A Taste of California in South Carolina

What fun cousins are! Bella showed off her (then) new skill of crawling during our trip. She was all over the place and amazed me by entertaining herself for extended periods of time. We were all in South Carolina to see Uncle John and Aunt Heather. It is a rare treat to see them, especially now that they live on the other side of the country. Uncle John gave Elijah some lessons in catching. Elijah had a little trouble keeping his "eye on the ball" and using hand-eye coordination. If, however, you threw the ball directly into his outstretched arms, he would catch it and we would all applaud ~:-)
Aunt Heather played with the babies.
Bella read to Elijah. Aunt Heather even let Elijah roll for her in Yahtzee! Elijah loved it.Aunt Abigail also played catch with Elijah. Sweet Haven loved being in PawPaw's arms. She even took a nap there! A little strawberry outfit from Bella: She is SO HAPPY when she sees Haven in her hand-me-downs! Abigail and MawMaw set up their own movie theater in the study so they could watch some Shirley Temple. Aren't they cute? Both babies often ended up in Heather's care. (Does anyone notice how Bella is putting Haven in a headlock?) Aunt Heather didn't seem to mind the added responsibility; these two are a lot less stressful than her California job!
Bella likes to hang upside down and flip off furniture...just in case you ever hold her.
The Greats:
Four generations:
Cousins: Uncle John was a thrill a minute on the new golf cart.Notice Abigail hanging on for dear life, Bella enjoying her first ride in the Ergo, and Elijah driving in his pajamas.Beautiful Sister:John and Heather, we are so glad you guys came to visit!

Mood Swings

Our friends Krista and Gracie came to play; we were trying to woo them into moving here! Krista made a fast friend by reading to Elijah. Thankfully, Elijah saved this little gem for after their visit. Imagine you are looking at a flip book...My dear little boy can be quite a challenge especially with these episodes. I find myself wanting to say, "It doesn't even make sense that you are crying!!!!" or some similarly unhelpful phrase. I try to remember how, regardless of your age, we tend to think that what is going on in our lives is of ultimate importance. How do you teach your child that it isn't? How do *I* learn to see the big picture? {And, since we are talking about issues, how do I get this kid to stop whining????}
Despite the fits, I am thanking God that Elijah has improved by leaps and bounds in being kind to his sister. Haven, perhaps more than the rest of us~;-), is rejoicing.

A Taste of Madison

We heard about A Taste of Madison almost at the last minute. I thought it would be a fun and inexpensive way to get dinner and try out new restaurants. Eeek! It was crazy! There were SO MANY PEOPLE there that the restaurants kept running out of food. Everyone's greedy nature seemed to pop out and there were mad dashes for the food. I get really claustrophobic in this kind of environment and have to leave. Thankfully, the day was not a total waste because Good Pasture Christian School has a super fun playground. We enjoyed being outside and then headed home to play some more. This is definitely not an endorsement for the event...unless you are the type of person that loves Black Friday.

Lego Duplos

A favorite pre-bedtime Daddy activity, Lego Duplos have been a great source of entertainment for our family. Perhaps this is because Eric is constantly thinking of new things to create and new stories about the man and woman to go along with his creations. (I highly recommend purchasing a set which includes these two vital characters.) Elijah will often be heard reenacting the tale the next morning~:-)

The Greatest Generation

This day - September 19th, 2009 - was, absolutely, one of the best days of my life.

PawPaw was flown, courtesy of Honor Flight, to Washington, D.C. to see the memorial honoring the work of America's World War II soldiers. Through a turn of events and many phone calls, I was able to go along! The Honor Flight group is just fabulous! They had everything from breakfast to medical care to wheelchairs available for these octogenarians. The veterans were met with cheering and much fanfare at the meeting spot, the Atlanta airport, the Washington airport, and back at home again. It was so wonderful to see the honor given to these soldiers; they were all so thrilled and appreciative.

Once we arrived at the memorial, who should meet us but Bob & Elizabeth Dole! Despite his insistence on needing to ride in a wheelchair all day, PawPaw miraculously recovered just in time to meet Elizabeth Dole. She was so wonderful and gracious to all the veterans; PawPaw would probably say his conversation with her was the highlight of his trip. Bob Dole is primarily responsible for the memorials existence. He tries to meet with every group of veterans that comes so he can thank them for their service in person.There was another grandchild-grandfather pair in our group.Here is Mr. Bill, another veteran, and our fabulous chaperone, Joe Bryant.PawPaw, an Alabama boy, now lives in Georgia. He was deployed with a Missouri group because of some delay in his training/processing. We couldn't get a good picture by the Missouri pillar because it was being cleaned.

Each of these 4,000 stars represents 100 Americans soldiers who were killed during WWII."Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices." ~President Harry S. TrumanWe also saw the Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetary. As the change was about to occur, the soldier in charge asked everyone to stand out of respect for the fallen. Upon hearing this request, every veteran there - whether able to or not - stood up. Suddenly there were empty wheelchairs everwhere. These men had seen death and they appreciated the soldier's sacrifice. The whole group of veterans from the Fairburn, Georgia area: The bus ride was wonderful as well. I learned (and videoed) a few of PawPaw's actual war memories and heard stories from many of the other men as well. All this was done with patriotic music from the 1940's playing and a candy bag being passed around. I loved being able to just be with PawPaw all by myself. I'm not sure if we've ever done anything just the two of us; it was so great to have no distractions and just be able to listen.Just look at these men - men of honor, men with stories. Yes, absolutely one of the best days of my life.

**Special thanks to Grammie & Grampa for making this wonderful day possible!**

Review: My First BrainBox & Hot Rocket

Elijah and Haven playing with their new Timberdoodle product:
Timberdoodle sent us My First BrainBox and a Hot Rocket to review for MamaBuzz. Elijah has very recently been excited about "playing games" so I thought this would be a big hit. Plus, I wanted to see what these much-praised Timberdoodle products were all about. They make a lot of educational/homeschool games and materials; hopefully, I'll get more of their products in the future (Christmas Wish List 2010?!). They also have a complete line of homeschool curriculum which I have yet to explore. Do any of you guys know about this?

My First BrainBox is a game helping with memory recall. You have 10 seconds to look at a picture before you are quizzed on something you *should* remember. Elijah liked the mechanics of the game - picking the card, watching the timer, rolling the die - but wasn't quite able to play it. Some of the questions were hard for him; they involved pairing, words he didn't know (polka dot, for instance. And, yet, given that is my decorating theme, how can he NOT know that one?), or fast counting skills.

I like My First BrainBox for a few reasons.
1. I would like to see if I can beat Eric.
2. I feel like it will make me more observant or, at least, expose my poor memory recall.
3. It has already showed me several things Elijah doesn't know, which gives me a very easy plan of attack for teaching him.

My First BrainBox is a good game that anyone in our family can play. I'm interested in seeing what the other BrainBoxes are about too - maybe I could learn about our Presidents that way. For $17.00, that may be a worthwhile expense. (I know the library has free books on the subject, but this is a game!)

The Hot Rocket was a hit here as well. Eric got really excited, shot it downstairs, and then took his time shooting it back up to the 2nd floor. He keeps trying to give Elijah tips on making it go higher/straighter. I suppose this is a toy that any male would like. And it does go really high.

If you are interested in getting a free Hot Rocket, just place any order with Timberdoodle and use coupon code lfreerocket after putting the Hot Rocket into your cart. The Hot Rocket cannot be shipped media mail. Alternatively, just attach a comment to your order saying that you would like a free Hot Rocket and including the above coupon code.

Working Together

We build a LOT of towers. (We being Eric & Elijah.)