Lake Weekend with the Harrisons

Will played in a golf tournament on Saturday and Sunday with a guy from Columbia.  Rather than letting them have all the fun, we decided to invite his whole family to join us at the lake for the weekend.  They have a daughter in 2nd grade and a son in kindergarten so everyone had a friend to play with.  I forgot to take my camera, but managed to get a few pictures with my phone.

Friday ended up being the prettiest day.  The kids loved getting out on the tube and jetskis.  Meg and I enjoyed relaxing on the dock.  It'll be July before I'll get hot enough to get in the water!

Olivia is all legs right now.  We just bought her some new tennis shoes ... size 4 1/2 girls or 6 1/2 ladies (she definitely got her feet from her mama!).

Burch and McIver were supposed to play a t-ball game against each other on Saturday afternoon.  But, it was called due to rain.  We had to find something to do to entertain the kids while the dads played golf, so we had lunch and took them to Frankie's Fun Park.

First Stop:  The Rookie Track

Olivia thought it was boring because the cars didn't go fast enough.

They also did the giant slide and played enough video games to 'buy' FunDip with their winnings.  McIver, lucky dog that he is, won 250 tickets on his last game.  He dragged them through half the arcade doubled over in laughter because he 'just can't believe how many tickets I won.'  Other kids were pointing and laughing at his long string of tickets.  It really was pretty funny!

Dear Olivia

When Nanoo came to visit so that Will and I could go to the Masters, she brought a new pack of animal bracelets for the kids to share.  Olivia had forgotten all about them, but McIver tried to surprise her.  He took it upon himself to write this letter to her.

Translation:

Dear Olivia, Look under your baby's bed.  There is a gift under it.  P.S. You will never know who I am.

Preparing for Camp

I've been hunting online for a footlocker/trunk for Olivia to take to camp this summer.  But, the only ones I could find seemed way too expensive - I didn't think I should be considering a trunk as an 'investment' but finally found one at KMart for a more reasonable price.  Sunday afternoon, Will took McIver to the USC v. Ole Miss baseball game and Olivia and headed out to get the trunk and some other items from the Suggested Packing List.

Afterwards,  I took her to see The Last Song (Miley's latest movie).  While we were there, she leaned over to me and asked how many days she would be at camp this summer.  I told her (11 days), she nodded and turned back to the movie.  I'm not sure if 11 days seems like too many days, not enough or just the right amount, but she hasn't said anything else about it since then.

At any rate, by the time we got home, she was excited to unload the goodies from the car and load up the trunk.  She seems most excited about the keys!  Black isn't the most exciting color (especially considering all the color options we saw online), but I told  her she can use stickers and paint pens to decorate it however she likes and let her camp friends sign it.

Olivia chose pink and blue towels and we're hoping GranGran will monogram them for her "that way they won't get confused with anybody else's towels.  You know, my name needs to be on EVerything, Mom!"

So proud of her supplies so far.

We still have a long way to go to get her ready, but she's getting really excited!  She even bought herself a journal so she can write about her time at camp during rest period.

Olivia and Friends

Went to Rosewood Dairy Bar on Saturday after Olivia's soccer game.  I remember going to Shaky's Pizza after softball games growing up.  It didn't seem to matter if it was time to eat or not, it's just what we did.  The weather on Saturday was gorgeous so ice cream seemed like the perfect treat after a hard-fought game.  The girls (and McIver) definitely agreed!

Baby Ducks at school

Aren't these baby ducklings the cutest!?  Our class walked over to check them out several weeks ago.  One morning a week or so ago, they were scattered all along the shore of the pond and I just couldn't resist snapping a few pictures.  They were so tiny when I took this picture, but they've already grown so much and don't have to follow Mama around anymore.  They can swim on their own in the pond and weren't anywhere near Mama yesterday when I dropped the kids off at school.

Mama Duck keeping a close eye on her babies...  I wonder if she misses the infant stage.

Just A Typical Saturday

Will and I left early Friday morning to spend the day at The Masters with Dawn and David.  Many thanks to Nanoo who came to greet Olivia and McIver after school and spend the night with them.  We came home in time for Olivia's soccer game on Saturday morning and then McIver's baseball game.  Nanoo managed to get a few shots of the kids on their respective fields.

Olivia has gotten pretty good on the soccer field.  She really hustles after the ball and seems to have a better understanding of where she should be on the field at any given time (she knows at least as much as I do, which I guess isn't really saying that much!).  

When she's on the sidelines, though, she loses all interest in the game.  They might as well be giving each other pedicures!

McIver at bat;

he always taps his bat on home plate, but I don't think he really knows why.

Will coaching third base with McIver - don't know which one is looking the wrong way!

What they really wanted to be doing was heading to The Canteen for snacks, but they humored Nanoo for just one more picture.

More Grandparents Day

Click here to see More Grandparents' Day pictures...

Baseball "Research"

So, McIver came home from school last Monday after a trip to the school library.  As we know, he's a big fan of non-fiction.  So, I wasn't surprised to see that he had chosen a book about baseball - the history, the rules, and some how-to's.  We've read it every night since then, focusing on one or two skills - batting and base-running or playing the field, etc. -  and talked about good sportsmanship.

Fast forward to baseball practice yesterday.  McIver was having his turn at batting practice.  He kept swinging the bat so hard that he would do an whole 360 degree turn.  If he ever made contact with the ball, it would have been a home run - easy.  But,  he was so concerned with hitting it hard that he couldn't seem to focus on just making contact.  So, one of his coaches came over to  try to settle him down.  We fell out laughing when we heard McIver's reply:  I know, I've been doing research!

Are you kidding me!?  Later, he said something to the coach who was pitching that he needed him to throw a 'heater' so McIver could hit it really far.

Spring Break 2010 - Monday

I have pictures of an Easter Bunny Cake that Grandma Myrtle used to make.  I don't actually remember making it with her, but I imagine that I did.  Anyway, I've had it in my head that I wanted to make that cake with Olivia and McIver and we finally did it on Easter Monday.

Olivia got the ingredients organized for us.

Spreading the frosting was the most fun.  McIver took his job very seriously and would NOT look up for a picture.

Still not looking up...

More frosting and sprinkling coconut all over the face and ears.

We had a very busy kitchen (for about 20 minutes).

The finished product - pretty cute, but something's missing...

Ahh - that's better.  A few peeps make all the difference, not to mention smiling faces.

Turns out that the kids are not fans of coconut.  Lucky for Will!

Will has been at a robotics conference at Disney World this week so I'm just getting back to the blog.  Hope to have some new posts up soon.  (PS:  He did not get to see Mickey or the gang, but he may have found a great place for us to stay the next time we make the trip - which will be when we're sure McIver is 48 inches tall, and thus able to ride any ride he chooses!)

Masters

This is the only picture I have from Masters 2010, but I can assure you that a good time was had!

Spring Break 2010 - Easter Sunday

We had a fantastic Easter Sunday.  With no real plans, we headed to church and ended up getting pretty good seats despite that fact that it was so crowded and we weren't exactly early.  There were five baptisms so that's always fun to see.  I loved hearing and singing all of my very favorite hymns (but, truth be told, I sure did miss the Palmer choir!).

I forgot to take pictures before church, but Olivia and McIver were very cooperative for me right when we got home - maybe because they knew fried chicken and homemade macaroni and cheese was in their near future.

Had to get Tex in an Easter shot.

Olivia and Will were hungry for Easter lunch!

For McIver, lunch was a means to an end - our afternoon trip to the lake.

We found the hammock and decided to give the kids a taste of the good life.

It was a perfect day - clear blue skies, slight breeze and lots of laughs from the kids.

The kids loved playing on the tube out in the water.  It took Olivia a while to get up the courage to get in the cold water, but she finally did and then didn't want to get out.

Good times!

Spring Break 2010 - Friday

The Isemans headed back to Columbia early Friday morning, but we weren't in any rush to get back.  So, we packed up a lunch and headed back to the beach.

Olivia was really good at bossing Will around and telling him just how deep and wide to dig the hole.

Love these kids!

Once Will finished his digging, the kids got to work.

I love this picture - they were popping up and down in the hole thinking that I would never be able to get a shot with both of them.  Little did they know that I caught this great shot!

Spring Break 2010 - Thursday evening

We knew the cook-out and Easter egg hunt would be fun, but had no idea it would be THAT fun!  It turned out that Olivia's godfather, John, and his family were in town for the baptism of their youngest son.  John's sister, Elizabeth, was there, too, with her two daughters.  John & Elizabeth's parents are part of a group of very tight-knit friends in Myrtle Beach.  Their children were all about the same age and they all grew up spending holidays and vacations together.  They came over to join us for the Easter egg hunt.  I'm sure there are tons of pictures of them having egg hunts together when they were little, so it's fun that we were able to share the experience with all of our children.  

It was complete and total madness and SO MUCH FUN!

Here I am introducing Tex to John Henry and Roland and their sweet mom, Ashby.  I'm also trying to keep him away from their cousin Lia, who was not a fan.

Once the hunt started, most of the children, including cousin JuliAnna, were a blur.

Lia was so proud of her finds.  She was even more excited by the jellybeans inside.  We were worried she was going to just inhale them all!

John Henry found some eggs, too, but he was a little more cautious than the other children.

Like I said, the kids were a blur.  (Or maybe we can blame the blurry pictures on operator error - Will had the camera, but has not used it nearly as much as I have since Christmas.  For sure, we can blame Will that there are no pictures of our children during the hunt.  He was concentrating so hard on getting a shot of everyone else's children that he forgot about our own!)

Amelia tried to guess what was inside her egg with a few sniffs.

Baby Jenna has grown so much since the last time we saw her.  She's a sweet, sweet girl and so happy!

Now this picture-taking experience was absolutely hilarious.  We insisted that all children had to be in the picture no-matter-what, which explains John in the back holding both of his boys and the fact that Tilly (sitting on big sister, Lia's, lap) were miserable.  Olivia, on the other hand, could not have been more happy because she was trusted to hold Jenna for the picture.  That made her day!

Since we couldn't see McIver in the first shot, we moved him to the front, John silently slid out of the picture and we got most everyone else in it.  It really was just too funny - and, of course, all of the parents were back there jumping, clapping and singing to get everyone's attention.  Clearly, that did not work!

We had some hungry children on our hands after the Easter egg hunt.  McIver had gotten a little grouchy, but thought it was pretty funny that Will was dancing around behind him trying to get in the picture.

Olivia and I had so much fun playing with Jenna.  She just smiled and laughed for us.

Spring Break 2010 - Thursday

The kids were thrilled to start their day with a trip to Dunkin Donuts.

Olivia got down on the floor with Tex and caught this picture - I need to talk to her about making sure the camera strap isn't in the way, but other than that, it's a pretty cute picture.  Love that little nose!

We had invited Will's brothers, Robert & Jay, and their families to join us for a cook-out and Easter Egg hunt Thursday night.   Will and Olivia got busy filling the eggs with treats before the dads left for golf.

Thursday was a GREAT beach day.  The wind was calmer and the temperature was just a touch warmer.  We had a few meltdowns due to our later night on Wednesday, but everyone seemed to recover pretty nicely.  The kids enjoyed a picnic of quesadillas (and their very own soft drinks) on the beach.

A shot of the aforementioned meltdown.  Morgan just decided to remove himself from the situation.

McIver told me he needed to 'do some stretching' before he could go boogie boarding.

Olivia catching some air as she jumped into her hole.

The kids also kept busy (very busy, especially McIver!) collecting shells.  Each child had their own circle in the sand with their initials so that they could spread out their finds.  McIver ended up with three circles.

I let Olivia loose with the camera again - she took a picture of every. single. shell she collected, and there were LOTS.  Here's my favorite shot.  I thought it would be fun to do something with some of the pictures she took, but most have shadows, half a toe or (again) the camera strap in them.  Maybe that can be a project that we work on this summer... taking good digital photos.  I think she'd love to have them framed in a collage in her room.

After a full day at the beach, we headed back to the house to prepare for the Easter Egg hunt and cook-out.  That deserves its own post so you'll have to be patient.