Christmas Vacation

Christmas vacation from school is well underway.  The boys have been content staying home and relaxing.  Sleeping late (anywhere from 7:30 to 9) is a treat.  Playing video games all day?  Perfect.  We've also been playing with (and taking pictures of) the cats........

Playing football outside.........

And playing with Benny's awesome new remote control airplane, given to him by Gram and Grandad.

There's been jumping on the trampoline....after cleaning the pine needles off.

And last night we broke out the Trinomonoes and played a game or two or three.

 

But today was day two of nonstop rain, and we were restless.  So we drove down to Kennesaw and visited "Escalade," a rock wall climbing gym.

The boys had a GREAT time.

 For the record, Benny climbed all the way to the top several times.  He showed no fear.  Both boys found the walls to be challenging, and just the right amount of scarey.  They climbed them over and over.

There's Sam, nearing the top.

 Benny

There were smaller, less complicated things to play with, too.

They loved this short wall, where you climb a few feet and then "fall" into the bean bags below.  They did that a long time, and there were some spectacular falls.

All in all, a good way to spend a rainy afternoon!

Christmas Cats

We've been having a lot of fun watching the kitties have their first Christmas.  I was pretty sure they'd be interesed in the tree.  But I had no idea how MUCH they'd like it.

First off, did you know that underneath a tree is the perfect nesting spot for watchful animals?  Add a fluffy tree skirt that crackles when you pounce, and it's even better.

The treeskirt/undertree haven doubles as a spa, too.  Perfect for lengthy paw washing.

And those ornaments?  A whole TREE FULL of dangling, swaying objects?  It's purr-fect for batting and smacking!

Fast forward a week or two and the kitties are now getting bolder and bolder.  The batting of ornaments has turned into outright smacking.  Yesterday I had to pick up two ornaments that had been knocked clean across the room.  And did you know that clumps of tree branches make the perfect venue for grappling, chewing, gnawing, and fighting across?

And as I figured, one of them finally attempted to climb up the middle. I found Poe halfway up the tree yesterday!    

We put presents under the tree to slow down the trunk gnawing and general climbing on the branches.  They saw that as an improvement!  Poe began opening the gifts with her teeth.

After cleaning up bits of paper and putting the gifts away again, we are now resigned to watching them enjoy themselves. The kids have the best time watching the kitties play with the tree, and we've all enjoyed the photos and videos we are collecting.  This morning Lucy was holding onto her branch with both paws and looking like she'd never let it go. 

And as it turns out.......

uner the tree is the perfect place for a long winter's nap!

The Big Eleven

It's birthday time again!  And Benny just turned eleven!  This year Benny decided he wanted to have a party with his friends at the local bowling alley.  So--that's what we did.  And everyone had a great time.

Five friends came, plus Sam, of course, so we had seven boys.  Yep, it was loud, rowdy, crazy--just as a birthday party should be.  The boys played games first.  They all played this ticket jackpot game where you hit a button and a ball falls into a random hole, dictating how many tickets you win.  Naturally it's designed to mostly put you in the low-earning ticket spots...but can you believe one boy hit the jackpot over and over and over?  He walked away with 650 tickets!!

Next it was on to bowling.  And pizza.  And soda.  And clowning around!

Then the kids moved onto lazer tag--a huge hit.  They loved it.  They made elaborate plans, ran into the lazer tag room, and immediately everyone "died."  Then they'd come out, make more elaborate plans, and repeat the process.  When they started slowing down and walking instead of running, we knew they were wearing out.

The kids traded in their tickets for prizes.  You know what?  The boy who won 650 tickets bought something for everyone there as gifts.  Isn't that nice?? Yep, everyone went home with a "gag" pack of gum--you pull a stick out and you get an electric shock.  They were all thrilled.

Cake! 

Back home for presents.  Legos, Nerf guns, a football, a remote control car, and good old cash.  Benny was a happy birthday boy.

And Poe was a happy kitty.  She crawled in and out of discarded bags, burrowed under wrapping paper, and shredded it with her teeth.  Poe likes birthdays!

Happy Birthday, Benny!

And on a side note, when we were driving home from the party, Benny and I both saw an asteroid zip past up in the sky!  It was amazing, and if we had not both looked up at that exact second, we would have missed it entirely.  I later learned it was the size of two football fields and closer to us than the moon. I told Benny it was a sign of good luck that it happened on his birthday.  Here's to a great year!

County Fair

One of the big highlights of the year happened last week.  The county fair came to town!

This year the fair sported a new ferris wheel.

And another new ride:  ZERO GRAVITY.

Benny wanted to ride it. But after walking on, he turned around and walked right back off again.  Standing UP during a ride?  No thanks!

We walked around in the (extremely humid, extremely warm) evening air, and nobody was riding anything.  Why?  They wanted to find some friends from school to ride with.  Even though they had not seen their friends all summer, the fair was not going to get underway until they found someone.

This led me to reflect on how quickly things change.  The first few years we lived here, the boys were thrilled to go to the fair.  Together. And ride rides. Together.  If they found a friend, great. But they were just as content to run side by side from ride to ride.

Well.  Those days are over.  Nobody wants to ride rides with their BROTHER!

Lucky for them (because I was getting really annoyed with the stalling) they each found batches of friends.  And everyone broke off and rode rides like crazy.

Benny rode the "Himalaya," and loved it.  In fact, he and his friends rode everything!

They even went back to ZERO GRAVITY.  Turns out Sam was riding it with his friends. Well---between that, and Benny's friends riding the ride--Benny walked on and rode it.  And then rode it again. He loved it!

After hours of hot, sweaty, running around, laughing, pushing, riding and joking, everyone was ready to go home.  Including Mom!

So long, county fair, and see you next year!

Cola Project

This summer has been all about the Black Opps, a video game that the boys are very much into.  It's saved many a rainy afternoon.  Or overly hot afternoon.  Or overly dull afternoon.  In short, they've played it a bunch this year.

Benny just made himself a batch of "Perk A Cola's, " which are items that appear in the Black Opps video game.  Each cola gives the player special powers or perks.  (Speed Cola, for example, makes you reload faster in the game.  Double Tap Root Beer makes your bullets come out faster.) 

Benny thought it would be fun to recreate the colas.  So....he looked on line and sure enough, there was a little tutorial on how to make your own perk a colas.  (For display of course, not for drinking!)

He mixed up the liquids inside to just the right color, then he painted the bottle caps.  Then we printed out the labels and glued them to the bottle.  Presto!  Real life Perk A Cola.

He asked me to put this on my blog so here it is.  He's very proud of his project, and rightly so.

Way to go, Benny!

Wrappin' Up Summer

My goodness, summer went by fast this year. I have to say, this has been a fast and fun summer. I think partly it was because there was a lot of travelling this year--that always makes time fly by!  We got to go on the magical Allure of the Seas with mom, Louise, Danielle and Brittany, and then we also got to go to Virginia for a mini-family reunion for several days.  After that, it was a long trip to Alaska, then a couple of weeks at home, then off for a few days of fun in Tenneessee.  Yep, I'd say we were one spoiled family this year.

But now the time has come to wrap it up and put our eyes back on school.  Everyone goes back one week from today.  Sam will be in seventh grade (and yes, I'm in a panic about it) and Benny will start fifth grade.  Because of some shuffling in the school district, Benny will be going to the former Middle School, which now houses fifth and sixth graders only, instead of remaining one more year in his beloved (and safe) elementary school.  I'm not happy about that at ALL.

Anyway.  Today was the day we went back-to-school-shopping.  We loaded up on pencils, notebooks, paper and crayons.  How I dread the day neither of the boys need crayons anymore.  What's a school year without crayones, scissors, and glue?  Sam has already passed that milemarker---but Benny still needed those things.

And wow--look what we found.  A BEATLES pencil pouch!  Benny was thrilled and lit up like it was a brand new tropy or something.  Such small things can make the "going back to school in a new building with new kids and new faces" thing a whole lot easier to bear.  Thank goodness.

So, one more week of staying up late and sleeping late and lazing the days away.  Soon we'll be up in the dark, off on the school bus in the wee hours of the morning, and in for afternoons of homework and agendas and papers to sign and soccer games to go to.  But it's time. We've had a nice break.

Open house next week.  The boys are excited to see who they have in their classes.  They are all hoping to see some friends!  More on that when the time comes.

In the meantime--get ready for school!

Big Water Slide

Remember this behemouth from last year?  This "world's largest inflatable water slide" was a big favorite last summer.  It was stationed near our home and we visited it several times over the summer.

Well this summer it has a new home, closer to town, and somehow we've gone all summer long without a visit.  So today was the day!  We headed over and the boys jumped on.

They sure come down that slide FAST!

The problem is, they sometimes hit the "wall" at the end of the slide pretty hard, since they're so out of control.  But the boys made a game of trying to slow themselves down enough to not slam the wall too hard.  By the end of our visit, they had found their groove and were having fun.

  Benny usually did a giant flip at the top of the slide before landing and then sailing down.  It was something to see!

There he goes!

The rain clouds held off long enough for us to get our visit in, and leave when we were ready--worn out and wet.  I'm sure we'll be back again soon!

Baby Turtle

Tonight, Marty found a baby turtle in the yard.  He brought him inside for us to see and put him on a paper plate.

Sam was fascinated and held it for a while.

The turtle was all balled up in his shell. Sam wanted to keep him a while to see if he'd come out of his shell and move around. So, while we waited, we resumed our Monopoly game.  The turtle got to pull up a plate and watch.

He never did come out--just stared and stared.  So we put him back outside where he belongs.

But--it was a fun addition to an otherwise ordinary evening!