Backseat Driver

Ever had a really good backseat driver in the car with you?  Drives you a little crazy right?  The funny thing about the term "backseat" driver is, usually that backseat driver is sitting in the passenger seat.  In my car, however, the backseat driver not only does sit in the backseat, but he still uses a five-point harness...


Here is a little taste of some of the comments coming from my little "assistant" in the back row (most of these are yelled at me with much passion)...

"Not this way Mom!  Go THAT way!"

"I go Grandpas house!"

"Stop Mom!  Don't go fast!!!"

While waiting at red lights... "Drive Mom!!  Drive!"

"Don't boom cars Mom!" 

Not sure where that last one came from as I am not in the habit of "booming" cars.  Just so you know.

A little of this, and a little of that...

Alright, now that all the vacation laundry is done it is time for some catch-up!  No more excuses!  But before I can get to the vacation posts, I have some things I don't want to leave out..

Like Spencer's Spring Art Show.  This is a big deal in the Gordon household, and something we look forward to each year.  That said, you would think that I would have taken some pictures of the artist himself, but it was not to be, I guess I was too taken with his artwork!
One of the projects Spencer's art group did this year was the Sistine Chapel ceiling.  Dottie made color copies of the different sections of the ceiling and gave each student one section.  The students were then told to choose half of their section to draw and then shade.  They could choose any half they liked.  The completed project was then assembled all together and displayed at the art show.  It was so cool! (I suppose I should come up with some better "artsy vernacular")



At each art show, Dottie chooses her favorite piece of work from each student.  Spencer's Mosaic won that honor this year...
 
I think Spencer's favorite projects are the ones involving paint and messiness.  For the weeks that he was painting these two pieces, he would come home covered in paint, and very, very happy.


I know I have said this before, but I am so grateful for Spencer's art teacher!  She has made a world of difference in this boy's life!

A couple of weeks ago, we were given the gift of a lemon/lime juicer and some limes so we could make Homemade Limeade.  The boys were thrilled at the prospect and got right to work squeezing limes...
 
Notice the concentration in the form of a tongue sticking out, I think this might be a Gordon family trait...

Pretty good progress on the lime juice...
 
I haven't been a great photographer lately, and didn't think to capture any of the finished product or the kids reactions to it.  You might imagine in your minds some little puckered up mouths...
A couple of days later Sydney and her friend Ella made Lemon-Limeade.  I tell ya, this is a great little tool for keeping kids busy, they think it is way fun...
 
 
The Lemon-Limeade was a much bigger hit than the plain Lime.

Can't leave out Father's Day...
A couple of days before Father's Day, I took a poll from the kids to get their ideas for gifts for Steve.  Sydney insisted on a polka-dot tie.  The boys were not so sure what Dad would want, but Sam agreed to go shopping with me so we could find just the right gift.  After finding just the right polka-dot tie, and another green one that Sam and I really liked, we were stumped.  What could we get for Dad that he would be truly excited about?  And then inspiration came!  A Ukulele!  Yes, you read that right!  Doubtful are you?  Well, just wait and see...
The boys were so excited about Steve's gift they had a hard time keeping quiet about it!  Apparently Sydney leaked the secret to her Primary teacher who told Steve that she knew what he was getting for Father's Day, but she proved to be trustworthy, and didn't divulge the secret.
In order to heighten the excitement, the boys decided to make a Treasure Hunt for Steve in order for him to find his gift...

Searching for clues...

Found!

Now to open this strange looking box...

And the reaction...
 
Did we do well, or what!?

Well, that's all the catch up for now.  Back with more later...

The Anniversary Trip to Charleston

On May 23rd of this year, Steve and I hit our 15 year mark, and as our gift to each other, we farmed out the kids, packed up our bags and boarded a plane.  When Steve asked me where I wanted to go for our trip, I told him I wanted to go to a beach somewhere, and I wanted to see something I had never seen before.  After a little deliberation, we settled on Charleston, South Carolina.
Our first two days away were spent "de-toxing" on Folly Beach.  Like many of you, we don't get a lot of time to just sit and relax, so that is what we did.  And I didn't even have to make sure that none of my children were running away, or drowning in the ocean, or eating sand, or getting a sunburn.  Ahhh...

We did spend a little time playing in the ocean too.  We rented a couple of "Boogie" boards from a kid on the beach who handed them over and said (with a little laugh) "Tear it up".  I am sure we looked like two overgrown kids, but we had a blast, and laughed at ourselves really hard (by the way, the ocean doesn't taste very good).  Doesn't Steve look like a natural beach bum?

After our stint on the beach, we went into downtown Charleston and lived the life of tourists.  The first evening we were there we took a Carriage tour of the city. I was really impressed with Charleston and loved the history and the old homes all lined up in rows.  Here is a sample of a few...
   

Here is the steeple of St. Michaels Church (for Mom).  I kept my eyes open for this one in particular because of a book I was reading.

Now that I have been to Charleston, I am trying to figure out how to add a Piazza onto my house.  All the houses have these doorways on the side of their homes that lead into an open outdoor sitting area (the piazza) and then into the home.  This was one of my favorite things.

The next day we took a ferryboat out to Fort Sumter.  On the way out we sailed around the USS Yorktown, a retired aircraft carrier.  That thing was huge (very technical term, I know)!


Once we arrived at Fort Sumter, the park ranger (a younger kid) gave a really interesting history of what happened there and it's significance to the start of the Civil War.  I was really impressed with him and his knowledge of the history of the time.  We only got about 40 minutes at the fort, and we could have spent more time there, it was pretty cool.
 


 
Are you getting bored yet?  Steve and I are definitely not as interesting as our kids.
That evening we went and visited a plantation, and while I was a little disappointed by the house (it wasn't the original plantation house, it was built in 1920) I fell in love with the trees!  Boone Hall Plantation is well known for it's entrance, the Avenue of the Oaks and was well worth the visit just for that alone.   It was incredible, the picture doesn't come near to doing it justice...

These Live Oak trees were phenomenal, this one is over 500 years old...


Not a great picture, but I loved this tree.  I could just imagine this being the hideout for some little kid when he didn't want to do his chores...
 
And here is the back view of the actual house, it was beautiful, just not what I was hoping for :)...
 
We did see a house the next day, right in downtown Charleston, called the Edmonton-Alston house.  It is situated right on the ocean front and is beautiful!  It dates back to the 1800's, and better satisfied my historical craving.  You can't see it well in this picture, but it is just to the left of the big pink house...

It also had a beautiful piazza, on all three levels, overlooking the ocean  (Sigh)...
 
Well there is a little taste of Charleston.  We had a fabulous time, and are so grateful to good friends who made it possible to get away!  We figure after 15 more years it shouldn't be quite so hard to get away! :)

Rolly Pollies and Missing Teeth

Suffix

-cide

1. Used to make nouns meaning the killing of the thing indicated by the first component of the word.

For example:  Pesticide:  a substance for killing pests
                       Fungicide:  a substance for killing fungus
                       Germicide: an agent that kills pathogenic organisms (grateful for this during flu season)
                       Giganticide: the killing of a giant, or one who kills a giant (Mickey Mouse)
                       Chronocide: the act of killing time (a personal favorite)

And the one for which we are guilty around here these days:
                       RollyPollyicide:  the act of killing rolly polly bugs

     It all started a few weeks ago when the weather turned warm and the kids were out enjoying nature come alive again.  Sydney, who I never would have taken for an entomologist, discovered lots of rolly polly's and decided to make a pet of one. 
 
     She got a little container, filled it with dirt and grass and brought it inside.  Everywhere she went, that little container with her friend went too.  She even wanted to bring it along when we ran errands.  That night she took it up to her room, bid the rolly polly goodnight and climbed into bed.  But, the next morning, Mr. Rolly Polly was belly up.  Sydney handled it well, probably because she knew there were plenty more outside to capture, which she did.  It is not unusual around here lately to see a little container with grass, dirt and rolly pollies sitting on the counter (and usually the rolly pollies are dead).  The other day she even tried including a slice of banana to keep the little fellas alive, but alas they went to rolly polly heaven too.

     Carter has also been swept up in the love (and torture) of rolly pollies, only he calls them "rolly rollies".  He likes to bend over them and yell, "Roll in a ball! Roll in a ball!"  all while poking at them. 
 
 
     Just yesterday Sydney brought a rolly polly over, all rolled up in a ball between her fingers, and explained how all she has to do is squeeze the bug a little and he will roll up in a ball, (I had to wonder how the rolly polly felt about that) after which she proceeded to find a "happy place" for the bug to live.  This ended up being on top of a flower, up off the ground.  To me this seemed rather like some giant person picking me up, squeezing me a little, and then placing me on top of a skyscraper and calling that my happy place.  I checked this morning to see if the little guy was still there on top of the flower, but he had managed an escape somehow, or he plummeted to his death adding one more number to the rolly pollies killed in Gordonville.

In other news, can you guess what is different about this little girl?

Sydney just lost two little teeth in two days!  This pricks my heart a little because I am really having a hard time with her getting so big!  The losing of the teeth was hilarious though, as both times she pulled them out herself, which really didn't bother her at all, until she saw the blood, at which point she started screaming (honest-to-goodness screaming, not sure if a career in the medical field is a good idea for this one).  The other big news with this event is that the Tooth Fairy DID actually remember to come two nights in a row.  This is big new because our Tooth Fairy is a little defunct and it often takes a few days before she shows up, we might need to petition for a new one!