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!"