The Anniversary Trip to Charleston

On May 23rd of this year, Steve and I hit our 15 year mark, and as our gift to each other, we farmed out the kids, packed up our bags and boarded a plane.  When Steve asked me where I wanted to go for our trip, I told him I wanted to go to a beach somewhere, and I wanted to see something I had never seen before.  After a little deliberation, we settled on Charleston, South Carolina.
Our first two days away were spent "de-toxing" on Folly Beach.  Like many of you, we don't get a lot of time to just sit and relax, so that is what we did.  And I didn't even have to make sure that none of my children were running away, or drowning in the ocean, or eating sand, or getting a sunburn.  Ahhh...

We did spend a little time playing in the ocean too.  We rented a couple of "Boogie" boards from a kid on the beach who handed them over and said (with a little laugh) "Tear it up".  I am sure we looked like two overgrown kids, but we had a blast, and laughed at ourselves really hard (by the way, the ocean doesn't taste very good).  Doesn't Steve look like a natural beach bum?

After our stint on the beach, we went into downtown Charleston and lived the life of tourists.  The first evening we were there we took a Carriage tour of the city. I was really impressed with Charleston and loved the history and the old homes all lined up in rows.  Here is a sample of a few...
   

Here is the steeple of St. Michaels Church (for Mom).  I kept my eyes open for this one in particular because of a book I was reading.

Now that I have been to Charleston, I am trying to figure out how to add a Piazza onto my house.  All the houses have these doorways on the side of their homes that lead into an open outdoor sitting area (the piazza) and then into the home.  This was one of my favorite things.

The next day we took a ferryboat out to Fort Sumter.  On the way out we sailed around the USS Yorktown, a retired aircraft carrier.  That thing was huge (very technical term, I know)!


Once we arrived at Fort Sumter, the park ranger (a younger kid) gave a really interesting history of what happened there and it's significance to the start of the Civil War.  I was really impressed with him and his knowledge of the history of the time.  We only got about 40 minutes at the fort, and we could have spent more time there, it was pretty cool.
 


 
Are you getting bored yet?  Steve and I are definitely not as interesting as our kids.
That evening we went and visited a plantation, and while I was a little disappointed by the house (it wasn't the original plantation house, it was built in 1920) I fell in love with the trees!  Boone Hall Plantation is well known for it's entrance, the Avenue of the Oaks and was well worth the visit just for that alone.   It was incredible, the picture doesn't come near to doing it justice...

These Live Oak trees were phenomenal, this one is over 500 years old...


Not a great picture, but I loved this tree.  I could just imagine this being the hideout for some little kid when he didn't want to do his chores...
 
And here is the back view of the actual house, it was beautiful, just not what I was hoping for :)...
 
We did see a house the next day, right in downtown Charleston, called the Edmonton-Alston house.  It is situated right on the ocean front and is beautiful!  It dates back to the 1800's, and better satisfied my historical craving.  You can't see it well in this picture, but it is just to the left of the big pink house...

It also had a beautiful piazza, on all three levels, overlooking the ocean  (Sigh)...
 
Well there is a little taste of Charleston.  We had a fabulous time, and are so grateful to good friends who made it possible to get away!  We figure after 15 more years it shouldn't be quite so hard to get away! :)

Rolly Pollies and Missing Teeth

Suffix

-cide

1. Used to make nouns meaning the killing of the thing indicated by the first component of the word.

For example:  Pesticide:  a substance for killing pests
                       Fungicide:  a substance for killing fungus
                       Germicide: an agent that kills pathogenic organisms (grateful for this during flu season)
                       Giganticide: the killing of a giant, or one who kills a giant (Mickey Mouse)
                       Chronocide: the act of killing time (a personal favorite)

And the one for which we are guilty around here these days:
                       RollyPollyicide:  the act of killing rolly polly bugs

     It all started a few weeks ago when the weather turned warm and the kids were out enjoying nature come alive again.  Sydney, who I never would have taken for an entomologist, discovered lots of rolly polly's and decided to make a pet of one. 
 
     She got a little container, filled it with dirt and grass and brought it inside.  Everywhere she went, that little container with her friend went too.  She even wanted to bring it along when we ran errands.  That night she took it up to her room, bid the rolly polly goodnight and climbed into bed.  But, the next morning, Mr. Rolly Polly was belly up.  Sydney handled it well, probably because she knew there were plenty more outside to capture, which she did.  It is not unusual around here lately to see a little container with grass, dirt and rolly pollies sitting on the counter (and usually the rolly pollies are dead).  The other day she even tried including a slice of banana to keep the little fellas alive, but alas they went to rolly polly heaven too.

     Carter has also been swept up in the love (and torture) of rolly pollies, only he calls them "rolly rollies".  He likes to bend over them and yell, "Roll in a ball! Roll in a ball!"  all while poking at them. 
 
 
     Just yesterday Sydney brought a rolly polly over, all rolled up in a ball between her fingers, and explained how all she has to do is squeeze the bug a little and he will roll up in a ball, (I had to wonder how the rolly polly felt about that) after which she proceeded to find a "happy place" for the bug to live.  This ended up being on top of a flower, up off the ground.  To me this seemed rather like some giant person picking me up, squeezing me a little, and then placing me on top of a skyscraper and calling that my happy place.  I checked this morning to see if the little guy was still there on top of the flower, but he had managed an escape somehow, or he plummeted to his death adding one more number to the rolly pollies killed in Gordonville.

In other news, can you guess what is different about this little girl?

Sydney just lost two little teeth in two days!  This pricks my heart a little because I am really having a hard time with her getting so big!  The losing of the teeth was hilarious though, as both times she pulled them out herself, which really didn't bother her at all, until she saw the blood, at which point she started screaming (honest-to-goodness screaming, not sure if a career in the medical field is a good idea for this one).  The other big news with this event is that the Tooth Fairy DID actually remember to come two nights in a row.  This is big new because our Tooth Fairy is a little defunct and it often takes a few days before she shows up, we might need to petition for a new one!

The Memorial Day Parade

We had our annual Memorial Day Parade and I thought I would post a few pics of our marcher.  The Minooka Parade is your classic, Small Town America experience.  The parade lasts about 10 minutes (maybe) and includes: bag pipes (Steve's favorite), tractors, horses, girl scouts, cub scouts, firetrucks, and the local Junior High and High School Marching Bands.  Oh, and don't forget the candy!  We love it, though we might be a little biased.
The kids waiting for the big parade to start...

Poised and ready with their hats... (to catch candy, of course)

And here comes the band!!!

Something about those marching bands always makes me a little teary eyed, I am just ridiculous that way. 

All For the Love of Raspberries

My poor husband...  I got into my head this spring that I really, really wanted to grow some raspberry bushes.  And that desire for raspberries turned into a huge re-configuring of our garden plot.  I won't go into details, but what was initially going to only take a few hours on a Saturday, turned into a two week project (par for course with this bunch.   Around here the phrase, "It should be pretty straight forward" is included in that Famous Last Words list.)
Because we firmly believe in child labor, we had our kids out hauling rocks, pushing the wheelbarrow, shoveling dirt, you name it.  While I didn't get any documented proof that the older boys helped, I will tell you now that they were a big help, it is nice when they get to the age that "helping" mom and dad does, in fact, actually help.
I did document the "help" that Sydney and Carter gave to our project (little ones get all the limelight, I know, I know...)
Part of our project was moving a bunch of dirt...
 


Carter tried the same process as Sydney...

But it just wasn't working out for him.

So, he came up with his own system.  He would pick up a clod of dirt, put it on his shovel...

...and then he would push his shovel over to the big dirt pile where he would proudly deposit his offering...


And our final product...
 
Notice my bed of raspberries?  Now, hopefully they will grow and we won't kill them off!  It is nice to have a patient, sweet and hard working husband who doesn't wince too much when I say, "Hey, you know those shelves in the garage?  I've been thinking..."

Music To My Ears and Other News

     With the end of the school year comes the much anticipated Spring Band Concert.  It was very convenient for us this year because both the 5th grade band and the 7th grade band play in the same concert, so we were able to hear both Tyler and Spencer's bands play at the same event (nice, considering how many events are scheduled this time of year!)
      Every year I am impressed by how much progress these kids make!  There is an especially marked difference in the fifth grade band from their first performance of the year, to the Spring Concert, so fun!  Tyler is in percussion and has LOVED it.  His instructor, Miss Tadey, is incredible with the kids.  It takes just the right kind of personality to teach fifth grade band, and she certainly has that personality!  Tyler got to play a solo in their last song, which is entitled, "Casey's Last Run" a song written about a train.  Here is just a tiny snippet of that song, featuring Tyler's solo...

     Spencer's band has also made lots of progress, and it is so fun to hear them play.  The Junior High Band Teacher, Mr. Neissler really pushes the kids, and they learn a lot.  Here is a little sample of Spencer's band...

 There is just a taste to leave you wanting for more!
Also as part of our End of the Year activities, we were invited to an awards assembly for Spencer.  We really had no clue what he was being awarded, but were super excited when he received an award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in Social Studies.  Here he is receiving his award from Mrs. Gall, his Social Studies teacher...

And now, we begin summer break!  It is soooooooo nice to be free from schedules, and homework, and running to and from school!  Yay!