Put the lamb down!

When we lived in Georgia, the Yellow River Game Ranch was one of our favorite places to go. So we went this time and took our friend Anne.
This is what Anne did the whole time we were there It is such a fun place where the deer walk right up to you to feed them. The Boo was a little timid about doing it. Of course, The Daisy is a pro at everything animal. What? Do you not like graham crackers after all?Then this baby lamb comes by and the kids chase it down and The Daisy even picks it up. I said,"Put the lamb down before we get kicked out!"Seems this is where The Boo was the happiest. Why do I have to spend money to go see farm animals?The Daisy looks like she's in heaven:This is the first time I can recollect that a squirrel has come up and eaten from our hands, but it was The patient Daisy who waited it out.

Remember the parking lot!

Anne suggested we join her for a hike up Sawnee Mountain to see the Indian Seats.She and The Daisy took the hard trail and The Boo and I took the easy one. As we got closer to the top of the mountain, I told Boo that we had been here before when his sister was really little and I backpacked her the whole way.
We have watched "Titanic" way too many times. Here The Boo is yelling,"I'm king of the world!" You can see four states from here: Just past the top, we passed Anne and The Daisy (lolling behind) and what I forgot was the most basic of wilderness tools: remember where the parking lot is. Well, I didn't know which trail we'd taken and so The Boo and I end up on the other side of the mountain. The park ranger told me it would "only" be a 30-minute hike to the other parking lot and I pointed to The Boo and told her,"He's FOUR and just walked all the way up and down that mountain." So some sweet chap pitied us and gave us a ride.
Anne thought we'd cheated until I told her the story.
So ... remember where the parking lot is before embarking on the trail.

Us with Anne's dog, Cali: We stopped to see The Daisy's friends and former babysitters, Preston and Andrew. Ok, so they took care of her when she was The Boo's age and now look at everybody!
We had to get a picture of Diva:Me and Anne. She has been a very, very good friend to me and I aspire to be the kind of person she is:

B's birthday

Having just had two dear friends die in the last month, I needed to escape to Atlanta to reconnect with longtime girlfriends and, lucky us that our trip coincided with my friend Bernadette's birthday. These are the flowers her husband got her (and which I nearly lost an eye due to the forsythia branches sticking out):Bernadette is, in fact, laying down a music CD after a 20-year hiatus and her voice will blow you away! Since she must now play the part of the diva, look how cool her hair is! We had a fabulous Mexican-style fare and we all ate until we thought we'd pop. Lively discussion about who had a worse childhood: those of us growing up in Catholic school or ... anybody else.
This is B's producer Doug and her husband Larry, finding something hilarious: No. 1 son Erik now sporting a mustache at 13. We met him when he was 8. Me and The Daisy: Just where does The Daisy get her notion to make a silly picture? Hmm, I wonder. But look how honkin' big that tortilla is! The Boo totally ignored me all night to play Disney fairies with Ava: More Boo and Ava: Happy birthday, Bernadette!

It's not forever

The Daisy's birthday party

Why she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday, I don't know. I mean, we had JUST gone there for Boo's birthday! I would rather get poked in the eye with a pencil than go to CEC. My friend Regina told her daughter that CEC burned down so she'd never have to go. I've already issued the edict that no more birthdays at CEC!
The Daisy invited the neighbor kids: Anthony, Michael and Cory, plus homeschool friends Maya and Shannon.
Her cake turned out better than the one I did for Boo's birthday. (Because - duh - I let it cool first.) Anthony says he wants this very one for his next birthday. A chocolate chip poundcake: It was an all-things-dragon birthday:
Shannon, Maya & The Daisy: Michael and Boo on some ride: With her "boyfriend" Anthony (here my friend Scott will interject some snide comment about how the apple doesn't fall far from the tree): Maya and her tickets, which, she said, were so many that it made her neck hurt:
Anthony and The Boo play this Jurassic Park game I couldn't get The Boo away from: Michael banging away at Dance, Dance Revolution:


Shannon stylin' with the tickets:
Enough with the Jurassic Park game already!
The Daisy winning big at the wheel:

The Daisy turns 10. Her birth story.

My Daisy turned 10 Feb. 21. It's hard to believe I have a 10 year old and I know it'll feel like tomorrow that I'll be saying I can't believe I have a 20 year old or a 30 year old.
The day before she was born, I had gone to work with labor pains and everyone asking me what it was like and I said not bad and they were saying,"So suck it up already." and I'm going: I'm not complaining! I'm at work! Every other woman would already be at the hospital begging for an epidural already. Sheesh.
That night, I walked two miles around the Mall of Georgia, stopping every so often to kind of groan, really not knowing at that time I was in active labor. So I waked at 1 that morning and was terribly sick and it went on like that for several hours until I finally realized,"Hey, I might be in labor." I started a warm bath, which woke my husband, who came in and asked me what was wrong. I gave him that I-would-like-to-kill-you look.
We called the midwife and I labored on the floor of the bathroom, whining that I wanted to go to the hospital until I heard my midwife's car in the driveway. Then I knew I needed to put on my big girl panties and get down to birthing a baby.
So, at 7:50 a.m. on her due date, The Daisy arrived at home, weighing 8 lbs. 8 oz., and came out waving. My newspaper, for whom I was the business editor, did a story on the state of homebirth in Georgia so she was in the papers straightaway. It was quite the controversial story!

Here we are 10 years later ... I gave her a Harry Potter pop-up book. I think it was a hit. The Boo helped make her birthday cake. She loved the sketch pad The Boo gave her. She laughed at the card I found. Some months ago, we got a library book called "Chicken Butt" in which the kid pesters his dad,"You know what?" "What?" "Chicken butt!" So this is what the kids do to me All The Time. And guess what kind of birthday card I found for her? Happy birthday, my baby girl.

My living room turns into a fort

I knew something was up when the neighbor kid came in my bedroom and took out one of my chairs. And then a blanket disappeared off my bed. In fact, all the blankets disappeared from everywhere in the house.
And this is where they turned up!
I told the kids they looked like prairie dogs poking their heads out. And do you know they even SLEPT in there?!
It stayed like that for days until I couldn't stand looking at it anymore and was tired of looking for a blanket or for the chair I throw my clothes on in the bedroom.