Memorial Day Weekend

Last Sunday for Memorial Day Weekend I had all of us dress up in red, white and blue. We rarely are dressed to go together, so I tried to get a family shot. This is the best out of the TWO we got. And of course what kind of a day would it be if I didn't get resistance from somebody? Look the other two are trying to get him to smile.

So I finally get the smile and he is not looking.

Oh well!

Then Monday Greg had off work. I can tell you without even asking him that Greg doesn't like days off. He will be OK when we go on vacation, but on any other day it makes him very tense! (Even on vacation I'm sure he will call to make sure everything is OK, check his voice mail and possibly even his email IF someone hints at needing his help.)

Anyway, back to Monday. Greg had plans to make a movie of the kids, work on his writing stuff and I don't know what else. I had plans to have a picnic. The kids fiddled around and Greg decided to do a cooking show with Mason around 12:00ish aka lunchtime. But OK I can go with the flow. I get our lunches packed, we wait for the brownies to finish, and off we go to some unknown place to have a picnic. I picked a place close by, which was fairly packed. No picnic tables were left. That doesn't stop me though, I'm determined to have this BEAUTIFUL picnic. I put blankets down on the ground. I pull out our lunches. I finish my lunch and am enjoying the beautiful weather, and snapping pictures of my family. Then it started to rain. OH it's just a little rain. I could sit there, because DAGGUM it this is our Memorial Day Picnic and I am Happy! But Greg grabs everything and we are in the car before I know it. We went back home and finished our lunch. Greg was tense to say the least and so I told Greg in probably not so nice of tone to go to work. (probably more like get out of here.)

***Hey I never said that I was a saint!*****

So the rain stopped and I got the kids in the car and off to the YMCA to swim. WhooooHoooo we are excited! We get there and it is closed. UGH! So I promise the kids I will take them Tuesday and I take them to a nearby playground. Mason fell off the play dinosaur and hurt his back, and Ashley stubbed her toe and Aussie hit his head. So I declare it movie night. Off to Blockbuster to rent a movie. I thought we all agreed on Teen Titans in Tokyo. We go in and I get it and then one says, I didn't agree to that. Let's see one we haven't seen yet. OK- 3 movies later, one for each and a handful of movies on sale for half price (for our trip to Florida) and we are on our way home. They ended up watching 2 Pokemon movies. They begged for that second movie. I gave in knowing that it is summer and they don't have school the next day and I let them START the second movie around 9:30.

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But HEY it's Memorial Day weekend and we certainly had a memorial'able' day!

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Thank you to all of you who serve or have served our country! Thank you families for standing by and being split up for long periods of time so your spouse/father/mother can be serving our country. May God bless all of you and your families!

Lost Tooth

My baby lost his first tooth this morning. He pulled it right out himself. Of course it was hanging there for days and he wouldn't let anyone touch it. Now I know some of you are saying wait a minute, I thought he already lost 2. Well technically, they were pulled by the dentist and were never loose. When this one got loose on its own we were very excited! We didn't know if it would ever happen.

Ticks

I'm sure to those in the south, when you hear the word tick, you probably think yes those are anoying little things.

But to someone from the north.... THIS IS A BIG DEAL!

Aussie had a tick on the top of his head. Greg got that one. I had a small one on my tummy. Greg got that one leaving the head for me to get out. (Thanks honey for sharing that responsibility with me.)

And the next day Ashley had one on her hip. She flipped out. The legs were moving. She was saying call Daddy call Daddy.

But Dad was at work so Mommy had to do her best. I grabbed the tweasers and went to work. When it didn't come off in 2 seconds, Ashley was panicking asking for me to call Dad to come home.

Just be still, Daddy said this could take from 3-5 minutes.

I GOT IT! And I got the head!

She broke down and cried even harder after I got it off.

They are horrible little creatures!

End of the School Year Celebration

Oh wow I'm behind yet again! And it seems the only time I can write is late late at night.

Last Friday, we went to a friend's house to have an end of the "school" year celebration. They have a lovely house with a huge yard that is surrounded by woods. The first thing my kids saw were the precious tiny kittens.
This little kitten had the sweetest mew. I think if my husband didn't have his head on his shoulders then we would have convinced him we needed to take one home.


My kids heard the others talking about the zipline and off they went into the woods.

Ashley had no fear! I on the otherhand was freaking out watching my baby jump. She wanted to go backwards, but I told her I was just not ready for that. Mason is afraid of heights so he would have nothing to do with it. I thought Aussie would do it, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it either.

I tried to go around and get down to where Ashley would end and if not to "save her" atleast get some good pictures. But as I was walking around I saw a huge what looked like an ant pile except it wasn't ants coming out of it. It was spiders. I'm a WIMP! I admit it. I went back to the starting point where some boys were talking about a tick they just saw. UUUUUUGH! And then a girl spoke up and said casually, Yah-we pulled off 5 ticks yesterday from my sister.

OK OK OK OK-- KIDS COME ON! NOW!

I said we had to go back and get bug spray on.
And on our way back we ran into this: It was small-but not something I was very happy about. We managed to get around it and got back to the house. In which I immediately called my husband and asked him to get off work now and come play with the kids, because I am NOT going back into those woods. Thankfully, he has a job in which he can do stuff like that as long as he makes up his time.

I told the other parents of the snake that I found. They said if it is a solid black or a solid green then it is fine. UMmmmmmm.....here look I took a picture of it. EEEEEk! That is not a solid color.

Before I go on with the rest of the day, let me say that I stayed up to weee hours of the night to research and find out just what kind of snake this was. If I would just look at the patterns, I would have said this was a rattlesnake. But I did my research. I enlarged the head. Apparantly, if the snake has slither eyes then it is poisonous, but if it has round eyes like this one then it is not. What I believe this to be is a gray ratsnake. To tell you the truth it doesn't make me feel any better.

So I told the kids they had to wait for Dad before going back into the woods. Which really wasn't a problem there was lots of fun things to do.

Mason asked a boy if he could try the scooter. I was close enough to hear the conversation. Mason just wanted a turn and the boy wasn't to willing to let Mason try.

"It isn't fair"

I just asked the boy if when he was finished if my son could try it.

It's amazing how other children act toward adults so much nicer than when asked from another child.

"SURE" and he immediately got off.

OK- I didn't mean for him to get off at that moment but whatever.

Mason tried it for a little tiny bit, saw what it was like and gave it back to the kid.

I thought this tree stump was really cool! They had hollowed it out. I didn't go in it, but the boys said that there was a dog bed in it. They had put a board on top and a slide down the other side. That must have been SOME tree! I wonder what happened to it.

Then Daddy came to the rescue!

I left to go scrapbooking and gave instructions to take pictures. He did good.
Ashley went back on the zipline.

Here's a close up.

And it appears Daddy let her go backwards.

Then they had a camp fire.
And they toasted marshmallows (or burned them).

And then made YUMMY Smores! In which the boys took one bite and then gave them to Dad.

First Adventures

Today the kids woke up writing and drawing story books. They were opening a library in our house. They have been creating ALL DAY and have LOTS and LOTS of books. So I decided to write a book too, to put into their library. Enjoy! (Sorry some of the pencil lines didn't scan very well.)

Sprinklers!

We had a really great day yesterday!!! And we even did school. We are reading the book Detectives in Togas and the kids and I are enjoying it.

After reading and doing our Math and Language, we headed outside to play in the sprinkler.

Mason was more interested in shooting everyone with the water gun instead of getting wet himself.

And here is Ashley and Aussie saying you can't get us.



DON'T YOU DARE!!! I HAVE A CAMERA IN MY HANDS!

They all wanted to get me!

I told Mason if he got me he was asking for trouble. He shot me then ran inside the house. A few minutes later he came out saying SORRY!

Too late! I picked him up and ran through the cold sprinklers. I used him as my shield, so mainly he got wet.

Aussie asked me to play with him. I said I am playing. I'm playing with my camera.

He said if I would play with him, he would let me take his picture.

Everything was great until after their showers and I saw just how bad Mason got sunburned. I felt so bad! I thought about bug spray, but I didn't think so much about putting on sunblock. Poor fella! He seems to be just fine this morning though.

And now...I got to get ready to take these kids to music class.

Strawberry Pie

So what do you do with a bunch of strawberries?

Why you get Chef Mason to make a strawberry pie.

Ashley had to help out a little bit, even though she wasn't interested at all earlier on in the process.

TA DA!!!!

Then of course you always need to have a little fun!

You want some?

(I hate that these pictures are grainy! My batteries were dying on me.)

Playing outside

Sunday morning- Can't you hear the conversation in the next 3 pictures?

Mom: Aussie please smile.

Mason: Aussie, come on and smile. Let's get this over with.

For lunch we had something yummy, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Anyway, it had these really cool noodles with it. Look how long they are.

Sunday afternoon was a lovely day to go outside and play.

Aussie looked so cute and I asked him if I could take his picture. He let me take several. But he made sure to say, "I can't believe I'm letting you take my picture."

I love this picture, because it is a true smile. This picture also reminds me of his character on Build-a-bear workshop. The characters can buy a backpack and carry their animals around on their backs.

This is Hello Bunny.

Like I said- I took lots of pictures of Aussie because...Hey I had permission...this doesn't come along very often.

I know this Summer we will need to take the training wheels off.

But Ashley said she would ride her tricycle if we did that to her bike.

OH how I love his brown eyes!

Mason asked Greg to play baseball with him. He is doing pretty well.

Ashley wanted to play too. But she hit Mason in the head with the bat. Thank goodness it was plastic.

But Daddy sent her inside until it was her turn.

So when she came out she didn't want to play b/c Daddy had been upset with her.

But we found a way to cheer her up.

Chinese performance

Saturday was Aussie's Chinese performance. He is so proud of the little costume I made him. I guess if he realized it was a silky red woman's night robe that I got at Goodwill, he wouldn't be too thrilled.

I did however adorn it with some Chinese accents. I did make sure that the accents were Chinese and not Japanese or Korean. Remember that cool shirt I made Aussie? Turns out it is Korean writing and he will have nothing to do with it.

He wore his Chinese outfit all day.

In the little play that they did, Aussie was the prince. He said his line very clearly. Unfortunately, his teacher thought that what he had to say in Chinese was too hard. So he was allowed to say it in English. He did a good job, but I think he could have learned the Chinese.

In the play was an elephant. Guess who the elephant is?

Here's the first clue.

And here is the 2nd clue.

Yes, it was Greg. He played the elephant. And the teacher even put the microphone up to his mouth so he could let out a mighty elephant trumpet sound.

Aussie was so excited and wanted his family to be there. I didn't want to miss it either, and that is why I attended the curriculum fair on Friday instead of Saturday.

Ashley and Mason were actually not in good spirits. They wanted to be with their Daddy, who was back stage. I also think Ashley was a bit jealous of Aussie getting all the attention.

And here is Aussie super proud that he got his certificate for completing another year in Chinese.

Strawberry Pickin'

Friday- Greg took off work to watch the children so that I could go to the Curriculum Fair.

The girl scouts had an outing that day. They were going strawberry picking. I'm so thankful that my boys can go along on most of the girl scout field trips or Ashley would miss out on a lot!

I asked Greg to take them. They had to be in Murfreesboro by 9:30 AM. YEP! That's pretty early in the Greene household. I told Greg I packed the camera and I expected pictures. He's a good man- and I'll let him sleep in the bed with me. (hee hee hee) He did get some good pictures!


They heard thunder and saw a storm out in the distance.

This is Mrs. Amy- the Daisy Girl Scout troop leader.
The kids combined their baskets and came home with one big basketful of strawberries.

They had a really good time. And Greg enjoyed spending the time with them.

And the strawberrys?

They were YUMMY! (Too bad Aussie and Ashley don't like them!)

Calling all animal lovers...

WARNING: Lots of fabulous pictures.

I actually don't know why peoople write the warnings about having a picture heavy blog. I personally love to look at the pictures. I was just wondering if maybe it is harder to pull up on a slower connection or something. Anyone know?

Last Monday we went to the zoo with other co-op kids and girl scouts. There were so many of us that we couldn't stick together as one group, but we mainly stayed with the girl scout group.

I was adament about seeing the animals this time. Usually when we go to the zoo, the kids only want to play on the playground. But I got to see my animals and I'm all the happier too!

We went into this bird section with all these beautiful birds. Aussie tried so desparately to get one to come on his arm, but the lady who worked there said that with all the school groups coming through the birds were keeping their distance.

They have this really cute area after seeing the birds where you can wash your hands.

Look at this little fella...
I just love girraffes. And we got a show from this one. He was up really close. Most of the time they are WAY in the back and don't come up so close. Also, we got to see this one running in the field. I had never seen that before. I think he was just playing.
God sure did make some beautiful animals.

Just look at this beauty...

I think she was probably hungry. It was about closing time and she was pacing.

There were 2 baby bengal tigers. They were so cute. The picture makes her look bigger than she was.

We went in the petting zoo area. It was smelly but fun. Look at this tiny little one.

This little one came out to greet us.

Of course all the kids love the meerkats.

I love to see the monkeys. I again showcased my ability to speak like one. The monkeys didn't respond. I told some friends how the monkeys at the Cincinnatti zoo answered back. And we concluded that since I am from Ohio that it probably was just a different dialect.

I brought my binoculars with me this time. I had never thought to do that before. The kids had a grand time with them.

Ashley and Abby are best friends and......
monkeys or koala bears.

We also love the mccaws. This is the first animal you see when you come to the zoo, so it was REALLY crowded. We didn't stay long to try to talk to them, not that they would have talked back anyway.

It's always pretty difficult to get a group shot.

Hey Mom- Look how tall I am.

After me dragging them around the entire zoo to SEE the animals, I finally let them play on the playground.

One of their favorite things to do, besides the playground is to get a map of the zoo. Each one has to have their own.

At the end of the day when I was signing up for a membership the kids took a break and sat in one of these strollers at the membership desk. I had found an old map of the zoo hidden in one of the pockets of the rolling bag I brought. They begged me if I could ask if they had any more. They didn't but they did have some in Spanish. So Mason was thrilled to have that one.

It took so long for the guy to help me that he gave me a bag of tokens to be used for the carousel. YEA! (worth $20)

Mother's Day Pictures

Way too tired to blog...So I'll leave you with some pictures in no particular order.

What a ROUGH DAY!

Last Friday was HORRENDOUS!

I know some people who have had broken bones hurt at certain times, like when the weather changes or if it is about to rain. Well, my ankle hurts sometimes, but I haven't related it to any weather activities. It just decides sometimes it is going to hurt. Well it was hurting last Thursday, and I decided to go to a Zumba class anyway. Well while I was there I REALLY twisted it bad. OUCH!!! So Friday, I could hardly walk.

I took the kids to co-op and had to go back home to make lunch and get some other things together. I'm not really sure why it happened but after I dropped the kids off I ended up having an anxiety attack. I don't have these often (maybe once or twice a year). Anyway, the doctor had prescribed me some Xanax last September to have just in case I had another attack. Well, I didn't need it and I had NO IDEA where that bottle could have been. I looked everywhere. I called the doctor's office in a panic (obviously) and had to leave a message on the refill line. I asked for a refill of Zantac, because I thought I REALLY needed one today. Well no one called me back. So as I was running out the door to pick up lunch for the kids, I noticed a purse in the garage that I used to carry. I looked in there and happened to found the bottle. I took one.

I got to co-op and I was just crying and crying. I could not physically stop myself. A friend prayed over me. I tried to explain to my kids that I was fine, that sometimes this just happens and I can't stop myself from crying. One of the teachers helped me wrap my ankle up, and within a few minutes the medicine had set in and I was fine.

I was able to enjoy the kids do their performances. And I was very grateful Greg was able to attend their show. So on the way home, my cell phone rings. I couldn't reach the phone so I didn't answer it. (thankfully- looking back at the situation)

When I got home and got everyone settled in, I listened to my message. Greg had hydro-planed on the interstate, went across the median, and landed on the shoulder of the other side of on coming traffic. It was Greg who had called me. He told me he was fine. However, that immediately set off another anxiety attack. I thanked God over and over for protecting him, but I couldn't get it out of my mind the "what ifs".

Greg said he was surprisingly calm. He examined the situation. He was fine, the car ran, so he just drove off and went to work.

I on the other hand was a mess! I really tried not to, but I had Ashley crying too. I called the pharmacist to see if I could take another Xanax, b/c the bottle said I could take one 4x a day as needed. Well I didn't know what that really meant. I cried to him, the whole long story. (poor guy) And he said, yes you can take another one. About 5 minutes after I get off the phone with him, my doctor's office calls. I'm wailing. The nurse says, "Are you alright?"

me blabbering....again tells the whole story and how I just got off the phone with the pharmacist who says I can go ahead and have another one and how I found the bottle, etc. etc.

And she says, "well I thought I ought to call, because you asked for Zantac, which is an OTC heartburn medicine."

OH GOOD GRIEF!!!! No wonder they didn't call me back right away!

Anyway, the medicine did calm me down. Greg realized 2 of his tires were bald. He DROVE home AFTER work in the rain. He got home safely- and we got him new tires Saturday.

NOW...For the funny part. I got to hear from one of Greg's co-workers on what he was like after the accident. He said, Greg was extremely calm (VERY very unusually calm). He said that all of his co-workers were looking at him and kept asking him if he was OK. And Greg would say, yes I just need to get this email out. Of course every one else would have gone home after something like this happened, but not Greg. One of his co-workers actually said he wondered if Greg was really alive or a ghost, because Greg would be that ONE person who would come back to WORK to do that unfinished business of sending an email before passing on into the next life.

I'm so thankful God protected him!!!!!

Mother/ Daughter Tea

AH....Saturday. A NEW DAY! It was still a bit stressful only having one car with lots of things planned.

We almost missed the girl scouts Mother/ Daughter tea.

Greg took Aussie to Chinese class, came back home, we drove to Sam's club to get his tires. It was taking a long time. There was no way we could have waited for him to get it all set up, then take us home to drop the boys off and make it to the tea on time.

So I suggested they eat at Sam's, let us go on and then he could drive the boys home in the fixed car.

YAY- We got there a little late, getting lost along the way, but we got there.

I had no idea what door to go in. And it was raining and raining! We finally got in, sat down and relaxed.

BUT someone needs to teach these people WHAT a Mother/ Daughter Tea ought to look like.

It was pitiful BUT we still had a good time. And it was cute to see the girls chatting and having fun.

Ashley wore the dress that Gramma bought her for Easter.

Eve

Emma

Kadence (sporting her new glasses and short haircut)

(I didn't even have to ask Aussie, I could tell by his facial reaction at school Friday that he was disappointed her hair was cut.)

Abby

And their troop was asked to say the Girl Scout pledge in front of all the other Girl Scouts. They were very cute.

We had to leave early, because I had to get back in time to go see a play with Greg. We saw Darwin in Paradise. Weird! Weird! Weird! It was still nice to get out. And I always enjoy the pre-dinner at the top of a tall building looking over Nashville.

Good gracious! It's 2:00AM! How do I manage to do that? I got to get bed. Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I am looking forward to eating at Outback. YUM! My favorite!!!!!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you lucky Mothers!!!!

Performances.

Not yesterday, but last Friday the kids had their end of the year program performances. Mason was not feeling well and didn't have much of a voice.
But he got up and mouthed the words to Jesus Loves Me in Spanish with the rest of the Spanish class.

Then the boys were in a play based on the book Where the Wild Things Are.

And then Ashley did a hip hop dance with the other girls. I could not get very good pictures AT ALL of the performances.

There was a lot of confusion of when the performances would take place. I don't know what happened to why we couldn't have the original date, but I think the church needed it that night or something. Anyway, the ONLY time that was possible was to have it during the day, right after lunch. I was really surprised at how many men were able to make it to the show. Greg was able to take an extended lunch break and make up the time. So he was able to be there.

Chuck E. Cheese

Oh Wow do I feel behind! I have been super busy. I've been working on lots of school related stuff and I have been working on a girl scout project.

Anyway, let me take you back to April 17th. This was Braxton and Dalton's birthday. Dana had planned to have a party in the summer when they will get a big outside present for their kids. She had talked to them several times and they seemed OK with the idea of waiting to have their party in the summer. But when they woke up on their birthday, they began to get weepy about not having a party. So Dana called a couple of friends to see if we could meet at Chuck E. Cheese. We surprised B & D and all had a great time! Chuck E. even came and visited them at the table. We met right after school on Friday. It was the perfect time to go! It wasn't busy!

Mason was really good about playing the games that won him tickets.

Aussie was more into the thrill rides.

And Ashley liked both.

And I was able to get my baby fix.

I just love this little fellow!