House of Estrogen

A Little Summer Vacay - Part 1, Great Wolf Lodge

When we started summer vacation planning, I said, "Beach!"  J.C. turned up his nose. I said, "OK! Lake house!" His eye twitched. Then he said, "Let's do something different... not the beach, and not a lake house." Huh? What? My brain couldn't compute. No ocean? No lake? Possibly no pool? What sort of summer vacation is this? And why on earth would we consider it? In my mind, vacation involves a large body of water. Always. That's just how I roll. He won out though, and we made plans to spend a few days doing touristy stuff in Atlanta. At the last minute, I added on a night at the Great Wolf Lodge with some friends. It couldn't be a completely swimsuit-free vacation!

Our plan was to skip the last day of school in order to arrive at Great Wolf Lodge right at 1:00 when you can access the water park. As luck would have it, kindergarten graduation and a middle school awards ceremony interfered with those plans, so we got on the road as soon as we could after those events.  As always, Great Wolf Lodge was a lot of fun.

That's Nina face down in the background getting slammed.

 

The dads.

After 24 hours of waterlogged Great Wolf Lodge fun, we all felt about like this.

Then, it was time to head to Atlanta. Stay tuned for part two.

 

GWL-ATL Picture a Day, Day 2

2014 Snow Days, One and Two

Yesterday was our first "snow day" of the year. In my using the term "snow day", do not make any hasty assumptions that there was actually any snow, or ice, or sleet, or hail, or anything that bore any resemblance to snow. No. School was closed due to the "threat of inclement weather." To be fair, the forecast was for snow to start about noon. It seems like that might warrant an early release, but instead, the school system shut down completely. We saw our first snow flake about 5:00, after all kids would have been home had they gone to school. "Snow day" number one was a bit of a letdown for those looking forward to a winter wonderland. Instead, I (thankfully) went to work while JC drove all over town to every Target, Sears, Home Depot, and Kohl's he could find in search of rock salt, snow boots, gloves, and hats for the girls. He was only marginally successful in that quest. I can only assume that most of the population of our county was doing the same.

Today though, for snow day number two, we actually got snow! Pretty snow! White snow! Cold snow! Snow! Snow! Snow!  That whole "snow day" thing started to make sense.

We trekked over to the park where we found most of our neighborhood on the big sledding hill.

The girls had a ball.

J.C. did too.

One of my neighbors was getting in the action sledding with her kids.

J.C. walked over to me, took my camera, and said, "Go ride with Addie!" To my puzzled look, he responded, "You always say you should be in more pictures. Go sled. Blame your friend Allison! She's the one who says you should get in the picture. He had a point, so I hopped on the sled with my little.

We smiled, we laughed, we had fun... and then... we crashed into a tree. Oops. I think next time I'll stick to photography.

As we started to grow weary from hiking back up the hill over and over,

we took a break from sledding, ...

visited with our neighbor's cute shivering dog, ...

had a little snowball fight on the bridge, ...

and posed for a picture.

Then it was back home for popcorn, hot cocoa, and warming up in front of the fireplace. Now THAT is how a snow day should be. Although it hasn't been announced yet, I suspect we will have "snow day" number 3 tomorrow. I don't know how much snow will be left, but maybe just enough for a few more sledding runs.

HoE Christmas 2013

We have had a lovely Christmas season. Having the kids off of school for the whole month makes holiday fun so much more relaxing. Of course, we have had our fair share of "I'm bored", "You're the meanest sister EVER!" and "Mommmmm, she hit me!", but overall, it has been good. We have baked cookies, decorated gingerbread men, attended holiday parties, and pigged out on holiday donuts at Krispy Kreme. (The BEST donuts ever. All you Dunkin Donuts fans (RB... talking to you!) need to get your taste buds tested. There is no comparison. I know this as fact because I went to school in Winston-Salem, NC, where Krispy Kreme started. Beat that.)

We went to see the Nutcracker Ballet. Note that my mom dressed for "the season" while the rest of us dressed appropriately for the weather!

Disney on Ice was the other holiday show we attended. Now, someone answer this question for me. See the ridiculously overpriced snowcone Nina is holding in this photo? They had that identical cup in four characters - Cinderella, Tinkerbelle, Mickey and Minnie. The Cinderella and Minnie snowcones were $10. The Tinkerbelle and Mickey snowcones were $12. What gives? Doesn't that seem unfair to moms of boys? They were all the same size, yet if you had a boy who insisted on a Mickey snowcone, you had to cough up the extra $2. Needless to say, Nina's choices were limited to Cinderella or Minnie.

As Christmas Eve rolled around, I decided my old lady hip was not up to cooking a big dinner like we usually do. Instead, we declared it finger food night, and everyone chipped in. J.C. made sausage balls. Elise made pigs in blankets. Addie put together a crackers and cheese plate. Nina cut veggies for veggies and dip. I made Grinch kabobs. Cute, eh? Credit goes to some creative person on Pinterest. I just copy.

I can remember Christmas dinners growing up when we each made a dish. My dad always made an appetizer - usually involving smoked salmon and hearts of palm. I would usually make a veggie or dessert. My mom would make the rest. It seemed all family-family-joy-joy and Christmasy at the time, but now I get it. It is really nice to have help in the kitchen! I'm thinking finger food Christmas Eve where everyone pitches in may become our new tradition.

Christmas Eve night, I had my heart set on watching either Arthur Christmas or Elf. I figured between Netflix streaming, Amazon Prime streaming, Uverse on-demand, and HBO on-demand this would be as easy as turning on the TV and hitting play. WRONG. We couldn't get either of those movies through any of those methods without paying about $10. What? Huh? It used to be you could find Elf on TV on just about any station any time of day for the whole month of December. Now I have to pay $10 for it? Bah Humbug. We watched some forgettable princess movie instead. Between now and next Christmas, I will be purchasing DVDs of Elf and Arthur Christmas, so we will have them for next Christmas Eve.

Before heading to bed to wait up for Santa, the girls opened their Christmas Eve PJ's and we lit the luminarias on the driveway.

Christmas morning featured Christmas morning video failure for the second year in a row. Why am I so incompetent when taking videos on Christmas morning? I don't have this problem any other time I want to take videos. Frustrating as it may be, if you could see the video, it went something like this: Kids running down the stairs. Nina and Addie run to their Santa gifts saying, "Yea", "Cool", or "Awesome". Elise runs to her Santa gift and yells, "A phone! OMG! Santa got me a phone! I can't believe I have a phone! Squeee!!! No way!! No way!  I have a phone! OMG! I have a phone! What's my phone number? Squeee!!! I can't believe it!!"  The other kids can barely be seen or heard in the background. Anyway, it would have been a great video, but you'll just have to use your imagination. I don't even have photos showing her excitement because I was so busy "videotaping". Sigh.

The rest of the morning was spent opening gifts,

cheering about good ones,

and putting new ornaments on the tree.

My parents came over for brunch which was very low-key. I was all about simplicity this year. I know you can hardly see these in the photo, but my mom made the Christmas cowboy boot napkins and table runner for me. I love them!

After opening gifts with my parents,

we played some games,

read some new books,

played with the new Guitar Hero set,

and Nina did some sketching with her new pens and sketch book.

In the afternoon, Nina put on her new favorite shirt (for fun... ask Siri "What does the fox say?"), and ...

we went over to J.C.'s parents' house for more gifts, more food, and fun with cousins.

While 2013 was my year for scaling back Christmas and cooking as little as humanly possible, my mother-in-law went in the opposite direction. She decided to turn Christmas dinner preparation into an Olympic sport. I don't think I've ever seen that much food in my life. It covered every square inch of the kitchen counters and kitchen table, and then overflowed to the top of the washer and dryer and into the garage. I think she deserves a medal, or at the very least a weeklong nap.

The big feast was enjoyed by all though.

 

After dinner, we decided to attempt mission impossible - a photograph of all 27 family members in attendance without an SLR camera, a wide angle lens, or a tripod. J.C. came up with this brilliant idea for a tripod though. Nice, eh?

Given the circumstances, I think the picture turned out remarkably well!

I apologize for the length of this post. I certainly had no intentions of it growing this long when I first started writing it. 2013 really was a nice Christmas though - full of fun, smiles, family, and food... just as it should be. I hope yours was too.

 

 

The Great Pumpkin Patch Tour of 2013

The past week has been the House of Estrogen Great Pumpkin Patch Tour of 2013:

Saturday - pumpkin patch #1 as a family

Sunday - corn maze for Elise with her Girl Scout troop

Thursday - pumpkin patch #2 for Addison's kindergarten field trip

Friday - corn maze for Elise with her jump rope team

Saturday - pumpkin patch #3 with Addison's Daisy Scout troop

I have no pictures from the corn maze because after going through this particular corn maze with Elise's Brownie troop six years ago, I vowed to never set foot in it again. Elise spent about an hour and half in it with her Girl Scout troop this year and over two hours at night with a flashlight with her jump rope team. That doesn't sound even remotely fun to me, but she claims to have had a good time.

The pumpkin patches were a lot of fun though. They all had the obligatory photo ops:

pumpkin patch #1

pumpkin patch #2

pumpkin patch #3

They all had hay rides (some with more hay than others!)

pumpkin patch #1 (still haven't figured out how they get by calling this a "hay ride")

pumpkin patch #2

They each had a corn crib,

pumpkin patch #2

and

goats,

pumpkin patch #2

and of course, they all had pumpkins (although I'm not sure how the third one can claim to be a "pumpkin patch". It is really just a "big field with pumpkins".)

pumpkin patch #1

pumpkin patch #2

"pumpkin patch" #3 (Seriously? pumpkin patch? Um. No. Pumpkins. In. Grass.)

Then there were the odds and ends that made each place unique.

Pumpkin patch #1 had the way cool swing.

Pumpkin patch #1 and #3 both had a bounce pillow (although we didn't play on it at #3 since they charged extra)

We didn't think we would ever get Addison off the pedal car racers at pumpkin patch #1. She thought she was an Indy 500 racer.

We ran through a hay maze at pumpkin patch #2,

raced down the big slide at pumpkin patch #3

and played a little tic-tac-toe at pumpkin patch #1.

The week ended as all good pumpkin patch visits should... with jack-o-lanterns and proud smiles.

We are definitely ready for halloween now.

 

Never Thought I'd Hear That Conversation

Tonight at dinner...

Nina: "Dad, Does Addie have her door back yet?"

J.C.: "No. Addie will have to earn her door. She knows that."

Addison: "Yeah. I have to be good to get my door."

There are those moments in parenting where you think, "This is one of those conversations nobody ever tells you about and you can't ever imagine before you have kids."  Could I have ever guessed that we would be sitting around talking about my child having to "earn her door"? What does that even mean?

The back story is that a few days ago, Addison was upstairs throwing a fit, slamming her door over and over again. J.C. calmly walked out to the garage and got a hammer. He started walking upstairs. Even though I knew he surely couldn't be going upstairs to beat her over the head with the hammer, I still couldn't help but ask what he was doing. He said, "I'm going to take away her door."  He proceeded to take her bedroom door off the hinges, carry it up to the attic, and the door slamming has ceased in our house.

Yes, the kindergarten transition has been challenging. Now our child has no door. Sigh. It will get better, right? Please? Will she earn her door back before she is a brooding tween with earbuds planted firmly in her ears who needs to close the door to her room while she posts shout-outs on Instagram? 

An Appalachian Weekend

This past weekend, Elise's jump rope team had plans to perform at the Cyclo.Via Festival in Boone, NC, so we decided to make a family trip out of it. We drove up Friday afternoon with our friends the M family. Our first stop on arriving in town was the Dan'l Boone Inn which had come highly recommended by several friends. All I can say is... um... YUM... and... YUM again!  The restaurant placed third in Southern Living Magazine in the reader's choice awards for country cooking restaurants. I can't even imagine how good the first and second place restaurants must be!  If you ever find yourself in Boone, NC, a trip to the Dan'l Boone Inn is a must. I'm already regretting the fact that we didn't go there one morning for breakfast as well.

We had to wait a while for a table, but the gardens outside the restaurant are so lovely, we didn't mind the wait.

Of course, Elise is never without a rope.

It was getting dark as we approached the cabin we had rented. We were rambling along a gravel road, following directions like, "turn right at the little white church, then take a left after the bridge over the creek."  We got to the "turn left at the tree with four blue reflectors on it" and started up the hill. Then we got to the part in the directions that said, "gun it!"  I hit the gas hard, spun the wheels a bit, but made it all the way up to the cabin. The M family was behind us in their minivan. They gunned it and spun, gunned it and spun, gunned it and spun. They finally gave up and left the van parked halfway down the steep driveway. They had a bit of a hike with the suitcases, but fortunately, the cabin was great.

We put the four girls in a room with two bunk beds. That led to a late night of whispering and giggling before the start of a busy weekend. The show must go on though. The next morning, we got up and headed to Tweetsie Railroad.

Tweetsie Railroad is kind of hilarious. It is a Western theme park that opened in the 1950's. I'm pretty sure nothing has changed since then. That is part of what makes it fun though. There is definitely no "Disney Magic" happening at Tweetsie, but it is quaint, old-fashioned, hokey, and fun. Picture the Brady Bunch episode, "Ghost Town, U.S.A.", and you've got the idea.

See what I mean?

There is no shortage of fun photo ops at Tweetsie, and the kids tested all of them.

The main attraction at Tweetsie, as you might imagine, is the train ride.

(Totally unrelated side-note... it was not until I saw this photo that I realized all of my kids have very, very (almost obnoxiously) bright colored sneakers. How did I not know that?)

The train ride is fun. It stops along the way for staged gun fights and bank robberies.

Is there anything more politically incorrect than this "Indian" (I realize he should be called a Native American, but in the 1950's, you know his character was created as an "Indian") with his face painted red?  It is in scenes like these when you realize that Tweetsie is a true relic. I doubt this show has changed a single line, costume, or set in over 50 years.

Besides the train ride, we also took a ride on the chair lift (love the view!)

saw a couple shows, ate some fudge, and went gem stone mining.

This little guy was pretty well soaked by the time we left. He had a ball though.

The Tweetsie plans mostly came about because the little guy is a big Thomas fan, and Addie fancies herself a cowgirl these days. We had the little kids in mind as we planned the outing. It turned out the big kids had a blast too though, so what a success!

The next day was Cyclo.Via. We timed our lunch horribly and ended up having to ask the waiter to hold our table with our food on it while we ran out to watch the jump rope performance. The performance was great, but we returned to soggy, cold food. We failed proper trip planning that day.

Since our lunch was a little less than satisfying, we stopped for some ice cream before heading out of town.

After that, we left Elise with her team for their other performances and headed back home along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It is like a little drive through Heaven up there.... so beautiful.

I'm glad we took advantage of Elise's team trip to take a little weekend vacation. I think everybody had a good time.

Emerald Isle 2013: Family Fun

As I posted from the beach a couple weeks ago, we had one day where the vacation gods were actively taunting us. You can read about it here, but the short version is: burns, bruises, an ambulance, a rescue boat, a WWII mine field, and a tetnus shot. All makings of a fabulous vacation, no? That day ended with a storm cloud that looked like this.

Seriously, what had we done to anger the vacation gods? By the time this cloud rolled in, I wouldn't have been at all surprised if a swarm of locusts blew in with it, and we all came down with the plague. Most evenings, the lovely view from our porch looked more like this.

That night was fierce though. We were beginning to wonder if we had been struck with a vacation curse.

My go-cart injuries were beginning to get as dark and foreboding as the sky as well.

Thankfully, with the exception of that 24 hours of vacation voodoo, we had a great time.

We went to the beach...

a lot.

We jumped over waves...

a lot.

We waved to all the miltary jets and helicopters doing maneuvers overhead,

and sometimes they even waved back.

We rode a shark in the pool,

relaxed in the pool,

and jumped in the pool,

a lot.

One night, Grandmama and Papa treated all of us to dinner at my favorite beach spot...

Sanitary Fish Market,...

and the girls and I treated ourselves by updating our Sanitary Fish Market wardrobe.

We took a boat over to Shackleford Banks one day.

That was a fun day trip but a little depressing too. When we were last there just two years ago, the beachs were wide, flat, and so much fun for long walks hunting for shells. In just a very short time though, the beaches have eroded, and it no longer even looks like the same island. There is hardly a beach to walk on post-Hurricane-Irene.

The wild horses who have lived on the island since the 1600's are still doing fine, but the island is only a mile wide. With that sort of erosion, it makes you worry a bit about their future.

Despite our initial shock and sadness when we arrived on the island, we still had fun collecting shells,

studying the shells we collected,

swimming with Papa,

listening to tunes on the beach,

laughing in the tide pools,

building drip castles,

and playing in the water.

I think one of the keys to a vacation with extended family is having a nice place to stay, with room to spread out, and space for people to have a some alone time when they need it. We rented a house that worked out great for us. The teens could take over the basement with the pool table and theater room. The little kids could get the day started early without waking up everyone in the house, and the adults could escape to the hot tub for a little relaxation.

The house had an oceanside porch, just perfect for relaxing in a rocking chair with some ice cream,

or giving grandmama some lovin'.

Despite a few bumps in the road mid-week (and what sort of vacation doesn't have a good burns-bruises-mine field-ambulance-rescue boat-tetnus kind of story?) we had a really great time.

Good-bye Emerald Isle! Hope to see you again soon!

Emerald Isle 2013: A Family Affair

We have been going to Emerald Isle at least once a year for the last nine years or so. Sometimes we go by ourselves, sometimes with friends, sometimes with my family, but this was the first time for us to go with J.C.'s family. The major players in this trip were:

Grandmama - She is the one who had the dream of a 50th anniversary family trip. Her vision pulled it all together.

Papa - He is the most easy going guy ever. He just goes with the flow. He was happy to go along with whatever decisions were made for the day - beach vs pool, eating out vs in, TV vs movie. He makes for a great travel companion.

The lovebirds and the teenagers - My sister-in-law and her boyfriend take the prize for the most active vacationers. When they weren't taking 50 mile bike rides or paddleboarding, they were walking or running on the beach. When they were done exercising, they ate things like pumpkin seeds and raisins. I think they had a great time, but I was too busy lounging on the beach with a Diet Coke, some Oreos, and a People magazine to really know for sure. I didn't let them cramp my style. Her kids (the teenagers) did what teenagers do. They stayed up late, slept in even later, got sunburned, and were very patient in tolerating the rest of us.

Then there was our crew...

Elise (11)

Nina (9)

Addison (5)

J.C. - he sported that hat 24/7 in an attempt to keep the sun off the new skin that has finally established itself on his face after his accident.

and moi. This is the last photo that you will ever see of me in a go-cart as I am never getting in one again. Ever.

With our cast of characters ranging in age from 5 to... uh... umm... probably not a great idea to reveal in-laws' ages on a public blog, huh?  Well, with folks ranging in age from 5 to whatever age you are when you are celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary, we weren't sure how it would all play out. Would the grandparents get worn out by the little kids? Would the little kids annoy the teenagers? Would the teenagers tolerate all the dumb adults? Would the adults go crazy from too much togetherness? Would the vegetarian find anything to eat amongst all the carnivores? Stay tuned to the next blog post to find out.

Emerald Isle 2013: A Golden Anniversary

We went to the beach last week with J.C.'s family, in part to celebrate his parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Fifty years! Fifty! Five-oh! Half a century! Five decades! Not many marriages make it to the golden anniversary these days.  It is truly something to celebrate.

When they were married, John F. Kennedy was president and Lyndon B. Johnson was vice president. The year they were married, you could buy gas for $0.30/gallon, a stamp for $0.05, milk for $1.04/gallon, a car for $2,300, and a house for $19,300. Sidney Poitier took home the Best Actor Academy Award that year, and Tom Jones won Best Picture. Some of the top songs were Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton, He's So Fine by the Chiffons, and My Boyfriend's Back by the Angels. On television, Bonanza, The Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, The Fugitive, and The Dick Van Dyke Show were all popular. The week they were married, the Ayatollah Khomeini was arrested in Iran, and the Rolling Stones made their first TV appearance.

Now, fifty years later, J.C.'s mom and dad are parents to two, grandparents to five, aunt and uncle to many, and still very much in love.

One of the things J.C.'s mom wanted for her anniversary was a nice family portrait. I hope she is happy with these. Considering we were using a tripod and a timer, I think they turned out pretty well.  She loves the beach just as much as I do, so I think the beach was the perfect setting for both an anniversary celebration with family and also a family photograph.

Happy Anniversary!