Chatter Boxes

During family movie night last week we were watching The Shakiest Gun in the West with Don Knotts. 

Don Knotts' character is a dentist who moves west to start a dental practice.  As you can imagine he runs into some trouble along the way.  At one point he's sitting in his hotel room a bit forlorn.  He's polishing a giant replica of teeth and gums and gets his hand stuck in between the teeth.  Then there's a knock at the door.  He gets up, dragging the giant fake teeth with him.  When he opens the door, there's a tall beautiful woman, dressed in a green velvet dress.  She tilts her head and gives him a crooked grin. 

Colin says quietly, "Well, now he has two problems?"

Aunt Kelly watched the boys a while back.  After dinner they walked to a nearby playground and this is what the boys did on the way there.  All on their own... 


At times they fight and yell and hit, but in the end they love each other.

Their campsite was next to the horse/bike trail so the neighboring campers included a horse.

If you look closely, you can see Colin's head right in the middle of this mess.  John sent me this picture with the caption, "Who needs a jungle gym when you have a huge pile dead tree branches?"

We headed back to Louisburg Cider Mill for some fall family fun.

Yummy Cider Donuts and Warm Apple Cider.  Delish!

I know I've been neglectful of this here blog.  It's been a long almost four weeks of weird headaches, doctor's appointments, and trial and error games with different medications but I think I'm on the mend.  So...I'll do my best to get this little corner of the Internet updated soon. 

We'll start with Seth.  About a month ago, we sat down with Seth's teacher for a parent/teacher conference.  She could not have been more complimentary of Seth's school performance.  She praised his behavior, his ability to focus on task, his social skills, and the example he sets for his classmates.  She even praised the fact that he knew how to have a good time when it was appropriate to do so.

We had also noticed a recent change in his behavior at home.  He has been working hard to follow directions and help out where needed. 

Seth earned the chance to be the star student for the week which included being able to bring home Marvin, the class mascot, for the weekend. 


Seth is 7 going on 17.  He wants nothing more than to be "a big kid".  He wants to drive, have a cell phone, even pay bills, and do his own laundry.  I treasure moments like this when bringing Marvin the moose home for the weekend brings a smile to his face.  Moments when he enjoys being seven.


To say thank you for all his help around the house lately, mommy took Seth out for ice-cream after school.  A special treat for a special kid!

We were able to celebrate the boys' birthday in Oklahoma with Grandpa and Grandma.  It was even more special because the boys share a birthday with John's dad.

When John had birthday parties as a kid, his mom would make pocket bread with chili and he and his friends would celebrate at Clayton Lake.  Since we would be there for the boys' birthday we decided to do it too!

Grandma made her special birthday lunch.  I made a cake (barely...for some reason my birthday baking is jinxed.  Things I bake come out fine the rest of the year but nearly every time I attempt to bake for the boys' birthday it goes haywire.  One year, ants enjoyed some beautiful sprinkled cupcakes I left out on the counter overnight and I had to make a last minute run for a store bought cake as guests were arriving for the party. This year, I was distracted by a story John was telling me and added three times the amount of oil I was suppose to.  There's no grocery store to run to near Grandpa and Grandma's house so we managed to compensate for the oil overload and I got the cake frosted.  But on our way to the lake, Seth was tossing a football around the back seat and it veered to the front seat and landed smack on top of the cake!  I think my birthday baking is doomed.  Next year...ice cream sundaes!)

Aunt Kelly mailed birthday cards to the boys.  They love getting mail!

The cards had cut-outs.  Seth is Iron Man and Colin is a pirate.

The cake!  Not too shabby all things considered.

The Birthday Boys!

Colin got a wii-mote charger (I know...it's very practical for a 5 year old but he did actually ask for it so he could "keep playing instead of not playing when the batteries need charging" - actual quote).  He also got this, which I highly recommend to parents of small children.  It's like paper dolls only with magnets and they come in different themes...robots, houses, planes, dolls, ballerinas, etc.  It's great for the car.  We all played with it on our trip home.

Seth asked for "something to play music in my ears" after watching mommy do yard work while listening to her ipod.  So, he's now the proud owner of his very own mp3 player and headphones.

I gave the boys Silly String in their Christmas stockings last year and they've been asking for it since.  Which is how we came to have a birthday Silly String fight at Clayton Lake State Park.

Seth is clearly winning this battle.  Mommy stepped in to aid Colin after taking some pictures.  As they get older Colin will figure out how to work those aerosol cans and Seth better watch out.  Youngest children always seem to get their revenge.

It was kind of nice having a small little party.  Big parties with friends are fun too but this year it felt nice to relax and enjoy these two boys.  We didn't plan for things to be so simple but I felt especially grateful for it on this day.  The boys felt sufficiently celebrated and I wasn't stressed about keeping people entertained or well-fed (although most of the time I enjoy being the hostess-with-the-mostest!).  We didn't rent any air-filled climbing, jumping, sliding apparatus or reserve a party hut, tent, cabana or room.  As I watched the boys splashing around in the lake with their dad, squealing on the playground, and smiling as they opened their small stack of gifts I was struck by how easy it is to over indulge the emotions of our kids.  We, of course, want them to feel special and loved on their birthday (and every day) but it may not take as much as we think it does.  I credit John's mom for helping us have such a great time together.  She may not have meant to,but she was the mom of two small boys once who kept things simple.  Maybe somewhat out of necessity (not a lot of party places close by).  She fixed a special lunch, went to a special place and decades later one of those boys did the same with his two small boys and they loved it!

The boys will get older and the pressure on them and us to create the biggest, most magical, most spectacular birthday ever will come, no doubt.  I hope we all remember this year and what it was that made it feel special.

The official end of summer weekend found us visiting John's parents in Oklahoma.  We enjoyed a long weekend at the cabin.  It was pretty hot so we didn't have energy to do much other than fishing and swimming, but we definitely took advantage of the opportunity to do both those things.

Check out this haul!  Sorry if your squeamish but we're pretty proud!  This was definitely a group effort.  Colin caught the biggest fish in the first five minutes of being on the pond, which is good given his current attention span.  It was his only catch of the day.  We think Grandpa caught the most.  Seth gets the prize for getting the most fish in the fastest time.  With his lucky fishing pole in hand he caught two fish in two minutes.

John took the boys to one of the "swimming holes" he played in as a kid.  The boys thought it was "awesome" and said it was more fun than our local aquatic center with water slides, lazy rivers, and climbing walls. I think there's something innate in little boys when it comes to the outdoors.  There's a little Huckleberry Finn in all of them.

Look for a separate post today with pictures of the boy's birthday!