Mommy is No Fun at All!

It was "Messy Craft Day" with the Mom's Club today and messy it was! This was the first thing I've gone to at someone's house and this woman was brave is all I can say. When we got there there were tables set up with different crafts ready to go but the main attraction was clearly going to be what was set up in the driveway. There were individual stations with card board taped to the drive way and paper taped on the card board for finger painting. Then there was a huge area of long sheets of paper where the kids could have a free-for-all together. The host, Kristin, had made finger paint and put it in plastic bags to make it easy to just dump blobs of paint out on the paper for the kids to use.



It began nice enough with each child at their own station painting away but before long they all moved over to the big area and pretty much turned it into a slip and slide in paint instead of water.




I was a little nervous because it was so slippery kids were flying all over and falling down pretty hard but it didn't seem to bother them. They just popped right back up and went at it some more.

As usual Jayke found a girl to play with right away.

As the kids made their mess the mom's all stood around and took pictures. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering why all these women were standing in the driveway taking pictures of half naked children.

There were a couple of little ones who were happy enough to just sit and watch. This is little Etta Bea in her cute hat watching the crazy kids make a huge mess.



One lucky mom who had on shorts got slimed by the boys. There were a few times I had to run from being attacked by a slimy child. I didn't make it out completely clean though. I had red paint all up one arm much to Jayke's delight.



After all that mess we had to clean them up somehow so Kristin brought out the sprinkler. Unfortunately that didn't quite do the job so all the kids and the moms headed for the bath tub. I've never seen so many kids in one tub of green water. And so many moms climbing on the toilet, counter, whatever to get pictures. I did not get any pictures of the kids in the tub, I was just trying to get The Boy washed off and get out of there.



After everyone was cleaned up they got to play with Nolan's toys for a while. Jaykeb found a truck and a trailer he really liked. He was still playing with his little friend too.



We left and went to get lunch. Because Jaykeb has done so well with his potty training Oma sent him some money so he could pick out his own surprise. We ran to WalMart and Jayke got to pick out two large trucks and several small ones as his reward. He was even more deserving of it since we went to Craft Day without a diaper and he didn't have an accident and he made it to Walmart and back dry too. Very happy mom here. The car ride home was torture for him, holding his new truck in his lap and talking a mile a minute about it the entire way. "Mommy, can I ask you a question?" Then he would ask me 100 questions about his new truck.
Eventually his big day caught up with him though and I made him go try to take a nap. As I was putting his pull up on for the nap he lay on the bed trying not to cry and said to me, "You're no fun! You are no fun to play with at all!" So that is the thanks I get for taking him to a super Messy Craft Day, out to lunch, and then to Walmart to get all those new trucks. Tomorrow he can just stay home all day with his no fun mom and drive his new trucks.

That's a Big Pooh!

Because I'm too tired to be creative and nothing eventful happened today other than the boy using his potty twice, Woohoo! I give you Winnie the Pooh and boy too!



Taken at the Children's Garden in Greenville Saturday. Please let she who doesn't like to think or cause other's to think, TKW, and me both know if you played.

FINALLY!

The Boy is finally potty training! He got to put his first sticker on his chart yesterday! This is big news in our house. Everyone was starting to think he would be wearing diapers to school. We are starting slowly but so far so good...no accident. Granted he hasn't actually used the potty yet, he is peeing outside (such a boy)and hasn't done the other since we started. He has issues with sitting on the potty, I figured we start with the yard for now and then move to the potty. I will drag that thing out into the yard for him if I have to. Whatever works! First thing this morning when he woke up he went and got a pair of his big boy underwear out of the dresser and brought them to me. "I want my big boy pants on Mommy!" No problem! I was proud of him but at the same time I realized he probably could have done this a long time ago. Little turkey!

Road Trip!

Must have been something in the air this weekend because Mike was in the mood to do stuff. Not only did we go Cherokee and Artishpere, on Sunday we just got in the car and started driving. We took the Blueridge Scenic Highway thru the mountains stoppping off here and there at state parks and different lakes. We took this picture at Lake Jocasee in Devil's Fork state park. I'm putting the picture on here because now Jim(my step-dad ) thinks he wants to buy/build on this lake. I'm saying no, too far away. It is about an hour to my house. That is too far. All I need do is tell my mom that the website says there are black bears around this lake and that will settle that matter anyway.



Probably the prettiest of the three large lakes near us. The water was crystal clear and the lake bottom was white sand instead of the red clay like Lake Hartwell. We didn't stay here long because we wanted to go see a waterfall. Yes, we had just seen the one on the Reedy River the day before but this one was out in the woods with no development around it. Totally natural and untouched for the most part. It was a short drive to Issaqueena Falls...located in another state park. This is where we found the waterfall.



You can't really tell in the picture but this is a pretty big waterfall. It drops 200 feet into the valley below. There is nothing keeping you from hiking down to the bottom of the falls and climbing out on the rocks...well, almost nothing...my husband kept me from attempting it in my flip-flops. I was poorly prepared for our road trip. That is what happens when you jump in the car and head out with no plan.

There were a couple of observation decks you could get a better look at the falls from. This was taken from the lowest one. I don't know if it will show up on here but in the background there is a man standing at the top of the falls that gives you a better perspective of the size of the falls. I should have climbed down, flip-flops and all to get a picture looking up. Next time.


There was also an unfinished tunnel in the park that was begun before the civil war in an attempt to connect Charleston to the midwest states but when the war began construction was stopped and never resumed. Unfortunatley the park was closing and we didn't get to go explore the tunnel. We will go back sometime to do that.

This last picture was on top of the falls. With my severe fear of heights this was as close as I could get without toppling over the edge...remember the flip-flops? Not good shoes to walk on rocks with.



We left the park and headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. While sitting at the table Jaykeb clarified for me that he understands the proper teminology for his boy parts now when he, very loudly, told his dad, "YOU ARE A BIG PENIS!" A perfect end to a perfect day.
NOTE: In my defense, he has not EVER heard me call his dad that so stop blaming me! I don't know why he started yelling that all of a sudden...in a restaurant...with lots of people around...causing me to almost fall out of the booth. I covered well though by saying, "Yeah, they are GOOD PEANUTS!"

Visiting the Indians

We went to donate some money to the Indians this weekend. Mike was going to lose his Rewards Points at Harrah's if we didn't go earn at least one reward credit this weekend. Those Rewards Points are important! Gives us our free stuff when we go to Vegas every fall. You have to earn at least one credit every six months or you lose them all therefore, we were off to the mountains to visit the Indians. We had Jayke with us so it wouldn't be a casino trip, more of a sight seeing trip with a quick stop at the casino. Jaykeb was excited. He just thought we were going to go see some Indians. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful drive. The mountains are a little behind where we are as far as the trees being green. Still very pretty though.



The casino is on the Cherokee Indian reservation. It is a winding drive through the mountains in North Carolina to get there. We started to see some evidence that we were getting closer as the road got more curvy and this guy appeared along the side of the road.



There are tons of souvenir shops all along the roads and at several places there were "Indians". You could get your picture, in our case our child's picture, taken with the Indian. Jayke was all for this so we pulled over and he got his picture taken with Crazy Joe the Indian. I didn't name him, that is what it said on the sign.



There were several other things you could do up there but it was a little before the tourist season begins so some things were not open. Like Santa Land. Not open. I was bummed. It is a little mini theme park and we would have gone if it had been open. Maybe next time. Once you went in one of the little shops you pretty much had seen them all, they were all the same. Reminded me of the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs although without the good food.
Since we didn't really see anything else that we wanted to do we headed back to Greenville to Artisphere which you can read about and see below.

We hit the road again today. The trip to the Cherokees and Greenville was Saturday. We took an entirely different road trip today which I will have up later. I love my road trips!

Ssshhh! It's a Secret Garden

We have had a very busy weekend. A nice change from what we normally have. Mike was able to go into work and come home early enough that we could still do something. We did several fun things but this post is going to be pictures of the children's garden at Falls Park because it was the cutest little thing ever!



It wasn't a "playground" type of park, this children's garden. It was more of a fairy tale garden for learning. Their were characters from various fairy tales. Little houses you could go in with storybook murals painted on the wall. Here is Jayke riding one of the "Three Little Bears". Just statues but you know how kids will climb on anything and have fun. I don't know what story the pig was from...

'

There were signs all over the garden with the letters of the alphabet naming all the different types of flowers. There was the cutest little Peter Rabbit garden (no picture, sorry)too.



There were huge musical instruments to play...


....and lots of rocks and trees to climb on.


So despite not having playground equipment, the boy liked the secret garden. All this was right along the Reedy River which I have talked about before. It was Artishpere this weekend so there were tons of people down there. A lot of them actually in the river wading, climbing, etc. Jaykeb had to try out the water, of course which meant Mommy had to go in with him. Let me tell you, that water was extremely COLD! I don't know how some of the other kids were in their bathing suits wet from head to toe. I'm getting old. I held onto Jaykeb tightly so that he wouldn't fall and get his clothes wet. Too cold for that. Their were kids playing in the interactive fountains too and they weren't even in the sun so I know they were freezing.



Artisphere is kind of like Art in the park back home. Lots of artists bring their creations to display and sell. No country craft stuff though which is why I like it. There were bands, and performers all around and of course BEER TENTS!



Mike bought a bunch of tickets and we didn't end up staying that long so we will be going back this afternoon. Can't waste those beer tickets! Jaykeb loved the live bands and dragged us all the way across the bridge and back up river to see one that was playing some lively Mexican music. I felt like I was back at the resort in Playa del Carmen. I tried to get The Boy to dance but he got real shy and just looked at me with this goofy look on his face. I couldn't tell if he was being shy or worried that I might start dancing and embarrass them all. We decided to sit on the lawn and eat cotton candy instead of dancing.
We didn't stay much longer because Jayke was tired. Before coming to Artisphere we had driven up in the mountains to Cherokee. Mike had to go to Harrah's but that will be another post, maybe tomorrow. We headed home to rest up for another outing today. Two days outside the house...Jayke and I won't know how to act.

Knobs...

It's Friday! That means it is SPF time. Today Kristine gave us an assignment which I thought would be quite easy. Knobs. How hard could that be right? Well when I grabbed the camera and started around the house to locate all my knobs, I found out it was going to be a little trickier than I thought. Nothing has knobs on it anymore. Everything comes with nice little buttons on it. I started looking at my furniture and it all has the same knobs...how boring for my SPF. The bathroom cabinet knobs are the same as the furniture. All of them are the same as the door knobs, brushed knickel knobs.



Pretty boring and not even a very good picture. But then I went into the guest bedroom and saw this sitting on a shelf...



At least this knob is a little more interesting even if it has no purpose other than decorating a shelf in the guestroom. I think we are going to see a lot of pictures of door knobs today unless some one gets brave and shows us their knobby knees or some other "knobs" on their person. My money is on Kami!
If you played let me and Kristine know so we can come check out your knobs! snicker

Show me The Money!

I'm hating the IRS and my mailbox! I have become a slave to the mailman. Every day waiting patiently for him to arrive then rushing to the little white box out in front of my house that will one day contain riches. Just to be greatly disappointed and sulking back to my piles of laundry and trips to the fridge to fetch his royal highness his chocolate milk. I have to blame someone for this so today I will blame my tax preparer for not filing my taxes electronically. Thanks a lot Dad. Checking the IRS website is no help either. They give you an ETA of from now until a gazillion years from now (two months)that you could be waiting to receive your shopping...I mean bill paying money. WTH? Don't they know I have dogs who need to go to the vet, debt to pay off, a plasma tv to buy? I need to be able to see Jack Bauer's face more clearly! I haven't gotten anything fun in the mail all week. No magazines, no catalogs, no free flower bulb offers...Nothing. I've been banned from ebay so no fun packages to open either. The Boy has even been bummed lately that he isn't getting any mail. No cards from the grammas, no packages containing more toys he doesn't need. We have been let down by the little white box of treasures. The only thing it brings us anymore are credit card offers, student loan consolidation offers, and crap from the American Legion. They may need to start making Zoloft in gum form so I can chew it on the way out to the box of disappointment.

Bits and Pieces of our Daily Life...

I know the family likes to hear funny things The Boy says so today I give you this little gem. I was changing Boy's diaper today(no he isn't potty trained yet...get off my back)and he pointed to his boy parts and asked me, "Is that my cornice?" What? Cornice? Now I know the poor child has been exposed to a LOT of decorating in his short little life starting in the womb when I worked at Elegant Accents, but where did that come from? Cornice? Opa Jim told me to stop watching decorating programs. Thing is, I don't. I think he was trying to say penis and just couldn't come up with the right word. Cornice. As you can imagine, this was quite funny to me but I didn't laugh at him. Just explained the right way to say it and we moved on. Of course his dad had to come home tonight and ask him how his cornice was. He said it was good. I thought we had that straightened out!

I thought I had lucked out in the kid department when it came to putting things in his mouth, etc. He never ever put anything in his mouth that didn't belong there. My luck ran out the other night when he came to me crying because his nose hurt. I started asking a bunch of questions trying to figure out if he hit it with something or on something. Finally he told me he stuck his "sour candy" up his nose. Turns out it was Nerds. They went up his nose and down his throat. I know that had to hurt. Good thing is he told me he was never going to put any thing up there again. Hope he remembers that promise for the rest of his life!

Last time it was cold enough to need a hat outside he told Oma he needed "eargloves" because he was cold. As long as he doesn't come tell me he needs a glove for his cornice! That will take some explaining.

Exercise and Fresh Air...A Forgotten Concept!

For my "W" them today I give you water...and lots of it! 56,000 acres of it to be exact! Also I wanted Angi and Kim to see more of what we could have done IF THEY WOULD HAVE COME DOWN HERE!

Since I was having a Blah day I decided The Boy and I should get out of the house for a while. We used to take drives all the time when we first moved here to explore and learn where things are and how to get around our new town. We haven't done it for a long time so I loaded him in the car today and we headed out. I thought since the weather was so nice we should head over to the lake for a while. We drove to the dam on Lake Hartwell. There are a bunch of parks there plus I really love the view from on top of the dam.



We stopped at one of the parks right before you get to the dam on the South Carolina side of the lake and walked on the beach for a little while. The water was really clear in the lake, the sand was warm and it wasn't too hot so it was perfect.



I hadn't been to this particular park before but it was like most of them. Lots of picnic areas, boat launches, a playground, and several beaches. I think we will have to go out there one weekend when Mike is off and take a picnic. I scoped out an area where if we get there before anyone else we could actually have our own private little beach.

Next we headed over to the dam. We have been here before, but like I said I love the view and Jayke just loves being outside so he was down for whatever.



We climbed the steps to the top of the dam and here is the view looking out toward the mountains to the north and the Georgia side of the lake to the left(west). You probably can't make out the mountains in the back ground but you can see them clearly from the dam. There are several small islands out there too.



We have been out on this part of the lake by boat with Mike's family when they came for a visit last summer. I think this is the largest part of the lake but it goes on for miles branching off all over into both Georgia and South Carolina. The lake has 962 miles of shoreline!


The walk from the stairs to the dam is a half a mile. We were the only people up there so Jayke ran and screamed at birds and worked up a good sweat. Here he is on the walk to the dam with the tops of the trees from the valley below.



We made it to the dam and looked over to the valley where the water is released when the lake is too high. It has been raining a lot so the water was a little higher than it was on our previous trips. You can read about the dam and the lake Here.



The view to the south of the dam is of the valley. The bridge is where you cross over into Georgia. This view is just about as pretty as the view of the lake.



I couldn't get a good picture of the dam from the lake side because my camera won't take good pictures from that far away. But here is one I found on the website you can visit above. Sorry, it's kind of small...the picture not the dam.



By the time we made it back to the car we had walked over a mile plus climbed up and down all those steps. I was amazed the boy made it and even more amazed I did. We actually ran part of it if you can believe that! We were a little creeped out by a guy who came out of no where and didn't have a car parked in the parking lot, which we could see below, so we made a fast retreat to our car. We were the only ones out there and it is pretty isolated. By the time we got to the car we were both sweating and worn out so we headed home. Tomorrow we may go explore somewhere else if it isn't raining. Not like we have a whole lot else to do.

If you posted a Wild Card Wednesday picture/story let me and The Kept Woman know!

Blah.

We didn't go back over to play with the cousins today. They were all busy with the ceremony and everything. Mike isn't leaving for Germany now until next Tuesday...I knew if I put that on the blog they would post pone the trip. Oh well! We didn't do anything but run to Target today. No pictures, nothing to talk about. I will try to be more exciting tomorrow/today, whatever. Goodnight.

Manic Monday

Manic Monday brought to us by Lisa.


If your house was burning and you only had time to rescue three non-living things what would they be? My pictures, my son's stuffed puppies, and my purse(holds a lot of important stuff)

If you were to take a week long car trip with your family or friends, what complaint are you most likely to hear from your fellow travelers? What complaint would they most likely hear from you? If I was driving they would be complaining about my speed, too fast. If I were riding I would be complaining about the driver's speed...too slow! The route they chose to take, driving too close to the truckers, following behind another car too close, passing to close...it's just better if I drive!

What or who encourages the child in you to come out and play? My boy, of course. I do a lot of things with him that I wouldn't do without him.

Mike is off to Germany again tomorrow. I couldn't find it on the map where he is going...I was in a hurry. Meetings about BMW take him back again. I know he is just heartbroken he has to go. I want to know when I get to go too!

Cousins to play with!

We had a great time at Kristen's party for being accepted into Oxford. Only a portion of the family was there which is a little unusual, but we still had a good time.



We played cards,(yes, Angi, I played cards)and took loads of pictures, and had a REALLY good meal. My cousin, Leanne, and her husband, Russ, cooked lobster for us all and it was better than any I've ever had any where else. Lobster, homemade twice baked potatos, sauteed asparagus spears, and a huge salad all topped off with home made key lime pie! I think I want them to come cook for me every night, or at least invite me over to their house for dinner. Below is Russ, Kristen's boyfriend, Russell. Kristen, Caitlin, and Leanne. Oh yeah and Lola, the dog who growled at Jaykeb.



Jaykeb had a blast! First he got to play with one of his older cousins, Danny...



Then two more cousine arrived. Kylie and Alexa. Kylie is only a few months older than Jayke. I wish they lived closer so they could play together like this more. The picture below is my sister, Sherri. My cousin, Mitch who is Alexa's dad. Alexa, Jaykeb, and Danny.



And this is Jaykeb with Kylie...



Taking pictures of 3 year olds is very difficult. They never hold still!



There was a "performance" by June and The Tripods. They performed Tiny Bubbles. Kylie and Jayke were the tripods. It was her farewell tour.



Meemaw insisted I DO NOT put her picture on my blog, so no pictures of Meemaw on here. She was here though. Jaykeb played for 5 hours straight, no nap. I should have known I would pay for this later. He was a perfect angel and everyone went on and on about how sweet and well mannered he is. I was actually impressed with his behavior. This was the child I remember from a year ago back out of no where. When it was time to go he was ready though and didn't even make it off of their street before falling asleep. I think we are going to go back this afternoon for some more time playing with the girls. We didn't make it to school this morning because Jaykeb kept waking up in the night crying he was so exhausted. I don't know how that works but when he is super tired he doesn't sleep well. Weird, I know. So we skipped school, slept in (sorry AJ you should have just told me to shut up and get off the phone)and now we are getting ready to go back over. It's warmer today so hopefully the kids can play outside some. I'm sure I will lots of pictures again. I will try to just put them in a slide show in a separate post later. I will get some of the neighborhood in Seneca today too because it is gorgeous. Those will be for Angi. Maybe you guys can show them to KP to coax her to move down and you guys can follow! I promise if you move down here I will start playing cards more! How bout that?



I won't be visiting blogs until later tonight but I promise to make my rounds then.