What Happened to the Week?

Seriously.

I don't know where the week went.

It's been a weird week. Josh came home from ALP (the gifted program he does) on Wednesday with a bad report. Apparently, he likes to talk. This is not news to me. At school he's always been a good worker and he's been able to control his "talking" so it doesn't get in the way of learning.

It's the second time in 4 weeks he's gotten in trouble for talking and not doing his work. Of course we had to address this before it becomes a problem.

And we wanted to make sure he understood how serious we are about good behavior in school. So we took away all his electronic games -- no computer, no DS, no PS2 and No TV for the rest of the week. And he also has to go to bed lights out at 7:00 every school day.

He was upset at first, but honestly, I don't think it was that bad for him. He and Sam played nicely all the rest of the week. And to be honest, it was nice not having the TV on or the kids fighting over the laptop or PS2.

And I'm pleased to report he's been much better at school. Of course the real test is next Wednesday when he goes back to ALP.

We've been trying to do "Friday Family Fun Nights" now that school is back in session. Josh's baseball practice was canceled earlier this week and rescheduled for last night. Our plan was to go down and watch his practice and maybe go out for ice cream after. But, as luck would have it, problems came up at Rich's work and he had to work. He's still working and probably will until tonight. He may have to work tomorrow too.

Not to ruin our fun though. The boys and I went down to the ball field and watched Josh's practice. It was fun. He's got a cute little team. What they lack in talent, they make up for in enthusiasm.

Today Josh as a ball game and then he's going to a sleep over. So even though Rich has to work, we should be entertained and busy enough.

Hope you all have good weekends!

I thought Weekends Were for Relaxing?

Last spring we tried something called "Friday Family Fun Nights." And that is what they are. We try to do something together after dinner. It doesn't have to be something big or expensive, the idea is to get out of the house and spend some time together as a family.

Now that summer is over and things are settling down, we decided to restart the fun nights. So last Friday we headed down to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. We didn't stay long, but we did run around the battlefield and then we drove up the mountain road to see the views from the top.

It was spectacular. The air was clear and the sky was blue. We could see Stone Mountain clearly in the distance (something we've never been able to do before because of all the haze) and the city looked amazing from up there.

We had such a great time we decided to come back later in the weekend and walk up the mountain.

Since Josh had his first baseball game on Saturday afternoon, we decided Sunday morning would be a good time to go.

Josh did great in his baseball game. Sam and I didn't go, we had some errands to run, but Rich said he did really well. He hit the ball each time he got up and had some really good throws.

Then Saturday afternoon, I was invited to a book signing in Buckhead for the book "Sleep is for the Weak." I got to meet Kristin Chase from Motherhood Unsensored, Mir from Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, and Rita Arens from Surrender, Dorothy! In my star-struck awe, I forgot I had my camera and didn't get their pictures! D'oh! They were all really nice and I'm so happy I got to meet them!


So Sunday morning we got up early. I had heard that the Target by us was getting Wii's in and wanted to get down there to get one for the boys Christmas present. I wasn't the only one that heard this, four others were waiting there too. But, the manager came out about 10 minutes before opening and announced they had none. Apparently, the stores aren't even told when the shipments will be coming in because the 18-wheelers will get carjacked. How sad is that?

So, I returned home empty handed (but as luck would have it we did find one on the internet) and we got the kids all buttered up, hatted and ready to go on a hike.



Notice the propeller on top of Sam's hat. He received many comments about that hat and was only slightly surprised that he couldn't "fly" up the mountain when the propeller was spinning.

They did really well.

Okay, so Josh complained that he was hungry and his legs were tired after only 5 minutes and he kept asking those coming down the mountain "how much further?" until we had to threaten him with more exercise and less video games if he didn't just suck it up.

And Sam was just slow. He did well for the parts he walked. But poor Rich carried him up most of the way.



Finally! We made it to the viewing area at the "almost" top and could stop for a snack!



We continued on past several cannons that had been dragged up by confederate troops ...



.... up to the very top of the mountain...



(they're standing on the triangulation station marker at the top)

... and back down the other side... until we got to the road, then we followed the road down. It took longer, but was much easier. At least for Sam.



We were all quite hot and yucky when we got home at lunch time.

Josh had another birthday party on Sunday -- that's the third birthday party in as many weeks! He went bowling this time -- he got the high score (96) thanks to back to back strikes. He had fun, but I'm hoping there won't be any more parties for a bit.

So what we thougth was going to be a nice relaxing, easy-going weekend ended up being quite busy! I was a bit happy that they all went back to school today so I could get some rest!

The Madness Begins

This past weekend we spent getting the house ready for an onslaught of visitors and getting ready for summer.

We have some friends from Australia coming to visit us this weekend -- they're stopping through for the weekend on their way from Orlando to Las Vegas. They were really good friends of ours when we lived there. They included us in family events and sort of adopted us as their own while we were there.

We're taking them to a Braves game on Sunday afternoon. Their son is playing t-ball or baseball this year and really wanted to go to a real baseball game while they were in the U.S. And we're only too happy to oblige!

After they leave, we have just enough time to recover before Rich's parents come for three weeks. More about that at another time.

So like I said we spent time getting the house ready over the weekend.

On Friday, we went to a carnival put on by the Parks & Rec Soccer league. It was fun. We did have a very small bit of rain and judging from our kids reactions, you would have thought they were related to the "Wicked Witch of the West." I have never heard such moaning over a small bit of rain!

But since we like to torment our children, we made them get wet.



Then, after about 3 minutes the rain stopped and we had fun again. We took the boys for some ice cream and then wandered over to watch some of the baseball games going on at the park.

We watches the 4 - 5 year old league. It was very cute to see those kids in their little uniforms playing baseball. What was a little scary was the parents. These kids are 4 and 5 -- and the parents were yelling at these kids like they were in the Majors. I felt sorry for one little kid.

Anyway, we watched for a while and then went home. Another Friday Family Fun Night Success!