The ramblings of a mom with triplets plus one and now a mini-farm in the making.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
"Lake" School aka Home School at the lake
The have taken to calling any place where we happen to be learning "______ school". While traveling back and forth across country we were having "van school". While doing the Jr. Ranger program at Stones River Battlefield, it was "Jr. Ranger School".
A couple of weeks ago, we went to the lake to feed the fish. I decided to take the opportunity to look up what type of fish we would be feeding. I found out is was the "common carp" and that it is not native to the US. I made up some questions about the carp and en route to the lake, I gave the questions to the kids so they would know what to listen out for as I talked about the fish. K and S went with us and the C's met us there. It was fun to let the kids scream out the answers.
As it turned out, the kids found the "warts" on the carp the most interesting. Actually, the warts are herpes and are fatal to the carp. Other than watching the fish gobble up all the bread, finding fish with herpes seemed to be more fun.
While visiting Atlanta this summer, Wink and Mimi took us on the Coke tour. At the end of the tour they give you a free bottle of coke along with free all you can drink taste testing of Coke products from around the world. I left with a sugar headache and #2 left with a nifty new bottle opener. As long as he is around, you will always be able to open a Coke bottle. ;)
I can't remember the last time the Hovies' got together. Maybe at a funeral but even then not all the grandkids could come. And even then, there weren't all the great grand kids.
Spebbie and Spottie (Pappy's sisters) worked hard to organize the get together and had the Trussville Playstation reserved for us along with having it catered with bbq. Laser tag was awesome and Jay burnt up the roller rink until Speve laced up and started skating backwards.
We also did a round of go carts, which was SOOOOO fun. My plan was to wipe Jay's rear end on the rack but I never did catch up to him. But I did pass many other carts and it was so great. It was exhilarating when I passed Spebbie and Spoog but that much more awesome when I passed Spill. Spat said he got cheated because he had a slow car and was ready for another show down with me back home but we ended up not having time. I personally think he realized that I would have smoked him again!
Here is the whole group. There were only two spouses and two cousins who were unable to attend. I hope we do this next year too!
Spesse wanted me to make sure I included him in this post. He is in the picture (he is the tallest head) but unfortuanately I wasn't able to get clear shots of him roller skating.
Yes, that is what one of my children said about the slide at East Lake Park. Driving by my old stomping grounds, at least while I was in Birmingham, I saw the slide. It looked like one of the two slides I used to slide down. It had the same steps (closed back steps) and it was all metal. I felt for sure it was the same slide from 30 years ago. Or at least I wanted it to be the same slide. But just in case it was, I had my kids go slide down it while i took pictures. That way, the slide will have been slid down by two generations.
While Jay and I were taking the tour at CNN, Wink and Mimi took the kids to Centennial Park to play in the fountains. As you can see from the pictures, they had a great time.
It took many months of saving, working, double checking the website and day dreaming but the girls finally made it to the American Girl store!
Today we made the short trip with Mimi to the store. This being the highlight of their trip. We walked in and #1 went right to the doll case of Julie and #3 wondered around until she found the doll case of Kit.
Next, we will be looking at doll clothes patterns. I think both of them will enjoy sewing doll clothes when they realize how much they can do with their own imagination and their sewing machine.
Did, I mention the kids' main interest is swimming?? They want us to plan our route based on where they can swim.
The kids don't care where they swim as long as they can swim some where. The knew for sure they could swim at Pappy's apartment but were a little bummed that he was moving to a house that did not have a pool.
Well, this evening, they finally made it to the one destination they had so waited for...Pappy's pool.
Yesterday, Chick-fil-A had a promotion that if you dressed up as a cow you would get a free meal. They even had a link to print out parts of a cow to use for your costume. I talked the kids into doing this so we could get our supper for free. They were a little apprehensive but went along with it. I even did it. Unfortunately, I did not read the very fine print where it stated that you had to dress from head to toe as a cow to get the free meal. So our print outs were considered only a partial costume. But we got an entree free for each person! That was just as good to me! I purchased some diet lemonade (oh my goodness, yum yum) and we headed back to Pappy's house.
A few months ago when the kids were on track break I tried to find fun yet cheap things to do. So what do you do for cheap? Ride the city bus! We have double decker bus' and we had been wanting to ride on the top for several years. Jay drove us to the bus stop and we waited for a double decker. Jay followed the bus and picked us up about 8 miles down the road. #2 and #3 loved being on top and in the front. #4 thought it was fun for the first two stops but soon wished he had brought his DS. #1 enjoyed it but enjoyed walking across the hwy in the cross walk more. Go figure...
This past weekend brought some relief from the already too high summer temperatures, so we headed down to the dry lake bed. The M's, the Brother L's three with D and RS came down with us. Both W's were newbies to the lake bed and had a great time. W Jr. got his feel of the dirt and wind but W 3rd is ready to arm wrestle me for the 250. AM brings his stunt kite and everyone enjoys a turn "trying" to fly it. This time around, #3 was able to fly it but #4 took the kite by the strings and was a pro. It was hilarious to watch #4 following AM's directions as AM would yell "blue, red, blue, red" so #4 would know which string to pull. Plus #4 was so small and at many times the wind was so strong, the kite would drag him.
Friends, dirtbikes, dirt, kites, mild temps and grilled hamburgers provide an absolutely wonderful day.
At the county fair, the kids rode a mechanical bull and I am surprised they wanted too. Needless to say, I captured it all on video. Our friend J and her daughter, V, went with us and I videoed V too!
Mimi came to visit us a few weeks ago and wanted to take the kids to Fremont. #2 was not really wanting to go but sure was glad he did go! The kids really enjoyed the "American Pie" show and it was fun to watch them sing the song and dance (That is why a few pictures are blurry.) They enjoyed shopping at the souvenir stores even more because Mimi had given them all $5 to spend. One unexpected treat was the "ball of death". It consisted of a steel ball cage and 1-3 motorcycles would ride around inside. At first I thought it was going to be corny but it turned out just the opposite! Jay was even impressed!
Mimi came for a week long visit and #4 was able to take her on a date to Mimi's Cafe'(no relation to our Mimi). As you may remember, #4 was awarded with a free dinner at Mimi's Cafe by the school. So off to dinner they went!
Velma and Uncle Jesse were only here for a short time so we had to see some sights quick. We tried to see the Dam several times but the line was way too long. So we went to the Dam museum and then headed down to the strip for great view of the city from the Stratosphere. Velma was more than willing to ride any of the rides almost 1,000 feet off the ground but the rest of the adults smiled a politely declined such an adventure. Well, actually, we started shaking and screaming "no way Jose!". Though, in our younger years, Jay and I have been on the Big Shot several times but unfortunately at this time, I think I would have curled up in the fetus position and required therapy if I tried it again.
After our outing, the adults had a nice dinner at Sunset Station then back home for drinks and lively conversation on how seniors believe what they want to believe as far as what senior organizations tell them. Don't quite understand what the conversation was about?? Well neither did we and the wine didn't help.
We all had a great time visiting, riding motorcycles and drinking wine. Too bad no one is here now so I can read my post out loud to them.
Pappy once again road E.T. Hwy looking for aliens and a glimpse of Area 51. This time he did it on his bike and with his friend, Velma. I think they both decided the time of year to look for aliens is NOT in the winter or at least not without their toe warmers!
Well maybe if it is in the form of Spam Musubi. A couple from the Kingdom Hall took me out to dinner at a little Hawaiian restaurant Friday night. As a treat, P ordered spam musubi. She had mentioned it last week and of course I turned my nose up at the thought but let me tell you, it was very good! It was as good as the sushi Spelly and Spam had introduced to me in Nashville. So now I have another pit stop to sneak too while I am out and about by myself. R and P sure do make me long to visit Hawaii (they are natives of the islands) with their stories and now I am longing for the food.
Our friends from down south spent the weekend with us and we all spent most of the weekend riding motorcycles at the bed lake (it is really the dry lake bed but the kids have always called it the bed lake). Several friends from the Kingdom Hall also met us there. We made campfires, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, ate lots of chips and cookies and drank a lot of coke. The weather was perfect and the rain had made the dirt just right. There was a constant cosmic like activity of little motorcycles going by in all directions along with the adults screaming and smiling with kid-like delight on go-carts and big motorcycles.
#2 showed me a small "jump" and I got the courage to go over it! I didn't make air but it was the largest mound of dirt I had ever tried. I finally learned to make a tight turn with my foot out, just like #4 had taught me. I felt like such a kid when I made Jay follow me to "the jump" and watch me go over it then make a turn. I thought I was going to have to pull rank because our actual kids were yelling for his attention to watch their new trick. He was such a proud dad of all us!
Jay and I decided if ML ever goes into Motocross, we were going to sponsor her. She has no fear and is wide open all the time. She was in the air over all her jumps! E spent two afternoons with us and is now scouring Craigslist for his own bike.
Now we are all waiting for the next long weekend to do it all again.
As of the writing of this post, that is how long Jason and I have been married. This year we did not do anything especially special. We did though take the kids with us for an anniversary dinner last night to Famous Dave's. Pappy had taken Jason there earlier this year when Jason was visiting TN. Then we went as a family this past summer at the 3 day convention in Long Beach. #1 and #2 really enjoyed the ribs (which surprises me) so last night they were part of our All American Platter for 4. There was little left to bring home. We noticed #1's mouth when we were shopping later and I took a picture of it to remember the night. I am sure at some point we all had ribs smeared on our face. It was a fun evening and the kids thought it was special to join us for "the big dinner".
Today, as I have done every year, I bought a small marble cake like the one we had at the wedding. In years past, I have bought character marble cakes for the kids from the same bakery we got our wedding cake (the grocery store bakery, LOL, we are totally not uptown) but this year I did not plan well so we had a plain marble cake that tasted just as good.
Because our family does not celebrate Halloween, I kept the kids out of school for the day. We had made plans to go to a local aquarium because the girls each had received a free pass from the summer reading program at the library. We slept in late then headed downtown for a few hours of fun.
As we were walking to the entry gate, we noticed there was some type of IBM convention in town. They had an exhibit where the "globes" would "bounce" over your head as you walked by the wall. You could even touch the wall/globe and it would move.
After playing with the wall, we headed into the aquarium where we were each supplied with a cell phone type device. This device allowed you to key in the number of a specific exhibit and listen about what ever fish or sea animal was swimming in front of you, basically a self guided tour. I was not prepared to have all four kids on different numbers at any given time asking me different questions about what each one was listening too or having any of the four at any given time yelling "look over here mom". Nor was I expecting to be told "wait I am not finished listening" when I suggested going to the next tank. I really didn't need a the listening device, as I had my own personal tour guides directing me in four different directions.
All the kids thoroughly enjoyed listening about each and every creature swimming past us, over us or under us. I was surprised at how much each retained. Ask #4 about the blow fish...he now knows all about it. #2 was all about the jellyfish. #3 was about the stingrays. #1 was my helper so I would know where everyone was when I did my regular head count. They thought it was neat to see a real Dorey and Squidward. Wink had brought them mounted piranha back from his last fishing trip to the Amazon so they found it interesting to see live piranha.
In this post, I have used the word "each" several times. The word "each" was not important the last time I took the kids to the aquarium. They really don't remember it. I was able to hold the one listening device (does anyone know what this is called???) and tell the kids to "look at the pretty blue fish" and then easily direct them to the next tank. Not this time, it was odd because they were older. There were five of us there, each one with our own interest, each with our own "look at this fish" moment. I often think to myself "wow, 10 years ago these little people didn't even exist, and now I have a bunch of little people telling me their opinions." They are so fun!! But this reflective moment is for another post.
Well we didn't have actual music, but we did have the music of friends chatting all day!
A couple from the Kingdom Hall planned a trip down south to the mountains for a picnic lunch with several families/couples from a few different Halls. It was fun to get to know a few couples better, see old friends and their new baby (she is now 18 mos!) and visit our friends who live near the mountains.
The kids enjoyed climbing rocks all day. The group went on a hike that looped back to the picnic spot.
After the mountain climbing, we headed to our friends' house where the kids got to play in the back yard, climb up to a tree house and hold a cat for hour. Jason drove down on his motorcycle late that afternoon and joined our family and the L family for dinner at ...wait...Cracker Barrel!!! So, of course, this topped off a wonderful day for all, except for #1 who secretly had planned to end her day with the ride back home with her dad on the motorcycle. The rest of them rode with me and made request from the iPod. So we sang, Jessie's Girl, Just Eat It, Rhinestone Cowboy and song 209 to the top of our lungs.
Location: blogging about the next phase of family life...country living, United States
I am a mom who had triplets and then had a surprise baby.
We are now living in the country, which is completely opposite from our life just 3 years ago.
