Camp fires and Jonquils

This past weekend marked the annual Smyrna Jonquil Festival. I anxiously wanted the kids to see the puppet show. They became enamored with the greyhound dogs, oh, and don't forget the wolf-mix dog! That was Olivia's favorite. If we ever thought about having a dog, this weekend almost put me over the edge. I would want a Dauchsund (weenie dog) because I grew up having two of them - Brandy and Baby. I feel in love with another one this past winter - it was a grey color and absolutely beautiful. Small dog= small poop and easier to transport. The only thing holding us back.....our babysitter. Mimi and Papa, what do you say?!

The puppet show was creepy/cool and the kids thought it was great. Zach ate a SpongeBob ice cream. He managed to get red dye all along his arm, which ran into a wound and burned for several hours. How do I know this? He screamed for that long. Yes, it was a fun afternoon.

Later that night, we headed over to the Ulitch's for a camp fire. They have a huge back yard, a dog, a kid jeep, a fire pit, a rock (no sand) box and a creek in the back. We were there roasting chicken wings, hot dogs and marshmallows until 10:30 pm. The kids were dirty, exhausted and happy as ever. Now that is Springtime in Smyrna!

Art Gallery

I now have my own personal art gallery! I have decided to share with you online. Well, I'm afraid these wonderful works of art may despair one day, so it's nice to know they are recorded somewhere. Olivia has a somewhat new affinity to art. She's taking a new art class at school and seems to love it. For a 5 year-old, I am impressed. Zach started the class this week as well. If you cannot tell, I will add a few notes here.

All of the images, except for the last, are Olivia's. The last is a Lemonade Stand created by Zach, the newly appointed 4 year old. If given the opportunity to draw whatever comes to mind..... he draws a race track. He builds race tracks, draws them, races them, and it going to see a historic race with Dave this coming weekend. Oh boy, more ideas for him!

Quite honestly, Olivia is putting me to shame. I think we would be neck and neck if we were to compare our pictures and she would win on the cuteness factor. Needless to say, mommy is not lacking entirely in the art factor. I took my first out of six photography classes yesterday. As you all know, I love to take photographs. It's my way of remembering my world. I do forget, but when I look back on the photos, it brings back all the wonderful memories of friends, family and vacations. So, look forward to more photos from me. We have homework assignments - beware :-).

Earth Day and Fieldtrips

Our preschool recently went to the Fernbank Planetarium for a fieldtrip. The program was the same as when I was in school ages and ages ago, but it was still neat for the kids to see the stars and constellations. Zach was impressed with the indoor 'stars and planets' portion of the fieldtrip; Olivia was crazy over the living portion of the Planetarium - with the live chickens and snakes. What a surprise...

We also were able to see Disney's Earth Day movie on opening day. Both kids were fully engaged in the movie and are still talking about it. The 'scary' Circle of Life scenes did not see to bother either child.

Porsche had a big Earth Day (week) as well. Employee's children were encouraged to participate in an Art Exhibit to honor Earth Day. Olivia immediately had ideas and began working on her artwork. Zach had ideas as well (drawing planets), but Dave imposed his view on things and kept expressing ideas of incorporating cars into the theme of "The Ultimate Green Earth". Zach ended up tracing a 911 and coloring it green. Oh Dave.... Zach was still very excited about his project, so I guess that is what matters. Porsche held a ceremony on Friday with most of the employees attending. I took the kids to the playground and then over to the Porsche headquarters. Only three kids were present, the ones I brought, including my two and Seth Roach. I thought it was a great idea. They had the kids come to the stage, explain their artwork and gave them a nice parting gift. Olivia buried her head in my arm pit, but hey, at least I got her onstage. Maybe, just maybe, one day she will come out of her shell.... After we left, she was very talkative, so I know she enjoyed going to Dad's office and she loved her Porsche bear.

Just like Us

Zach came to me the other day with a tinker toy model. He loves his tinker toys and I love the fact that he uses his imagination and engineering skills. Zach was an early adapter to this skill and he keeps coming up with new ways to use them. One of his favorites, at the moment, is to use the long sticks to make a race track. Each day, he creates a new race track; one that is oval, one that has straight-a-ways, one with a long straight-a-way and a few curves. You name it, he has built it. I also have the pleasure of watching the cars race and one, inevitably, crashes into the wall and breaks the track. And it all begins again. The model he created recently was an airplane. Granted, he just completed a flight with his dad. Dave is also talking about flying quite a bit because he is working on his pilot's license. The airplane was fine, but it was funny that he thought to put wheels on the glider! He came to me to discuss the reason planes have wheels and how they 'retract' when airplanes are in the air, but they are engaged for landing. Ah ha - thanks for that explanation, you little 4-year old.

I have the pleasure of experiencing the way both kids minds work and as you know, all kids are different.... Zach does amaze me with his logic, but then I sit back and see a replica of Dave.

When it comes to Olivia, we all know she adores animals - ALL animals. She has this animal whisperer aura to her somedays. We were recently at a birthday party at GB's Stables. Olivia left the crowd waiting to ride in a fenced in area. She decided to befriend a horse in another field and feed him stalks of long grass. It was a quiet understanding Olivia and the horse had between themselves. A friend asked me if I had much experience with horses. At first, I replied no, but after thinking a bit more, I realized that I do have lots of experience with horses and many other animals.

Growing up in Villa Rica, most of my friends either lived on a farm or had access to horses. Getting back to my rural roots, Jane lived on a hog farm. Yes, it smelled, but we didn't mind becuase we had full range of the pastures (with cows and horses) to ride four-wheelers and ride the horses as well. When the chicken trucks came in, we helped release the baby chicks. They travel without any food in their bellies and are first fed upon release into the chicken houses (it helps with travel injuries). Sylvia's dad traded in cattle. They had lots of pasture space, so we rode horses quite frequently at her house. Ah, those afternoons of riding.... My other friend, Chad, also had horses and during high school, we would head over in the afternoons and ride until sunset, wash the horses and put them away for the night. How easily I forget the good old days. So, going back to the question....do I have experience with horses.... yes, a lot and I really miss it.

Looking at Olivia, I guess it was hard to see a bit of me in her. Of course she loves animals and so does her mommy (I just let the City get in the way). Maybe this is why I love going to Lake Martin so much. I truly enjoying digging in the dirt (i.e. landscaping), I do not squirm when I see a bug, spider, dirt dauber, bee or the like. Now snakes....I do have a bit of a problem with them, but guess what? I still swim in the lake. We have to share the space - can't we all get along? I've been known to leave huge spider webs up at the lake house so we can watch the spiders spin in the morning light and watch them grow throughout the summer. They watch us, keep the other bugs at bay and we enjoy a beautiful show. Charlotte's Web, anyone?!

Let Them Eat Cake

I truly enjoy vacations, breaks from school or any break from the normal routine. My kids picked up on this 'Spring Break' thing rather quickly and we enjoyed every minute of it. Dave had two long weekends with us at the lake house and we finally launched the boat. Actually the water level at Lake Martin, which is discussed online via the Lake Martin Forum ad nauseum, is at full pool almost a month and a half earlier than normal. We had lots and lots of water, which makes for less beaches to explore. No worries, we had so many other things to keep us happy. Our friends, Liz, Clare and Danny spent the first weekend with us. Fun, laughter, peace and quiet - does that sum it up?

During the week, O, Z and I drove to Birmingham to visit McCray's Science Musuem. Holy cow! We were blown away that Birmingham has been hiding this treasure. Well, maybe they are not hiding; maybe we just haven't looked. Thanks to Teri A. for alerting me of this wonderful science museum. To make things even better, it was FREE. With our Fernbank Science membership, we used their reciprocity and spent a free afternoon exploring and learning. Well, it wasn't quite a free afternoon. Teri also told me about a quaint little bakery in Mountain Brook Village in Birmingham called Olexa's. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I did not get to eat the cake (why can't they make a gluten free one?), but Zach seemed to love it. I was told that people bring their little ones for their 1st birthday to introduce them to the famous cake and the babies eat the entire piece - it's huge! I loved the lunch, so I was a happy camper. Full belly, buttercream icing, and vacation. Let them eat cake...in a good way! That was the philosophy this past week. I'm sure you'll hear the stories from my kids in the next couple of weeks regarding the science museum and the zoo. Olivia and Zach were impressed.

After the long drive to Birmingham, we took Wednesday off from driving. We visited the Montgomery zoo Thursday. Again, we are impressed with this zoo. Camel rides, cheetahs (Olivia's favorite) and many new springtime babies abound. Spring is the absolute perfect time to visit a zoo. We closed the zoo down at 5 pm, and then drove back 2 1/2 hours to pick Dave up from the Atlanta airport. He was at the NY Autoshow for a portion of the week, so he missed all the exciting musuems and zoos. The kids did not let him get a word in during the ride back to the lake.

It is funny how you can piddle around all day at the lake house. That is exactly what we did - piddle, play, landscaped a bit more. Don't get me started on the landscaping. Dave and I (and my brother) have worked quite a bit on this landscaping/patio project since Thanksgiving. We were finished - for less than 5 hours, when a huge hail storm hit us, washed out expensive rubber mulch and left me defeated. Seriously, 5 hours....Couldn't we enjoy it for at least a day? Oh well, some people in the area had holes ripped in their boat seats, cars damaged and house windows broken out. We only had a portion of our mulch washed into the lake. It was repaired and we had smores last night to make thing all better. Melted chocolate and marshmallows always make things better. The wild azaleas were blooming for another lovely touch. The only thing that doesn't make things better....a 3 foot water mocassin snake!! Yikes. We saw one as we were boating. I'll stay far away from him. It's nice to be home again, but we enjoyed every minute of our spring break.