Purple, Orange Tailgating

 

I have many fond memories as a child, and there are a few of these memories that I want to try to re-create for my kiddos. One of which is college football. Way back in the 1980's my parents and I would spend Saturdays in the fall watching Danny Ford coach Clemson to a Championship. Of course he did it with the help of a little guy known as "Refrigerator" Perry! I loved going to Clemson home games where the highlight was having one of the cheerleaders paint a tiger-paw on my face with orange poster paint. Now that the boys are getting a little older and enjoying football we thought it would be fun to head to a Clemson game.

We decide to see Clemson take on Wake Forest. Mainly because they were pretty much assured a win, but also because it was at Wake Forest in the town where Ward grew up and a little closer drive than Clemson. So early on Saturday am we packed the entire family in the mini-van...dog, corn hole game and grill. And set off to see the tigers!

We tailgated in the parking lot of a mall. Kinda funny, I know, but it was full of orange and purple and the boys had a blast!! Truman got down and dirty and took off his shirt while heckling the Deacon fans that passed by. The boys played a little asphalt football and Ward grilled up some burgers.

Clemson rolled over Wake in a less than exciting game! But we had a blast and the boys enjoyed seeing the football game and hopefully they came away with some new memories of their own!

Snow Babies!

Yep, we had a WhItE ChRisTmAS!!

The North Carolina Polar Express

 

It had been two long years since we last ventured to the mountains to ride the Polar Express to the North Pole. (Yes, you can get from Bryson City to the NP and back in 2 hours). This year we rented a cabin and ventured north with a few other families. I am not absolutely sure if the boys were more excited about the train ride or spending the weekend with 9 other kids. I am guessing it was a mixture of both. They could not contain themselves in the days leading up to leaving. So it was either excitement or they had gotten into the catnip again.


We had a house full of little ones ages 1-8. The kids could not have been better behaved. Sure, at times they were loud. Yes, there was a lot of running and jumping. And yes maybe a time or two sawdust sprinkled down from the kitchen ceiling. But they all played amazingly well together. They set a nice example for the adults that fought, tattled, cheated at cards, and threw snow balls at one another. Just kidding.... maybe!

The train ride was just part of the fun. We enjoyed a great pizza dinner Friday night at a little hole in the wall joint in Bryson City and an even better hole in a hole of a wall Mexican place for lunch on Saturday. Dr. Dan made yummy melt in your mouth chocolate chip pancakes Saturday am.

A special treat was a horse that lived in the pasture across the road. He was sweet and very friendly. The children enjoyed feeding him and petting him each time they ventured outside.

We stuffed ours mouths full of yummy lasagna prior to dressing in our matching pjs and heading to the pole. (Because you know vacations are really about the food!). Aboard the Polar Express we enjoyed cookies, hot chocolate and a chance to sing Christmas carols. (My rapping partner aka Shannon and I were great at the Christmas carol part, wink wink!!) Once we hit the "Pole" someone shouted out "look there is Santa's double wide" (a statement you can only appreciate if you have been to this particular North Pole). And sure enough Santa and his 6 foot 5 inch elf boarded the train with us for the ride back to Bryson City. Truman quickly requested a new DS while Davis requested a portable DVD player and Gage shyly mentioned he would like a Red Ryder BB gun. While Santa passed out the bells our group attacked him for a group picture. Santa took it all in stride and just kept mumbling "Oh, boy" - which was true, the boys out numbered the girls 3 to 1. But I am not convinced that is what he meant!!

Once we arrived back to the city and headed back to our cabin "Bear Pause" the children were snug in their beds, bells safely in hands within minutes. Gage woke up the next morning asking when if we could come back next year. I have to agree I am looking forward to it as well!

Mustang Sally or rather Mustang Tru!

We celebrated Truman's 3rd birthday last week. Poor guy, a birthday so close to Christmas you almost always get slighted. The last 2 years he really had no clue it was his birthday. But this year it hit him. He started to talk about his birthday a week or so before hand. His favorite song, aside from Boom Boom Pow is Happy Birthday. Seriously, we have it on a CD from a friend's party and he ask to hear it over and over. The closer we got to his birthday he began signing "Happy Birthday Truman". Downright adorable to his parents, and rather annoying to his middle brother.

Truman is obsessed with cars. Anything and everything cars. He almost always carries one in his hand, sometimes 2 or 4. (which means he is always dropping one somewhere) But he can also pick our corvettes and mustangs while driving down the road. His favorite being the convertible mustang, like his daddy's. He was quite surprised to receive his own. And spent most of the afternoon driving his brothers around.



To celebrate his birthday, we headed to the local botanical gardens to see the Christmas lights and take a carriage ride. It was a beautiful night. The boys enjoyed acting like gangsters for the evening. Why? I am not really sure, but then why do boys do half the things they do???

Things I never thought I would say...

There are days when something comes out of my mouth and I think "Did I really just say that??". I am not talking about the "foot in my mouth kinda things". Those never surprise me anymore, it is after all my nature to open mouth insert foot. (Don't laugh you probably do it too). But I am talking about the mom things I say. The short list being...

"How many times are you going to ride your brother today" or
"Honesty if you are going to poot at the table please do it under the table" or
"Who left this in the toilet and what is it" or
"When you grow up and leave home will you blow your nose with a tissue?" or
"The dog is not a toy" or
"No, I do not want to smell that" or
"Did you seriously think you could ride that? or
"Do not stick that in his nose while he is trying to sleep"
"No you can not write on his bumm"
and my very favorite.

"The toilet brush is not a sword!"

"Panters"

Ward and Davis hit a recent "Panters" home game! Everyone knows how awful the Panthers are this year - but we thought 1. they are playing a team that has the same losing streak and 2. Davis won't care he will just be thrilled to go. While D was thrilled to be going he was overly bummed about how bad they have been playing. He came out of Sunday school saying "Mommy, the "Panters never win, they have bad players". I told him that the fun was going to the game win or lose it didn't matter! He didn't buy it so I crossed my fingers and told him maybe he would be their good luck charm, I mean after all they were playing another not sa' great team!

As a bonus he and Ward rode the light rail to the stadium - which to a 5 year old is just as exciting as the actual game. The unseasonably warm weather, it made for a great game day! Davis enjoyed watching the game, screaming at the other team, (apparently he can heckle like an old man, thankfully he refrained from using words he heard others around him use!)
It was actually a pretty good game! The guys stayed until the very end to see the Panthers pull out a victory. Big D was so happy! He came home with a massive panther paw on his face! Panther silly bands for Truman and a few new dances to show off!

Water Logged

Between Ward and Gage's swim meets our last few Saturday mornings have been spent poolside. Ward is swim for the NC Masters. Their meets are great because they don't start until lunch time! And go very quickly. Ward did a remarkable job swimming his 3 events. I think it was because Grammy and Cathy were here to cheer him on. The downside of his meet is the much much older men in speedos. I will refrain from posting pictures of the events for this reason!
Family Self Portrait - Tru was more interested in getting tic tacs from Grammy than being in the picture!


Davis' reaction when Ward takes 1st!


Gage had us waking up at the crack of dawn for an out of town meet! The Great Pumpkin Meet! There were over 600 kids swimming from across North Carolina. It is one of the 2 meets that Gage's team host. It was wild. There are 2 pools under the same roof. So basically 2 meets going on at once. Gage had the best time. He swam 6 different events and was dead tired by the end. And sorry if it offends but since it is my blog and my child I will brag on him!
He placed fourth in 25M breast and his free relay placed 2nd!
G's cheering section. (I am hoping Gage will get use to the swim cap, can you tell he HATES it!)



After the meet we headed to lunch with Grandma Nancy, Fred and Bruna! A quick picture in the parking lot before heading home with our new musical cars! Thanks again Grandma. Davis played his non stop on the way home! He was so excited.

Rustic Roost!

With Ward merging practices earlier this year we have had more time to get away. We have really enjoyed a few long weekends away with the boys. They are getting to an age where they are easy to travel with and we no longer have to pack have the house to be gone for a few nights!!! One of our favorite trips away this summer was for Labor Day and was spent at the Rustic Roost! A great cabin in Lake Lure, NC with a beautiful view.
From our back deck.


We made smores on the beach at night.


Let the boys dress themselves for our fire pit!

We all loved the hot tub (for the boys we turned the heat off).

Made friends with the "kids" that lived down the road.

I just love Tru in this picture.

We stayed out past bedtime!

The boys played on the golf course with a huge group of other kids while we ate dinner.
First trip sans pak n play - Tru shared a bunk with Gage!



Ward, G and Big D spent a day fishing on the river while Truman and I stayed behind to nap, play in the hot tub and read books on the deck. We had beautiful weather and spent a lot of time outside. The highlight was a day of tubing on the river, which is due a post of it's own.

Myrtle for Ward's Bday

It's been awhile, but in August we headed to Myrtle Beach to celebrate Ward's 39th birthday. We spent most of the days in the water and enjoyed some of our favorite places to eat! All four of my boys had a BLAST!

Zipline Sucess

This child is fearless. He amazes me! Gage and I were at the bottom screaming at the top of our lungs. It was Ward's first time on a zipline as well.

Family Camp

The Zip-Line lake at sunset


Davis takes a swing


Archery


A few weekends ago we headed to family camp in Eastern North Carolina. Well 4 of us did - Truman had his own camp at Grandmas house. The boys took Friday off from school and we left early morning for the 6 hour drive to Camp Seafarer in Arapahoe, NC. The camp is located on the Neuse River. It is known for it's boating and is the sister camp to Camp Seagull where both Gage and Davis will go next June for their first spend the night camp. Knowing that they would be spending a week at Seagull we wanted to check it out and see what it was like. And it was pretty amazing. We were too busy to take many pictures. But sailed, motor boated, swam, archery, bb guns, golf and much more. Davis' big event was the zip line!! I was so proud of him! Great time at a great camp!

Girls weekend away!

In late July some girlfriends and I head to Charleston for the weekend. We left early Friday morning with the promise not to return until after all the kids were in bed on Sunday night.

We stayed in the heart of downtown Charleston. It was a hot as possible so after a nice lunch after we arrived, we did what all wild women do without their children - we napped until dinner. We had a great meal at one of my favorite low country restaurants - Hanks. Some of the best peel and eat shrimp!





On Saturday we headed to the Isle of Palms to sit on the beach. Which we did until after the sun went down. It was so nice not to have to pay attention who was in the water, and I was thankful that the girls did scream when they wanted to read the same magazine!! From time to time I would yell out Mommy - just so that none of us would get to spoiled.

(not a flattering picture I know, but we have this thing about taking pictures of ourselves. Leah is so much better at it - I think she has longer arms)

(I think she has a picture of me in this same pose, we didn't even get up to take pictures)
After sleeping in really late on Sunday (9 am!!!) We headed back to IOP to pick up some hermit crabs for the kiddos. And then made our way back to G'town. Not too long before bedtime. The boys had a good "Guys Weekend" I understand there were a lack of naps, late bedtimes, few showers and many meals eaten in boxer shorts!