Almost Ready For College!

Katie Mei fans can never get enough, right? How about one more video of our morning school activity? I can hardly believe I didn't think of it before this morning! It was so easy, and it kept her busy for at least 10 minutes, and it involved more than one skill.

I love listening to her voice, so I had to make a video in addition to my hundreds of pictures of her!

Who Loves Katie Mei?

Just wanted to let you know!

Best Little Library Ever!

Last week we went to the library to renew our Christmas library books that we hadn't finished reading, and as usual, there were little flyers on the counter for upcoming events. One of them caught Merrilee's eye...'The "Twas the Night Before Christmas" event. The flyer said something about wearing pajamas, bringing a toy, and listening to stories, poems, songs, and even a puppet play. So we grabbed the flyer, stuffed it in the bag with our books, and went home. Needless to say, I forgot about the whole thing somewhere between passing the IGA and turning left next to the county jail.


But this Sunday, on the way to church, Merrilee asked me "Is there something we're going to do on Tuesday?" All I could think of was Crafternoon, and that's what I answered. But she pressed on and said "But wasn't there supposed to be some other thing going on at the library where we can wear our pajamas?" That jogged my memory, and I felt my shoulders grow heavy with one more thing the kids wanted to do and I didn't feel like cramming into my schedule. So I told her to get the flyer out of the bag when we got home and put it on the counter so I could look at it. I was hoping she'd forget all about it by the time we got home from church.


Well, she didn't forget. She found the flyer. And she mentioned it again on Monday. And she mentioned it again this morning. And this afternoon. Twice. She was really looking forward to it. So I managed to throw together a quick quiche for an early dinner, get everyone into pj's, and got us out the door by 6:30 for the 6:45 pm event.


As I've mentioned before, our little library is just a hole in the wall. There's a kids' section, which is about half the library, and an adult section, which consists of about four rows of shelves, and a few walls of young adult books and videos. Then there's another large, empty room for activities or meetings.


So we got to the library and I could see it wasn't just a little event. I think half the town's kids under the age of six were there. The place was packed. I was blessed to find a parking space when someone was leaving. I have a feeling it was an adult who was trying to use the library in peace, but saw the herd of kids arriving and wanted to high-tail it out of there! The kids all sat on the floor and the adults were given chairs around the perimeter of the room. I got a seat in the second row from the back. Katie Mei didn't want to sit on the floor with Merrilee and Jacob; she's not much for crowds of strangers and preferred to sit on my lap as she assessed the situation.

The theme of the night's stories was Christmas Mice. Each story had something to do with a mouse, and there are little wind up toy mice all over the library this week.


Towards the middle of the program, as some families were leaving (it was only a 45 minutes program! Who would take their kids home that early?!) we got to move up to the front row. Katie Mei loved the puppet show with a talking Christmas tree, Santa, and some talking mice. She kept pointing to the puppets and telling me "Mouse talk!", "Santa talk!" She has never seen puppets in action without seeing the actual person holding the puppet, so I think she didn't realize they were puppets. I think she thought the stuffed animals really were talking. She was riveted! Once the puppet show was over, she spent the rest of the program asking me "Santa Go?" She demanded to see the Santa puppet one more time before we left. I took her up to the stage and a kid behind the stage had Santa on his hand and made it talk to her. She reached up to touch it, and when it spoke, she was startled and grabbed her hand back immediately. It was so funny. I wish I had a video of it.

After the puppet show and a few stories, Ms. Gloria, the children's librarian, did her own little skit of The Gingerbread Mouse. Ms. Gloria loves kids and acts like one herself. She made her own costume, even down to to huge peppermint candy buttons.

The kids absolutely loved the evening out. There were all over Miss Gloria telling her thank you. I had them stand next to her for a photo so I can print one out later and give it to her to with a thank you card. All the way home Merrilee and Jacob kept saying "That was SOOO much fun!" and "Mom, Thanks for taking us!"

I'm glad we went. It was a pain for an old stick-in-the-mud like me to get myself in gear, make an early dinner, and go out on a rainy night with my kids in pajamas. (And yes, germs creep me out, so I made them all throw their pj's in the laundry and put on fresh ones for bed.) But my children had such a great time that it was worth it just to make their day. I was such a hero, and it was a whole lot cheaper than taking them to a movie!

Thanks, Leesburg Library and Ms. Gloria! We love you!

This Production Brought to You by Planet Mars

Merrilee has been waiting for several days to do her project after studying the Mars chapter in her science book. The largest volcano in our solar system, Olympus Mons, is on Mars, and the book gave instructions for making a volcano out of salt dough. We made the volcano on Thursday, but it took awhile for it to dry.

Today the dough was dry, Mommy wasn't too busy (well, I was, but the poor girl would wait forever if she had to wait until I was no longer busy with something!), and the camera battery was recharged. Daddy and Grandma wanted to see a video of the eruption, so here it is.

Katie Mei's first Christmas tree

I'm slowly getting the blog caught up with real life. I'm only about a week behind now. We decorated our tree last week, and unfortunately, Jay had already left so he wasn't able to enjoy it. He really doesn't like decorating the tree, anyway, but I think he likes watching the kids and I make our mess.

This was Katie Mei's first tree, and she already had a pretty good idea what to do. She has been to Lowe's so many times that she was quite familiar with the term "Christmas Tree" so she knew exactly what we were doing when Jay put it up the day after Thanksgiving. The folks that lived here before us left a 9-foot artificial tree in the attic. Though I'm not a fan of fake trees, I was delighted to have the pre-lit monster, and gladly look forward to not having to clean up needles like we did last year, and the year before, and the year before. And, for that matter, every year of my life thus far. I can still remember Mom and Dad making us pick needles out of the berber carpet when the tree came down when we were kids. The majority of the needles had to be up before they'd run the vacuum. How I hated feeling those needles press into my palms and even my knees through my pants. And just to carry on the tradition, I've made my own kids pick needles out of the carpet. Well, this year there will be no needle picking. Not only do we not have pine needles, we don't have carpet! Yay!

Back to my original train of thought....

Katie Mei really enjoyed getting the ornaments out, and was facinated by the angel tree topper. We have two angels, and the kids ended up choosing the red angel, not the purple one.


The kids each have their own boxes of ornaments that have been gifts or of their own making. When they eventually leave the nest, the plan is for them to take their boxes with them and start their own Christmas tree decorating traditions. So I started Katie Mei's collection this year with a little nativity ornament. She got to put it on the tree first before any other ornaments were hung.

It was kind of nostalgic for me to watch them decorate the tree this year. It was only five years ago that I had my first little girl with excited lit-up eyes, watch me as I showed her how to hang a hook on an ornament and then put it on a branch so it wouldn't slip off. Now, I look up to see that same little girl being the leader as she helps Jacob and Katie Mei get their ornaments on the tree. Merrilee is just growing up so fast. I have such mixed feelings~I'm so proud of her, yet so unwilling to let her grow up. I don't have much control of the latter, so I just have to stick with the former and rejoice in the fact that she such an awesome young lady already. A mom really couldn't be more pleased than I am with her!

Once the tree was pretty much done, Merrilee and Jacob left the scene to watch a Christmas TV show. I remember when we were kids and the week before Christmas there were a few Christmas "Specials" on TV. They really were special, too, because they weren't on every stinkin' night for two months before Christmas. My kids have now watched "The Year Without A Santa Clause" about 62 times and have the whole thing memorized. They've probably seen it more times in their short 5 years in country than I've seen it in all my 44+ years on the planet. The concept of a TV "Special" just isn't there anymore. So sad. It really was special to be able to look forward to watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, and know that if you missed it, you had to wait another entire year before you could see it again. Now ABC Family has got "The 25 Days of Christmas", and prior to that "The 21 Days Before The 25 Days of Christmas". Good Grief, Charlie Brown!

Katie Mei wasn't quite as thrilled with the Miser Brothers, but she really was taken in by the tree. She grabbed a pillow and settled herself in front of the tree to absorb it all. It was such a beautiful moment. I wish my photos had come out better. But at least the memory of it was captured.

So Katie Mei's very last first time decorating a Christmas tree was so sweet. We've had the tree up for a week now, and the boxes are back in the garage until we pack it all up. Hopefully Daddy's shoulder will be doing better! All those boxes gotta go into the upstairs attic behind Merrilee's room once we're done with them. We're still moving in....

Wishing you a Merry 9 Days Before The 7 Days Before Christmas, Everyone!

Freezin' Floats! It's a Parade!

Today was the annual Leesburg Spirit of Christmas parade and I managed to get the kids up, fed, and dressed in time to see it. It rained last night, and the temp was about 41 when we left the house, but Jacob (always contrary to his mother's opinion) decided he didn't need a coat. So he froze his little patooty off. We three girls, always sissies when it comes to the cold, decided we were wearing out winter gear today. So much for Southern Georgia average temps of 65 this time of year.

The parade was supposed to start at 10 am in "downtown" Leesburg. Honestly, this little town is so tiny I wasn't really sure where downtown was, but I figured we'd find it if I followed all the other cars around. I got a break and saw a car pull of the road right in front of me behind a few more cars, so I followed suit and we were parked. Turns out, we parked right next to where the local radio station DJ was set up, and right where the folks were handing out ribbons for the parade. It was pretty nice having front row seats. Of course, there weren't that many people there, so almost everyone who wanted to had a front row seat. There were two or three little bleacher stands set up, so we felt like we were VIPs!

I made a little slideshow of all the parade photos just so Jay, who is out of town, could see what he missed. It's about 21/2 minutes long, so you can decide for yourself if you want to blow that much time of your life watching our little parade.

The funniest thing was that Jacob was freezing until realized that folks on the floats and in the cars were throwing candy to the spectators. Once he got wind of that, he forgot all about being cold. I was impressed with all the kids there. They were gracious about helping the little ones, like Katie Mei, get some candy. When they got more than one piece, they shared with the little ones and no one left empty-handed.

If you decided not to watch the slideshow, I'll share just a few of the special floats and memories....

Katie Mei's first parade-thrown lollipop

Our favorite friends, the Merekats, from the Chehaw zoo!

Confederate re-enactors firing their rifles (kids were a bit startled by the rifle shots, and then even more frightened when the canon was fired right in front of them!)

It may be a small town, but we do have our very own "Ghost Hunters" . Yep, they even have an entry in our local Yellow Pages!

This little girl kept sharing candy with Katie Mei and then begged me to take her picture when she saw me with the camera.

Finally, The Big Man! This was the only float that Katie Mei would wave at. I think we'll have to take her to the mall to see if she'll sit on Santa's lap.

So we had a good, though very cold time. It was 46 degrees when we headed home at 11:30 am. We warmed up with some hot tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

For a small town parade, we sure did enjoy it. Tonight is the Albany parade, and it's expected to draw about 40,000 people. Not my kind of crowd. I'm thankful we live in this little town that has leaders willing to go to the trouble to bring Christmas cheer to its small population.

Thanks, Leesburg, it was fun!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Jacob officially turned six today, but we celebrated his birthday on Friday because Grandma and Grandpa and Daddy were here. Jay had to leave for Quantico for several weeks and we didn't want him to miss the festivities. This was also the first birthday party Katie Mei got to really experience in a memorable way.

It was a gorgeous, though slightly chilly day, and the kids spent most of the time outside. Katie Mei loved helping blow up the balloons for decorations.

I finally got the dining room cleared out for Thanksgiving dinner, so it was the best place to decorate for the birthday. The dining room in this house is an extension of the living room, and it's really pretty. I love, absolutely LOVE, having so much window light.

Jacob and Merrilee came in from outside so we could sit down and have him open presents. He felt pretty special and enjoyed his moment in the spotlight.

The focus was mainly on Hot Wheels this year, but he also got a scoop truck he wanted, and a gift card for Books-A-Million.

Katie Mei was fascinated with the proceedings, and was a great sport about watching Jacob open presents and get toys. She didn't show any signs of jealousy at all.

This was rather refreshing, since my history with 2 1/2 to three year old girls has shown me that other things happen at birthday parties. Mainly this:

And this (click on the photo if you want the truly dramatic close up):

So this was a delightful sight as Jacob opened gifts. Katie Mei had a great time!

After openeing the presents, Daddy got to work putting together the track so the kids could launch and jump cars. All three kiddos had a blast, and even four days later, they're still playing with the Hot Wheels. Those toys are timeless!

The great thing about living in this neighborhood is the swarm of kids. I told Merrilee and Jacob to run around and tell everyone to show up at our house at 4 pm for cake. No paper invitations, no RSVPs, no stamps and snail mail. Just show up if you want cake. Parents around here don't care if I feed their kids red-dyed frosting just before dinner. They don't care if their kids play with explosive devices which sent confetti into the air. It's just great. I'm the strictest mom on the block, so whatever my kids can do is more than fine with everyone else. So we ate cake before dinner!

We sang Happy Birthday and launched confetti poppers into the air first.

Then we cut up the Spider Man cake. The bakery couldn't do the Cars design cake with whipped frosting (the black road wouldn't work with whipped, only buttercream), so Mommy, who is not a fan of buttercream, opted for a Spider Man cake with Whip instead--one of the benefits of being the one who orders the cake!

Daddy, who is still recovering from surgery on his left shoulder, managed to come outside for a little fun and festivities. Interestingly enough, he ended up playing chase with all the sugar-crazed kids afterwards, and slipped, cracking a rib on his right side. He wasn't feeling so hot over the weekend. Not a great way to head into three weeks of travel out of state.

Before everyone dispersed, I got a shot of some of the party animals. We're blessed to have such a great crew of kids here, but we sure do miss our friends back home.

Happy Birthday, Jacob. God bless you!