In the Good Ol' Summertime . . .

As I have been freezing my extremities off this week sitting out side from 6:30 until 8:30 for Pee Wee football games (That would be the post-season championship series. Our little team didn't win much during the regular season. They WOULD be unstoppable during the playoffs. Just when everyone was ready for them to Stop! - Go Cowboys!) I couldn't help but remember when we started football . . .

. . . IN THE SUMMER! We have been footballing since mid-July for Pete's sake. Which made me think back to those lazier days of summer and some of our summer fun . . .

We went camping at Fort Mountain state park where on our first night we had some squashed fingers in the bear-proof garbage cans, a trip to the ER in Chatsworth, a mommy thinking she was spending the night in a state park with two of her three children alone without daddy, and a visit from a bear. Which Daddy had to scare off two nights in a row. Foolish, fearless bear.

We ate countless roasted marshmallows and discovered the tastes of each family member: Mom likes hers medium rare, Dad, John Mark and Gabriel like theirs well-done, and Daniel likes his equivalent to a carcinogen on a stick.

We went hiking. The boys adore it. I adore the fact that they love it so much. As you can see from all of the accoutrements attached to their belts, the boys are in weight training to carry packs on the Appalachian Trail. We also weren't without our pistols. Maybe because of the bear we had encountered?

We also man-handled and played with three little salamanders for three hours straight at the lake. We cried when we had to leave them there. Well, two-thirds of us played with them. One third would not touch them. At all. Not for anything in the wide world. So, for the picture he held up his sand.

We also played with snakes. Real ones. The park ranger brought them to a demonstration. We did this while Daddy packed up camp. According to Dad, he got the better end of the deal. Once again, Daniel would not venture near.

They are already begging to go again; mostly so we can roast marshmallows. Mommy is not much for cold, so we might have to wait until spring or camp in Florida. Maybe I can take some marshmallows and a Zippo lighter to these football games and "kill two birds with one stone." I would be warmer wrapped in a sleeping bag . . .

Renaissance Men

So, I have a goal in raising these boys. I want to be very purposeful in the life experiences we expose them to. I want them to be boys (and then men) who are perfectly comfortable and sincerely appreciative of various opportunities. I want them to be boys who are into sports, but also like music. I want them to know how to start campfires and pitch tents, but also how to act at a play or at the symphony. Men who are comfortable scarfing down wings at trivia night, but who also know how to mannerly consume their chicken salad sandwiches at a tea room if necessary.

One day this past spring, I got the chance to "Commence Renaissance Man Training." We took the boys to see the musical, The Lion King in Atlanta.


I had long been telling Mitch that I wanted them to see it the next time it came to Atlanta since it doesn't come every year. This year, I jumped at the chance. I justified the expense by saying it was my birthday present.

For months, I talked this up to them. Explaining plays. Watching the movie so they would "get" the story. My good friend John Moore, got wind of this plan and let us have his cd from the play. That was the best thing since they practically memorized every song. This also helped them understand what was going on.

This became quite hysterical as they would often just erupt into song while they played. Often they (particularly John Mark), at the top of their lungs, would shout out the opening line to "Circle of Life." "NANTS IN GON YA MA, BAAAAAAAA GITHI BAAA BA!!"

When the BIG DAY arrived, the ATL was doing their massive re-paving of I75 on the weekends, so we opted to drive to a Marta station and take a train into downtown.

This was a huge thrill since they had never experienced a train ride yet. On the return ride, the ride was made even better because the train was very crowded and we stood next to a REAL LIVE SOLDIER. The boys were in awe. He was nice and talked to them the whole time. Too cool.

The play was of course, amazing. The experience for the boys was everything I hoped it would be. Their delight. Their behavior. Their memories of it. Perfect.

Afterward, we had a gift certificate to one of our favorite ATL restaurants, Houston's. Mitch and I had been thinking it would be fun to use that and go to Houston's after the play. Great idea. So we go. We put our name on the hour long waiting list. After ten minutes we get called in. We are elated (and very thankful) to not have to wait so long. The minute, and I mean the minute, we walk in the door (because we had been waiting outside), I start to freak out a little. As my eyes adjust to the ambiant dimness, and focus on the white linen tablecloths, the candle lit table centerpieces and all the glasses and real porcelain (read "breakable") plates I realize what we have done.

We have brought the boys (one of whom is cell phone torcher Daniel) to a white-linen-wine-list-longer-than-the-menu-whisper-restaurant. There are no styrofoam cups with lids here. No kids menu. No chicken finger baskets. No placemats to color on. No loudly playing music to drown out kid noises.

Every other time we had gone to Houston's it was, obviously, without children. It didn't dawn on me until we were being seated that it could be a disaster.

But it wasn't. It was perfect. They were perfect. Perfect little gentlemen with their linen napkins on their laps, drinking from their crystal clear stemmed glasses. Turbo Renaissance Training.

We drove back with three sleepy dinner and dessert filled boys dreaming of train rides and Simba and Mufasa.

It was a perfect family day.

* perfect except for the fact that I forgot the camera. Dumb mommy. So I have no pictures of this amazing day. That explains the pictures.

Lake Winnie!!!!

Near where I grew up there is a wonderful little family-owned amusement park called, Lake Winnepesaukah, or as it is more commonly referred to, "Lake Winnie." It is a great amusement park built around a (man-made?) lake. So quaint. So affordable. So not Six Flags (which is so not fun with little ones). So fun. This past spring, Gabriel's Kindergarten end-of-the-year-field-trip-hoorah was at Lake Winnie. We took the whole fam.

It was kind of surreal for me because I grew up going here and riding these rides and now this time, I was the parent cheering them on as the rode things, waving every time they went round and round on something.

** Again, I apologize. I know these "updates" are from the spring and it is now officially fall. Remember, I'm catching up. Which means, if you are lucky, you might get to see pictures of our summer adventures just in time for Thanksgiving.

John Mark and Gabriel on the kid parachutes.

Daniel livin' it up on the kid boats.

John Mark on the kid boats.

My parents have pictures of my sisters and I on these very same boats!

Gabriel with classmate, Jenna.

Again, another flashback. We have pictures of me, Katie, and Meredith "driving" these cars.

All the "boys" on the carousel.

Keen observers of these pictures will notice that all the boys are wearing orange. Observers who knew my family growing up are laughing now because they are recalling how my mother used to dress us girls in the same outfit when we would go places like amusement parks, the zoo, etc. That way, we would be easy to spot and she would know what we were wearing if one of us got lost and she had to describe us. The closest thing I had to matching outfits was everyone wearing denim and orange shirts. It worked like a charm!

We capped off the evening with a visit with our cousin Libby Kate. So cute!