Lawn Lights

I should first say that I despise yard ornamentation at Christmastime--and anytime really. It is such a frivolous use of time and money. I really can't appreciate all the work that goes into putting up then taking down elaborate displays for a mere month before having to figure out how to store the expensive yet tacky lighted sculptures for the better part of a year. I also can't appreciate leaving lights up year round, so bottom line is I'm scrooge-ish about decorating at Christmas.

(yes, even the tree seems a little much fuss to my common sense detector, but that's another post)

So, call it a Christmas miracle if you will, but we have lights on the lawn this year AND I put them out there. Yeah.

I don't despise lawn lights any less, I just  love my children to the moon and back and they not only have Christmas Cheer, they have Holiday Fever.

Clay was out of town one night this week and when he's gone, there is no one to tell me to go to bed, so I usually don't. This particular sleepless night- and early morning- I chose to "surprise" the kids by putting up Christmas lights on the lawn. They had seen me buy the lights, so the surprise was relative.

I will ever be the only one to fully appreciate the circus act that preceded me leading them outside to show off our humble light display... but I can try to explain.

Start by dropping the outside temp to somewhere around 45 degrees...
Now, imagine a box of net lights, meant to spread across our very sparse bushes being opened. The net isn't large enough to span the bushes and will look quite silly on just one of the 5 in front of our house...
Spend 30 minutes walking around the very cold house around 1 AM trying to figure out Plan B display
Decide to "net" the top of the palm tree and build around that...
Realize we have no  ladder. 
Drag one of our swiveling bar stools outside and place under palm tree.
Stand on stool with net lights in hand...
Contmeplate for 15, oh 20 minutes
Realize how silly that idea was and also that many neighbors are probably growing concerned at this point.
Climb Down
Plug lights into outside outlet to test length for yet another idea
Realize socket doesn't work anyway
Hunt for other outdoor sockets in both front and back yards
Worry often about raccoon, armadillo and possum bites while sifting through dark bushes
Realize we have no useable outlets
Go to fuse box, reset outdoor socket and/ or entire house due to lack of fuse box know how
Test outlet, unsuccessfully
Find Extension Cord
Run through front window, only after checking that window will still shut and latch safely despite cord
Check to see that it is about 3 AM
Find neglected tree from earlier landscape project, plant it where net lights display desired
Realize you have no shovel
Find kids' plastic spade in backyard
Dig
Plant root exposed tree
Cover with net lights
Assemble light up nativity
Re-Assemble
Re-Assemble
Fight with tipsy tree under too heavy net lights
Weigh tree roots down with potted plant.
Plug in, Re- arrange so innies and outies line up for next outlet
Assemble electric luminary bags
Screw in each luminary bag lightbulb
Run in front of nativity display
Re-Run for aesthetic balance
See now that it is nearly 5 am
Contemplate just hanging wreath in the morning
Decide Crazy has already set up camp, may as well finish the visit
Locate Hot Glue gun, plug in and wait for heat
Glue fake fruit to wreath
Tie ribbons
re-Tie ribbons
Hot Glue Ribbons to wreath
Hot glue fingers- ouch!
Go  outside to size up wreath hanging, notice impending daylight
Hurry
Run extension cord through window
Plug in wreath
Climb step ladder (tall enough for this job,not palm tree earlier)
Adhere special No Slip hook and pray
Hang Wreath, hold breath
thank God for answered prayer concerning hanging wreath
Find clear duct tape to hide white cord along white siding
Make Hot Cocoa- on the stove... because it takes longer than using the microwave and at this point, why not?
Wake Children at 6 AM
Drag to Lawn
Expect bigger response
Send kids back to bed
Climb into bed at 6:30 AM
Hallucinate a lot
wake up at 8 AM
Feel guilty for sleeping while kids awake
Pour full cups of cold cocoa in sink
Listen closely, hear the landscapers outside
Threaten their very lives under your breath
Extend gratitude heavenward for new pinestraw
Look closely, see they've re-wired your lights... and better
Think of husband's landscape crew as kindly little mexican elves 
Repeat set up steps as necessary each and every time the rain falls or wind blows
                                                     ( which thus far has been often)

ALL that for THIS little display folks...

 ...the next time Clay is out of town, please call me around 10 PM and kindly tell me it is time for bed :)

Ben Beaned Me

 

 For those of you who've already seen all this on FaceBook, I am merely recording my Beanishness for those few family members who get all their latest Kelly & Family news from the blog. 

Ben helped me give my photos a little face lift... I'm the Bean on the Right...the Right Bean you could say.

A little brother who beans you, a little sister who elfs...aren't siblings the best?!

(They really are.)

SeaWorld Saturday

GIORDANO'S

Lake Buena Vista , Florida

Saturday, 11/29/2008

SnaggleTooth

Fisher's First Lost Tooth

( Fairy Value:  $5! )

Fisher's Birthday

Fisher turned 6 on November One. We celebrated at Chuck E Cheese with one of his favorite pals from Savannah, Devin. We also got to spend some quality time with MeeMee & PaPa.I made a cake, as usual, but also got one in the party package as some folks - namely Chandler- don't care for chocolate. (Fisher insisted on a chocolate b-day cake--he's worse than me when it comes to chocolate!) Well... skipping ahead one warm drive over into Savannah and a melted birthday cake later and I was glad to have more cake than we knew what to do with. My creation was edible but ugly. Thankfully, I learned a long time ago to take the cake's picture immediately after finishing it, so there is proof of what he was supposed to have for cake :)

((the cake is a very central figure in all birthdays in our home...almost as much a guest at the table as the rest of us living breathing souls... it bears its own unique character, as requested by the birthday child))

Fisher's birthday is always a little topsy turvey due to late night Halloweens and birthday cake baking after the costumes have come off...so don't look for any magnificent photographs this go round:

Ohio Drivers...again.

In what seems to be an unsinkable subject, my children have decided they are the go to experts on drivers from Ohio. At least, to hear them talk, you'd think they know every nuance and mannerism of a Buckeye behind the wheel.

Take yesterday for instance, when I was exiting a parking lot and recieved a cheerful toot from the horn of a fellow driver ( of course I wasn't in the wrong!) Immediately this low growl began to rumble through the back seat "Darned Ohio Drivers!" my children cried... (not realizing that maybe, just maybe they were in the offending car)

And so, I began my intercessory mediation " Just because someone blows their horn does not mean they are from Ohio" and really whatever else I said is not important, because they were ignoring me, continuing their line of conversation instead:

"Did you see her plates?" Chan asked his sister, craning his neck to see out the back window in the event the car came near enough for him to share his displeasure via stuck out tongue or scowled brow. 

Logan said: "No, but she stopped at that stop sign, so she isn't from Ohio" 

Catching Up

I am so many decades behind already, I'm not sure catching up to the current date in pictures, stories and activities is even possible, but for those of you who are still paying attention, a few pictures from Halloween and the day before. The alligator you see lives in one of the water hazards on the golf course... he/she is one of several that we call neighbor in Island West. I took my picture to "comfort" Momma :)

The playground pics are the day before and if you ever want to play there too, it can be found  on Hilton Head @ one of my favorite places to hide from the world, Shelter Cove Harbour. We walked around taking in the calm of the boats bobbing on the water and then played in the playground for a while... conducting weights and levers experiments, seeing how many kids it takes to lift me- mom- on the teeter totter. (2 of the big ones :)

Halloween morning it was pumpkin & skeleton pancakes with "Boo-tiful" orange milk for breakfast and then the pumpkin carving commenced. Each child drew a toothpick from my hand and matched it to the pumpkin with the other half of the toothpick ( keeping things fair!) I ended up doing most of the scooping, poking, sawing and sorting, but the pride in those pumpkins was all theirs!

As far as Halloween costumes went, Chandler decided to be the Swedish (?) Chef from the Muppets, Fisher was Darth Vader and Logan was a Spy from Totally Spies though frequently misidentified as Poison Ivy or Ariel.



Here ya go:

15 minutes

So, apparently our neighborhood has its own googlesite... and there's evidence of our little soiree:

Chili CookOff Victory Picture

(Don't we all look thrilled?!)

Also, see a few of the kids on this page.

 ( most duplicate of what has already been posted here prior)

Fall Festivals

Over the weekend we went to two Fall Festivals in the area. The first one was on Saturday, after our neighborhood costume party. It was held at Honey Horn on HHI and was mostly an assortment of inflatabled for the kids. In the pictures you will see Potty PuttPutt... or whatever clever name they came up with... I was impressed by the creativity of this game and love the expression of the man after Clay didn't make it on his first try.

The second festival was held by our church on Sunday evening at Huspah Platation. It was more in the line of an old fashioned Fall Fest with hayrides, bonfires and game booths for the kids. It was absolutely beautiful on the plantation with these old trees whose limbs sprawl along the ground. There were free roaming cattle too. We discovered this on our hayride, when a herd or two decided to follow the "hay trail".

There's one last picture in this group that doesn't fit the descriptions here, and that is because it was taken in Charleston, where we drove- very spontaneously I might add- to eat dinner after the festival. We were outside of California Dreaming on the water and this picture was the last before my camera battery surrendered to slumber:

Curious Costume Party

Island West (our neighborhood) held a costume party this past weekend for residents. The children were encouraged to come in costume and the adults were invited to enter a chili cook off. We indulged in all the available fun. My chili took third place- my prize was a maple leaf pancake turner and some halloween pancake molds with changeable face expressions. ( pumpkin & skeleton)
I had nudged the kids to think of costumes in lots of three... the three musketeers, Peanut, Butter, & jelly, etc. While in a local thrift store, we came across a yellow suit coat that Fisher fell in love with. It didn't take long from there to come up with The Man In The Yellow Hat, Curious George and A Banana. It did take a lot of coaxing to convince Logan to be a banana, and contrary to what you might believe, pointing out that she could call herself "Hannah Banana" didn't help matters at all. Finally, she agreed and our costume was a hit. The children painted pumpkins, guessed how many candy corns in a jar and played a modified version of "Cake Walk" where we gave them extra goody  bas instead of cakes, because we adults thought we'd rather share/eat the cakes than give them all away. I like to think I had something to do with that because a lot of folks wanted to open the cake I brought and were dismayed to hear it was for the cake walk. It was Brown Sugar Banana Sour Cream Pound Cake with Chocolate Chips, Pecans & Poppy Seeds with a Chocolate Ganache Glaze. Lots of people were happy, and said so, once they got to open  and taste it. I beamed a bit, I'm sure :)
It was great to get to meet our neighbors and just relax in this way for the morning ( the cake and chili had kept me up cooking all the night before!)
Here are some pictures of our time with neighbors (and the irresistable proof the my kids once dressed up like this for me :) :

SC State Fair & Concert

We recently attended the SC State Fair and a Jeremy Camp/Toby Mac concert held inside. During the night of the concert, it rained constantly and there was no humor left over for rides, candy apples or cotton candy. But the music was good and the concert a lot of fun despite the downpour. The next day, Clay and Chandler headed to a Carolina football game and because the cost for five tickets to the game far outweighed three tickets to the fair, I opted... volunteered.... begged... to go to the fair with the younger two kids instead :)  We had a lot of fun and blew throughh 50 tickets in rides with ease! Strangely, as I get older, I find I actually WANT to see all the exhibited art, food and contest entries. This doesn't carry over to my children... they were interested but didn't find it as fascinating as bumper cars. My favorite part of the fair has got to be, will always be, the food. Especially fried things.. namely cheese on a stick. This year I tried a deep fried Oreo too... it was like getting a doughnut with an oreo inside. Behold, footage (if you click on these pictures to go to the Flickr site, there is also a bumper cars video from Fisher driving me around):

SOGGY CONCERT:

STATE FAIR FUN:

Terrarium & Miscellaneous Fruit

Making greehouses from 2 liter bottles and baby food, plus some funky fruit we had for breakfast:

Dr Williams & Chandler

CarysAugusta 022, originally uploaded by kellybrewer.

We recently visited Augusta to welcome a new baby cousin into the family. While in the hospital, waiting on baby and new momma to come out of recovery, we happened to run into Dr. George Williams. Chandler has wanted to meet "his" doctor for years now. It was definintely a chance encounter, as Dr. Williams is one of the area's most sought after physicians. One is lucky to see him when they go into labor or set an appointment at his office, much less passing in the hallway of the hospital cafeteria. It was a lucky day for Chan and a great reminder of the many blessings I've received all along the way- from being in the care of an excellent and caring doctor when I was pregnant to the healthy baby boy he delivered for me 9 years ago.
My how time flies!

Chili Contest

My chili took third place at our neighborhood Fall Festival today. Mostly, I just copied the "brown bag" instructions and like usual, did things my own peculiar way. I used the above picture to describe my dish and I really think it helped people like what they were ABOUT to eat before they had even tasted it, because, you know chili can be such a murky thing to eat. Sour cream and cheese are a must with me, when it comes to chili, so those were offered in my "chili station".  I am not typically a vain sorta gal, but it did make me feel good when several neighbors made a point to stop by on their mingling route to suggest the judge should have picked mine for first. :)

SCIENCE LESSON: The Atmosphere & Its Layers

Using some of the play doh made earlier, we rolled out "snakes" of

varying colors. The children then rolled these colors into one piece and cut them out using a small juice glass. Using a diagram we had printed, we then labled our atmosphere models in an effort to commit them to memory:

SCIENCE & HISTORY: ICE AGE

The Ice Age was COLD and from the biblical worldview, a resulting climate effect due to the Deluge. We are learning about this in both Science and History. The project was simple: Who can hold an ice cube the longest? Who can hold two? Whose will melt the fastest?

We set the timer for three minutes:

Logan won & no one wanted a second round :)

HITORY PROJECT: Made In His Image

In (Mystery of) History, we began to discuss Creation and the design of man.  The project  was to "create" our own little people out of clay. Using Crayola Air Dry Clay, we each sculpted a "Mini-Mee" of sorts, as we contemplated the great care that went into our very design. We were also challenged to create a new animal from scratch... one that no one has ever heard of before, in the same manner that all animals were first dreamed up. Everyone got REAL creative here, not to mention MESSY! .

CHANDLER & his creature:

LOGAN & her creature

FISHER & his creature

This was a great discussion builder and personally gave me a whole new attitude about those little "flaws" I seem to notice about myself.

When I was "creating" my little Mee, there weren't any flaws... it was just the way she turned out and I liked each small detail that made my sculpture unique. I have not worked with clay a lot in this manner before, but I have always wanted to (I have always wanted a potter's wheel too!) I sincerely plan to seek out classes in clay/pottery in the future... as you will see, I got pretty invested in finishing my Mee, long after the children had moved on to bigger and better things...

My Creature (a hummingbee!) & Myself (lumps and all!):

SCIENCE PROJECT: Fossils & Earth Strata

SCIENCE PROJECT: Fossils & Earth Strata

Our current studies have included fossils and how they are made, as well as the different layers of Earth and the strata formed by different textures of soil. Our project involved adding several differently weighted ground materials to a jar ( we used pebbles, rocks, sand and twigs). We then filled the remaining space in the jar with water. Each child took a turn being the "earthquake" and then we set our jar on a table to settle. We checked the jar one minute later and then another 30 minutes later. The longer the jar sits and settles, the clearer the water becomes and the layers of soil are more easily defined. It has been a few weeks since we did this project, the water is now pretty much back to it's "pre-earthquake(s)" state.



Through this project, we were able to observe the effects of the Deluge on the Earth's surface. We could see how different objects were covered quickly enough under the moving sludge to be fossilized.

We must resist the urge to shake the jar again :)

HOME EC: Blueberry Biscuits

HOME EC: Blueberry Biscuits

We put our measuring skills and instruction following ability to the test one morning not too long ago. The result was (thankfully) edible!

Step 1: Find Early Birds

Step 2: "Stir it up, lil' darlin'(s)...."

Step 3: Place resulting concoction on cookie sheets & bake

Step 4: Pour the milk, breakfast is ready!

( I mean, "Class Dismissed!")

ART PROJECT: Fusion Beads

ART PROJECT: Fusion Beads

Each child was given a bead board and got to spend a little time on their "design". I then took a low heat iron and melted the beads to cries of "Wow!" and "Cool!" and "Awesome!" After their first design, they took a few beads and slid them onto toothpicks to make "worms".

Chandler's design:

Logan's design:

Fisher's design (w/a little help from Mom):

various worms:

This was a fun, new activity; one they look forward to repeating many times again.

Curiosity

I am in some sort of crazy cycle rigt now... never getting caught up before a new adventure begins... and that's OK... but until I return to some form of normalacy in life and in blogging, we'll always have pictures. (worth 1000 words a pop, right?!)

This one is amongst my recent favorites:

While on a trip to see Mom and Dad, DeAnna and I were able to catch up with each other for a day at the zoo...

The girls check out a monkey.

The monkey investigates the onlookers.

" Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most curious one of all? "

Pelham,Alabama

After leaving Atlanta on Chandler's birthday, we headed for Alabama to meet with Clay's friend and business partner, Antonio. Clay and Antonio met this summer during the Week of Champions and it didn't take long for them to realize they were soul mates, meant to be together as often as possible! (can I get an Amen, Gloria?)

We went to Pelham, a suburb of Birmingham, and truly enjoyed getting to know Antonio's family better.

While the men spent time working, the kids and I explored the area.
We visited Oak Mountain State park, where Chandler cried... literally cried... all the way up The Peavine Falls trail, thanks to the confidence his father has shown in my driving ability. The poor kid just knew I was going to drive us over the next curve...
We made it up and down and they all relaxed enough towards the end to enjoy the beauty of the area.
You will also see a handful of shots at football practice... where Mr. Antonio spends a lot of time helping the local middle and high school teams perfect their game:

VIEW AS SLIDESHOW