Exciting Weekend

Last weekend was an exciting one for our family. Let's go back to Thursday, which technically isn't the weekend, but since the World's Greatest Husband's days off are Friday and Saturday, the weekend officially starts Thursday evening. Last fall, The First Born's Brownie Troop leader asked me if I would be willing to do a sewing project with the Troop. After some discussion, we decided to link it with Earth Day and teach the girls how to sew a coin purse out of Capri-Sun and Kool-Aid juice pouches. Because of family stuff, the date was moved back and I went in last Thursday. The First Born was so excited and it seemed all the girls enjoyed it. They were so amazed that they had sewn something themselves. It was a lot of fun for me too.

Move on to Friday...Two bit events for Friday. First, The Word's Greatest Husband went to The First Born's classroom to talk about being a minister. Several of the other children's parents had been in to talk about their professions. The WGH wore his robe, told the kids that the sleeves were called "pudding sleeves", which they thought was hysterical. And he evenr read some Hebrew, but then said it translated to say that first graders should not pick their noses. Second, The Father-Daughter Dance, unofficially. The school refers to it as "Girls Nite Out". Last year we did not know that "Girls Nite Out" was the Father-Daughter Dance, so we skipped it. Big mistake. The First Born was devastated the following Monday. So this year, The World's Greatest Husband promised to take her. She was so excited, but then seemed to get a little nervous as the time for the Dance approached. Before the dance, The WGH asked her "What if I have to go to the bathroom? Will you go with me?" Her reply: "No! I am not going to the boy's bathroom! Yuck!" (She knows what she is talking about.) Then The WGH proceeded to show her his latest dance moves. That didn't go over too well either. They left for the dance, stayed about an hour and had a great time. The First Born got to dance with some of her friends and then do some cool dances with Daddy.



Onto Saturday, The WGH took Classic Middle Child and Bundle of Energy to get "summer haircuts", meaning buzz cuts. Every spring when he does this, I have a difficult time with the boys. It is not that the haircut changes them, but that it changes their looks. So much that they look so ornery. Before the cuts, with their long floppy hair, it seemed they could get by with more, but with the buzz cut, I don't know. The orneriness just seems to show more, even though they are still cute as a bug's ear. You be the judge.....

Performance Debuts

Our church has a Concert Series. It began several years ago as a Spring Concert Series, but now it extends through a Christmas Concert. Most of the concerts are well attended and the Concert Committee does a good job of getting local talent to perform.

Last nights concert was The Red Tide Ramblers, with one of the members being The World's Greatest Husband's fiddle teacher. He has been taking lessons for about a year or so, and has gotten pretty good at it. I can only imagine how hard it is to play the violin. As a side note, when I was in 2nd grade, at school we were given the opportunity to learn to play the violin. I was so excited. I went the first time, but the second time when the teacher came to get those interested, I was somehow overlooked. And I wouldn't/couldn't speak up. That was the end of my violin playing.

Anyway, The World's Greatest Husband's fiddle teacher said that her band would be happy to play, but he (WGH) would have to play a song with them. He agreed and has been practicing "Old Joe Clark" ever since. So last night, the band played their first 2 numbers and then invited Reverend up to play with them. He had to start the song, playing it through twice and then the band joined in. He did a great job. And received a standing ovation!!! Afterwards, he said he had not been that nervous since our wedding day. I'm not quite sure how to take that....

Here is a pic of him in action:



Several people were planning to stick around and have a jam session, but only a few brought instruments. So instead, The First Born delighted those still in attendance with some Irish Step Dancing, accompanied by one of the band members playing a fancy flute. Her footwork is too quick to be captured on film.

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.

A Day of Learning, Sharing, and Missing My Family

Yesterday I attended the Breastfeeding and Parenting Conference for La Leche League of MA/RI/VT. What a great day of learning and sharing. I am not sure how many Mothers, Fathers, children, grandparents, etc. were in attendance, but it seemed like maybe a couple hundred. Workshops ranged from parenting/loving guidance for all ages to homeopathic remedies to vaccines, and so much more. There were two highlights for me: 1) a workshop on Kangaroo Mother Care, and 2) a general session by Robert Sears, MD, FAAP, highlighting his book Vaccines: Making an Educated Decision for Your Children.

First, the session on Kangaroo Mother Care: it was so amazing to see mothers caring for their premature newborns, holding them skin-to-skin, meeting the baby's needs, and watching a newborn wriggle and squirm to get into position to latch on, with no assistance from Mom!!!! How instinctive human babies are, if we would just allow them to do what they already know how to do!!!

Second, the general session with Dr. Sears: this one was attended by everyone at the conference. Dr. Sears had the challenge of presenting his lecture after lunch, but through his conversational style lecture and his own humor, had no difficulty in keeping everyone's attention. He presented an overview of his new book mentioned above. Basically he went through typical vaccination schedules and offered an alternative schedule for those parents who may want to delay some or all vaccines. I appreciated his approach in that he offered the information as a tool for parents to decide how to use it and how to collaborate with his/her own health care provider.

Along with these highlights, I met Mothers from other La Leche League Groups, we talked about things that our respective Groups were doing, and even saw a few old friends. Other features of the conference are a kid's play station, a silent auction of wonderful items donated by some LLL Groups and local businesses, (here is the messenger bag that I donated)


and a bookstore that highlights several LLLI-approved books on breastfeeding, parenting, weaning, nutrition, and children's books. I was able to pick up two children's books for the kids, they stayed home with Dad. Yes, he tended to all 3 from 7am to 7pm, and did a wonderful job. I arrived home to find all of the children fed, one bathed and dressed, one in the tub, and one patiently waiting her turn.

It was a great day, but I sure did miss my family. I missed The First Born's Irish Step Dance class, going to get doughnuts afterwards, and nursing Bundle of Energy for his nap. He made up for it when I got home!!!