FACETIMING KITTENS

SUNDAY HAPPENINGS

Cousin Skype:

 Hot Dogs and Marshmallows for dinner:

 Bedtime toad catcher:

SKYPING, CRAFTING, AND TEAMWORK

 Painting and coloring while Skyping with Grambot and PawPaw

 Checking out the wood pile that daddy and Mr. Nate started today (they're cutting up the big oak that fell behind the chicken coop earlier this year to prep firewood for winter)

 They're only 6 and 7, but they've already figured out that you go farther in life when you work together. (Their other bow apparently suffered dry rot from being left in the playset too long, and rather than continue to take turns, as I originally had them do, they decided that it was more fun to play together. I love their spirit and am so thankful for their friendship!)

 (This one flew so far that it crossed the entirety of the front yard and went deep into the ravine, where they were told not to go - it's copperhead season - so mama had to retrieve it.)

Finishing out their morning with root beer and bowls of cold fruit. Then we ate Elsa and Anna eggs with biscuits for (a very late) lunch. Nothing like a day outside playing hard to get the good vibes flowing for everyone!

GRANDPARENTS' DAY

 On Grandparents' Day, the kids Skyped with Grambot and PawPaw, and FaceTimed with Gramma. Cora looks like she's singing here, but she's just gesturing grandly... The kids also made special pictures for their grandparents, so we need to get those in the mail ASAP...

BACK SO SOON?

Mr. Alex had a quick return to Vicksburg this month! Instead of dinner out this time, we opted for dinner in! BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, roasted red potatoes, fruit medley, salad, and Hawaiian rolls! And chips and dip... And cheesecake... And Christina's famous chocolate chip cookies... Yeah, we know how to eat...

 Cora and Lauren's silly faces crack me up!

 After dinner, we let the kids stay up WAY past their bedtime (on a school night!) in order to Skype with Manu and Leo, and it was adorable how happy they were to see each other. James and Manu especially were very focused on the computer screen and showing each other their MineCraft toys (James' introduction to MineCraft stuck, and Manu is as obsessed with the game as James is!) They really do miss each other, and they really do remember each other perfectly. Just like I am with MY best friends, I was happy to see them fall right into their usual banter as though no time had passed (even though they haven't seen each other, Skype or otherwise, in 5 months).

The only bad part of the night was how much James and Cora cried when Alex left. Cora clung to him for extra hugs while James begged him to bring Manu with him next time. Poor little kiddos, they miss their buddies! (And yes, I will call Alex, and Al for that matter, Cora's buddies, because she loves her friends' daddies very much. Always has.)

BIGGEST PUZZLE YET

The kids got a play set for Christmas! It was a combined gift from their Gramma, Grambot and Pawpaw, Great Grandma and Great Grandpa, Grand Aunt Margie and Grand Uncle Daryl, and their parents. We'd been interested in purchasing one since last year, but wanted to wait until Cora was old enough that we didn't have to worry about her hurting herself (well, worry less anyway, since she's such a daredevil that we'll always have to worry about her - case in point, she managed to scrape up her head during play set construction by playing on the slide before it was attached, just running back and forth on it and tripping off the end into the gravel - she has her mama's independence AND grace...). It took us a long time to decide on a set (brand, activities and accessories included, platform height, price range, etc.), and we finally settled on a Gorilla. We didn't keep it a secret. We asked the kids ahead of time if they wanted a playground in their backyard (YES!) and involved them in unloading and construction prep as soon as it arrived. Needless to say, they are extremely happy with their new toy and we foresee many, many afternoons and weekends spent hanging out in the backyard. Which will be awesome, since mama and daddy have a lot of backlogged yardwork that needs to get completed!

Unloading the boards (after "helping" us carry the giant boxes down to the carport from the top of the driveway - we drove them down in the back of the minivan) on Thursday.

Fire ring relocation #1 (moved prior to starting the fire, of course). And hot chocolate. (Temps were in the low 30's during day one of construction on Saturday.) We spent about an hour leveling ground, measuring, and deciding on placement of the play set.

You gotta start with the base...

Jay and I worked together for all 14 hours it took us to complete construction, but I'm the one that took the progress photos, so you won't see me in any.

The peanut gallery was super excited to see the sides go up!

Measuring angles... Jay had to cut the top of the ladder to make it lay flush against the fort, so just know that even all-inclusive sets with great instructions sometimes have small issues that need to be fixed as you go.

Ladder and platform complete!

Lunch break! Note that the fire ring has been moved again. It actually moved 3 times total because it just seemed too close to the bottom of the slide. And nobody wants kids to slide into a fire pit...

Getting close and letting the kids test out the swings (so we knew how high to hang them). Eventually we'll buy a truck load of gravel to recover this entire area, but on Sunday we bought just enough to cover the old fire pit (which had been in place for who knows how many years, since it came with the house).

Getting the slide and roof attached while the kids went in with Grambot to start dinner.

Daddy attaches the rock wall foot holds while Cora tries out the trapeze rings.

Helping daddy finish the rock wall after dinner.

Finishing touches (Captain's wheel, flags, and telescope, plus the stakes to secure the entire thing to the ground) were completed at 10:15pm last night. We figured that since the directions said it would take 8 hours to put it together, that it would actually take 16. We finished in around 12-13 hours, so we're happy. Biggest puzzle we've done yet, and we actually had a great time doing a project together!

And, of course, it was all worth it for the smiles on THEIR faces this morning!

  

WADDELL WEEKEND, PART ONE

In a somewhat last-minute decision (we decided on the drive home from Florida after Thanksgiving, after realizing that the kids had BOTH become good travelers and that Jay's stress level would be tapering off significantly post-graduation), we headed to Georgia this weekend to attend the annual Waddell Family Christmas. This year they stayed close to GG (living in a nursing home in Leesburg) and held the event at Lake Blackshear Resort, located within the Georgia Veteran's Memorial State Park. The accommodations were excellent and the view was beautiful. As usual, I took too many photos over the 2.5 days we were in Georgia, so I'll have to break this into separate posts...

James and Uncle Doug. As soon as James saw him, he asked him about riding in his Jeep and fishing in his pond!

Skylar loved our kids to pieces on this trip, and they loved her right back.

GG and Cora doing the Gator chomp.

Hanging out with Aunt Lisa!

GG's littlest great-grand got the perk of riding around on her wheelchair with her anytime she asked.

When dinner takes too long, mommy and daddy break out the iPhones...

More antics with GG. We sure loved seeing that big smile!

James had so much fun playing with his older cousins (he's the youngest boy). Pictured here with Carter and Tanner.

Taking a little quiet time in the conference room (where we hung out most of Saturday at the hotel) to feed her Josie Baby.

Driving trains and cars UNDER GG's wheelchair (you can see she encouraged them by lifting her legs - pretty sure she would have let these two do anything they wanted all weekend long if it was up to her!)

Checking out her gingerbread house

Coloring with cousin Kate

The annual puzzle extravaganza! (Tanner, Carter, and I organized all the green tree pieces, then escaped the madness to go play with bigger toys.)

Tanks at the memorial park...

...and airplanes!

Group photo! Skylar, Julia, Wyatt, Jay, Cora, Marvin, Carter, and James

Playing in the sand/dirt under the tank

When you have toddlers, you can hunt down a playground anywhere!

(Julia helping Cora do the monkey bars)

Big girl showing off for her cousins

Wyatt and Carter racing

He found more sand (pretty sure we're going to have to break down and buy some sand to put under his new play set at home)...

Marvin and Carter

Lunch in the room before a late nap