Great-Grandma Mimi comes to visit

Last Wednesday, my grandma....my kids' Great-Grandma (known to them as Mimi) came to stay with us for 5 days.  We were excited because we have never spent that much constant time with her before (OK, we were a little worried too...what if the kids were to crazy?  What if we woke her up?  What if she fell and hurt herself?  What if Nate is in a bad mood and throws tantrums all day?  What if....What if.....What if....).  I have a fairly firm philosophy that we don't live our lives in fear of the "What ifs" (although they do at times keep me in check).  So....we went for it. 

Great-Grandma Mimi and Hannah

The kids and I picked grandma up  and brought her to be with our family for the rest of the week.

Let me just say that We Had A Wonderful Time!

Grandma's new little buddy

The kids all stepped it into high gear.  Nicole made certain that grandma was always comfortable (and well fed).  Hannah made sure that grandma always had a smile on her face and Nathan became grandma's BFF.  Seriously...that little boy was Always at grandma's side or sitting next to her as we watched movies together.  He really, really enjoyed his time with her. 

loving on Mimi

Best Friends Forever!

Grandma's reaction to Nate's kiss to her...smack on the lips!

The best moment was when he asked her to come in the bathroom with him and help him go potty.  Nathan was "grunting" and Grandma was laughing.  They really 'bonded' in that moment. 

Nate even took a flying jump of a hug at Grandma and nearly made ME have a heart attack.  Thankfully....her "motherly instincts" kicked in and she was anticipating the jump...but it took me a minute to regain composure, hahaha. 

We took grandma to Target and out on a picnic in the neighborhood.  She watched movies with us, laughed at the children, listened to Nicole read each day, laughed with me at night, and truly had a great time with these kiddos. 

Grandma and her girls!

I am so grateful she came to stay. 

Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace and Boyhood Home

Any good homeschooling mom would see the incredible opportunities for learning about some of America's greatest people while visiting Tennessee and Kentucky.  We took the opportunity to stop at Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home.  It was a wonderful stop that I highly recommend!  It is near Hodgenville, Kentucky, about 45 minutes south of Louisville.  The rangers gave my children a workbook.  If they completed the first four pages, they would receive a Jr. Ranger pin.  I really enjoyed and appreciated that.  It made me take more time to visit the display areas and read more of the information on the walls.

 

This was just the welcoming sign at his birthplace

Weird picture of Nicole ;)  but they were intrigued by the spinning wheel.

I know it's hard to see because of the light reflection, but this is a portrait of Lincoln made out of pennies.  Pretty cool.

His "symbolic" cabin.  This part was kind of confusing.  I don't know if they just scaled the cabin down and used original logs, or if it's all new wood.  I guess it doesn't matter.  But, they say that this area we are standing was where the cabin would have stood that he was born in.  The cabin is inside of the magnificent marble structure that you will see below.

Obviously I didn't take the crooked picture (however, if I did take it...it would have been just as crooked, hahaha).  We are standing on the steps in front of the memorial that holds the "symbolic cabin".

Yep, see....my picture is crooked too.  There are 56 steps to represent his 56 years of life.  Nicole only counted 54 though ;)

working on their workbooks so they can earn their badges.  They had Lincoln logs in the corn for Nate to play with ;)

The next day on our way back from Lousiville (we should have been in Ohio, but weather kept us from getting there then Nicole got really sick, so we had to head back south.  Nicole was in the car during this stop. She's not in any pictures.  We stopped about 10 miles away from his birthday  at Sinking Springs, in Knobb Creek.  Lincoln's family leased land here for several years while undergoing a legal dispute of land at their former residence.  They lost the dispute, and their land.  Lincoln remembers living and working at Knobb Creek.

This was Lincoln's best friend's house, Austin.  This was the actual house.  It was moved from further back of the property, up to the front so we could see it.

We even got to go inside this one!  Look how big that fireplace was for cooking.  The whole cabin was smaller than our upstairs "bonus" room.  Could you imagine a family of 4, 5 or 6 living there?

This is Knobb Creek, where Lincoln played with his friend Austin (and apparently almost drowned)

Nate enjoyed throwing the rocks.

The view from the creek.

 

Another outside view of Austin's cabin

This is a statue of Lincoln in the center of Hodgenville, KY.

And a boyhood statue of him reading

This was such a cool town. They have a museum about Abraham Lincoln, but we didn't get to go in it.  I didn't Nicole out of the car all day, she was so sick.  The museum is cheep....just a couple of bucks to get in.  Maybe next time.

If you are ever passing through middle KY, you should take about 2-3 hours and stop by these places.  They were wonderful!

Tennessee Trip with the Kids

A couple weeks ago, Jeremy suggested to me that I take the kids on a road trip to Ohio to see my Mama Pat because she couldn't come down and visit like we had hoped.  On the way we had planned to stop in Tennessee for a few days to visit Jeremy's parents and his sister and her family.  We ended up staying longer than we anticipated and had a terrific time!

 

First of all, I got my mother-in-law (and myself) hooked on Geocaching.  Geocaching is basically a world wide "treasure hunt".  People all over the world hide 'geocaches' in various locations.  Some geocaches are just big enough for a small piece of paper for people to sign and log that they found the cache.  Others are larger and full or trinkets that you can take and leave new ones as a reward.  We had a fun time!

This was my first geocache ever. It had a surprise in it, that I think hooked me for life ;)

It's probably wrong to post this, but I wanted to show how clever these caches can be.  This was a small tube connected to a bolt in a pillar.  The GPS coordinate along with the hints help us figure out the bolt had something to do with the cache.  This was our second cache and the creativity hooked us even more:)

 We had a lot of fun hanging out with the cousins.  Their ages were fun, Nicole (6), Seth (5), Hannah (4), Suzie (3), Nathan (2), and James (1).

This cabin is dated around 1790!

The sign says this is a portion of the first wagon trail to the Cumberland Settlements in East TN.  Blazed in 1787.

There was a geocache down that old wagon road.  We had to walk through this creepy cemetery.  I had to keep my thoughts to myself as I walked through this old lot.

I loved that Nicole was picking flowers and sticking them in her pocket!

How I felt after the hike!  hahaha...just kidding.

These kids were always together.  They would just sit around and play pretend, make up games or talk. They loved spending time with one another.  I hope they always have close relationships.

We found another geocache!  This one had some great goodies.

Cousins

Grammy's got "King James" in there as my kids like to say.

James is SUCH a cutie!

Our cold toes.  It was in the 50s!!! Brrrr.

I have more pictures that will be posted later.

Halloween 2012

For the first time in over a decade, we were home for Halloween night.  Lately we have spent our Halloween's at our church's different festivals and trunk or treat activities...but this year we decided to stay home and let the kids trick or treat.  It was a big decision.  At least for me.  I "get" the whole dressing up thing, I know it's fun.  My girls almost never wear regular clothes.  I just don't want them to be confused or think we have a double standard by saying we don't "Celebrate Halloween", but sure...go ahead and go trick or treating.  We did talk about today being "Reformation Day", the anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the church door in Whittenburg and essentially began the Protestant Reformation...so, I guess that counts for something, right?  (trying to justify myself here, :)

Either way....we did let the kids dress up and go trick or treating and they had a GREAT time!

Yesterday we started our festivities (if you can call it that, haha) with pumpkin painting.  I bought three little pumpkins for the kids while we were in Kentucky (so cheap!) and so they each had a pumpkin to paint.  I think this will become a tradition.  They loved it!

Nate worked on his pumpkin for almost half an hour!

Hannah was also very serious about her painting

Nicole was the "Mastermind" behind the pumpkin painting. She had a vision!

Ta-Da!!  Her pumpkin.  What you can't see in this photo is the blond hair and brown headband she also included on her pumpkin.

 Next came our Pumpkin Carving.  We decided to do it outside on the beautiful fall day (in the 60s!!!)  Of course the kiddos looked so cute, I couldn't help myself!

Nicole was very excited this year about digging in!

Nate was pouting because he wasn't getting much of a chance;)

Ahhh...now it's his turn!

We were even vistited by a little Ladybug (perfect for my Lady Bug later on in the night)

The kids decided they wanted a sad pumpkin (barely out voted again the "puking pumpkin" that yaya made ;)

So, here we are.  Rapunzel, a lady bug and Nathan

I got Nicole's dress and wig for super cheap at a children's consignment store.  And, I also got Hannah's dress at a consignment store for about $2.  A few pins and black headband with pipe cleaners...and we have ourself a costume!

I like Nicole's expression here.  I was sitting the exact same way at the desk when I was first going through these pictures

Nicole had the idea of decorating her braid with flowers, just like Rapunzel did in the movie Tangled

The kids on our block (and a few extra friends).  We have great neighbors.  We all ordered pizzas and ate outside together before getting our trick or treat on!

 All day today Nicole was trying to think of a trick to do "just in case someone tells me trick instead of treat" (LOVE that girl!  I would have never though of making sure I had a trick ready...you know...just in case!  Well, she had a trick ready.  She had a bean (or a rock) and showed it to her audience.  Then she put her hands behind her back and wiggled them around.  She then put her hands out front, criss cross style and asked them to guess which hand had the rock.  The trick was....neither hand had the rock, she dropped it behind her! hahahaha.  It was the best she had!

 

So, there you have it.  Our first real Trick or Treating Halloween.  The kids had a blast.  Nate came running back to the street every time "The gave me some!!!!".  The kids couldn't believe how much candy they had.  Hannah said it was "The best day ever!"