Yum-Yum

The boys and I travelled to Greensboro last week to see family. As always it was a fun trip full of visiting but never enough time to make all the rounds!

Mimi and Poppy went all out for the boys this Easter. We had a an indoor egg hunt, the Mimi bunny cake and an Easter egg dye party!

Jack and Finley had their first Paas experience. I'm not sure how many changes could occur in the egg dying industry, but Paas has made it a little easier since 1985. Our kit came with cups to put them in so you don't have to wash out any of your own. Thank you, Paas. Still the same ol' vinegary nastiness that stung our noses back when I was a kid. But we loved it!!!! The eggs were beautiful once they were completed.


One afternoon we went to Yum Yum, and, ahem, it was yum yum! The boys inhaled their hotdogs and ice cream. Jack's favorite flavor was lemon, just like his Uncle Matt. Nice, too, that we made out like bandits on a $8 lunch for the 3 of us. We love you, Yum Yum!

Perhaps the biggest treat of all was that Gammy and Pa went with us. We enjoyed their company so much, and I'm pretty sure they have a good time with us, too. It goes without saying that I didn't take enough pictures, but we were too busy having fun and soakin' in some family time.

They have that crazed ice cream look in their eyes after a few bites.


Thanks, family, for hosting us time and time again. See you in May!

Playing Tourist

Two Sundays ago John and I decided that it was time to take a family bike ride through Sea Pines. So we did just that.

Finn kept the anxious bike riders entertained while waiting in line for our bikes to be distributed. Everyone was complimenting him on his studly attire. No, we don't normally let this dirt magnet go around in white polos and seer sucker pants. We had just come from church.

The boys enjoyed one another's company with surprisingly little arguing or "He touched me!" comments.

And here's one for the grandparents. Look how close we let your grandbabies get to an alligator!!!:) AHHHH!!! (not close at all) We took this opportunity to teach Jack about alligators, told him all about their big teeth without getting too graphic. There's an alligator that frequents the pond in our back yard, so he needs to know these things. And the gator in our pond is not nearly this big. Not that it really matters when you're 3 feet tall. We were satisfied that he got the message when we asked him what an alligator would do if he ever tried to pet him. "He will bite my face off." We never said that, or anything close to that, but he read between the lines I suppose. Good thing.


John and I enjoyed the view of the beautiful trees and flowers. The boys enjoyed the view of their father's rear end.


I love this picture of Jack with his Daddy. Jack loves him so much and I thought this pictured captured their mutual affection for one another. We took the bikes to South Beach and had lunch at The Wreck of the Salty Dog. The hushpuppies were YUMMY, but better than that, no wait! Everyone was camped out at The Salty Dog (as usual), so we walked a little further to this find.

After lunch we biked to Harbor Town. The tourists were out in full force, which was fun. It was like a little reminder that summer is coming. And a little reminder that we live in a really cool place. Sometimes you forget that when you get into your normal routine. So, here's to you, tourists! Keep comin', and buy some real estate while you're at it! :)

The boys got ice cream and devoured it. They stood on the stage where Greg Russell normally performs and sang their own songs. I thought they were better singers, but I'm a little biased.

Sharing is caring!


If you ever come to HH, you need to either bring your bike or rent one while you're here and give it a spin through Sea Pines. We had the best time, and we'll surely go with you!

Egg Pick Up

Our church hosted the 3rd annual Lowcountry's Largest Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday before Easter. There were thousands of people, 47,500 eggs and 1 football field. So it wasn't much of a 'hunt' per se, but more of a clean up. Even Finn who moved at a turtle's pace was able to snag a few.

Jack made out like a bandit. He showed us his game face before the madness began.

Finn wasn't sure what to think about any of it. But he looked cute.

A rare shot of the 4 of us! Not a good one, but we're all in it.

Vested

A friend of ours clued us in on a local Awanas group that meets on Wednesday nights. Even though we knew Jack would be starting late in the year, we decided to let him go anyway. And he LOVED it. From the first meeting, he had his eye on the prize: THE VEST.



Jack memorized the verses and references required to earn the vest, and we were so excited to see his joy when we picked him up on 'vest week'. We told him he could have his pick for dinner that night. Here's our vested boy eating his celebratory grilled cheese. Way to go, Jack!



Jack's verses:
"All have sinned" -Romans 3:23
"While we were sinners Jesus Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8
"God loved us and sent His Son." -1 John 4:10

Henry the Turtle

 Remember the 1950’s Disney film Old Yeller?  Setting: 1860’s Texas farm country. Storyline: Dog finds boy.  Boy exhibits coming of age angst, but with time ‘boy finds dog’.  Dog saves boy from wolf.  Dog subsequently contracts ‘hydrophobie’ (which one would assume is a fear of water… but is apparently some form Disney rabies on steroids).  Boy’s mother grabs gun to ‘put Yeller down’ but Boy seeks closure and manhood by shooting Man’s Best Friend himself.  (All things considered a healthy introduction to adulthood for the young lad.) 

 

Which brings us to Henry the Turtle…  Henry is/was a turtle roughly the size of a half-dollar that Jack and Erin discovered underneath the car last night.  Jack promptly named him Henry (with a pronunciation that resembles the Herman's Hermits’ version in Henry VIII: “Hen – Ery”) and started talking to him in a voice not unlike that of Bill Murray’s in Caddyshack.  Erin and I heard a lot of “Aw, ith a cute wittle turtle” and “Aw, Henry’s my favowit… my best friend.” 

 

Naturally, we did what any overindulgent parents would do – we went to Pet Co to buy Henry a home.  Norman, the resident reptilian expert, helped us sort through our options with young Henry.  Norman noted that Henry is a slider something or other and requires a special (and by special I mean expensive) lighting system in his rather elaborate (also expensive) aquarium.  Without the aforementioned environment Henry would develop a "devastating" condition known as softshell, and he would go to turtle heaven. 

 

It became very clear to Erin and me that Henry would miss the wild and his mommy terribly; and we must ‘think green’ and release him to his natural habitat to find his turtle family.  We bought a fish and tank to take the edge off the upcoming ‘old yeller moment’ (sans firearms), but Jack didn’t seem overly interested in anything but Henry the Turtle.

 

The release was largely anticlimactic – and as such it was really funny.  We have a ravine (by Lowcountry standards – 5 ft elevation change) across the street from our house where there’s a tidal creek with brackish water.  We stood over the edge and were moments into our heartfelt good-buys when Jack underhand launches Henry into the woods below. 

 

At this point I just want to know where he saw Old Yeller. Old Yeller.   

 

Fancy Feet Finley

Here's Finn's latest move.  

As promised....

This video is the one we spoke of at the end of the previous posting.  

Really Long Post

This is a posting of epic proportions. Just giving that to you up front. Considering this blog is written with the grandparents and other family members in mind, we'll understand if the rest of you just skip the headings and get to the good stuff. Hooray for pictures AND video in this posting!

We'll start in Atlanta. Two weekends ago we headed north for a chance of scenery. Jordan and Trevor were coming to town so we couldn't pass up a chance to see them! The 4 of us, 2 of them and Gigi and Poppy Johnny all packed it into the condo (or "Congo" as Jack referred to it) for one rainy, fun weekend. We watched lots of basketball and had lots of laughs with the boys. And no, even though the ACC tournament was in town, we didn't make it to any of the games. Turns out we didn't miss much anyway.

On Friday John and I took the boys to ImagineIt, Atlanta's children's museum. Jack had the most fun with this thing. He could use a pulley system to pick up balls and then release them into a bin. Or dump them on passerby.

Poppy Johnny snuck in some snuggles with Finn. I think everyone had fun being with the boys from start to finish for a few days. (Right, crew?)

On Saturday we ventured to the Georgia Aquarium. If you've never been, you have to make a trip. This place is incredible. Jack and Finn both enjoyed it, and the adults all slept better that night knowing how to distinguish a male beluga whale from a female beluga whale. (The males have curved dorsal fins for all you geeks out there.)

Finn perfected his family identification over the weekend. He can clearly say both of their names now, which is precious.

Here's the Ussery/Smith gang sans Johnny in the congo.

One more aquarium pic. Little rubberneckers. At one point Jack asked if the sharks were going to eat him.

It was sad to leave, as it is everytime we're leaving fun and family behind. But it doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing, the boys never cease to crack us up. This is Finn's latest funny face. He reminds me of one of those Christmas caroler decorations with the painted faces you see during the holidays.

This past Saturday was perhaps the busiest I've ever had as a mama. It began with soccer at 8:45 on the island. If you're not from around here you have to understand that going to the island for anything is compared to driving to Canada. At least we talk about it like it's the same. But really it's only about a 5 minute drive to get to the bridge and then only 10 more minutes to get to the soccer fields. But our kids sleep til around 8, which poses some problems with getting dressed, fed and out the door in 30 minutes. But we did it! Jack had his first soccer "game" (which was more of a field full of children with some soccer balls lying around.) HILARIOUS! Here's a cute picture of Finn who, as usual, wanted part of the action.

And here is the future Beckham. Jack was really into dribbling and scoring. He was not into the idea of sharing his ball with anyone, which is good in theory, but not when you're unwilling to earn the ball and instead, you want everyone to have their own ball. He insisted on wearing his shin guards even though they did not need them.

It really doesn't get much better than this for us. Our son, playing a sport, wearing his UNC gear and getting excited about all of it. John and I kept saying "I can't believe we have a child old enough to take to his soccer practice." It was a fun day for us. A first sports day of thousands I hope.

After soccer we went to our first birthday party of the day. Our next door neighbor turned 4 and he had the cutest pirate party ever. My pictures did not turn out so well, but both boys had a blast. Then we attended a 2nd birthday party at 3pm. Finn only napped 45 minutes on the way to the 2nd party. No nap for Jack. You can understand why I felt like the bus driver from the movie Speed, the movie where there was a bomb under the city bus, remember? At any moment, our little happy Saturday full of soccer, sugar and ice cream could blow up into a nasty preschool ball of fury.

The 2nd party of the day was for Wyatt, one of Jack's buddies. He had a great party, too! It was super hero themed. Wyatt was kind enough to let Jack borrow his Batman costume. And boy, did he work it! Here he is peering at me from his bat cave...er, bounce house.

And here...is BATMAN!!!! Jack felt so awesome in this costume. His chest was literally puffed out and he kept patting his chest like this. He probably thought it was his own party.

Jack was stoked to see Mr. Incredible in attendance. They quickly kicked it into Make Believe high gear. There were several attempts to "rescue" the girls from the bounce house and Jack would only refer to this boy as Mr. Incredible despite knowing his real name. Later that night, Jack informed me that "all of my things are amazing." I asked him where he learned that word. Mr. Incredible of course!

The Bat Mobile!

After the birthday parties ended, we headed to church on Saturday night and then to dinner with friends. We crashed fast and hard when we got home, but thankfully everyone slept in until 9 on Sunday!!! Hallelujah!

John was off on Sunday, so we had the rare opportunity of a full family day. John decided we should go to Hunting Island, which was a great plan. It was beautiful! Finn had fun digging in the sand...

Jack had fun attempting to scoop up water into his bucket (although this picture would not lead you to believe that he was having fun).

We found another similarity between our sons. They are both into bird chasing. Just after this picture Finn took off like a mad man towards these birds. We asked Jack what he would do if he caught one. "I'd just pet him."

Someone is turning into a Daddy's boy I believe...

Jack found this driftwood, put it to his head and said, "Look, I'm Rudolph!"

And not to be outdone....

Last but not least, the videos! We went into Beaufort for lunch after leaving Hunting Island. There was a small grassy area where some children were playing. Jack decided he wanted to join them. He ran straight up to them and thought that introductions were not as needed as showing them how quickly you can run in circles. It must have won their attention (or sympathy) because he ended up taking these children to another area of the yard to look at boats together. We were laughing to see how hysterical our oldest boy is, and how he's not lacking in personality one bit. Enjoy!

Because

It’s the answer that your average 8 year old boy will give in response to any number of questions. “Jimmy. Why did you cut your sisters hair and super glue it to the cat?” or “Kenneth. Why did you turn your underwear into a headband, paint your face blue, and force your brother to eat a worm?” Standard 8 year old answer: “I don’t know. BECAUSE.”

The thing is… it’s true. He probably doesn’t have a reason at all. It was just something interesting to do. Sadly, 21 years later our reasons (or lack thereof) haven’t changed much. We try to provide context for our odd decisions, and build value in their social or economic benefit(s)… but more often than we’d like to admit, it’s “just because.” So rather than conjure up some deep meaning for our weekend trip to Cumberland Island in South Georgia, I’ll just shoot straight. During our 3 days and 2 nights on the island we did very little that will provide any social or economic benefit to society at large or our families. We went, “just because” and it was awesome! Huge thanks to Erin, Lauren, and Laura Leigh for being so cool with our wholly unproductive man-weekend. It meant/means a lot to us.

Some photos.
Thank God the anchor held at night.

It looks like a camper’s paradise, until the rabid raccoons stalk you and your food. Seriously. Seth said it well when he noted that those things are like the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park (part 1), communicating and coordinating their attack.

Seth & Jason follow directions. Not even sure where to start with this one…


Wild Horses: As a side note, it’s a super awkward experience to be taking a midnight leak in 30 degree weather when your headlamp picks up a 1200 pound quadruped staring at you from 15 ft away. I definitely would have peed my pants if I hadn’t already been... well, you know.


In short, it was a great weekend of laughing, relaxing, fishing, exploring, and just being guys. No good reason. Just because.

The Ussereeds

If it were appropriate, or normal, for everyday families like ours to have blended names like celebrity couples do, we would have been the Ussereeds last Tuesday! The Reeds had us and the Weavers over for a fun family night. Jack was so excited about going to Shelby's house that he couldn't fall asleep for his nap. Or maybe that's my wishful thinking....I think he's on the verge of dropping his nap, which is so frightening.

Here's the little gang at the kid table eating their kid food (which looked good to me!). Notice the Reed children actually eating their food. We had to pull every trick out of the Eating Coercion Bag that night..."Firemen eat peas!" "You can be big like Daddy if you eat." "No playing until you eat your hotdog." Seriously, can you imagine someone having to strong arm you to eat a hotdog? Or take a nap?


Jack and Shelby posed for a moment. They enjoy hugging one another.

Finn stuck his finger in a light socket while we were there. It was so scary! Just kidding....Jack and Finn got their hair cut earlier that day. Their toddler stylist knows how to get a laugh out of everyone. After the cut she gives them "crazy hair", which means a faux hawk for Jack and really messy hair for Finn. They howl at themselves. Jack's faux hawk fell, but Finn's crazy hair was still rockin' by dinnertime.

I think JP liked his mac n' cheese. Check out this messy eater pic. And check out those curls! What a handsome little man. Thanks, Reed fam, for a fun evening!!!

Here's our pooch. Yes, Scout is still alive. He's still the only child that's allowed to sleep in our bed. This picture was taken last Thursday after our fetching time. I wish I could say he could catch a frisbee like the pugs next door can, but alas, he cannot. He's just content, I suppose, on being beautiful. Apparently our ex-next door neighbor who's looking to rent out the house he used to live in is not so in love with our precious Scout. After a rather hilarious encounter with this man, a retiree, he informed me that Scout leaves "gifts" in his yard on a frequent basis. I politely told him that no, Scout is not allowed in his yard and that on the very infrequent occasion that he does deliver a "gift", that we quickly transport it to another location. This did not satisfy our neighbor. He then compared the size of the gifts left to the size of the dogs that live nearby and said he KNEW it was Scout. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry that this is what I have to look forward to when I have more time on my hands. Maybe I, too, can become a turd expert. Er..."gift" expert.

The boys are showing their true Ussery blood. Here they've created their own circuit training exercise. A little push ups, a little sit ups, some running in circles and finish it off with some bed jumping. They love this Iron Gym thing. It hangs in the doorway and they can do pull ups on it. I'm trying to increase Finn's time on the Flexed Arm Hang, but we're only at about 3 seconds. That would not win him the Presidential Fitness Award. Do any of you NC public schoolers know what I'm talking about? A little V Sit anyone?

Yesterday I got the trains out. This can mean one of two things: 1. I really want to play constructively with the boys and have fun with them or 2. I need them distracted from whatever is taking place in the house at that moment. Yesterday was a reason #2 day. I was distracting them from the heating repair man who was there for the 4th time in 6 weeks. We woke up yesterday to our home being a frigid 59 degrees. Poor Finn was moaning in his crib when he woke up. But, Jeremiah (yes, we're on a first name basis now) fixed the heater, and we were warm as toast last night.


Stay tuned for John's blog about his recent camping trip to Cumberland Island....