Daddy gave Mommy the day off

I'd like to introduce you to the best husband ever, Geoff let me take a day off! How amazing is that, he took our three littles hiking up to Amicalola Falls. Today was a gorgeous, sunny 67 degree day so the weather was perfect for an outside adventure to a water fall.

 

 I love that he takes photos by signs, this was an idea of his many years back. Once he realized how many photos I took I think he figured we may as well document it with a land mark.

The boys on a big rock

 

 Ah, the falls!

Oh, the snakes!

Taking a break for lunch at the Lodge. 

Aiden is teaching Camille how to play checkers.

 I'm thrilled they had so much fun and a bit bummed I misssed out on some great moments.

What was I doing with a free no kid day you ask?

Getting a pedicure and having my hair highlighted of course! The weather was perfect and felt like spring time. I was inspired to wear some flip flops... but not before my toes were presentable!

Girls will be girls

After two boys I was a bit surprised to learn our third little was going to be a girl. I had adjusted to being a mom of boys now I was going to have to learn how to deal with emotions and drama. But little did I know how much fun was in my future with pink and frills. The sweater and jeans in the first picture I had purchased when Aiden was about Camille's age at the GAP of course on clearance. I'm not sure why I did, maybe for a shower gift but I never could give it away, I guess thinking I may one day have a girl so for the first time this 7 year old outfit I bought before she was even born was worn.

We had some more girl time before school... I began to play with her hair, apparently I was having too much fun and made everyone late for school! She had two small ponies on the top of her head adorned with little green bows I made for her.

Another one of my favorite girlie things is her caplet my college roommate made for her. I just adore it! There are so many more crafty options for girls. Oh, and tights... can a girl have too many tights?

Cupcakes

A new cupcake place opened nearby and I love cupcakes! I am a dessert lover especially if they are cute. The best part about today is they were giving cupcakes away, full size and the flavor of your choice. My plan was to pick Aiden up from school, then take everyone by Gigi's for a sweet treat. Of course they were packed and why wouldn't they be, so we got ours to go. They didn't miss a detail the boxes, stickers decor and flavors galore.

 Do you think they are excited?

 contemplating if we should cut them up and try each flavor - that is exactly what we did.

caramel apple, this was my favorite

Pajama Day

Today at preschool it was PJ day. Gav and Camille got to wear their jammies and eat pancakes for lunch. Gavin is quite the jammie lover, he has an entire drawer that is overflowing with Pj's, I can almost guarantee as soon as we get home from being out he will run right up and put a pair on. He comes by that quite naturally as I do the same thing! This day must be on the top of his favorite list.

Gavin reported the pancakes had M&M's inside, I guess they could have been M&M's but I'm guessing chocolate chips. They sure did enjoy staying in their comfy cozies all day long, Aiden was a bit envious and he hasn't even heard about the chocolate pancakes yet! 

Gavin is requesting broccoli for dinner he must have had his fill of sweets. 

Ah, the simple pleasures of life, I'm happy they had a great day!

I have a Dream

Today Aiden started a deep theological conversation about being a disciple along side Jesus while he was alive or knowing what we know now and following him. We had a great conversation way beyond what I would imagine an 8 yr old would have. Then he said if he could have one wish, this was easier for him to answer than asking what his dream for the world would be.

He answered quickly that he would "Wish that everyone would know God."

That little boy of mine has his share of struggles but his spirituality is beyond his years. I wish I could be as selfless as he. These littles teach me something each and every day that make me a better person!

After some thought about differences, strengths and weaknesses. I came to the conclusion that this would tie in perfectly to a Martin Luther King Day lesson. I called the littles in to draw a picture with lots of colors, vibrant and fun. When they were done I asked if it would look as pretty if it was all one color? What if all the world was just one color, what if everyone's God given gifts were all the same? The world would be a pretty boring place. They all were in agreement. We watched part of MLK's original Dream speech talked about disagreeing peacefully (isn't that a good lesson for siblings for another day). We decided we are so thankful things are different in America today and that we can play with whatever friends we want to play with also that there are many colors that make this world BEAUTIFUL!

Camille, Aiden's beach, Gavin's flowers in the wind

Snow Day #5

I'm in disbelief that the littles are out of school again. I went and counted on my calendar and of the past 32 days they have only been in school for 4 1/2 days. That is quite the break! Camille was sick before Christmas so she hasn't been to school for 42 days. Unbelievable. But today looks like our last snow day, the forecast says the temps will be rising today. I think we will make today a PJ day. We will still have Monday off for MLK day but alas the snow days are coming to an end.

Camille put on her shades, got her Vera Bradley purse, keys out, then put her baby in the stroller and told me she was ready to go. Cabin Fever, ya think??

 Aiden made another journey with the neighbors to Panera Bread.

 Tonight Daddy finally had a break from work so we had a game night.

 Gavin ran out of moves so he had to pull one to knock it over, Geoff suggested to go to the bottom to make it a good grand finale.

 Gavin built this himself. It is as tall as he is!

Snow Day #4

I think this is a first for school to be out this many days in a row, but what is more amazing is the amount of snow we sill have. I have family up north and recently was asking what happens to all the snow when it doesn't warm up enough for it to melt. Well, up there they plow it to the sides so life can go on, well here they have 8 snow plows so not much happens other than things just shut down! I have seen photos of the grocery store shelves and there is nothing, I mean nothing but the fake parsley that they put in between the vegetables to add some greenery. It is really crazy to see, good thing I was able to get our rice milk on Sunday, though I doubt that shelf is empty - the plus of having an altered diet I guess. 

So today we went out on an adventure across the street...no, not to Waffle House but next door to Chick-fil-a. We met at the entrance there were 12 kids and 5 adults to make the journey.

 Why did all these people cross the street? To get to Chick-fil-a!

 And why wouldn't you want ice cream when it is freezing outside?!?!

 How they still have the energy to do this is beyond me. Monkeys!

 After "refueling" as Gavin called it we were ready to make the trek back home.

 Stopping to play in every bit of snow they could find.

Behind the lot they use to sell Christmas trees we found a sleigh still set up 

so of course we had to pile in and take some photos.

Snow Day #3

Time for a snow day project, we are on day 3 of no school. I had a few pretzel rods, tons of melting chocolate, various toppings and 3 eager littles. I called around to some neighbors and even asked one brave friend that was going to the store to pick up some pretzels for us. They all came through for me to help with my entertainment for the morning!

 All three really enjoyed making a mess, I mean making the chocolate pretzel treats. For toppings we used Heath bar, peppermint, chopped white chocolate peppermint kisses, walnuts and marshmallows.

 I tried a variety of hats for the snowmen, after all I was at the mercy of what I had on hand. Good thing I don't allow the littles to eat much candy so I had a good assortment to pick from. The M&M's looked the best to me and were the easiest to keep on the pretzel. More of a beanie than the typical top hat, I also wished I had some fruit leather to use as a scarf.

Their noses are carrot shaped sprinkles, I'm not sure where these came from, but glad that I had them. They may have been an after Easter purchase, either way they were perfect for the marshmallow snowmen. The white snowflake sprinkles were an after Christmas purchase. The eyes and buttons were made by dipping a toothpick into my black food coloring gel. I had wanted to make these to give out for Christmas but never made the time to do it. I'm thrilled that we were finally able to make them for our neighbors.

I made some tags that had "Winter Wonderland 2011" on them. Unfortunately they were wrapped in sandwich bags as I wasn't able to get anywhere to buy treat bags. I think they came out super cute considering it was done from what I happened to have on hand and from neighbors helping with what they happened to have.

 In the afternoon we all took our turn sledding in the swimming pool. They had a blast.

 Aiden helping pull Camille up the hill.

 When the younger littles got cold Aiden went over to play with some friends that were trying out his newly invented Penguin Sliding technique.

 All the kids would stand at the top of the hill and judge the form, skill and finish of each one as they went down.

Snow Day #2

School is out for another day, wooo hooo! Out we go again for another day in the snow.

 Our backyard still covered in snow, the kids made sure to play back there today in the fresh snow

 Gavin just can't stop eating the snow

Snow ball fight!

 Okay, remember the first day where Aiden ran out in his shorts, he comes by it quite naturally. Geoff came outside and had to try out his version of the polar bear's club.

My little snow bunny.

For dinner we decided we would go on an adventure, guess where...

The Waffle House!

It is funny to me that we have eaten there two times now, though it is right across the street we only eat there about once a year and that is usually Christmas Eve. But alas here we find ourselves again.

 Our trek back home.

We stopped at our neighbors house on the way home to see if we could slide down her hill. It didn't work on our bottoms so Aiden tried on his belly, it worked, and he went down fast. Thus Penguin Sliding was born. We also dug out our wading pool and it worked too. The irony of a swimming pool in the snow got me!

 My turn in the pool.

 I wish you could see how fast he was able to go down, he has no fear!