SOUTH CAROLINA: Food Mania

Every other summer, my family makes a trip to South Carolina to visit my father's family. We always have a great time and I end up taking a ton of pictures. I thought I would narrow the trip down into categories for easier reading! Which brings me to one of my favorite topics...FOOD. I love it...especially in the summer and when with family. In fact, I was reminded of that, last night, when I had to perform the "Get in these Jeans" dance. Which makes me wonder why I gain weight during the summer? I know why, but it still makes me a bit angry at myself! (That might be a post for later!)

Back on track...Food in South Carolina. I am a sucker for loving food related to certain regions. You know...when you go on a trip and in order to feel like you are "one" with the location, you must eat this item until you can't breathe. Don't act like you don't know that feeling! Some examples from states that are dear to my heart:

Arizona: Matta's Mexican Restaurant (the old school one), Pete's Fish and Chips, LJ's Pizza, fresh citrus, guava ice cream
Colorado: anything from my grandma's garden, peaches, Bing cherries, Enstrom's Chocolate Almond Toffee
Oklahoma: Mommasita's cooking, June's crunchy crust, Taco Bueno, Mazzio's Pizza
Tennessee: Gardner's Market peach tea, Jenkin's Deli, Village Bake Shop's Thumbprint Cookies
South Carolina: Carolina BBQ, boiled peanuts, Edisto Beach tomatoes, Beaufort Stew, grits, crabs, John Derst Bread

Enjoying my South Carolina favorites:

Carolina BBQ with the family at DUKE's

I made my cousin, Ann, stop so I could snap a picture!

Pre-eating excitement! Peanut is ready!

Beaufort Stew: Potatoes, Sausage, Corn, Shrimp, and Crabs!

This is an Edisto tradition. All quite delicious, but the shrimp were insanely good~

I HAD TO INCLUDE THIS PIC of my cousin's daughter, RA Cutie! This little crabbie became her friend. She literally tried to keep it as a pet!

Okay...now that my mouth is drooling...I am ready to eat!

Kindergarten?

Couldn't be...my baby boy is in kindergarten! Little Man is moving up...BIG MAN ON CAMPUS!

I was a bundle of nerves on the day before he started, but managed to stay strong when we dropped him off. It was pretty tough on Peanut too! Funny thing, LM literally got ready in a blink of an eye. He loves being a big boy.

"Please don't go!"

Having his friend, D-Man, with him made it a little easier!

Do you see the fear and sadness starting to set in for both of them?

Not a great picture day for me, but great one for Little Man!

If I would only straighten my back...huh, MOM!

Where, OH, where, did my brother go? OH where, OH where could he be?

BTW, she has taken that backpack everyday and has wanted to stay!

My babies are growing up!

FINALLY...

we picked up our happy little kindergartner!

He had a great day!

Back to Life...Back to Reality

Back to life...back to reality....are you singing yet or wondering where in the world we have been?

So ya know...I am swimming in my own craziness! NO, I have not abandoned this blog! I actually love recording our life through my eyes and have missed it so much. The last three weeks have been flat out nuts-o which means in my free time...I am sleeping! Let's see...birthday parties, South Carolina, summer fun, prepping for school (for three of us), changing jobs three times...in three months (LONG STORY), doctor's appointments, settling into a school routine, etc. I know everyone else is busy too, so I am totally not griping...just feeling guilty that I can't get it all done!



SO bare with me....................strap in and hold on...............we are taking a trip back into time!

MY LIFE AS A SITCOM: MAKE A BUCK

We are having a great time visiting our family down south! Eating, catching up, and reminiscing.

Today, I was talking to my cousin, Ann, about a "rummage sale" that she is preparing to have. It got me thinking about the weekend after our own garage sale. Brian had informed me that he didn't want to put his clothes in the garage sale because he thought they were worth more than my price selections. He ended up taking them to a store called Plato's Closet. This store buys trendy clothes that have been gently used and resales them to the public at a reasonable price. Well, Brian made about $24 dollars. Yippeee! We used that to go out to eat! The next day, I could hear him digging through his closet. He appeared holding a large basket filled with clothes and shoes. A trip to his good friends at Plato's Closet resulted in yet another 20 something dollars. We went out to eat again! Double Yippee! Now, I am wondering...Does Brian think it is fun to earn an extra buck or is he trying to find ways to avoid eating my home cooking?
I guess it is just another episode in our life as a sitcom!

Swimming...

Despite the crazy weather, we have done some swimming in our pool...

Educational Summer?

I have to admit that this summer, my organized educational activities have ranked few and far between. I drive the kids crazy with little learning reminders, but we love to do actual planned activities. We have managed to do a couple that some may want to try....

I ordered Little Man the Little Kids National Geographic Magazine for some non-fiction reading last year. We love it! There are so many little articles/activities that are on his level. There is a science experiment activity included in each magazine. We started a Science journal to record all our findings. This journal also holds some of the experiments that I take from the show, Sid the Science Kid.

To learn the shapes, I cut shapes out of sandpaper (using my cricut) and glued to cardstock. Then we used colored masking tape to make larger shapes. We actually turned this into a game by rolling a dice to a shape, then jumping to it while naming each one:

Same idea as the shapes except using numbers:

We used shaving cream to practice letters, numbers, shapes, and drawing a face. I would draw the item on a white board then the kids have to tell me what it is and try to draw it themselves. This is a great tactile activity and reinforces skills learned. I used to do this with ketchup when the kids were younger. We would do right before bath in a diaper or I would just put the ketchup in a ziplock baggie and let them squish away.

I am not sure why, but my brain works in themes. It often drives me (and everyone around me) crazy particularly around trip time. I like to put together activities for the ride to our vacation destination. I found this website that has some really great learning ideas for toddlers...one of my personal favs! On this site are tot books (activity books). Well, for our last trip, I found activities to go with movies the kids had. This is an example of something we did.

I am working on some activities for our trip to South Carolina...I will take some pics and share later.