End of Naptime

There are lots of reasons to end this blog and one of them is that no one at my house takes a nap anymore!  This blog is now CLOSED.  I plan on publishing a hard copy of all posts for my personal use and then maybe I will start back with a new blog.  This most likely will take several months.  It has been a good run, but it is definitely time. 

Gilbert

Mark and I have been married for 12 years and it is true, you kind of go in cycles with other people in your age group.  After collage, you go to a bunch of weddings, then everyone buys a house, then kids, and one thing I have noticed, is that a lot of my friends have had their pet die recent.  Yes, it is very sad.  I wanted to have a post about our pet while things were still good.  Our cat, Gilbert is 14 years old.  My dad got him for me when I was in grad school.  He is named for Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables.  After Mark and I were married, my parents brought him to live with us permanently and he has been our fur baby ever since.

To be honest, when the kids were really little, Gilbert did not enjoy the same life he did before.  At the end of the day, I was so overstimulated with kids wanting to talk to me or touch me, I didn't even want Gilbert to sit on my lap.  That started to change when Andy was 3, and now the 5 of us live together pretty well.

I think when I just couldn't deal with Gilbert, Mark really picked up a lot of the slack.  They share a special bond of the two who really miss the quiet and the order of the pre-kid life.  I mean, I miss it to, but Gilbert and Mark REALLY miss it.

Andy and Gilbert also have a special bond.  James really doesn't trust the cat (and vice versa I'm sure), but Andy really loves him.  (and vice versa)

One issue we have had in SC is fleas.  Gilbert had fleas and therefore, me and usually Andy also had fleas.  We would always give Gilbert Frontline and I never understood why we kept having issues.  This picture was taken after we gave Gilbert Capstar, which made him CRAZY, which was also funny.  You can kind of see his crazy eyes here.

Just as an aside, I was looking for one more flea dose before the weather got cold and they were OUT of frontline.  I tried Vectra instead and literally within 5 minutes of applying, dead fleas were falling off my cat.  We now use Vectra.

Gilbert is usually right there in our family life, especially when it involves food.  If you get up for any reason, Gilbert will worm is way into your spot.  A common phrase in our house is "you move, you lose!"

Gilbert has definitely gotten older and it is hard to watch.  Gilbert used to be very strong and liked things his way.  Pitty the cat who tried to get in between him and his food!  Unfortuately, that is no longer the case.  Gilbert lets these neighbor cats on his turf, eat his food, poop in his garden, well you get the picture.  Here is one of the most offensive, muffin from the yard behind us.  You can see Gilbert in the leaves just sleeping.

In many ways things are different, but Mark and I are watching football with Gilbert curled between us.  One thing that will always be true...don't touch the white!

Also did not make the blog

I know everyone likes videos, but I don't.  I don't watch videos of your kids, why would you watch videos of mine?  In addition, I always seem to have trouble with getting them to upload.  I know we used to have a slow internet connection, but it shouldn't take 48 hours.  And still not finish.  At any rate, here is one video that I am sure I tried to upload, but it didn't work.  Thanks to Uverse, you can watch it now.

What didn't make the blog

This is a picture heavy post, so consider yourself warned!  Occasionally, I will take pictures with a blog post in mind, but it just doesn't work out.  Also, sometimes I will just take a good picture, but it doesn't fit in with a blog post.  I recently went though a lot of my stored pictures and found some I wanted to share.  Without a theme.  I know, I am one CRAZY girl!

I am going to start out two years ago with James's 4th bday party.  Why didn't I do a post about his bday party?  I don' t know.  I think it was because I didn't really take many good pictures and I was probably also busy.  I am sure it was a good party!  The theme was super heros which James liked for only about a month before he discovered Star Wars.  Here was his cake:



Since James liked to dress up, I got masks and caps for the kids.



I'm sure I had a scavenger hunt and games, but the kids just like running around:



This was also a couple of year ago, Mark took James to the local car show.  I think he got a coupon online. Well, Mark was a little disappointed that James's favorite car was the "Lime Green Ford Festiva"  To this day, James says this is his favorite car.



Don't remember when this was, but Ft. Ruteledge is actually nearby.  I think it is by the dikes?  Again, Mark took the kids for a little hike there.  This is actually a replica of the actual fort, but the kids had fun.



This summer Andy got really into drawing, coloring, and crafts.  He came home from camp one say saying he wanted to decorate a shirt.  And this was ALL him.  He drew a picture on paper, and then taped it to his shirt.  Ta-Da!  Shirt decorated.  I don't remember why he was upset, he was really proud of his shirt.



This is actually a picture of me, when Beth and I cheered on Jenny for her first marathon.  Hmmm, I just said first.  Jenny, were you planning on doing another one?



At the local Fly In.  I hate that backpack.  I need to burn it.



Oh, Andy used to LOVE babies.  We got him a little doll and a stroller and he just had a ball.



We were getting into the car one day to go to church and we see this BIG snake in the carport.  Surprisingly, this is really the only snake we have seen.  Knock on wood.



I think we went to visit Papa one time and had nothing to do, but we found these clips and put them on Andy.  It was a good time:



The boys in Papa's tub:



I am a sucker for these cardboard play things that you assemble, then color, and then you can play IN.  My kids never like them as much as I do, and I am pretty sure Mark hates them.  But look, it was a MATER one.  Couldn't resist.



Got these reusable silicon molds that I tried to make healthy Popsicles with this summer.  Didn't work.  Who are these kids that fall for it?  This one was just frozen applesauce.



This one from this summer.  James get that lego magazine and does not understand why his picture is not in there.  He says, "I want to be a model!"  The second best thing is to try to win those photocontests.  However, after seeing the winners, their parents have got to be helping, right?



I had to go to DC this summer and Ms. Juliet came with me!  Here is us on the mall!



I know they make a mess, but I love it when the boys play together.  I think here they were making a train.  Sometimes they use the chairs to make a bridge which is more dangerous.



Mark and I took the kids on "dates".  For my date with Andy, we went to 3 spoons.  He was a happy boy.



So, I had an idea.  Some of the grad students were working on bio engineering simulation modules for educational purposes for school aged kids.  I made up one on my own "Seeding osteocytes on a simulated scaffold."  The grad students poo-poo-ed at me, but my boss liked it.  It is also known as borax crystals.  This was my first attempt, which didn't work, but I did do it for James's class and it was a big hit.  Did you know that there are things like legos in your body?  We just call them cells.



That is all for now.

A day at the fair!

So, the Carolina Heritage Fair was this weekend. My mom took the kids last year and they had such a good time, I was really looking forward to taking them this year. It bills itself as an old time county fair, and it is, in a good way. Yes, you spend money, but there is so many neat thing to do that are just different, or at least to this city family!

Look at this HUGE combine!

Kids can show pigs?  Who knew?

Baby Piggies...errr...Piglets, so cute!

The big hit was gem mining.  The kids got lots of very pretty stones which they look at and played with the rest of the day.

We all got to pet a sweet horse named Missy.

James and John loved the magic show, but I didn't think it was as funny.

We got the unlimited ride bracelet and their favorite "ride" was the Haunted House.  It was really really dark, but not all that scary.

I got all three boys in the picture!

Slide races.

More haunted house.

They rode in a dragon's belly!

The dragon roller coaster!

So fun!

Unbeatable! James's 6th birthday party!

I was really dragging my feet for James's party this year.  I begged him to have a sleepover party, or chuck e cheese, or anything but my normal party, but no, James wanted a pokemon party.  This party is really tributed to Ms. Juliet who sent me an email telling me what I was going to do.  Thanks again, Ms. Juliet, I couldn't have done it without you.  We had it at the same park as always.  Even James complained, but understood when I explained when it was the only park with lots of shade and room to play party games.  Of course, I bring out all of our toys for the kids to play with.



Love that rocket launcher.  Where can I get another one?



And the big bubbles



I also had pokemon coloring pages:

 

This party was from 4-6, which is an awkward time, so about 4:30 I fed the kids hot dogs, watermelon, and chips:



The kids could have probably played with the rocket launcher all day, but I did have some organized activities.  First was pin the tail on pikachu.  It went ok.







Then we had "gym battles".  Really just games of chance with cards, dice, and coins.  We had a Mimi Gym:



A Grandma Gym:



And a Papa Gym.  Except the Redskins were winning so we had to improvise:



Now, I did not have an active role with the gym battles, but I will say that I think the kids loved this.  One of the things I like about pokemon is that the heros don't always win.  Neither did the kids.  The Gym Owners will tell you that they threw the games a lot, though...  Once the won, the kids got gym badges:



Then it was time for the grand finale, the scavenger hunt!  This year, no pictures, just riddles with words...and they rhymed!





Then end was the cake!  This cake represents my first ebay bust.  This was the second try:



This is the first year that we let James have presents.  ALL YEAR, he kept telling me, remember at so in so's party where they got to keep all of their presents?  I want to keep all of my presents.  Yeah, ok, James.  He was excited:



So was everyone else:



I think everyone had a good time, even all "the outsiders"  Next year, hopefully we can just go see a movie or something!