Back to School

I love seeing every one's photos of their kids' first day back to school.  I'm not sure how other schools do it, but my two oldest returned to school today and then my Kindergartner will go to his first day of school two days later.  So, I will post again when P has his day!

I think I'm just as excited about the school year as my kids are.  Some parents are sad to see their kids leave after a fun filled Summer, but I look forward to all the exciting things school has to offer.  I love hearing their stories, the challenges, the growing pains - yah, all that stuff!  All the fun stuff they get to do too, projects, field trips, parties, etc...

For myself, I get to focus on my two little ones still at home.  It's a nice change of pace to run errands with 2 kids instead of 5.  The chaos that school brings forces structure to my unorganized lazy tendencies during the day.

A will be in third grade this year.

T will be starting first grade.

The amount of school supplies that I had to buy this year was insane!  To have to buy for three children was confusing enough - wait until I have 5 to buy for.  I went to my favorite place in the whole world, Target.  Although they had most of what I needed, I still had to go hunting for the specific color and style of folder.  I realized early on that some of the supplies I am buying is for the class and not necessarily for just my kid.  My den was a room full of supplies all over the floor for a few weeks then we organized them all into huge paper bags that my kids would then haul into school by themselves (ok, I helped a little).  Little people with big bags, I should have taken a picture of that!

The buzz in the auditorium this morning with all the parents, kids and teachers was exciting.  I almost felt like it was my first day of school seeing all the other parents, some familiar some not.  I kind of stood there by myself smiling at everyone, but focusing on my kids and watching them interact with their peers.  I finally said bye after morning prayers and went home. 

Have a great day, kiddos!



Georgia Aquarium

Last year, we went through Atlanta, GA on the way home and did the Children's Museum.  Right next door was the largest aquarium in the world.  My kids' fascination with animals under the sea was growing!  They loved whales, sharks and giant squids.  The aquarium in Atlanta had whales sharks!  I've never heard of a whale shark until my kids started reading up on sharks.  We would go onto YouTube just to see them.  They are enormous sharks who are gentle and don't eat other animals like the great white sharks.  They eat krill in huge amounts (tiny tiny animals).  You can even swim by them and catch a ride if you see them in the ocean. 

So, I was amazed that they even were able to get a whale shark into an aquarium.  This I wanted to see as much as the kids.  So this year, we decided to stop by Atlanta on the way home again and pay the big bucks to see this great place.

And there it is, the whale shark!  There were actually four of them in this impressive tank they had.  This whale shark is a lot bigger than it looks in this picture.  On average, they say, whale sharks are about 25 feet in length (size of a school bus), but can grow as long as 43 feet long!  I kept wondering how they got these massive sharks from the ocean to an aquarium - UPS!  They really can deliver anything.  Ding dong, special delivery!  Please sign here, where should I put this?  Lol!!

Look at him soaking it all in!

The kids were really captivated.  Love it!

Overall, the GA Aquarium was really neat.  There were huge crowds that made it hard to really enjoy to the fullest but otherwise a good time.  We did capture the dolphin show which I didn't really like too much.  They made it into a drawn out musical with nifty stage and lighting effects featuring the dolphins.  What I would have preferred is a more educational approach to it all.

  

We ended up driving home that same day.  We needed to get home a little earlier than planned.  As we were driving at night, we ran over a tire that just blew off a semi truck of some sort in front of us.  It happened quickly so there was really no other choice but to run over the tire.  I was asleep when I heard the big th-thump-thump.  We were happy that we didn't notice any damage as we kept driving home.

But when we got home we found that our car was leaking gas.  Long story short, gas tank and fuel pump were damaged and needed to be replaced.  Ignorance about how car insurance procedures are supposed to happen is expensive. 



But, I am very thankful that God kept us safe despite the expensive road debris.  What is left now is the rest of the summer at home, enjoying the freedoms of having nothing to do but what you want to do, getting ready for school, buying supplies, seeing friends and family, etc...

See ya later!

Wrapping It Up

After leaving Charleston, we headed toward Ave Maria, FL where my parents live.  We did a lot of hanging out with my parents and with family.  We did things that were more relaxing.  One of the first things we did was head to Naples to watch Cars 2 which my kids were looking forward to a lot.  They definitely liked the movie and are now collecting all their favorite cars from the toy stores!

We also did a lot of swimming.  I do not have any pictures of that because I didn't want to get my camera wet and also I was busy swimming.  My kids still do not know how to swim and we do not belong to a swimming pool so they don't really practice during the Summer.  When we go down to Florida is probably the only chance in the year they will swim unless they get invited to a swim party during the year which has happened.  We spent our time in the pool teaching them how to swim and it's tough.  My sister had a lot of luck with the kids this year and they got a lot better.  I'm not as nervous anymore at the pool, but would still like to get them swimming confidently.  Perhaps, swimming lessons at the local indoor pool this school year? 

My Dad rented a golf cart for all of us to drive while we were visiting.  The town of Ave Maria is not only a residential community it is also a college campus.  It's a large area outside of Naples, FL.  Getting around is more fun in a golf cart than in a car that's been heated by the hot sun! 

This was a hit with the kids since they were able to drive it.  There was an adult present at all times - no worries!  It was sort of a glimpse into the future as to what it will be like when your kids are able to drive.  Um, I don't think I will be handling those days too well.  My daughter was very quick to learn and she was driving pretty well by the end of our trip.  The boys on the other hand - perhaps it was just their young age.  I hope they improve with age.

We went all over the place with the golf course.  Any errand that had to be run, we had volunteers!  We went on a hunt for alligators around the town and found around 8-10 of them in the lakes.  Some were hanging out on the golf courses.  I didn't get any pictures of course, but we took tons of video.

We did some sparklers one night.



These are always fun!

We also did a lot of eating at my parents house.

While at my parents house we decided to take a side trip to the University of Miami so that Coach could visit their coaches and do what coaches do.  But first we visited the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale.  The waves are much stronger, I thought.  The sand, much coarser.  The sun, much hotter - we went during the hottest time of the day, uggh.

Spent more time enjoying the waves.

Some of us were at the beach during our nap time.

Sometimes Daddy makes everything better.

See, the sand was a lot coarser and hotter.  It made it a bit uncomfortable, but it's pretty, eh?

Sandcastles were made.





The next day we headed to Zoo Miami.  I would prefer if they switch the name to Miami Zoo just because.  They had family bikes to ride all around the zoo, but my family preferred to walk it.  I liked this zoo, it had a lot of cool animals and things to do.

My kids enjoyed a camel ride from this nice fella.



The camel walked around a small circle twice and that was it, but their faces said it all.  They were having fun!

We got to feed the pelicans before we left.

We headed back to Ave Maria for a few days and then we were headed home.  On the way home we wanted to stop by Atlanta, GA to see the largest aquarium in the world!  Ooooow, ahhhhh!  See ya then.



Magnolia Plantation

I've never visited a plantation before in the South, but I think they are absolutely beautiful.  Don't think I would like to live on one though.  I didn't get to see inside the house on the plantation (pricey) but the grounds were enough to look at.  We were also on a hunt for alligators which we did find.

It was such a hot day!  We put our sunscreen on, applied bug spray and packed some water and off we went.  They had a petting zoo on the plantation where I ran into one of these beautiful birds.

They are just stunning when you see them opened up in all their splendor!  Wow.  They had a bunch of other birds such as turkeys, chickens, roosters and the like all over the place and I went taking pictures of all of them, but they just aren't as cool as this peacock.  B was scared every time the peacock made a noise - they are loud.  It startled her every time.

I eventually moved on to where my family was gathered.  I was curious as to what they were all staring at.



And there she was, holding a Bald Python in her hands.  OMG!  I was freaked out of my mind and also in awe of my daughter that she would hold such a thing.  My kids love animals.  She wasn't done yet...

She had to go hold another snake.  I don't remember the name of this one, but this one was squirmy and wanted to slither over and kiss her face.  I couldn't watch.  She clearly thought it was cute.

This is the Alligator Snapping Turtle.  That little red thing in it's mouth looks like a worm to little fish and they come in to eat the worm and SNAP, the turtle eats it.  Pretty nifty, eh?  None of my kids held this fella.

And here is a Gila Monster.  Yes, these are venomous lizards.  One of two species of lizards in North America to be venomous and it's in front of my kids.  Hm...this one is a baby.  This was probably the best part of the plantation for my kids.

It was fourth of July, by the way.  They were giving out free watermelon and snow cones, yeh!!  My kids never had a snow cone before.

Yummy!

After this refreshing break, we went and walked around the gardens which took us all over the place for a while.  It was very pretty. 



I believe they call these Angel Oak Trees for how the branches flare out the way they do.  I see them all over the south.  They are pretty.

They had swamps there too.  This is where we found some alligators sun bathing.  That made my son, P very happy.  I am just amazed at the number of alligators just hanging out all over the place.  Yikes.  They did say the plantation closed at 5 pm, but we could hang out after hours, but couldn't ensure our safety after dark.  Well, I can see why now. 

We also found a horticultural maze for the kids to run through which was fun!

We had a good time.  We ended up hanging out on some porch swings, enjoying the rest of the daylight, discussing where to eat for dinner and where to watch the fireworks.  We ended up eating at a place called AW Schucks in downtown Charleston and watching the fireworks at the Waterfront (I think).  The restaurant was so yummy!  I didn't take pictures, but you know how I like good seafood, right?

The fireworks turned out really well.  It was crowded, as expected, but it was still a great atmosphere to watch the fireworks on the harbor.  I wasn't sure where the fireworks display was going to be, but when 9:30pm rolled around the fireworks ended up being behind the only trees in my view!  I thought it was funny!  We still enjoyed it all - even though!  The traffic wasn't even bad, thank you God.  We got back to our hotel with no problems.  Yeh!! 

It was a great fourth of July.  We left the next day to Ave Maria, FL to visit my parents.

Charleston, SC

Can I say that my kids are great travelers?  Wow!  They are very pleasant in the car.  In fact, it's just lovely to hear them having conversations, giggling or their random comments on what they see as we're driving.  They are genuinely excited about the places we are going to visit and the things we plan to see.  So it should be!  I hope that doesn't go away.

We planned to meet my sister and my nephew along with her boyfriend and his kids in Charleston for the fourth of July.  I have been before, but it was just for an evening.  I thought it was such a great place that I wanted to go back and do it again and see more of it.  We were only there for three nights.

We hit the beach at the Isle of Palm.  This is where we met my sister and company.  I only get to see her and my nephew twice a year, sometimes three. 

This beach was crowded!  I guess this is to be expected when you are tourist on fourth July weekend, right?  Also, the tide was high when we got there and beach space was very tight.  I had five kids to look after amidst an ocean of people so I was constantly counting five little kids the few hours we were there.  The kids were having tons of fun.  They only see the beach once a year and this was it.  Well, I'm wrong - we did make a trip to Ocean City this year.

B didn't like the water too much.  She was just fine playing in the sand.

Coach took the kids into the water while I watched the kids on the beach.  The kids, who don't know how to swim, were having more fun with the waves this year.

E made droopy sandcastles.  The sand was soft at the beach.  I prefer that over the coarser sand.

P was looking for sharks - he might have found some if we stayed a bit longer.  My kids love sharks!  It's scary for me to imagine that sharks actually swim around in the shallows around sunset.  They were actually warning everyone about it as we arrived.  YIKES.

We were getting hungry and we were trying to decide when to leave so we could hit the Poe's Tavern restaurant on Sullivan's Island for lunch - a late lunch!  Coach teaches an American Literature class called, Poe/Hawthorne and we thought it would be fun to visit a restaurant inspired by Mr. Poe himself.  He spent some time on Sullivan's Island when he was stationed there while in the army.

Lunch was yummy and I was happy we were able to get seats and not wait for so long.  We planned on going downtown to walk through the market place.  I like that sort of thing.  It was very crowded and hot.  We had a lot of kids with us and I didn't really get to browse and really take a look at everything they had like I would have wanted to, it was ok.  Doing Seattle's market place was more fun, perhaps b/c I was without a lot of kids and the temperature was a lot colder =-)

We heard a lot about the water taxi that crosses the harbor.  We would be able to enjoy a leisurely ride and see lots of historical sights on the way.  Also, they said there were almost always dolphin sightings on a ride.  It sounded perfect!

Can you see the excitement in his eyes?  It a very nice time of day when we finally got on the water taxi - as the sun was going down.

We kept looking for those dolphins.

...and kept looking, but we saw other nice things on our ride.

We saw the USS Yorktown.  We didn't ever visit the actual ship, but it would have been cool!  The ship was so large. 

I loved the sun setting on the sailboats, so pretty!

 

We took a half hour ride and we never saw those dolphins, but we still had a good time seeing everything else.  We ended up asking the guys driving the boat where a good place to eat was.  We ended up going to a place called Pizzeria Di Giovanni.  This place had enormous size pizzas and it was so yummy!

By the end of the day, the kids were all teetered out.  We headed to our hotels after dinner to rest up for a day at Magnolia Plantation and fourth of July festivities!

Summer Vacation

The Summer is going by quickly and I'm ready for it to be over.  We have been having some HOT days over here that make me want to stay inside and not go outside.  Shouldn't it be the other way around?  There are people that actually like the sweltering heat.  Hm, don't get it.
I haven't posted in a while, perhaps because I've been away on vacation and my mind has been all over the place.  I just don't function as well when my kids are home.  I am terrible at that clean the house, put things away, what's for dinner thing - I pray for some order in this house of mine.
The school year is approaching fast and I'm way excited to get back into the grind.  The grind helps me keep structure in my day.  I'll have been blogging for a year soon.  You remember how much I love Autumn, right?  Ahhhh - can't wait!
Ok, so this Summer we had a Patterson reunion up at the Farm and it was a whole lot of fun.  It's just beautiful over there and it is basically friends and family spending time together eating, talking and playing.  My mother and father-in-law did a wonderful job at putting it all together for us to all enjoy.

I did some shooting of fire arms.  I have improved since the last time!

Although, A would have loved to shoot the guns too she just stuck to wearing the big earphones to protect her ears.

The kids all got a chance to kayak in the creek.

I'm not too into swimming in the creek.  I'll walk in it, splash in it, but swimming in it - no thanks.  I feel the same way about the ocean.  If I can't see what's under me, I don't want to be in it.  The other thing about creeks is all the slimy parts - don't like that either.  I was happy watching the fun.

B had a good time exploring.  She hasn't been to the Farm enough to remember all the neat places to wander off too.

My kids can spend hours just throwing rocks in the creek. 

There are wild flowers every where.  It's fun to make little bouquets.

Flower didn't stay long in her hair, but it was cute while it lasted.

There are ducks to follow around.  They are so fun to watch and really cute.

Waddle, waddle, quack, quack!

I wonder what kind of duck this one is?

We always love coming to the Farm.  My husband used to come here as a child with his family and now my kids get to come and spend time doing the same things he did. 

We all left to go home on a Sunday night.  We had the week to prepare for our trip to Florida.  On the way down we planned to meet my sister in Charleston, SC and spend the fourth of July there.