Thanksgiving at the Beach

Yup, it was coooold.


That didn't last long. But maybe the ocean will be warmer.


The polar bear club heading in:


Jumping waves:


The pelicans were very entertaining as they flew around and dove into the water for fish. It's hard to see, but you can click to enlarge. I liked the composition of this one.

Happy Thanksgiving

We told the boys to get ready for bed last night. When I went upstairs to check on them, this is what it looked like. There was a suitcase there somewhere when they started

My mother-in-law asked them, "what happened in here?" Joseph answered without missing a beat, "Boys." True, True, however, I haven't found girls to be any better.

Here are the kids before Thanksgiving dinner.

We were too busy eating to take any more. Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Sick Sam

Poor Sam has been sick. It started out just a cold, but I think it's an ear infection at this point. Running a fever and complaining of an earache. Poor little guy. Motrin is our friend.

So what do you call a sick Sammer? According to the kids it is Sam-u-sick. (Because if you enunciate all the syllables of his name slowly, it sounds like Sam-u-well. And he is definitely not well).

Hoping he feels better tomorrow.

Sam turns Six

Sam originally told me he wanted banana pudding for his birthday cake. Since that isn't actually a cake, I asked if a banana cake would work. He thought that would be great. So then I needed to know what he wanted on his cake and he said, "I want to have a monkey reaching out his hand for a banana." So, after a quick search on the internet I found exactly what he wanted at Family Fun. Here's how his turned out.

I guess the trees on the Family Fun cake help your brain distinguish exactly what those brown blobs are supposed to be, but it was pretty cute for a last minute creation.

Opening Presents and excited by a Bionicle:

Apparently I picked a good one. But they all look exactly the same to me. I just picked one that wasn't green like the one Joseph got for his birthday and guess I got lucky.

Happy birthday Sam. And, more importantly, congratulations on graduating from the booster seat to big boy seat in the car.

Fancy Tina

Have you ever read Fancy Nancy? The book is about a girl, Nancy, who is the only fancy one in her family. She tries to teach her hopelessly plain family how to be fancy. Guys, it's like reading about my own life.

Today Taryn, Rebekah, and I all have on jeans. Taryn's shirt has grease spots on it. My jeans have a hole in them.

Tina? Here's Tina:

Her plans for the day were to do school at home, play outside, and go to piano lessons. Just an ordinary day. I really do think there must be a "fancy" gene and boy, has she got it. Because without it, how else could you pull off a 25-cent bubblegum-machine necklace and make it look great?

Basketball Time

We took the kids and a few friends last Friday to see a Clemson basketball game. It was an exhibition game free to the public, which fits our budget nicely.
What is it about kids wanting to sit at the very top?

This led to a game of basketball on Saturday evening. It's fun that we can actually play team sports a little bit now - emphasis on little bit. (I was also playing, but stopped to take some very blurry pictures... too close to dusk I guess).

Happy Birthday Joseph

No matter how many times I tell these kids to quit growing up and getting older, they keep doing it anyway. Joseph turned 11 yesterday and it is so hard to believe.

Yesterday was a local election day (1st Tues.) and it reminded me that Joseph was born on an election day. John left the hospital to go vote and is wearing his "I Voted" sticker in some of the pictures. I voted by absentee ballot, possibly bending the rules (at the time) a bit. I went over to vote and technically I needed to have doctor's orders which said I would be in the hospital and unable to vote on the election day. Obviously, I didn't KNOW I would be having a baby that day, but I was already overdue when I went to vote, so I was certainly hoping I would have a baby by then. Fortunately they were reasonable and let me vote and I think the laws on absentee voting have since been changed to make it easier. But I can't help remembering that he is my election baby when I hear the polls are open.

Here's a couple pics of the celebration:

The cake is supposed to be an Indiana Jones cake. The boys had fun picking out what to put on the cake (skeleton, treasure chest, snakes, a fish?, a hook?, flowers???). We don't have a Lego Indiana Jones set yet, so we just printed him off the computer and stuck him on the cake. Joseph didn't mind and in fact I think the word "genius" might have been used. It fits me, I think. ;-)