Noah's Birthday

From Sept 09 - Noah's Birthday

I can't believe Noah is ten today! He celebrated his birthday on Saturday with a party at the lakefront in our neighborhood. He invited his brothers and the neighborhood kids to a "Survivor" party. Rebecca and I helped plan the team challenges. They had a treasure hunt, filled buckets with lake water using only one cup per team (and a little help from a rainstorm), had an eating challenge where they ate baby food, and hunted for the right key to the pool gate at the bottom of the neighborhood pool. It was a simple but fun party! Here are some photos:

Our Spot

It seems that most families have a spot that they love to return to over and over. For many, it's a place on the beach or in the mountains or maybe even Disney World. When I was growing up, our spot was Gunner Pool - a camping spot on a clear creek in Arkansas. Our family added another spot - Devil's Den - in later years. Terry's family's "spot" was his grandparent's cabin on Boone Lake (which ended up being our first home!). These places bring back great memories of adventure and togetherness.

Terry and I found our spot thirteen years ago at Little Oak Campground on S. Holston Lake near the Tennessee/Virginia border. It's a little hard to get to - you need to travel more than 20 min. down a deserted gravel road - but for us it has been worth the drive. It's a great place for skiing since there is a slalom ski course in a cove just five minutes from the campsite. The campsites are huge and have great views. There is no electricity, but that just serves to keep the crowds down.There is nothing like the combination of mountains, a clear lake and quietness to nourish your soul.

My First Bagels!

From For Blog - created Sept 09

First, a little background. My kids are starting to eat us out of house and home! My older two are especially fond of blueberry bagels. If I allowed just Nathan to eat his fill, I have calculated that my bagel budget would be $40 per month! And that's just for one child. So I decided to try making them myself - mostly just to see if I could save some money but also because I was curious about the process.

You see, I've had some excellent bagels when visiting different parts of the country, but we don't have much in the way of gourmet bagels around here. You are pretty much stuck buying Sara Lee at Walmart. There is a nice bagel shop (Manna Bagel) run by some Messianic Jews in the next town over, but they visit the Holy Land and close their shop about six months of the year - plus my cost savings would definitely disappear if I went that route. So having had a Southern Baptist grandmother instead of a Jewish grandmother, I had to rely on the internet for this one.

I used the recipe on this website and added dried blueberries. Rebecca thought they looked like huge, soggy Honey Nut Cheerios when they were cooking.

From For Blog - created Sept 09

In spite of that unappetizing metaphor, they actually turned out quite good!

From For Blog - created Sept 09

They were crispy and crunchy with a nice blueberry flavor. They really needed a few more blueberries to be wonderful - which may put my cost up in the Sara Lee category unless I can find a cheap source of blueberries. It really wasn't difficult or messy to make them, and they have no added fat -which leaves plenty of calories left for the cream cheese! I can't wait to try some new flavors like cinnamon, chocolate, bacon,cheese & onion, Asiago cheese, etc.

Our Trip to the Historic Triangle

We had a great time on vacation last week! We saw Appomattox Courthouse, Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg and Nauticus. We also spent a beautiful afternoon at Virginia Beach.

Several folks have asked us why we didn't do Busch Gardens. Well, besides the high price, our kids have never really enjoyed amusement park rides (though Terry and I enjoy them immensely), and Terry and I don't particularly enjoy standing in line. I guess Terry and I need to go by ourselves in the off-season or something.

My favorite things were listening to the reenactor at Appamatox Courthouse (he was really good, and at $8 for the whole family, this was the best bargain of the trip), Yorktown (where we ended the day with a free Air Force band concert), reading on the beach, and my date with Terry at Shield's Tavern in Williamsburg (where they served a Wildberry Crunch Pie that was too die for!). Our youngest boys really enjoyed the Nauticus museum in Norfolk, and the oldest kids liked Jamestown and Williamsburg best.

All of the Historic Triangle places were featuring games for the month of August. So our kids got to learn to play lots of games that were played by Indians and English Settlers from 1607-1776. Most involved gambling!



The kids enjoyed dressing up at Yorktown and Jamestown.



I'm going to post some more pictures on Facebook in the next day or two.

A special thanks to Mom and Dad for letting us have a week at their time-share!

Our First Notebooking

This year we are doing something different. We are spending one morning a week just creating notebook pages (think scrapbook page with a scholastic theme). My kids generally like to create, draw, arrange, etc. and I think this will give them a creative outlet and help them remember what they learn. It will also help use up all the scrapbooking supplies I have now that I have mostly converted to digital scrapbooking.

For now, I'm going to let them choose what to notebook about themselves- as long as it's something they've been learning about or reading (in other words, not just something about Star Wars!). Today, Noah chose to do some pages on Captain John Smith, who we've been studying about in preparation for our field trip (i.e. vacation) to Jamestown in two weeks. He's working on a time line. Here's what he's gotten so far:

From School Year 2009-2010

One interesting thing we learned about John Smith is that prior to the Civil War, he was much more of a national hero. During the war, an historian from the north (Henry Adams) wrote many things to undermine John Smith's reputation- it was pretty much war propaganda. Now the truth is coming out! Many sources (besides the writings of John Smith himself) now corraborate most of his stories. He was a true hero!

Caleb did a page on the 2009 Tour-de-France. We learned a lot about the race this year and watched most of the stages. Caleb even signed up to do his own "tour" online and mapped all the routes he takes around here. He rides quite often now - in fact, he rode twenty miles this afternoon!

From School Year 2009-2010

Nathan decided to do some book-report-style pages on Rakkety Tam, one of the Redwall books he read this summer. He has become a real fan of the series. Here's his first page:

From School Year 2009-2010

All in all, it's been a good first week of school. We have enjoyed learning about Jamestown, John Smith, and Pocahantas and are simultaneously learning about the Santa Fe Trail (Santa Fe was founded in the same year as Jamestown). The boys wrote stories about a buffalo hunt this week, and Nathan's made me laugh out loud! He wrote it from the point of view of a buffalo that took revenge on the Indians.

On with the Show!

I keep singing the Bugs Bunny Theme Song in my head:

Overture, curtain, lights,
This is it, the night of nights
No more rehearsing and nursing our parts
We know every part by heart
Overture, curtain, lights
This is it, we'll hit the heights
And oh what heights we'll hit
On with the show this is it

Tonight what heights we'll hit
On with the show this is it.

The kids have been working hard at rehearsals for six weeks now. Tonight they preview their show to a live audience and tomorrow is opening night! They have nine performances over the next three weeks.

Here's a family portrait of the Cheaper by the Dozen cast:

From Cheaper by the Dozen

And here are the kids in their cast T-shirts (artwork by Rebecca!):

From Cheaper by the Dozen

Backyard Bounty

From Plums

All this fruit came from our backyard! I just feel too guilty letting it go to waste, so this year I went into high gear. I just finished putting up 36 pints of plum jam. It's a good thing that the kids like it because I have a feeling they're going to be eating it for a while. Also, be sure and put "plum jam" on your Christmas list because I'm sure Santa is planning on getting you some!

After all the jam, I still had some extra fruit (a few apples and blackberries), and I put it all together to make a "Backyard Cobbler." It was really good!

From Plums

From Plums

4th of July

Panasonic asked the LiHD families to share our 4th of July traditions, so here's my version.

First of all, I hear there is a move to start calling this holiday "Independence Day" again, and I have to agree that it's a more meaningful designation. After all, we call it "Christmas," not the "25th of December."

My idea of a 4th of July celebration involves a cookout with extended family which includes homemade ice cream for dessert. It also involves some purchased fireworks like firecrackers, bottle rockets and sparklers and a trip to see the town's fireworks show.

Anyway, our idea of what this holiday should be has had to be modified a bit because we don't always have extended family around and there are some unique opportunities to celebrate where we live. So this is what our celebration weekend looks like now: We attend an annual parade and 1940's USO show in nearby Jonesborough, Tennessee. This year we also participated in a kid's revolutionary war battle reenactment at Sycamore Shoals State Park. We have great fireworks right in our neighborhood (on a vacant lakefront lot), so we don't have to battle any traffic or crowds to see a great show. This year we added a new tradition after stuffing ourselves in a backyard cookout - we read aloud the entire Declaration of Independence!

Here are some shots from the parade:

From July 4th weekend

From July 4th weekend

From July 4th weekend

From July 4th weekend

From July 4th weekend

From July 4th weekend

From July 4th weekend

not exactly 76 trombones, but at least several

From July 4th weekend

representing the "Overmountain Men" who mustered in this area to fight for Independence at the Battle of King's Mountain

From July 4th weekend

notice no Union Soldiers, for in the south the Civil War has never actually ended

From July 4th weekend

a reluctant participant

From July 4th weekend

friends Josh and Laura O'Bryan, cast members of the USO show - which was the best ever this year!

From July 4th weekend

getting candy thrown on the parade route


And now for the Battle of King's Mountain:

From July 4th weekend

kids sworn in

From July 4th weekend

This gal looked too pretty to fight!

From July 4th weekend

storming the "mountain"

From July 4th weekend

an unfortunate prisoner

Afternoon on the Lake

Believe it or not, this is the first time this summer that we have spent time as a family on the lake. The kids went tubing and Terry and I skiied. Now Terry is sore and is getting one of Rebecca's famous backrubs.

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Nathan had a party today with his friends. Speaking as someone with a November birthday, it must be great to have a birthday in the summer! All you have to do is take some friends and add water - and there you have it, a party!

They played at the neighborhood pool, ate burgers, took some crazy tube rides and then had some cookie cake!

Happy Father's Day

Well, in my quest for a cheap but thoughtful gift, I have decided to follow-up my mother's day blog with one on father's day.

Unfortunately, this is not quite as easy. I don't like to do blog entries without a photo (in fact, I don't think I ever have!), and it was impossible for me to find a picture taken of just me and my Dad in the first several years of my life. Let that be a lesson to all of you "one-photographer" families. The person behind the camera deserves to be in a few photos, too!

Anyway, though I didn't find a photo of me and Dad, I did find some photos that brought back memories of Dad.

This first one is of me in my Daddy's darkroom:

From Dad

It looks a little bit like a doctor's office, but this is where he developed his black and white photographs. I remember getting to sit on the stool and not being allowed to leave during the process. This may have been a little bit of a challenge for a little girl in training pants. I remember being fascinating watches the pictures appear when Dad put them in solution. It was magical!

From Dad

The photo above was taken on a fishing trip with Dad. I have vague memories of this trip. You can see that we brought along plenty of moon pies in case we didn't end up catching much fish. I remember going fishing with Dad - usually when we were out camping at Gunner Pool - and there again I watched the process but didn't actually participate. I just couldn't bait a live cricket OR clean a fish, either! But Dad seemed to enjoy just having some company.

Thanks, Dad for spending time with me. Thanks for sitting through all those music recitals (band, choir and piano) and managing to stay awake. Thanks for letting me play the piano loud and sing in the car with my sisters for hours without complaining. Thanks for taking us camping all over the USA.

Hope you have a great day!

Family Celebration

We just returned from another trip out of town. This time we were celebrating Terry's mother's 70th birthday. Here's the birthday gal:

From Liz's 70th

I don't think she really looks 70! Anyway, we (Terry's parents, his brothers and their families) all rented a large house on Lake Barkley in Kentucky and just hung out together for a few days. On the last night that we were there, we all got in a circle and read letters to Liz telling her what she meant to us. Then the next morning we all went to Madison, Kentucky, where she was born and spent her first 14 years. We went back to the street she lived on, and she took all 17 of us on a walking tour! I'm not sure what the neighbors thought. We videoed most of it as seeing all the old sites made her keep thinking of stories that none of us had ever heard before.

After leaving Madison, we headed in a convoy down to Tullahoma, Tennessee - where Liz's father's family - The Jennings - have their annual reunion at Rutledge Falls. I think it's pretty cool to have your reunion near a huge waterfall that's actually owned by family members. Turns out this waterfall is featured in the recent Hannah Montana movie.

From Liz's 70th

Anyway, like most reunions there was lots of good food! We also enjoyed singing, playing horseshoes and swimming at the falls. Here's a slide show of our weekend. I didn't take many pics at the reunion because . . .well, I somehow thought Rebecca was going to. Anyway, Miley Cyrus was NOT at the reunion, but I saved the picture in the same file, so it ended up in my slide show.



Now we have returned home and will not travel much the rest of the summer. Three of our four kids were just cast in Cheaper by the Dozen at a local theater, and they will be rehearsing six days a week for the next six weeks! Rebecca got cast in a major role as Ernestine, one of the older daughters, and her younger brothers Nathan and Noah were cast as . . .her younger brothers Fred and Jackie!

Visit to Fayetteville

Well, I'm going to blog about our trip to Fayetteville even though it's possible that the only people who read this blog regularly live there and participated in these same events. I'm pretty sure I will scoop them with this blog content since they are too busy to blog. Does this mean I need to get a life?

First of all, we went to Arkansas partly to see my niece, Lisa, graduate from Fayetteville High School (still my Alma Mater true).

From Arkansas

There's Lisa in the back. Carol and I got so bored watching all 500+ graduates walk in that we accidentally got to talking about something else and missed seeing Lisa walk in. But we did manage to see her walk across the stage!

Another fun thing we did was visit Wilson Park. There's a cool castle there, and Rebecca enjoyed taking lots of photos there. There are lots of cool sculptures and details that I never noticed before. Rebecca got a chance to take LOTS of photos because the van ran out of gas when we were there and I had to hitch a ride back to my parent's house.

From Arkansas

From Arkansas

From Arkansas

From Arkansas

One thing that has become a tradition during our visits to Fayetteville is meeting Carol and her kids at Rick's Bakery to eat breakfast. They have an incredible selection of goodies and some really neat creative cakes and baked goods on display. The kids (and adults) also enjoy watching the decorators at work. We decided to make a photo by the colorful van outside and out walked Rick - owner of the bakery - and he posed with the kids.

From Arkansas

One of the highlights of this trip was a talent show at the Covingtons on Sunday evening. Katie and Jeremy organized the event. Their act involved Katie "driving a car" and putting on make-up, drinking water, etc.

From Arkansas

Caleb told jokes . . .

From Arkansas

Noah did sign language . . .

From Arkansas

Terry and David were the judges (which effectively got them out of the competition):

From Arkansas

There were also mandolin, violin,singing, lip-syncing and dancing acts! I may require ransom money to keep from posting the Sister Sledge act on a later date.

Besides visiting with family, we also saw some old friends. Terry and I visited with Jeff and Lisa Gaddy in Fayetteville. Jeff and I have known each other since grade school and were in choir and band together in high school and college. Jeff had recently put our old choir music on MP3s, and I am having fun singing the old music. Caleb says he feels like he's had enough "music appreciation" to last a lifetime now. I also enjoyed seeing Jeff demonstrate his "harmonizer" that can harmonize your own voice in up to 8-part harmony.

We also stopped in Memphis on our trip back and spent a few hours at a local Chic-Fil-A with our friends Andy and Jennifer Pierce (and their five kids).

It was a great trip, and we are only home a week before we hit the road again - this time for a trip with Terry's family.