Take Me Home, Country Roads

A couple of weeks ago, the family and I traveled back to WV to visit with family. The First Born had the week off from school for Spring Break. Unfortunately, all of the kids back in WV had their Spring Break around Easter, so all the cousins were in school. But we had a good visit and were still able to see everyone, even if it was briefly.

When we travel such a long distance, we take our time and have plenty of stops for the kids to get out and run around. One of our greatest stops was in Hershey, PA. While traveling through Hershey a few years ago, a couple of friends who live in Harrisburg took us to the Hershey Pantry. We will forever be grateful. This restaurant has the best breakfasts, and the largest egg sandwiches I have ever seen. They are as big as a salad plate, no kidding!! Anyway, we placed an order to go, with plans to find a local park to let the kids run off some energy. The World's Greatest Husband and I each ordered this monster of an egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich, served on a pretzel roll!!! Have you ever heard of such a thing? I looked at my sandwich and immediately thought that there was no way I could eat the whole thing. Did I mention it came with the best fried potatoes, sliced like chips? Mmmmmm....Needless to say, I did eat the whole thing.

Further down the road, once we crossed into WV, we decided to take the back roads and drive through Philippi, where we both attended college. We drove through town and up on the campus of Alderson-Broaddus. It was kind of weird to be back on campus; the students that we saw couldn't have been older than 15!!! How our perspective changes as we age!! Here is a pic of our kids by the fountain if front of New Main (it was renamed, and I refuse to call it by anything other than New Main),


and the view of downtown from atop the hill:



After 17 hours of driving, all in one day, we safely arrived in the Kanawha Valley. Here are more pics of the kids with MawMaw and NeNe:



and just general fun and tom foolery:




lest we forget Aunt K's pedicure day:

Crazy Hair Day

A couple of weeks ago at school was a sort of Spirit Week, in honor of DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) day. So I guess they were getting the kids all fired up about reading. The week consisted of "Rocker Socks Day", "Crazy Rocker Hair/Hat Day", "Pajama Day", "Dress Like Your Favorite Rock Star Day", "Rock Out With Red Day". So as you can guess, there was a Rock Star theme, except for the pajama day. I think that one is always included because the kids just love to wear pajamas to school. Who wouldn't? Anyway, here is a pic of The First Born with her Crazy Rock Star Hair. We put lots of tiny pig tails in, about 10, then threaded a pipe cleaner through the holder and braided the pipe cleaner into her hair. I fastened the end by wrapping the excess pipe cleaner around and then we twisted each braid. I am not sure of the reaction at school (I think it was pretty good), but the bus driver and monitor were loving it!!

First Born's Birthday gift--belated entry

The First Born's birthday was in Febuary, so this is a belated entry. For her birthday, she wanted some kind of reading chair. She LOVES to read; I don't know how many times I have to tell her to put down the book to do something else. Don't get me wrong, we love it that she has such a love of books and we do encourage her to read. So for her 7th birthday, instead of buying a "reading chair" made of mystery particles and made in a factory where the workers may not earn a fair wage, I decided to make a "bean bag" chair. Technically it has no beans, but for lack of a better term....I went to the local recycling center and purchased a huge amount of foam pieces and cotton batting. The cover is made of new fabric, but the stuffing is all from upcycled materials. She, as well as Classic Middle Child and Bundle of Energy love it. Classic Middle Child now wants one for his 5th birthday, in July.

Blog Feature

A couple of months ago while on the etsymom member board, one of the members posted that she wanted to feature some other etsymoms on her blog. So I responded, she sent me the interview questions, and voila, here is the feature. I have been checking her blog frequently and it is fun to read another mom chronicling her children and the craziness that ensues. She is very good at keeping up her blog; I am not. Evidence: my last post was one month ago!!! Anyway, check out her blog and etsy shop. She has really cool baby friendly necklaces for Mom.