Golf

A few times this summer we went golfing as a family. Well, that's not exactly true. Brian went golfing. I sat on the golf cart and read while the kids played in the sand traps and ran wild. One of Jamie's favorite activities was to sit in the "back seat" of the golf cart.

This could be illegal. But if it keeps the kid entertained for an extended period of time I'm willing to risk it.

Not only do they play in the sand traps but they are also good at cleaning the golf balls and putting broken tees in the broken tee box thingy. I don't know what half the things on the golf course are called.

And this was a new move from Jamison. I thought he was just trying to stand on his head.

But no. He was pushing his head through the sand. He was filthy and dripping with sand. He made such a lovely impression on the other golfers. Lily was kind enough to rake the path that he created.

Even though Brian was the only one who got some exercise whenever we went out, it was fun to be outside together. We had a very short summer this year so we appreciated each day that the sun was shining.

Training Wheels

So last week Lily decided to take the training wheels off of her bike. She was done with them. I didn't even know she knew how to take them off. Part of me is impressed and the other part of my wonders what else she can disassemble without my permission.

The problem was that she didn't know how to ride a two-wheeler. I practiced with her for about 30 minutes and while she was determined, she was no where near peddling on her own. She was excited and I was in pain...my back was spasming from holding onto the seat of the bike.

I told Lily that daddies are better at teaching bike riding than mommies. How awful is that!??! But it worked. She tortured Brian until he was able to take her out.

She still doesn't know how to ride a two-wheeler. But she gets an A for effort. I'll give her an A+ if she can put those training wheels back on.

Fair

Each year, since 1893 there has been a fair in Altamont, NY. You would think, that since I live 15 minutes from Altamont that once, at least once, I would have gone. But no, neither my sister nor I had ever been to the Altamont Fair. Why? Well, because when we were kids not only did you have to pay to enter but you also had to pay for the rides. This was too much for my mother. Too much in terms of money but also too much of an insult. Pay twice?!?!

And this is how you know that my mother has moved on. My kids at ages 2 and 4, were brought to the fair by my mother. Granted, the rides weren't open yet, but that's not the point, people. She would have paid for the rides!

My children did not deserve to go to the fair. They were apathetic and lazy. I was able to count the number of times they got their tushes out of the stroller...and it wasn't a high number.

Listen kids!! I was never able to go to this stupid fair and you will love it! You will pet the animals! You will be in awe of the horses! If I had gone to this fair before moving to Arkansas do you know how much easier it would have been to understand farm life in the south?! This is for your betterment! (no idea if that's a word but I'm using it)

How cute is this? Cozy milk cows! Isn't this cute kids?!? Lily rolls her eyes, Jamison asks for a snack.

A BABY COW!!! LOOK!! Kids: Whatever mom.

And then Lily was struck speechless...like she usually is around anyone who is friendly to her. We ran into the Altamont Fair Queen in the sheep shed. The woman who ran the court or pageant, whatever it is you call it, was trying to convince us to enter Lily in next year's pageant. I so gently wanted to explain to this woman that as much as Lily enjoys putting on "shows" and dressing up the minute you ask her to perform in front of people her body drops like a spaghetti noodle. If there was an Altamont Fair Drama Queen pagenat, then yes, then we might be interested. But you want her to smile at strangers? Walk across a stage at someone else's direction? That's insanity.

Don't bother getting out of the stroller, guys. I'm sure you pet horses everyday when I'm not around.

This is a pregnant cow. I honestly can't tell the difference between a pregnant one and a regular fat one. The fair does a LIVE BIRTH everyday. The fair lasts seven days. That's seven births with seven very pregnant and probably very hormonal cows. I would not want to be the vet in charge of this activity.

There are bleachers for easy viewing of the birth. This makes me uncomfortable. I wasn't too pleased about my own children's births until after they were cleaned up a bit. Why would I want to watch a cow give birth?!

I tried to get Lily interested in the pig by telling her this one was named Wilbur. All she wanted to know is where Charlotte was and that she did not want to see Templeton. Just play along Lily! It's not beneath you! Jamison was interested only after I mentioned that pigs give us sausage.

Oh! But wait! The kids are out of the stroller! They have smiles on their faces! What has brought upon this change of attitude? John Deere. No joke. The John Deere tent was the biggest hit for my offspring. If it hadn't been so close to naptime we would have made a day of it in this area.

Needless to say, this will be their only trip to the Altamont Fair until they beg, plead, and bribe us to go back again.

Nashville

The last week of August was looking lonely. Brian had a job in Waco and my mother was heading to Daytona. I was going to be home alone with the kids all week. I looked into flights to Nashville so I could visit my sister but I couldn't find anything less than $400 a ticket. (ouch) So we didn't mention to Kristen that I would be home alone because if you know my sister - she will manipulate ANY, I repeat, ANY situation so that she will get her way.

Two nights before everyone was to leave Kristen randomly called me while I was waiting to go see a movie. In the midst of that conversation she connected the dots and realized I would be home alone. I told her to forget about it, it was too expensive, etc...

By the time I exited the theater I had received a text that she had found two free Southwest tickets and had credit for the third ticket. MANIPULATOR. We were off to Nashville!

Since I had such short time to pack I forgot my camera but I did take a few shots with Kristen's camera.

One day we met my college friend, Ashley (Burton) Sanders, and he son Noah at the Nashville zoo. I hadn't seen Ashley in a year so it was nice to catch up. But, thanks to her blog (see my side bar - Two Sweet Feet) and mine we basically already knew everything about each other. It was as if we could continue a conversation that we had previously left off.

Here is the insane playground at the zoo.

I don't know what you would call this thing. The looky-thingy at the meercat den? The observation tube? The meercats were running around all over the place and you feel as if you're a part of the pack. Ever watch Meercat Manor? I was waiting for Sean Astin to do a voice over and announce that we had attempted to join the pack and that Flower found us to be outsiders.

I gotta give credit where credit is due. Noah Iin red) is the best for pictures. He looked up. He smiled. He remained still. The rest of them are useless in front of a camera.

One day the kids got out of the kiddie pool but due to my poor math skills we were one towel short. Lily and Jamie shared one and I took advantage of their giggly-ness.

We really didn't do much else while there. Spent some time at the indoor play area - Monkey's Treehouse (which Lily remembered from her one and only trip in Feb '08) and hunting for hairbows. Nothing compares to hairbows from the south!

School

Pre-School started this week in the Whitt household. The kids preschool asks that they each have a bag to bring home their tremendous amount of scribbles...um no...I mean artistic renderings.


Lily colored hearts on hers and then we ironed on a sparkly heart. I tired not to gag at all the pink. It's the bag Pollyanna would die for. Jamison got a lion iron on.

Lily next to her cubby. For you observant ones, yes, she is wearing a different dress. I brought my camera on Tuesday to take pictures only to have the battery die on me. So this was actually the second day of school.

Lily with her best friend, Ella. I think they made commitments to each other to only wear dresses and to reject pants for the rest of pre-school.

And the look on Jamison's face says it all. "We're doing this again? Please don't leave me." For the first week of Jamie's class one of the parents are invited to stay for the first hour. We're told to bring a book and to be boring. Jamison does not think I'm boring....but we're working on it. He hasn't cried - yet, but he continually comes over to me and talks to me. He's in the same class as he was last year so I'm not worried, I just wish he wouldn't make such a show about me leaving.

Beach

As I was going through my posts I realized I created this one, but never posted it. It's from our time at the beach back in July.

A butterfly landed on Jamison's hat. You can just barely see its' wings in the picture.

When it flew away he saw it and screamed. Then he tried to chase it.

I love that they can now smile on demand and look cute doing it.

Up until this year Lily called the jet-skis "little boats".

Jamison squealed every time he saw the jet skis. Call us stupid, but we assumed that meant he would enjoy riding on one. He put up a good fight but we knew that once he went for a ride he would enjoy it. And he did. But we won't rub it in his face. If he needs therapy for this later in life I will own up to it.

Wind-blown hair from the jet-ski.

The only way they could be more pale is if they were vampires. But they don't sparkle so I have confirmed that they are not un-dead.

This picture was taken last year (2008) of Nathan, Emerson, and Lily.

And so I had to take one for this year. I wonder how many years I can keep this up. Will they be 20 & 21 years old complaining to me when I line them up in the water for a picture? Most likely, yes.

Harvest

You may remember that back in April we planted some vegetables - Roma tomatoes and baby carrots as well as some marigolds and morning glory's. And the poor oregano that got blown off the porch during a storm and was spread across the yard.

By the end of May the little green leaves were showing. The kids were so excited and actually thought that the leaves were the end product.

And in the past two weeks our tomatoes have gone from green to orange to yummy red. (she's saying "tomato" as I take the picture, not singing an aria.)

Yes, they are little. And it's probably my fault. Apparently I didn't read the directions thoroughly enough and neglected to thin out the plants once they started to grow. So they were very crowded for the majority of their short adolescence. So lesson learned and next year will be different.

See the tall marigolds in the back? Again, I don't think that's normal and is a result of me not thinning them out.

I didn't realize soon enough that the morning glory is a climbing plant and needs to...climb. So it started to climb a bush that is next to our porch. I moved it to our light post but that move delayed it's growth.

It's amazing that these plants even flowered with my ineptitude. I think this just proves that God exists, otherwise all these plants would have died.

The kids and I loved looking at the plants every morning. Brian was even kind enough to take care of them when we were at Camp Hunt. Next year we will do tomatoes again and green peppers. The carrots are fun but you can't watch them grow because they're underground. The kids have picked more carrots than not in trying to determine if they were ready to be picked. (Do you see the dilemma?)

Yet, even after four months of observing and talking about the plants Jamison has still not learned to DO NOT PICK THAT FLOWER JAMISON or STOP TRYING TO EAT THE LEAVES JAMISON. At this point I'm wondering if he is just doing these things for fun.