Birthdays + Vacations

...because why shouldn't we throw two happy things into a blog?

First, yesterday was our Greggers 11th birthday. Yes, 11 years old, he is. I have posted about his birthday in years past and remember telling you about racing up I-75 when he was on his way. He's a sweet, quiet, funny kid that has a way of giving you a look that makes you feel like he knows way, WAY more than you do. Happy birthday, Greggers!

If you stay at my sister's house on your birthday and you don't get the streamers and balloons treatment, she just doesn't like you. It's a tradition.

I know, I KNOW, he looks so old! 

We hope you had a great birthday, Oldest One.

On to more great things. Vacay! GG and Grampie arrived, like knights on white horses. 

While its completely not true in our case, Keith and I always giggle to ourselves that this is our scenario. We have a good 20 years before the old people are that feeble (knocking on wood), but it just makes us laugh. We had the car packed and were ready to go! I threw a few pages of information at GG, along with a key, and headed for the car. 

Our first night was an overnight in Athens, and due to the nature of our college town, there are not any pics to share. Maybe a few iPhone pics, but those are not being shared because I didnt even take my phone out with us. We had drinks, saw a disappointingly mediocre show. Anyways, we had a good time that night but got up fairly early and started towards North Carolina.

We were a wee bit "dehydrated" and stopped at the first grocery store we saw to get some waters and Gatorade. And a little bag of this, 'cause its vacation!

It's no secret that we are fairly big dorks, so we play the "how many states' license plates can we see?" game. This was early on in the game. 

 And these helped with those hydration issues we were having...also, if you have a smart phone, we really like the MapQuest app, shown here in the background.

 That GPS app was taking us elsewhere, but we threw caution to the win and made a pitstop at a state park that had great views.

 And some interesting markers on the ground?

 We are never short on entertainment when we are together...this pic would be scarier if not for the steps visible in the left side of the picture.

 Self-amusement complete, he continued down the stairs.

 For more views.

 If you are wondering, this is the park at which we stopped. I was surprised to know that we were still in South Carolina. I really thought we made it to the northern of the Carolinas. Apparently not.

 We were game for a little hike, but the map was confusing...

 ...so we said screw it and drove on. And into that northern of the Carolinas.

 You know how sometimes you think you have great directions, but you're  not sure and you are hoping for a sign of some sort that you are on the right track? Even with GPS, I can never shake that feeling.

So I was happy to see this sign.

 And then this one. Especially this one. This is where we were going.

 Dupont State Forest, land of the hobbit trees!

Kidding, people. Land of bad-ass waterfalls, is what I meant. We went on a hike towards the waterfalls, and I kept trying to take pictures of Keith, but it was hard to do because at this point we could hear the roar of the water and somebody was rushing towards it like he had never seen a waterfall before.

 And then we saw them, and they were amazing. Really. Here you see Handsome + Two Waterfalls.

 Now, Handsome + One Waterfall.

 Me.

 Handsome.

 Both of us.

 And then back up the steps to more waterfalls.

More tomorrow, people. Now it's lights out.

A visitor a while back

Many, many a weeks ago we had a visitor. Sessy! She played games with us adults.

And with the kids. Sessy has fancy toys.

And then she had to go do some work stuff and left us to play by ourselves for a while...but frankly it was more fun when she was there.

Dammit, people.

Thank you for still checking the blog. One of these days I'll be consistent. 

Hahahah. Yeah right.

Anyway, me and this guy are going on a little vacay soon so I thought I'd purge some of the everyday life stuff I've been saving. Any by "saving" I mean I've just not had time to do anything besides work, commute, be mommy, wife and house cleaner. And commute. And commute. And all my wine drinking takes up a lot of my time, too. 

So, a few weeks ago I scored a serious online shopping deal for some much needed side tables. They arrived and K was put to work. 

And G and C went to town popping the bubble wrap that came with the tables. Also, check out the new bathroom color. It makes me sooo happy, it's like being suspended in a heavy raincloud just before it rains. A little blue, a little gray, and just dark enough.

As you can see above, we're playing Lil' Kickers soccer. Not really soccer as in soccer-games, but more like skills-for-soccer, and the boys love it.

Here are the side tables, all done. I love! Next up are drapes for behind the tables. Dont get excited, I am not getting to those until August, too much work going on in the summer for any home decor fun.

In other news we're really fond of piling stuff in rooms where aforementioned stuff does not live. For example, why would we not pile all of our stuffed animals in the foyer?

And then piece by piece move them to the dining room table...

C and G also helped me with a planting project. They were really excited at first and then realized it was a little tedious and boring and lost interest. And that's how I usually feel during the projects, which is why I asked them to do it.

No picture of the end result of the planting, but even better than that is the pile of toys they get to play on again!

We colored pictures for GG and Grampie for their bdays.

I am a fan of these paint brush pens. A limited color palette, but it makes painting easy.Go get you some.

And, since it is almost Easter you know its time for hot cross buns. I had high hopes of making some but didn't get around to it, so we sampled from a few different places. Grocery A was not good-why would they put fruitcake fruit bits in the buns? And the cross on top is supposed to be dough, not icing. Which is the reason for this blog post's title. 

Boys tried these and were not impressed. After the icing was licked off, the buns were abandoned.

Nana sent us home with some from Grocery B. These were better, but a little too sweet and a little two-day-old-danish in texture, but better than the first. In other words, Grampie would love them.

K and I have started to groan inwardly when we see this book being selected for pre-bed reading. It's long. But oh, how they love the book.In a related sidenote, when I was at UGA studying to be a science teacher, my fellow classmates that I was bound to be the main character of the book,Mrs.Frizzle. All I can say is there's no shame in being a little nerdy. And also, I just found my Halloween costume for this year. Someone needs to invite us to a party this Halloween!

If you have lived under a rock and don't know the magic that is The Magic Schoolbus, go here and familiarize yourself with The Frizz, her lizard and magical mass transportation mobile.

Paint pens in two different colors have prevented many a fight in this household. Each kid is assigned a color and almost all new toys and gifts are marked in that color. Also marked: glass jars that now contain the shells we got at the beach last summer with GG and Grampie. Better late than never, is my motto.

Turns out that being stuck in a bag in a closet doesn't automatically remove all the sand and dirt, so we washed those. Or "gave them a bath".

And took turns picking shells and put them in jars.

And that sums up our lives for the last few weeks. Little bit of this, little bit of that.