would have been home with the kids anyways, today is the day I officially consider myself a stay-at-home-mom!
Our first day was a great one.  We are very fortunate that Daddy can work from home so we are all home together on some days.  Today was one of those days.  So we woke up, spent a little family time in our bed playing with Emma (who crashed our bed at around 7:30...we're not super early morning people here) and then we were off to Starbucks.
Daddy wanted to ride his new motorcycle so we followed him in our car.  We had coffee and pastries out on the patio and enjoyed the breeze in the shade (otherwise it would have been unbearable).
Then with running shoes and a soccer ball in tow, the kids and I went to the park.  Daddy had to get back to work :(
Drew decided after seeing the new permanent tent that they built over the play area, that he wanted to play on the slides instead of play soccer...so slides it was.  He was running circles around Emma and I, racing up to the tall slide as fast as he could and climbing the rock wall (well, the climbing was with my spotting only) while Emma tried to "dust me" as much as she could. But I kept up.
Emma is fearless.  She was climbing up to the tallest slide, scaring me to pieces!  After about 5 minutes of being there, it was obvious that I couldn't just stay on the ground spotting her the best I could.  I had to climb up the apparatus with her and slide down the slides after her.  She had a blast.... I was exhausted!
Then we walked over to the pond on the wooden bridge.  We watched the turtles, fish, and dragonflies.  I really enjoy this time with my kids.  We do this quite often and it never looses it's "magic" to them.

Then we went for a little nature walk through the woods.  As we were  leaving the pond area a Zebra Swallowtail butterfly started to circle Drew.

It was so neat.  It made Drew a little nervous at first, but then I told him that he was just "checking him out."  Drew was more comfortable with that and invited the butterfly to come with us.  Yes, he actually asked the butterfly if he wanted to walk with us.
The butterfly did, as if he understood.  He followed us for about 100 yards.  It was so funny.  For that time, it was as though Drew had a pet butterfly, like he was some Disney character who enchanted the animals.
We went on with our walk, but as soon as we got into the woods, the Zebra Swallowtail was gone.
We looked for animals (but didn't find any) and then Drew was ready to go home.
When we got in the car, I was shocked to see that it was almost lunchtime already.
Time flies when you're having fun!

Drew's Little Monkeys

This week my little monkey has been learning about other little monkeys.   HERE's the video of the beginning of our "Monkey Week 2010" (Karen, that title was just for you).
Last week when we went to the library I came across a bunch of the "5 Little Monkeys" series.  I didn't realize how many of them there were.  So as the kids were exploring (under my very watchful eye.... such a hard balance because I want them to be able to explore, but the last thing I want is to be "that mom" who lets her kids run wild).
So we came back home with a "barrel full" of those little monkeys.  ;)

We've been reading about those tricky little monkeys shopping sprees, their used-car-salesmen abilities, and how they trick the babysitter into playing hide and seek to get out of bedtime.  We've been reading all kinds of stories about those little critters.
We also came home with a nonfiction book about monkeys.  Drew likes to point out their different body parts.  The tails are his favorites.  He's actually picked up on the fact that they all have such different noses too.

We've been working with the letter "M" in lots of ways.  Here Drew is filling in the M with his Play-Dough (with my help pinching together the ends obviously).  This lasted for all of 1 1/2 minutes, then it was on to making a road with his roller for McQueen to drive on.

I found the retelling activity in the video at 1+1+1=1.  I think it's neat to watch Drew retelling "5 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed" using his pictures to help him with the sequence.  Printing out these pictures was well worth it because you can see him looking at them to help prompt him through the story.  And even when he messes up, it helps him get back on track.  
As a teacher, I always said that I loved watching students make mistakes because then I could really "see" their learning and how to help them.  With my own child, it's hard to practice what I preached though.  You want things to go perfectly, so I have to really go back and remember what I've told students' parents for years.
It's also been a discipline issue for me to allow Drew to work at his own pace.  This is REALLY hard!  Again, it's the teacher in me.  I'm used to due dates, deadlines, and well.... inspiring (aka forcing) kids to work even when they don't want to.  Even when I taught the gifted program, I had plenty of kids who dragged their heels when it came to their work.  But with a 3 year old.... well, it's just not wise to force it.  So we stop when he wants to stop.... even if that means that all of the materials that I prepared went unused for now.
Anyways, enough of my "teacher talk."  Back to Monkey Week 2010!

Going Out In Barbie Style

Remember Barbie's pink Jeep?  I had the Corvette myself (of course for those of you that know my dad). But I remember her pink Jeep.  Well, we lived it up like Barbie while we were in Sedona.
We went on the Pink Jeep Tours.  We saw some of the most beautiful views ever while on this tour and were able to get to some areas that we certainly would not have made it to on our own.  I don't see us taking on any "rock crawling."
We had a great tour guide and took some beautiful pictures and even a video.  I wish I would have thought to take a video of the experience while we were doing some of our rock crawling, but I was too focused on holding on FOR MY LIFE!!!!
I was amazed at some of the things that Jeep could do.  There were times when we were on top of a boulder (literally) and pointed as though we were going to go right off the edge.  I thought to myself "hmmmm, how's he going to back down off of this?"  Nope, he drove us right off of it!!!!!  It was probably over 10 feet high!!!!!!

But we made it home to post some pictures!

A beautiful scene we were able to take in on our tour.

This would be a great ad for Pink Jeep I think.  I don't think it's so professional that it was shot from an iPhone though.

This is what the red rock looks like up close.  The iron content is what dictates the color of the rock.  The higher the iron content, the redder the rock.  Basically, the red rock is just rusty rock.  I think that's pretty cool.

This is the trail head to one of the mountain bike trails.  I would love to ride out there!  It seemed like a great place to ride.  Maybe our next visit.

It was hard to get a straight shot from inside the Jeep.  We were always off canter it seemed.

More beautiful scenes....

For me, this picture is really humbling.  It's just me and endless nature.  

This is Jeff, our tour guide.  He was great!  So funny and truly has a love of Arizona.

If you would like to watch a video from our rock crawling tour, click on the Sedona link at the top of the page (just under my banner picture) and it will take you to the links.

Pool Time!!!!!

We had some fun relaxing afternoons out by the pool.

Daddy and Emma floating around on the stairs

Sometimes we even had the whole pool to ourselves

Time to get dried off and go get some lunch!