Trip Highlights

We left Friday afternoon for a summer visit to see family up in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. We made the trip in about 16 hours...not nearly as long as I'd feared. Here are a few highlights (and low points) from the last few days.

• Jonah's impromptu, side-of-the-road potty break where he "peed on a spider's web!"(higlight for him, low point for me)
  
• Watching an awesome light show of heat lightning in Virginia. (highlight)
  
• Dealing with torrential down pours after the light show in Virginia. (low point)
  
• Realizing at our second gas stop that I had lost one of my flip flops at the previous gas stop. (Major low point for me, highlight for everyone else)
  
• Meeting lots of distant relatives at Grampa Corky's 80th Birthday Bash. (Little of both ;) )
  
• Staring in awe that a bunch of geriatrics didn't break their hips while they were 2-steppin' the day away. (Total highlight!)
  
• Taking the kids fishing in the lake. They have the Rocket Rods so they don't have to cast, but my son (guess which one) decided that he needed to cast anyway. This resulted in almost getting my eye taken out with a big plastic bobber and a nasty, still-wriggling worm on a hook. (highlight on the fishing, low point on the bobber to the head)
  
• Having a slithering snake cross my path on the way back to the house. (LOW POINT!!)
  
• Watching my 2 year old daughter roast weenies over the campfire. (highlight)
  
• Playing washers with my hubby, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law. (highlight)
• Getting a hole in one when we played mini-golf in Lake George! (highlight!)

We're up here until the 5th, when sadly we'll have to head back home. But I'll have LOTS of pictures to share when we get back!

And in case I don't get a chance to blog again before we're home, I want to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!

That's what brothers are for.

In my last post, I talked about how Noah's recent lost tooth was the SECOND tooth that Jonah has so lovingly helped to knock out. But the story behind the first of these teeth is priceless.

Let me set the scene for you. (It was sometime last year, soon after we moved to Charleston.) The boys are in the playroom, sitting on either end of the couch, just chillin' and watching some cartoons. I'm in the living room folding laundry and I hear "Momma! Momma! I knocked out Noah's tooth!!" Naturally I headed into the play room to see how much blood I'd have to clean up. Sure enough, there's Noah with a little blood in his mouth, and holding his tooth in his hand. I tell him to go rinse his mouth out in the bathroom, and while he's in there, I ask Jonah what happened.

"Momma, I smacked Noah in the face with the pillow, and his TOOTH FELL OUT!" (imagine Jonah bouncing up and down and waving his hands around while he's talking...the boy's animated to say the least).

Now, of course, I'm seriously doubting the validity of a soft pillow knocking out a tooth, however loose that tooth may have been. I head to the bathroom to ask Noah what really happened, and he tells me that yes, Jonah whacked him with a pillow but what Jonah didn't realize was that Noah had just brought his cup of water up to his mouth for a drink, and Jonah hit the cup into Noah's tooth. Now THAT makes more sense.

I walk back to the playroom and I see Jonah sitting on the couch beating himself in the face with a pillow. I ask him what in the world he's doing, and he says "Momma, it's not fair that Noah has losed two teeth already, and I haven't losed any. So I'm trying to make my tooth fall out too like I did to Noah". And with that he went back to the task at hand, and for the next half hour was convinced that he'd eventually knock out a tooth with a pillow.

Trials of the Tooth Fairy

The other day Noah lost yet another tooth, thanks to Jonah accidentally thwacking him in the head while they were horsing around outside. Fortunately it was a tooth that was already loose and hanging by a thread just waiting to come out. (That would make TWO teeth of Noah's that Jonah has knocked out. *sigh* BOYS.)

The7 came up to the house with their friends from across the street and handed me the tooth (gag!) and said to keep it safe so the tooth fairy could come that night. I put it in a small ziploc bag and said that it was all set for him to put under his pillow. That satisfied them and as they were all walking back across the street, I overheard this:

Friend: "D'you think the tooth fairy has a military ID? This is base housing ya know."
Noah: "Nah, I don't think she's military, so she must have to get a visitor's pass."

Family Friday Night

We started out with dinner at Vickery's on Shem Creek. The kids loved to walk the docks along the water.

Next we took the kids to play at the park on Sullivan's Island.

Then we ended the night with a some ice cream and a walk on the beach on Isle of Palms at sunset.

You're never too young...

Even my 2 year old has caught the Summer Reading bug!

Summer Reading

When I was growing up, our public library had summer reading programs, where if you read x amount of books, you'd get prizes. The coveted prize for our family was 2 tickets to a Florida Marlins baseball game. My sisters & I would read our eyes out so that we'd end up with 6 tickets for a game...and one of us would be able to bring a friend. We loved it! Our school would also do a summer reading deal too, and so we'd get to put the books we read on two lists instead of one!

Noah came home from school on the last day with a bunch of Scholastic books, and a paper called NBLU (No Book Left Unread), which was their reading log for the summer. They have to tally up how many pages the read all summer long, and the top readers get a prize at the beginning of the school year. Noah was the top reader in the ENTIRE SCHOOL last year and got his name on a plaque in the school library. He came home and told me that his goal for this summer was to 'blow last summer out of the water'. So the boy has issued himself a challenge. And so far, one week into summer, he has read 553 pages! I'm so proud of him! He definitely gets that from me...I love to read.

Both boys are reading for the public library here too. When they read for 5 hours they get a certificate and a medal. Read for 15 and you get your choice of either a ticket to the Charleston Battery professional soccer game or a ticket to the Carolina Stingrays hockey game AND a ticket to the Carolina Ice Palace or Karate lessons. Gee, I wonder which they'll choose?! Read for 30 hours and you get a tshirt andpasses to the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry and the Gibbes Museum of Art. They'll also get entered into drawing for the grand prize.

And not only that, but there is an adult reading program too! You just enter a slip each time you read a book and you're added into a weekly drawing for lots of great prizes...including a $50 gas card! Who can't use free gas??

Who's ready to read? WE ARE!!

*Any suggestions for good books for momma to read will be welcome!*

Friday Finds on Etsy: Father's Day Gift Ideas

Father's Day is just around the corner (June 21 folks!!), so I thought I'd see what Etsy has to offer for the dads.
Here's some Gourmet Rubs from Purpose Design. They also have really awesome spice racks! The next idea is something that we did last year for the hubby. A personalized keychain. All dads have keys, so this is a perfect gift. Not too big or flashy. Here's a great one from Amy Cornwell Designs.

And who doesn't have a golfer in their life? Not only is my hubby one, but so are both of our fathers. Quite honestly, if you DON'T have one in your life, I'm a bit jealous. This idea combines the sport of golf with the great quality of cleanliness. Who says that soap as gifts are just for women? Get your man a sleeve of 4 golf ball soaps from Karen's Soap Co. for Father's Day. He'll love it!

Of course there are many more options, these are just a few of my favorites. But with these ideas, you'll have NO EXCUSE not to get those special men a little something!