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96 Mind Blowing Ways

Written on February 1, 2012 by Jennifer in Little Monkeys, Pictures

We cleaned out the attic a few weeks ago and I found a Collector’s Tin of Crayola crayons that I’d kept from when I was a kid. It was something I’d forgotten all about, having received the tin as a gift when I was just a little too old to care about crayons anymore and so it was put away in a box and moved from apartment to apartment and house to house.

When I found it, I was sure that they’d all be melted since they’d been in a box in the attic for over a decade. Surprisingly when I opened the tin, the crayons were fine.

As a kid, one of my favorite things in the ENTIRE WORLD was a brand new box of crayons. Their smell! Their newness! All in tact, their paper unripped. We’ve survived on remnants of restaurant crayons for all these years, with the exception of the box of 16 crayons that was on Carson’s Kindergarten school supply list. My poor, deprived children.

Since Carson has recently started to be interested in drawing and coloring, I showed him what I found in the attic.

This box of 64 crayons, complete with built-in sharpener, and this kid! MAN! His mind was BLOWN! He couldn’t get over 64 CRAYONS! In ONE box! With a sharpener! He studied each and every crayon for a good half hour.

“Look, Mom! This one says, ‘sky blue,’ and this one says, ‘salmon!’ Have you ever even HEARD of that?!”

He doesn’t want his sister to even look in the direction of the crayons, with her bull-in-a-china-shop ways. He wants to avoid any risk of the 64 perfect crayons getting broken.

And when I was at the grocery store yesterday, I saw that they now sell boxes of 96 crayons. I guess they’ve been selling these boxes for awhile, but I just discovered their existence.

Guess what he’s getting for Valentine’s Day? He is going to FLIP OUT!

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The Good Guys

Written on January 24, 2012 by Jennifer in Hallmark, Little Monkeys, Pictures

It all began with Blue’s Clues, Carson became a devoted clue finder as a toddler. His love for Blue extended into books and songs, and into his imaginative play. Then it was Thomas the Train and All About John Deere movies that led he and his sister to play for hours on end, chuffing, plowing, and absorbed in their elaborate play pretending to be engineers and farmers.

I know that watching too much TV is bad, but I also know that movies and shows have inspired their love for not only reenacting the stories, but extending the stories with their own imaginations into epic adventures.

Our Saturday mornings are usually devoted to pajamas, waffle consumption, and cartoons. I somehow slept through the waffle portion of the morning and awoke to find Carson and Ella absorbed in the pages of a Tintin comic book instead of staring at the TV screen. While Ella and I enjoyed a girls weekend away several weeks ago, Carson and Tate had a boys weekend complete with pizza and a trip to the movie theater to see The Adventures of Tintin-where Carson has found new source of inspiration.

After school last week, I could hear them in the other room playing, caught up in an elaborate scheme to find the clues while getting away from the bad guys.

“Come on,” Carson yelled to Ella, “we can hide in here.”

“Tintin!” Ella called to Carson, “the bad guy has me! Save me, Tintin!”

They went on like this, replaying scenes over and over, changing the details to include sword fights and capes. Running and hiding, they laughed and yelled and pretended to be in great distress. I stealthily peeked in on them and they immediately froze when they spotted me, too shy to continue their acting. I begged them to go on, to show me what it’s like to be the good guys.

But it’s not the same with someone watching, so I left them and listened around the corner as they picked up right where they left off in their Tintin adventure, defeating the bad guys with great gusto.

I’m so excited to be partnering with Hallmark for their Life is a Special Occasion campaign this year. I will finally be forced to learn that there is only one “s” in “occasion!” Of course, I am also so excited for the chance to share the stories from our life.

Hallmark is compensating me for participation in this campaign. As always-all opinions expressed are my own.

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Snow Day Traditions

Written on January 13, 2012 by Jennifer in Little Monkeys, Pictures

I tried to tell them.

“There’s not really enough snow for playing. It’s just a dusting. You can see most of the grass, for goodness sakes!”

“No, Mommy, see?” Carson pointed out the window. “There’s snow all over the driveway!”

Well, they did cancel school. I guess it wouldn’t have been a real snow day if we hadn’t:

1. Taken 45 minutes to find all the hats, mittens, and boots.

2. Taken another 45 minutes to get dressed in double layers.

3. Made a snow angel in what little snow there was

4. Played for two minutes outside before:
a. Someone needed to pee
b. Someone complained of being freezing cold

5. Came inside and undressed, leaving a pile of wet clothes in a heap on the floor

6. Had hot chocolate:
a. With marshmallows

Truth? I love these days as much as they do.

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Hope your holiday season is merry and bright and that a cleaning elf will show up and help you clean up the aftermath

Written on December 23, 2011 by Jennifer in Pictures

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus, Happy Everything.

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Back when

Written on November 28, 2011 by Jennifer in blogging, Pictures, Quirky Me

I never kept a diary, except maybe a few angsty lines as a middle schooler who’d just made out with a boy for the first time. Five years ago this month, I opened up a Blogger account and began to write the stories of my life. My first post, since deleted, was about my 20 week ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby I was carrying, who is now a sassy four year old sister to a six year old brother.

Tentatively I started to speak, out loud for the first time, about motherhood and it’s challenges. I know now that there’s a fine balance between saying what needs to be said and saying too much, though I’m still learning to walk that tightrope.

My blog was my very own personal space, here’s what I said about it in February 2007,

“Nobody is leaving their dirty socks on my blog. Nobody is pointing and grunting at my blog and demanding a bite of it. My blog doesn’t have a leaky…diaper. There is NO LAUNDRY or dog hair in my blog. My blog has never told me ‘no’. “

I still treasure and feel very protective of this space, five years later. It is still one place that is mine, all 845 posts.

When this blog began:

1. I lived in Alabama.

2. I’d never heard of Facebook because it was only for those young, whippersnapper college kids, but I did have a Myspace account, complete with flashy graphics and autoplay music.

3. I looked sort of like this, just less pregnant:

4. This blog was a secret.

5. I felt very lonely and isolated.

6. I’d gained more than just pregnancy weight.

7. I cussed like a sailor.

8. I never exercised because I thought I didn’t have time. (I really didn’t have time, though.)

9. I was in a playgroup, which is indeed why this blog got the name I gave it.

10. I’d never heard of Google Reader, spent my days commenting on at least twenty blogs a day, and felt a real sense of community online.

11. I didn’t have a paying job.

Since this blog began:

1. I’ve moved twice (to Indiana, then to Tennessee) and lived in five different houses and/or apartments.

2. I’ve started accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and about 32 million other sites that in hopes of making my blog super popular. (Technorati, BlogLuxe, TopBlogSites, Cre8buzz, Plurk, NING groups, Alltop, StumbleUpon…)

3. I look sort of look like this, except most of the time I’m less stylish and my children are squalling:

4. This blog isn’t a secret. I still wish it was a secret some days.

5. I don’t feel lonely or isolated anymore. Well, usually. We all feel lonely sometimes, right? My life is pretty great and I feel incredibly blessed. Motherhood isn’t easy, but the kids are older now and we’re not bound by a nap schedule and they don’t completely drain me of life every single minute of the day.

6. I gained even more weight then lost most of it.

7. I don’t cuss like a sailor on the blog and I try not to cuss now except when the situation warrants it. There are many situations that warrant a good swear word, though.

8. I ran a 10K on Thanksgiving day in 1:01. I am getting ready to start training to run a half marathon. I’m making the time even though I don’t really have time to do the training.

9. I’m not in a playgroup, but yet! The blog name remains the same. It’s too late to change it now.

10. I adore my Google Reader, though I’m ticked they took away the Share function. I rarely comment on blogs anymore, but I want to do better because I miss that community feeling. I mean, the community is there, but I feel like I’m on the outskirts looking in.

11. I have jobs! Real jobs! And it’s all because five years ago this month, I opened a Blogger account and started writing.

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Ketchup

Written on November 14, 2011 by Jennifer in Pictures, Randomness

I’m playing catch-up today after a weekend filled with carbohydrates and Harry Potter movie marathons. Instead of sitting at the computer, I should probably go run off that movie marathon with a real marathon.

Anyways.

It’s not too late for a Halloween photo, is it? No? Good. Presenting…a very intimidating Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a fifteen-year-old-boy dressed as Carson, dressed as a member of Lightning McQueen’s pit crew!

We had a lousy showing of only four kids begging for candy on Halloween. Not even one ill mannered teenager, or grown women, without costumes. I mean, how the heck am I supposed to blog about Halloween if nobody shows up to offer fodder?!

:::

This is…random….but I was sent a copy of the documentary, The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical. I’m a sucker for a good documentary, so when they asked if I wanted a copy, I said, “okay.” This documentary is currently airing on HBO2 and it’s about these kids from the slums of India that are going to perform songs from the Sound of Music at the fanciest performing arts center in Mumbai.

Documentaries this like and the radio show, This American Life, and the human interest articles in newspapers, and blogs…I LOVE those kind of things. Learning about other people, their stories, their lives…I especially enjoy seeing how despite completely different cultures and life circumstances, people are people no matter where you go. The little boy in the documentary, Ashish, his personality was like any ten-year-old boy you’d meet here in the US.

Sound of Mumbai was a good documentary, hopeful, sad, but realistic.

Disclaimer: yes, they sent me a copy of this documentary, but I wasn’t really under any obligation to blog about it. I wasn’t reimbursed in any way and these brief opinions are my own.

:::

I keep meaning to brag on Nap Warden from NW Designs for the awesome job she did on my website, Family Friendly Knoxville. So I’ll do that now.

Nap Warden did an awesome job on my website, Family Friendly Knoxville. She took my ideas, some hand drawn, some poorly worded, and was able to create the look I was going for.

So if you’re looking for a blog designer or logo designer, you should look NW Designs up.

Another disclaimer! She didn’t ask me to say anything, although she did give me a great deal with the design AND web hosting. Nap Warden is just good at what she does and I wanted to tell you about her.

:::

I’ve written quite a few posts over at my Babble blog, Southern by Proxy.

A waitress yelled at Carson in a restaurant which led me to ask, “Should you reprimand another person’s child?” Several of the comments have really made me think.

I wrote about who I am, as part of the Phenomenal Women project headed up by Alli Worthington.

Now that I’ve finished Friday Night Lights (WAH!), I’m wondering what I should watch next?

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This May Be Proof that Disney Pumps Magical Pixie Dust Into Their Air. There’s Really No Other Explanation

Written on October 19, 2011 by Jennifer in Little Monkeys, Lucky Me, marriage, Mommydom, Pictures

There is no way that the words that I arrange and type here could ever convey just how magical our trip to Disney World was. Simply, it was the trip of a lifetime.

Before I can really tell you anything specific about Disney, I need to give you a little back story on the dynamics of my family. We are not exactly the best at getting along, particularly in slightly stressful situations (travel, crowds, trying something new…). Tate and I snip at one another, I hate to use this word-but it’s the truth-we snip at one another CONSTANTLY when we’re stressed. Our kids have always been the type of kids to throw tantrums, even in the tamest circumstances, let alone on an exhausting five day trip to Disney World complete with late nights and crabby parents. You should go out to dinner with us sometime. We are SO MUCH FUN to hang around.

Then there’s my control freak tendencies. Since I did the majority of the planning for the trip, I felt the entire weight of responsibility that everything MUST go well on the trip. Reservation glitches, weather, the kids behavior, wait times at restaurants-all things that I can’t actually control-I knew I’d feel defensive if things weren’t going just as I’d planned.

These are things that I worried about this before the trip. I wanted it to be perfect. I didn’t want US to be the reason that the trip was a flop.

Something truly miraculous happened. Maybe Disney pumps magical, calming pixie dust into the air, or they spike our drinks with xanax, I DON’T KNOW, but (almost) everything about our trip was PERFECT. We all behaved and got along well and had the best time we’ve ever had together as a family.

Every night, the kids were visited by the Fairy Godmother, who left them a little gift. (This idea came from my dental hygienist! They know more than just teeth cleaning!) The kids ate this up and loved finding little gifts every morning. Before we left, I went to the Disney store at the mall and bought a few little items and some gift cards so they’d have their own money to spend at the parks. I wrote about how we told the kids about the trip, complete with their first visit from the Fairy Godmother at Southern By Proxy. This part wasn’t really magical at all.

Here’s a rundown of everyday of our vacation, the FOOD! The PARADES! The FUN, all the MAGIC! I know this is long, but I just wanted to do a one and done post, rather than a series of posts. Okay?

Saturday

We arrived at our resort, the Wilderness Lodge, and it was POURING rain. The entire seven story lobby was filled with families playing board games, children coloring and hula hooping, families sitting in front of the large fire place, rocking back and forth in the rocking chairs. It was like something out of a movie.

Our room had a great view of the lake and woods, the kids were SO EXCITED that our room had bunk beds. We unpacked, then headed back to the lobby where Carson LITERALLY (yes, LITERALLY) hula hooped for two hours. TWO HOURS. Ella bounced from activity to activity, many led by Disney staff, coloring and playing games. After TWO HOURS, we finally convinced Carson to go back up to the room to relax before dinner.

We had reservations at 7:50 at our resort’s sit down restaurant, Whispering Canyon Cafe. This was the only place that we had to wait a long time (45 minutes) to be seated. By the time we were seated the kids were exhausted (HULA HOOPING! TWO HOURS), but our server was sweet and did her best to be quick. The food was fabulous. Since we got the free Disney Dining Plan promotion, we were also entitled to dessert. They boxed up our caramel apple pies because we were too full and too tired to eat anything else.

Sunday

I checked the weather forecast for Orlando and it called for rain every single day of our trip. 100% chance.

So we bought, or rather invested in, some ponchos and boarded the bus for Magic Kingdom.

“We’re going to have fun, it doesn’t matter if it rains,” Tate said. This? Coming from Tate, Mr. Pessimistic? Proof of magical pixie dust?

We had breakfast reservations for Crystal Palace, a character meal with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. The food was all great, the kids LOVED their chocolate Mickey Mouse waffles that were basically brownies. Brownies for breakfast! It’s Disney World so it’s OKAY! Carson and Ella were excited to meet the characters and get their autograph books signed. They characters did a little Friendship Day dance that was a little lame, but it was sweet.

The first thing we’d planned to do right after breakfast was to get a stroller and get a “1st visit” badge, but it was raining SO HARD. Ella saw Cinderella’s castle and desperately wanted to go there, so we just bypassed the stroller and badges and headed through the nearly blinding rain straight for the castle.

But we were all HAPPY. The rain was annoying, yes, but we were standing right in front of Cinderella’s castle! And then there were all these great rides! The carousel, It’s a Small World, and the Peter Pan ride. I never want to forget standing in line, Tate’s hand in the small of my back, looking at each other and silently saying, “This is perfect, isn’t it?”

We loved how most of the lines and rides were all covered so we didn’t have to stand in the rain. As the day went on, the sun even came out a few times. The whole day was spent riding rides and our favorite was the Buzz Lightyear ride. We also stumbled upon a parade and got a front row view. It was just amazing, the float and characters were so much fun to watch.

After a mid afternoon rest back in our room, we went back to Magic Kingdom for the Electric parade (AWESOME) and fireworks show (Also, AWESOME. What we weren’t expecting was the movie they played on the facade of the castle. It brought tears to my eyes. The kids were really tired so we were holding them and somehow I ended up holding Carson. My arms and back were on fire, but during the show, he hugged me and gave me a kiss. Aw man, that right there was worth every penny spent on the vacation.

This was one of the very best days of my life.

Monday

Monday was Hollywood Studios day and the rain had miraculously stopped. As directed by Shelly, our fantastic travel agent, we got there before they opened and headed straight to the Toy Story ride. Tate didn’t really get that all those people around us, THOUSANDS of people, were all heading to the exact same place. He kept checking the map and saying, “yes, this is the right way.” I kept saying, “Yes, it is. I think ALL of these people are going to the same place.”

The Toy Story ride is part ride, part video game and was really fun. We waited about 45 minutes to ride it, which was our longest wait for a ride during the entire trip.

We also enjoyed eating at Pizza Planet, our dessert was a GIANT chocolate cupcake that was SO GOOD. The kids played arcade games for awhile, which wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend time at Disney World, but they were having fun and we didn’t really feel like it was worth telling them “no.”

Other things we liked: The Muppets 3D movie, the stunt show, and meeting Woody, Buzz, Lightning McQueen, and Mater. Don’t tell anyone, but I was as excited as the kids to meet them. Maybe more. I’ll never admit to that, though.

Hollywood Studios had a Pixar parade with lots of great characters. We were a little disappointed that Lightning and Mater weren’t in the parade, but it was still a really great parade.

That night we had another character dinner, this time with Cinderella, Prince Charming, and her evil stepmom and stepsisters, Lady Tremaine, Druzilla, and Anastacia. We got to go to the swanky Grande Floridian to 1900 Park Fare for the dinner. The stepsisters were hilarious! Cinderella and Prince Charming were sweet and gracious. Tate is not a fan of buffets, but we both thought the food was really tasty.

Tuesday

We got up early Tuesday to get to Animal Kingdom and go on the safari because Shelly said that morning was the best time to see the animals. And see animals we did! Giraffes crossing the road, rhinos, elephants, and a male lion, perched up on a hill. We were all in awe.

Lunch could have been a HUGE disaster, they forgot to give Ella her food, then Tate spilled a full Diet Coke all over the table, himself, and Ella. In the real world, this would have probably ruined the rest of the day, but in Disney World, we all just shrugged our shoulders, laughed, and wiped up the mess. Seriously, I only mention this because it was nearly as amazing at the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.

Poor Carson freaked out during the Bugs Life 3D movie, but the rest of us thought it was great. At the end, the seats felt like bugs were running underneath and behind you. I can see why Carson freaked out a little, but it was pretty funny.

After the parade, we rushed back to our hotel because we had dinner reservations at Downtown Disney at Fulton’s Crab House. Ella fell asleep on the bus, so Tate carried her what seemed like a 20 mile walk to the restaurant. Once we were seated, we learned that our Dining Plan couldn’t be used there. Again, this is something that normally would just turn a perfectly fun evening into something NOT fun, but instead we just headed over Raglan’s. It was an Irish pub that served Guinness, so really it was probably the perfect place for us. We sat outside and enjoyed our dinners.

After dinner, we planned to browse all the shops at Downtown Disney, but it was ridiculously crowded. After trying to look in a few stores, we decided to go back to the resort and watch the fireworks and the Electrical Water Parade from the dock at Wilderness Lodge. I don’t think I care to ever go back to Downtown Disney.

Wednesday

We were so excited for Wednesday and our visit to Epcot. While we were there, Epcot was hosting the International Food and Wine Festival and all during the week, Tate and I had been hoarding our dining plan snacks to redeem as we traveled through World Showcase. Oh you guys, the food was AMAZING. So were the beers, particularly those in the biergarten in Germany. Tate and I really, really enjoyed those.

There were a few rides that we rode, but we mostly hung out and walked around World Showcase. The kids seemed to have fun anyway, there was a mime in Italy that was really good, even for a mime. For dinner we ate in Germany at Biergarten restaurant. This was another buffet that was, OH MY GOODNESS, SO good. We really enjoyed the band and the kids and I even got out and danced. And they had more beer, very, very large beer, so it’s a good thing that we had a bus driver for the ride back.

(please pretend you don’t see the spot in between my boobs. Sweat? Dribbling beer? I don’t know. You just can’t take me ANYWHERE.)

So that was our trip to Disney World. It seemed like there was a surprise around every corner and yes, it was truly magical. We can’t wait to go back, even though I can’t imagine that another trip could ever be as amazing as this one. I want to thank Shelly for all of her help in planning our trip, she did such a great job guiding us in the right direction and gave really GREAT advice. Thank you, Shelly. I also want to thank all the people who offered advice and tips. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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