JustJessie

A Welcome Weekend

Those first two days of school last week were worse than a medieval torture chamber, so we were thrilled to see the weekend come.  Jeff and I decided that since the boys proved at Disney to be capable of walking long distances with a minimum of whining, we would try taking them on a hike Saturday.  You all know Grayson can do nothing without being in character, so before we left he had thrown together an Indiana Jones costume.  He had so much fun being our "scout" and "safari guide".  (You can't see it in this picture, but he even had a jump rope for a whip. heehee)

 

He was pretending that there were lots of booby traps, and he would point them out to us along the trail.  There were also some horses on the trail that day, so he was tracking them (the "polchers").  All this talk of tracks and traps was a little confusing to Grant, who cried out, "Look!  Booby tracks!" every time we saw hoof prints in the dirt. 

We got carried away and hiked a little farther than we meant to, so that most of the way back Grant was either whining about being tired or riding on Jeff's shoulders.  All was forgotten when we saw our car peeking at us through the trees.  Grant took off running and said, "That was a great 'afari!  Now wet's go git some Gatorade!"

Whadda Week part 1

This last week seemed like it lasted four, and since I didn't do much blogging, it may take a couple of posts to catch up.  For starters, I've been asked for more about our vacation.  I already told you it was wonderful, but I guess that's about all I said!  So, the plan was to leave for Disney World at about 3:30 am on Saturday.  We had the car all packed up, alarm clocks set, and were in bed by nine.  One problem.  I am such a kid when it comes to vacations.  I laid there wide awake for two hours, before I turned to Jeff (who started snoring the second his head hit the pillow), and said, "Honey, I can't sleep, can you?" heehee. So by the time I showered and rounded up odds and ends, we were on the road at midnight.  I know, I know, you all think I'm crazy.  Really, though, it was perfect.  Grant slept until five, when we got out to eat breakfast, and then he took a nap from ten to twelve, so he was asleep practically the whole time we were driving.  Poor Grayson has too much of his mama in him, and couldn't sleep.  He finally drifted off when we were about an hour from the Disney World gates.  Check out that face as he saw the gates the first time:

 

We stayed in a Disney hotel that was Fantasia themed, and Grant was so excited.  Not only does he LOVE Mickey, but this was his first time in a hotel room since he was a leetle baby.  We spent the spent the first day at Magic Kingdom, and we had so much fun, we decided to extend our stay by one day so we could be sure and go back.  The kids saw all their favorite characters, and I was proud of them both for riding all the rides without freaking out.    

About half an hour after we entered the park, we happened upon Woody's Round-Up Gang doing the cowboy hokey pokey.  As soon as the guy with the mic said, "Come on and join us buckaroos," Grant ran out right smack in the middle of them.  It was great.  He got to dance with Woody and all those other guys for a long time. 

The next day we spent at Animal Kingdom, which was cool, but way too hot and way too crowded.  We still had fun, but we will definitely not go back there in the dog days of summer.  We did happen on this guy while we were there, though, which made for a super cute picture. 

Whew!  That's enough typing for me right now.  Tune in tomorrow for Grayson's first day of FIRST GRADE!!

Grant at the Beach

This is Grant's third or fourth time to the beach, but it's the first time he's been in almost a year.  Everything was brand new to him.  The look on his face in that first picture says it all.

The Magic is Over

I guess you could say it's been awhile since you heard from me, huh?  Sorry to disappear on you like that.  We went on our first family vacation in ages, and I'm way too paranoid to announce to the world when my house is going to be abandoned for a week.  Ha!  It's sounds silly I guess, but if there is one thing I've inherited from my father, it's a healthy dose of paranoia.

So!  We had a wonderful week together.  We spent the first three days here: ,

where we had WAY too much fun and dined with these guys: .

We spent the next four days with our best friends who live near this beach: ,

where we went out on this boat:  

where everyone looked like this: .

It is so hard to come back to reality after that.  The boys had the best time of their lives, and Jeff and I had so much fun watching them (okay, truth be told we had more fun than they did!). 

Playin' a little hookie

I made an executive decision this morning.  I decided it was a great day to play hookie.  Grayson woke us all up at 3 a.m., because he got scared and accidentally woke Grant up, and then both of them climbed into our bed.  I finally kicked them out at four, because none of us were going back to sleep.  So, anyway, when it was time to get up for school Grayson was sooo sound asleep, I just didn't have the heart to wake him.  That's not the only reason either.  He and I haven't been getting along very well lately, and I thought it would do us both good to just hang out together for the day. 

I gave him a choice of two picnic locales, and let him help plan our day.  His choices were to picnic at the park and then go for ice cream (that would be ice water for me).

We've had a wonderful day, and I think the time we've spent together has cured whatever weirdness was going on before.  I love that boy of mine, and if I occasionally have to buy his affection with a trip to the park and the ice cream parlor, then so be it!  I ain't too proud.

Does it really have to be Monday?

We had such a great weekend, I hate to see it end.  We spent Saturday morning working in the yard together, and then playing football when we finished.  I guess it would be more accurate to say Jeff was trying to teach Grayson and me the basics of football enough to play.  It was fun though.  I'm not a sporty girl, but Grayson wants to play flag football this year, and I want to be able to follow the game! 

Anyway, then we decided it would be fun to all go out together as a family.  We went to Surin, a Thai restaurant with the best sushi around, and to see Nim's Island.  As a non-violent way to get good manners out of our boys, we told them this was Mommy and Daddy's favorite date restaurant, and we were taking them there on a family date.  It was awesome.  I could tell Grayson felt so mature going to a place we usually don't take him.  Both of the boys tried "Squooshee" (that's Grantinese for sushi) and ate with chopsticks. I was very proud of my picky eater (Grayson) for trying something so unusual. 

*Excuse the look on my face... I think the empty martini glass may have something to do with it.

The movie was good, too.  It's always a gamble taking Grant to a movie.  The theater we went to doesn't charge for him to go, so at least if I had to take him out of the movie it wouldn't feel like such a waste!  He did great, though.  There was enough action to keep him interested, and I stocked my purse with enough Easter candy to keep him occupied when he got bored.  So, anyway, I guess now it's back to the real world...

G-day

For the second year in a row Grayson, his Daddy, and his Poppy are on their way to the G-day game.  That's three generations of Keith men between the hedges together again.  The picture above is from last year's game.  It blows my mind how much Grayson has grown since then.  One thing is the same, though.  His favorite part about the trip is staying in a hotel room.  He called this afternoon, and our conversation went a little something like this:

Me: Hey Buddy!  Whatcha doin?

Grayson:  HEY MOM!  WE DROVE ALL THE WAY HERE THEN WE GOT TO THE HOTEL ROOM THEN I WENT PEE THEN WE PUT ON OUR SWIMSUITS AND WENT IN THE INDOOR POOL AND THEN WE CAME BACK AND I WAS JUMPING FROM BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO BED TO FLOOR BECAUSE WE HAVE TWO BEDS AND A FLOOR BETWEEN THEM AND I WOULD  JUMP FROM ONE BED TO THE OTHER UNTIL I GOT TIRED OF IT AND THEN I JUMPED ON THE FLOOR AND DADDY DOESN'T CARE AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT POPPY THINKS ABOUT IT BECAUSE HE'S NOT IN HERE SO IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER WHAT HE THINKS BUT NOW WE HAVE TO GO EAT SUPPER MOMMA I LOVE YOU BYE!

Me: K.  Love you too. 

Gosh, I hope he's having a good time.

Field Trip Double Doozie

Yesterday Grayson's class went on a double field trip: wildlife refuge and then natural science museum.  He was pretty stoked as you can imagine.  I've taken the kids many times to walk the trails in one section of the refuge, but I hadn't been to the visitor center and observation tower since I was in elementary school.  I foresee many trips out there in our future.  I would love to spend a day there with just me, Grayson, a camera, and a sketchpad.  We would have a big time for sure. 

I learned something really cool from the ranger who showed us around.  We have our first bald eagle family living in the area since 1947!  How cool is that?  They successfully hatched baby... um... eaglets? last year, and they are on the nest again.  He told us where their nest is, and I am definitely thinking we'll go search that one out!

 

The natural science museum (aka bug museum.  It's owned by the biggest pest control company in our area) was not real spiffy.  The only thing worth a mention is the meteorite they have.  It's about as big as a baby's head, but weighs so much I couldn't even pick it up.  Other than that, the only thing that interested Grayson was the gift shop. 

Grayson's take on the day, "Uh, for two field trips in one day, that was really... well... boooooring." 

Taking This Circus to the Big Top

Our little clowns had their first taste of the Greatest Show on Earth yesterday.  Ringling Bros. came to town, and my brother's girlfriend got tickets for us all to go.  Grayson had been to a Shriner's circus when we lived near Louisville, but it was nothing compared to this! 

If you don't know, Grayson went through a slight clown obsession a couple of years ago.  His fourth birthday was a clown party, and everyday he wanted to dress in crazy clothes and big shoes, paint his face, and put on a circus show. So, of course, he was on cloud nine when he got to meet the Ringling Bros. clowns before the show!  This guy even gave him his own clown nose to take home.

Grant has never been to anything in a big arena before, so for him the lights and music may have been the most exciting thing.  He was on his knees, bouncing and dancing and imitating the arm movements of the performers on the floor (no pictures of this.  I was too busy trying to keep him safe!)  By the time the second act rolled around, I resorted to drastic measures to keep him in his seat.  I gave him some of my soda (you may not realize what a big deal this is.  Let me fill you in, Grayson is almost six and has never had a soda in his life!).  After every sip, Grant would shiver and get a terrible look on his face, and then grin really big and drink some more!

We had a wonderful time, and I'll leave you with some Graysonisms from the show:

"Those girls just don't wear enough clothes, do they Mom?"

"Uh-oh.  Something tells me this will NOT end well."

"A clown nose is only official if it comes from a real circus."

"Dad!  They actually have a REAL COLLEGE where you can go to be a REAL CLOWN!"

A special treat

Thursday night, my cousin and I went to the Christmas openhouse in downtown Decatur.  I confess I don't make it down there very often, because most of the stores don't have an atmosphere conducive to shopping with children (close aisles and loads of breakables!).  It was so nice to be there, though, with the leaves changing, and the chill in the air.

It reminded me of trips downtown with my dad when I was a kid.  He would take my brother and me to C.F. Penn's (the oldest, greasiest, coolest hamburger joint in town).  We would sit on the stools at the counter and watch the big woman slap our bread-filled burgers onto the cooktop and mash them with her pudgy, brown elbow (gross, but true).  Then we would walk to the music store, where Andy and I would play on a piano and guitar while Dad talked shop with the owners.  If we behaved really well, he would take us on to Bank Street where he would set us loose in the toystore. 

Amidst all these memories, I realized my kids have never experienced that.  Shame on me!  So the very next day I called up my dad, and we took the boys on a special trip.  We skipped Penn's and opted for a "meat and three" diner for lunch.  As soon as we finished, we drove down to Bank Street, and the boys got to experience their first-ever, old fashioned toystore!  You know the kind...  One of each toy sitting out to be tested by eager little hands, and none of the cheap plastic junk either, thank you very much!  Only real, sturdy, imaginative play toys here.  They each got to pick a toy, and then we were off to the candy store.  Oh yes, I said the Candy Store!  Not quite up to par with the one in Willy Wonka, but wall to wall candy none the less.   I let them each choose a lollipop, then we sat out in the chill autumn air to enjoy them.

I hope to do this fairly often, not only for the enjoyment it brings the boys, but also for the feelings it evokes in me.  I can't quite define the feeling, I suppose it's more of a connection.  When I'm walking those sidewalks, I walk in the footsteps of my parents, my grandparents, and even my great-grands.  True, the stores are different, the crowds smaller, and the trolley track is used no more; but they were here.  Just like me.  They held little hands to keep them from the street.  They watched little eyes light up when the toystore came into view.  Part of me touches them here.  That's why it's special.  That's why we'll be back soon.