Family Salt Recipe May Become Famous

Last week, Will was studying weather in school. They read the book "It Looked Like Spilt Milk". In this book, the author looks at the clouds and sees all sorts of things. As a class, Will's friends made their own version of "Spilt Milk". He brought it home over the weekend and we took pictures of Will's pages.

Will not only had to state that the cloud looked like a chicken leg, but one with Grandma's seasoning. This seasoning being "S. Salt". Will discovered the great taste of this salt a few months ago and now insists on using it on his chicken. Beware, Grandma S.! Will plans to make a new and BETTER version of the S. salt. According to Will, the only thing lacking in this concoction is pepper. His version will , of course, have pepper in it.

Yard Golf

Continuing our search for "outside family fun" we discovered the game of Blongo Ball or Yard Golf as we call it. To play this game, one must throw two golf balls, connected by a rope, onto a contraption of pvc pipe. The pipe is formed to create a three-tiered goal of sorts. Each tier has been designated a different point value. The object is to reach 21 points without going over. It is probably no surprise that Allan and I were out for blood to beat each other at this game. As luck would have it, he won one game and I won the other.

Doing my winning victory dance

The deciding match will be played at a later date due to injuries sustained by munchkins. Emma and Jack were bound and determined to play along with us. Jack managed to throw a few forward toward the goal before bonking himself on the head with the very hard golf ball. Emma, try as she might, could only get the balls UP into the air, rather than up and forward toward the goal. When I tried to help her with the throwing technique, I managed to really bonk her hard in the head with a golf ball. That was the end of our "outside family fun". While it may not be the ideal game for our family at the moment, Allan and I thoroughly enjoyed it. :) It was too hot to keep playing anyway! HA! (the temp rose above 80 degrees on Sunday)

A Great Loss

We are very fortunate to live in a neighborhood that is full of trees. Our backyard is mostly wooded and the front has a beautiful clump of very tall trees that really adds character to our home. Shortly after moving in last fall, we had a storm. Evidently, lightening from the storm hit our biggest and most beautiful tree in the front. As you can guess, it did not survive. Last week, a group of men came and cut our large friend down. We are all saddened by this loss, but have decided to make the best of it. When time allows, we will fix things up and post pictures. In the meantime, Emma posed as a tree on what is left of our large friend - the stump.

My plants

Before I begin, I want to make it clear that I do NOT have a green thumb. That being said, I want everyone to know how proud I am of my front doorstep plants. I purchased a couple new plants last fall. They are very bizzare looking and I believe they are called Rudolph's Red Nose or something ridiculous like that. Nonetheless, I like the unusual. I planted them with pansies in my pots and lo and behold, they all lasted the winter and are looking more fabulous than ever! They recently sprouted up these long stems and have a flower-like thing on the ends. Even the pansies still look great from LAST FALL! Once again, I have to say how much I LOVE NC! It's awesome climate allows me to grow flowers all fall and winter long. Yippee!

May I have an earring, please?

Emma, Jack and I decided to have a little adventure today and went into Winston looking for fabric to make curtains. The day was going very well and we had lots of laughs (came up dry in the fabric department though). At lunch, however, I believe someone slipped Emma a giggle pill. She decided to make a "milk of Liberty" with her cup and had an uncontrolable case of the giggles. When our food arrived, she turned to me and asked, "may I have one of your earrings, please?" I had her repeat this several times. Finally, I realized that she was asking for one of my ONION rings and thought they were called earrings! At that point, we all had a case of the giggles. Kids are so much fun. :)

Boy wannabe

Just when I think my little princess has overwhelmed us with pink everything, dollies and fru fru, she comes trotting down the steps clad in one of Will's outfits! The uncontrollable laughter coming from her was a dead giveaway that something was up. I should also mention that the outfit was even complete with Will's Star Wars underwear as well. She and Will insisted on pictures and it was Emma's idea to look "tough".

Daddy's Home!

After a long week without daddy, he finally made it back home last night. We were SO HAPPY to see him! The saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" definately has some truth to it. Of course, no trip away is complete without gifts. Daddy did a great job of picking just the right gift for everyone. There was a "Titanic" book for Will, a princess set (complete with clip-on earrings!), a truck for Jack (too busy for a picture) and Oregon wine and D-A-R-K chocolate for Tanna! Daddy also brought pieces of driftwood, a starfish and some kind of pink shell from the Pacific Ocean. Hooray! We are so happy to have the big guy back home!