Getting Fall Started

Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to go to Athens so far this season, but I'm definitely getting in the mood for fall!  The beginning of the week, we had an awful lot of much-needed rain.  Ian & Bonner absolutely LOVE the rain and I let them play in it every chance they get!  Here they are enjoying "the elements" after most of the rain had dried up!

The temperatures this past week were absolutely fabulous and we started to take advantage of the nice weather so we headed to Sky Top Apple Orchard in Zirconia, NC.  We went with some friends - a set of 2.5 year old triplets and their older brother who Ian & Bonner are in school with - it was a gorgeous day and we had a great time!

As most of you know, I am definitely not a yard girl ... but since I was afraid the children would get swallowed up by the bushes along my driveway, I finally took manners into my own hands and learned to operate some manual hedge clippers.  Everyone who has stopped by has appreciated my efforts as well - at least the car's paint job appreciates it!

And since Ian and Bonner couldn't operate the hedge clippers much to their dismay, I tasked them with helping me "clean up!"  This was their idea of cleaning up ... making a "garden" in their water table to keep their hidden toys "safe!"  Hey, it worked as it is still piled up out there serving its purpose!  Ha!

And just because I think this little girl is so precious, here's one more shot of her beautiful smile!  Have a wonderful week!  We start back swim lessons on Tuesday and both kiddos are so excited to get back into the water!  I'll keep you posted on their progress!

Oh, the things they do say!

The children are doing great at school!  Separating them has turned out to be a terrific decision!  In addition, we started a class at the SC Children's Theatre last week and will pick up with swimming lessons this week!  They are growing up so fast!  In the meantime, I'll leave you with some funny things I have heard recently!  They are just so matter-of-fact and confident in everything they say - whether it is in the right context or not.  And their imaginations and logic just continue to amaze me!

Bonner-Lingo

• Bonner: Mommy, this chip is shaped like a piece of pizza. 
• Me: It is, Bonner.  Do you like pizza?
• Bonner: No m'am.  But Abby likes pizza.
• Me: Oh, really, Abby likes pizza.  When did she try it?
• Bonner: Shashzi gave her some and she said it was delicious.  But Shashzi doesn't like it so I don't like it!

• The kids were piling up leaves in their little stand-up water table.  
• Bonner:  This is our garden for our little animals, mommy.
• Me: Your garden is beautiful
• Bonner: It's going to look even more beautiful with dirt.  I love dirt!

• We went to the apple orchard with friends.  As we were getting out of the car, I had this conversation.
• Me: Bonner, are you bringing Abby to the apple orchard?
• Bonner: No, m'am, she's already been before.
• Me: Oh, really!  When did she go?
• Bonner: My shashzi took her a long time ago!
• A bug flew in front of her playing outside one day and about the same time she sneezed.  She said, "That bug made me sneeze.  I mus be allergic to bugs!"
• When picking her up from school one day, she got in the car and answered the question "How was your day, Bonner?" with "I'm so excited!  It was a great day at school and we learned that Adam and Eve made a bad choice."
•  "Mommy, do you know what disciples are?  They are God's helpers!"
• After having a rough start one morning, Bonner lost the privilege to watch TV.  Later in the day, after improving the attitude, she asked me, "Now that I am calm & beautiful, can I earn back my TV?"
• We were listening to songs in the car and Bonner said, "Do you know why I love this song?  Because Shashzi has it on her phone!"
• "Shashzi listens to that on her iPad!"
• After a day at the beach, the children got into the bathtub.  I said, "We were in alot of different types of water today.  Can you name some of them?"
• Bonner: Saltwater then chlorine water then clean water
• Me: That's terrific!
• She thought about it for another second and then said, "And clean off water" (in reference to the outdoor shower)
• Ian: And we were near potty water (when he went to the bathroom)
• After making a huge mess one day, I said, "You two have a lot of cleaning up to do!"  Bonner quickly replied, "But not today!"
• Ian put on my sunglasses one day and Bonner said, "You are a pretty dude!"

Ianisms

• "That's Bonner calling me, mommy.  I'll be right back."
• Me: Ian, what do you want for breakfast?
• Ian: I want the same thing as you.
• Me: Okay, I'm going to have a granola bar.
• Ian: I want to have a GORILLA bar, too!
• This was an exchange between Ian and Bonner:
• Bonner: I like it to be hot so I can wear short sleeves.  I don't like to wear long sleeves.
• Ian to Bonner: But your dress is so pretty!
• Ian to me: I thought that would cheer her up!

•  We turned on the Olympics one day and synchronized swimming was on.  Ian very nonchalantly said, "I have done that before at my castle!"  The lady sitting next to us just laughed!
• "I have something more funner than Jake to play with!"
• And to prove that the child actually dreams about Toy Story, he woke up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  He woke me up and as we were walking to the bathroom, he said, "Mommy, do you know that we do not have the hang glider that Woody uses in Toy Story.  We need to buy that!"
• I wanted to go to the library one day so I mentioned that to the children.
• Ian: Oh, I want to go to the library, too! Remember that is where we bought that Olivia we lost.
• Me: Ian, that wasn't the library, that was Barnes & Noble.
• Ian: Oh, yeh, I want to go to Barnes & Noble.

One last Summer Trip

The week of Labor Day, the children and I were blessed to have the beach condo so we enjoyed one last trip to the beach while the weather was still beautiful out!  The kids had a blast and we all took lots of pictures to prove it ...

 "Hey, mom!  Check out your sunglasses!"

 Oh my goodness,e she is just so precious to me!

 Just another day on the beach for some very lucky children!

 This was the first time they actually wanted to climb up in the ginormous chair to have their picture taken!

And the following pictures pretty much sum up a day at the beach:

1) Bonner digging and digging - stopping to model - and digging some more

2) Ian not sitting still for 2 seconds - in the water, back to digging, back to the water, back and forth all day long!

One night we were so tired but didn't have anything to eat in the condo so we went to my favorite, Poe's ...

 in our pajamas!  Oh, yes, I am mother of the year!

 And that night, I found them wrapped up with each other in the bed!

So sweet!!

Ian continues to love to take pictures - he took my phone several times throughout the trip and captured his own pictures!  So funny!

It appears that he even figured out how to take a picture of himself :-)

I got in the pool and showed Bonner how to do a flip in the water just two times before she tried it herself.  She nailed it the first attempt!  Here's a video of her new "trick"!

And, I just think this video is hysterical!  She just jumps right in and swims to the stairs!  Ian comes running - thinks about it - then says "cotton ball" (instead of "cannon ball"), jumps too close to the edge and, of course, does it all with his Wonder Pet friends in tow!

Look what Gigi got for her birthday!  Super cute and so much fun!

And the "renovations" around here are coming right along!  I got rid of the slat blinds and put up these that can go "top-down" or "bottom up" which is great for a street-level window!  Beautiful sunlight without losing privacy!

And my bathroom is coming along!  I love the big stripe and the pink mirrors!  So bright to get me going in the mornings!  Hoping to get the lights and the new window treatments up shortly!

First Day of K-4

This past Wednesday, the children had their first day of K-4 ... it was a BIG day for them as the decision was made back in the spring to separate Ian and Bonner in school.  The first clue to separate was that Bonner told their teacher last year several times "Don't yell at my brother like that"; in addition, the teacher would ask Ian to clean up something and his sister would do it for him!  So, I talked to their teacher and after much prayer and watching them interact at the beginning of summer, it was decided that each would be in one of the 2 K-4 Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes.

We all went to "Meet the Teacher" on Tuesday so Bonner was able to meet her teacher, Mrs. Zivitski, and Ian met his teacher, Mrs. Benthall.  Bonner only has 9 students in her class and Ian has 16 ... I think that is actually the best for both of them!  God is good and answers prayers, for sure!

Ian woke up at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday morning and never went back to sleep so I was a little concerned how it would go! But they both got up so happy and ready to get dressed, to get their backpacks ready, and to eat their breakfast!

Here they are still in their jammies!

One day a week, they are going to stay late and take a nap at school so Bonner thought she needed to take her pillow, her blankie, and one of her DreamLites :-)

Ian wouldn't pose near as nicely, but check out Bonner in the back :-)  She was ready!

And after they got so dressed, they were so precious!

Ian wouldn't take a picture with his sister but she was all smiles!

This pose just kills me ... 4 going on 14 :-)

I had to go back and look at these pictures from years past :-)

First Day of EE2 in 2010

First Day of EE3 in 2011

The saying in K-4 is "We are in K-4 so let's say good-bye at the door!"  I thought that would be an issue, but they both gave me a hug and a kiss at the door and went right to their seats!  So sweet ... but this mama must admit that she was a little sad :-(

The greatest thing about K-4 though is ...

the carpool line :-)

I hate I didn't take any pictures of their teachers walking them to the car ... they were so precious!  Both teachers reported "Great Days" which was wonderful!  And Ian's teacher told me that Bonner stopped her in the hall twice and asked her, "Is my Ian doing ok?"  She also said that they "reunited" on the playground (all the K-4 classes have recess together) like they hadn't seen each other in years!  Ha!  So sweet - but it definitely solidified the decision to separate them!  It was actually fun hearing from both of them how terrific their day was ... I asked Bonner what her favorite thing was to do and she said, "I painted a picture of Clifford!"  Ian just laughed and said, "I did, too! But I didn't paint him red; I painted him a little different!"  Can't wait to see what a "little different" big red dog looks like :-)

Fresh Paint does a Mama good

I bought 10 hours of decorating services at the Heart Ball's silent auction and have been so pleased with the decorator.  We have met several times and she has helped me so much ... and now, I am sssooo excited to share some of the first pictures of paint changes!  We are nowhere near finished but the paint has me feeling so cheery that I wanted to pass it on.

Foyer

BEFORE

(Ian insisted in being in the picture)

And NOW

Now the Color is "Spa" by Sherwin Williams and the wainscoat was added at the bottom

Dining Room

BEFORE

 

and NOW

The wall color is again, "Spa" by Sherwin Williams;

I left the gold in the tray-part of the ceiling to give it a more formal look;

we added the wainscoating in here as well;

and, we painted the ceiling pink (official color is "Coming Up Roses")

the "Library"

BEFORE

and NOW it is going to be a "Craft/Play Room"

the wall color is "Coming Up Roses" pink;

the cherry cabinets are now white;

and the inside of the cabinets matches my kitchen in the color of "Lime Rickey"

I finalized the order for the new blinds and window treatments today.  I think most of my furniture will work so that will be good - I'm going to get some local art for the walls and do some things with old shutters!  I LOVE the colors - they are so cheery.  The decorator that is helping and the window treatment lady have both said, "We never get to do anything this bright!" Not sure if that's a compliment or not ... but I'll take it :-)

I'll post pictures along the way so stay tuned!

 

Our last Summertime Hurrah

I had every intention to get down to Alabama to see Steve's mom, my nanny, all summer ... but that didn't happen until last week.  Steve & I took the kiddos down there for a few days; it was alot of fun.  We stayed in a hotel, but spent most of our time at my Uncle Casey's house with his 2 teenage girls - they were such a GINORMOUS help and I actually was able to relax a little bit!  Uncle Casey has a pool in his backyard so the kids swam and swam and swam!  Here's a quick video - Bonner is just about to jump off the diving board without any floatation device :-)  She will be fine if she'll do it once!

We stopped in Atlanta on our way down to break up the trip and spent lunchtime at the new Legoland in Phipps Plaza.  It was fun, but pretty crowded.  Here are some pictures from our stop!

Ian is trying to figure things out on the map!

"Look, mom, so many legos!"

 Bonner enjoyed the "Friends" section since it had pink legos!

 You can barely tell from this picture - but that's Ian riding the Merlin ride they have with one of the Legoland staff members.  Steve battles motion issues so I didn't want to take a chance of him getting sick so Ian was fine to ride with "Mr. Ed"!

 Here's Bonner next to me riding the Merlin ride.  She couldn't hold onto the handle and reach the pedals but she enjoyed going round and round and round!  It gave me a great workout as the faster you pedaled, the higher up you went!

 Unfortunately, I waited until the last day to try and get pictures taken of Ian and Bonner with Nanny - they wanted no part of that because they were exhausted.  The best we could do was to have Uncle Casey holding Ian who is holding their toy poodle, Baby, sitting in front of Nanny with Bonner taking the picture with my phone ... yep, best I could do!

When going back through my phone to find some pictures, I found these that obviously Bonner took while Ian was playing!

This is Ian's new Toy Story Imaginext toy that he got for his birthday a couple of weeks ago.

 It came with an alien :-)

 who enjoyed his ride on the round-about

 and then met up with one of his friends :-)

And these absolutely end Bonner's chances of ever running for public office ... she figured out how to take her own picture holding my iphone and she made the most of it!