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. 

Summer 2011

School year is done.  Kids are out of school!

T graduated from Kindergarten.  I honestly do not get weepy at these things.  I still have another one to go through next year with P. 

I like to take the kids to Brookside Gardens every so often.  It's such a pretty place to walk around and see the geese and the other animals around.  Not to mention all the flowers and landscaping!  We also like the butterfly exhibit, Wings of Fancy.

I was taking pictures with my portrait lens and I was looking forward to taking some at Wings of Fancy and once I got in there, my lens stops focusing!  I couldn't believe it.  Sigh...  It currently is working, but sometimes it gets stuck.  My cell phone is also acting up and I don't know what to do.  Technology is great, but it can be such a pain as well.

I still got some great pics, nonetheless of my kids.

Everyone say, Wild Kratts...click!

I wasn't expecting to get two nice pics of my kids.  They make me happy.

We just came back from the Patterson reunion and now we are getting ready for our annual trip to Florida!  Hoping everyone has a great Summer.  Stay cool...

Putting things on

B is so funny sometimes.  When we pray together at night as a family, she grabs all the colored plastic rosaries and starts placing them around her neck.  By the time she is done she looks as if she's got a thick layer of plastic bling on her.  I think it's the cutest thing.  I don't have a picture of that yet...I'm too busy praying.  She then proceeds to walk around with a little swagger in her hips and a smile of delight.  It's so cute!

A few weeks ago while I was doing laundry she found some of the boys' underwear (the clean ones) and decided it looked like a hat.

It actually looks pretty good on her.  If you notice her right eye has evidence of our long stretch with Pink Eye.  Thank goodness that's done with =)

That's it for today - laters.

Ocean City

Coach thought it would be fun to take the kids on a day trip to Ocean City.  It was Memorial Day weekend and we also thought we'd extend A's birthday celebrations.  It was a surprise for the kids, but they soon figured we were going to the beach when they saw the sunscreen, beach toys and change of clothes in the back of the car.

It was the first time for the kids and for myself.  I used to go boating on the Chesapeake Bay when I was younger and it was certainly close to OC, but we never did the beach part.  I'd lived in the DC area almost all my life and have never visited Ocean City. 

We left on Sunday morning at 5 am.  Our goal was to arrive in time for the 8:30 am Mass.  After Mass we ate at a random restaurant that served all you can eat breakfast.  Kids ate for .99 cents - deal!  Cha-ching!  The kids thought breakfast was the best thing ever.

Afterwards, we headed over to a miniature golf course that had a great white shark hanging by it's tail in the front.  It was a sign, according to our son P who loves whales and sharks, that there was the place to play.  A kept score, Coach helped every one learn to putt and I took pictures.  Not enough, though.  The weather was perfect - not too hot.  We decided we'd do the miniature golf before it got too hot.

Pink eye had infiltrated our household.  It started with T and spread throughout the family.  Boys first then the girls.  I was the last to get it.  I always thought pink eye (the viral kind) was the only symptom, but I was wrong.  This virus came with a runny nose and cough of different degrees with everyone.  I found it was so interesting how one kid had a 104.5 fever and the others didn't.  A couple of us just had mild symptoms of all of the above and some of us have a very loose cough that lasts a couple of weeks.  Some of us or should I say, just me, had a sore throat for 8 days and still coughing - going on to week three.  Nonetheless, it didn't deter us at all in having a good time.  By the time we went to OC, Baby woke up with just pink eye and a cough.

Everyone was in a great mood. 

I believe Coach won first place, I won second place, A won third place, P won 4th and T came in 5th.  I'm sure I would have been in first place if I wasn't distracted by my kids climbing all the fake rocks every where and almost falling into all the colored water.  Coach seemed a bit more relaxed than I was. 

We used our minivan to change into bathing suits, change diapers and lather sunscreen all over and then we were off to the beach.  I remember seeing pictures of OC and it always seemed so crowded.  I prefer the quieter beaches with less people on it however it wasn't as packed as the pictures I've seen.  The waves were much more exciting at this beach, but the water was so cold! 



The kids didn't seem to mind how cold it was.

B spent her time helping me build sandcastles.  She freaked out every time the water came too close.  So did I, too cold.

We spent most of the afternoon on the beach.  Afterwards we went to go walk the board walk and find dinner and ice cream.

We had some yummy pizza and hot dogs for dinner at a random pizza place.  I was looking for the boardwalk fries and perhaps fried dough? 

Ice cream got painfully messy for E and P.  I don't know why we got cones for the kids!  Maybe because they are more fun and delicious?  What a killjoy I am.  I went back in to get a cup to calm me down a bit.  I think I ran out of wipes.

We packed the kids in the car all sandy and sticky and drove the three hours home.  They slept well in the car.  We got home and showered the kids and tucked them into bed all clean and smelling much better.  Sigh...fun day =-)



Super Eight

Happy 8th Birthday

I am late in my posting - her birthday was May 27th.  We had our cake, ice cream and presents with a special request of her favorite pizza, LEDOS for dinner. 

My little one is now at an age that I remember clearly my experiences and feelings at the same age, ya know what I mean?  She is so beyond where I was at that age - for the good.  I absolutely love reading the work she brings home from school.  I love it more than my PEOPLE magazine.  To read and hear how she is taking in the world through her eyes is what is so much fun.

I got her hair cut.  I miss her hair.  I think I will try to cut it myself next time.  I'm feeling braver.

She's full of life, she's smart, she's witty, she's creative and beautiful!  Love you my little one!