Vacation 2010

Don't get me wrong--I love vacation! I look forward to it, I plan it, I love it--but at the same time, I always feel like I deserve a Red Badge of Courage when I have survived it! This year was a whirlwind of activity. We went to Dollywood Splash Country. This is a huge waterpark. The kids loved it, but I must admit, the clientele is interesting. I decided that I should write a memoir of Southern Life and the title will be: "If you can't lose it, decorate it with as much ink as possible, so know one will notice!". I honestly could not believe the way some of these women walked around that water park. As someone who was once extremely heavy set, I can say that bikinis should not be made in that size!!!! I have never seen so many tattoos on people. At one point, a lady bent over in front of Shawn and I and we just looked at each other and I finally said to my husband that, in my opinion, if your tramp stamp has its own zip code, it probably shouldn't be there!!!! Anyway--we all had a great time. The next big event of the week was my incident. I thought I would be all good on vacation and get up every morning before everyone else and go for my jog. The first day everything went fine, but on the second morning, for some reason, I fell. I had made it all the way down the mountain our chalet was on and was running on a flat, straight sidewalk, and I just went down. My knee and elbow are still suffering. I had to spend the rest of vacation hobbling around with huge band-aids on me! To add insult to injury, my brother, CJ, decided that he thought it would be great fun to "imitate" my limp as we walked around all week. However, I think he was just using this as an excuse for his own "chafing"--our family definitely has the curse of thighs that were not meant to walk around all day in extreme heat! Drew's favorite part of the week was the helicopter rides we went on. This was hardest on me. We could only go 3 or 4 at a time, so I had to let the girls go up first with CJ and Cassie. It was excruciating to see their little faces in the helicopter windows and watch it go up in the sky. Next went Shawn, me, Dax, and Drake. They loved it, of course, and finally Mom and Dad took Drew. I was glad when everyone was safely back on the ground! We went to see "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat". I had explained the Bible Story to the kids before we went, even though the older kids knew it already and the younger ones at least recognized the "Veggie Tales" version of it. I also knew enough to explain that there would be some artistic license taken with the story. I still don't think I prepared the kids enough for the acid trip it was! Oh well--this was Delaney's favorite event of the week--she loved that the Pharaoh was portrayed by Elvis! Good friends of ours were in town the same week so this was one of the events we did with them which added to the fun! Shawn rented a boat and a giant hot dog to take out to a lake in the area for a few hours. This was the highlight of the week for Dawsyn and my Dad. We all got extremely hot, sunburned, and sweaty--especially Drake--everyone kept commenting that surely he is my Grandpa Jim reincarnated! The kids would not get off the hot dog--Dax must have rode that thing for hours! We also spent time at the arcade where Dax got his favorite memento of the trip-- his stuffed snake he named Steve. The kids got to ride a camel, race go-carts, go to a dinner theater, eat our annual Pancake Breakfast on the last morning, go geo-caching, play putt-putt, and visit Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. So, we had a very full vacation. When we pulled in the driveway yesterday, Dawsyn very dramatically announced that she wasn't sure she remembered which bedroom was hers! So glad she didn't accidentally leave her drama in Gatlinburg!

School's out, schools out...

... the teachers have definitely let the monkeys out and they have all landed at my house--well at least 5 of them have, anyway! We have been keeping ourselves busy with the usual--parades with Dawsyn, soccer camp for Drew (he made a select soccer team and will be keeping us quite busy traveling to tournaments), gymnastics, t-ball, etc, etc... Plus our new family hobby--geocaching! We have found 8 already! The kids are totally addicted and love traveling around with our GPS looking for hidden objects and signing the logs saying we had been there--and, of course, our name is "Seventhheaven"! Even though we are busy, we still find time for those childhood moments of summer--the other morning, Delaney and Dawsyn got up super early and went outside to catch the first morning bugs--apparently these are the best--who knew? Anyway, they had only been out there for a few minutes when Delaney came running in the house screaming and holding up a little plastic glow-in-the-dark star. She was jumping up and down excitedly and said, "MOM! It must have fallen from the sky in the middle of the night! We HAVE to get it back up to it's family!" I love those moments of pure innocence!!! The look on her face was irreplaceable. The kids ended the school year on a positive note--Drew won a big award that was only given to one kid in his class for following rules and being a positive role model. Dawsyn also brought home an excellent report card and Delaney graduated from preschool--with Mommy's eyes full of tears. Now my focus is to slow the summer down as much as possible!!! ;)

More use of the camera...

Another busy weekend. Another time I am reminded that in most stories, the mother of the Princess is either dead, insane, or really, really angry!!!! As I ran around this
weekend, I felt a little like the Hen in that childhood story, "I grew the wheat, I harvested the wheat, I made the bread...etc,etc,etc." I ordered the corsage, I ran to pick up the corsage on my lunch, I got the "princess" ready for the dance, I handed the corsage to Daddy slyly behind my back so he could present it to the "princess" and look like the "Knight in Shining Armor!" Daddy and said princess then went off to the ball (AKA Daddy-Daughter dance) and Mother of princess went about the usual running with the rest of the kids! On Saturday, I retained my role as "Mother of the Princess" when I took Dawsyn to the Denison Railroad Festival. In this picture she is running in the rain while trying to eat her icecream. But she did her mom proud--she never once lost her sash or crown--not even one little slip! She got to ride through the parade on Grammy's new convertible and that was definitely her highlight of the day!

Then, yesterday, my two girls had their year-end dance recital. They did baton and pom-pom this year. They were so cute up there on stage!

Natalie Faye

I am reminded of the old saying, "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride". Well today I got to experience the reverse of that. Since I am the one always having children, I feel like I am "always the bride, never the bridesmaid!" I became an aunt again yesterday to little Natalie Faye! She weighed 8#12oz and is 20 inches long. She had lots of dark hair and reminded me a lot of Dax when I saw her. Big sister, Caroline stayed with us all day while we waited. We had a lot of fun with her. I am so happy for Kyle and Emily and their beautiful family! My kids were very excited to--although I must say we got some pretty strange looks when we walked in with 6 kids (my 5 and Caroline) and asked for directions to the maternity ward! Seeing Natalie also made me realize how Drake is NOT a little baby anymore--did I blink? I totally missed him being an infant!

It always seems like...

Front row: Delaney, Snowball (aka cotton candy), my dad, my sister with Drake. Back Row: Shawn, Dax, me, Drew, my Mom.

...during the month of May, we have to keep the camera with us everywhere we go! There are just so many events and memories that we want to keep! We all participated in the "Race for the Cure" this past weekend. This was our 4th year! We do it in honor of my friend, Angie's mom! It has never taken us that long to get through the walk! We kept getting stopped by people who wanted to take pictures of Dawsyn and her "pink puppy". They would ask her what the dog's name was and she would say "cotton candy". The dog's name is "Snowball", but she didn't think that was quite appropriate given her new color! After the race, she was all smiles and said, "Mom--that was like having Paparazzi!" Drew, on the other hand, was very upset by all the attention she was getting and said he didn't really like the idea of a bunch of strangers having his sister's picture! He really thinks we are doing a bang-up job with this whole parenting thing!
Speaking of the differences between my two oldest children...I got a phone call the other day from a person saying that I had signed up for ACT test preparation for my children. Shawn had taken the call first, and looked at me like I was totally insane! I am crazy nuts about preparing my children for the future, but even I think preparing a first and second grader for the ACT is a little overkill! I told the lady that I hadn't signed up for anything like that and she told me that my children had signed up for it at their school bookfair. I told her I wasn't interested and she responded by asking if I was planning on sending my children to college. I told her I absolutely was NOT SENDING my children to college! I am planning on them attending college, but I am not SENDING them there! After I got off the phone, I called Drew and Dawsyn into the room to ask if they had signed up for ACT test preparation. I knew immediately that Drew had indeed signed up because he feels he needs to prepare for college NOW! Dawsyn on the other hand stared blankly at me, "test? what test? I thought I was signing up for ACTing lessons!" Night and Day--those two!!!! Wouldn't have it any other way!

You Know You're a Mom When...

...Your husband jumps out of bed on Mother's Day because he hears the kids down in the kitchen making Mommy breakfast in bed. He gets downstairs in time to see the 3 year old pouring Cinnamon Toast Crunch on a plate!

...Said husband then helps make breakfast in bed and brings it upstairs, but can't find a place to set the tray because the bed is full of kids who all want to sit next to Mommy, or on top of Mommy!

...When the tray is placed in front of Mommy, it has eggs and four pieces of toast on it. As Mommy lifts the first piece of toast to eat it, the three year old says, "Can I have one?" which then prompts the other kids to join in and pretty soon, Mommy has only eggs left!

...Your driving in the car after church on Mother's Day and the girls are fighting yet again in the backseat and you stop at a light and say, "If you continue to fight, I am just going to get out of this car and walk" and you even try to illustrate this by opening the car door and waiting for their gasps and cries of "No Mommy!" only to hear silence. Defeated, you shut the door, and a few minutes later hear the 3 year old tell you, "Mommy--the girls are still fighting back here--you might want to get out now!"

...You are embarrassed at a party because your 3 year old makes a big scene of spitting out the food on his plate and saying (at the only volume he knows how to produce--loud!) that he doesn't like "THESE PEOPLE'S" grapes and strawberries and they are "Yuck!". When you look at his plate, it is full of black olives and cherry tomatoes!

... And, after a full day of running around for Mother's Day, when the kids are all asleep, you quietly tuck your prized possessions of the day in your hope chest with tears in your eyes because you know you will always cherish the handprint flowers, and acrostic MOM poems that the kids made at school this year and you know it is all going by way too quickly!

Last month begins...

My Two little men! We were getting ready for the piano recital. When I look at them together like this, it's like the same face with different eyes. This picture also makes me wonder what kind of trouble these two will find together over the years!

Here's my brown-eyed girl who loves her little baby. Since Sunday was National Siblings Day, the kids each drew a name and wrote an acrostic poem for whatever sibling they drew, then we took pictures like this. Delaney drew Drake's name and wrote a very neat acrostic about Diapers, rosey cheeks, and eating a lot! Drew got Dawsyn's name in the draw and tried to tell me that putting "Lactose Intolerant" because chocolate milk gives her gas, was a compliment. I didn't buy it!

Dawsyn at her piano recital. She was the first to get up and play and didn't even act nervous! She played "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". She did great!

Drew, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck! He played "the William Tell Overture" and did great! I can't believe how much he has progressed in a year!

This weekend was also Women of Faith! I love going every year and took Drake with me this time. It was definitely the spiritual renewal I needed. Every year I hear something for wherever I am on my life's journey!

The last month of the school year begins today and our activities will start winding down, but not before they go out with a bang! It seems like we have a major event every weekend! The good thing is, it will help the time go quickly so we can get to summer!