Who wants to be a millionaire?

The one dollar allowance brought on the million dollar question from Miles... "Why do they want us to buy that?" Actually it was more than the dollar, it was also the free Handy Manny tattoos we got at the Disney Store last week. Miles wondered why in the world they were giving them away?

What a wonderful door for a mama to open! We started talking about our/his money and how we have the power to choose how to spend it or NOT spend it. We talked about advertising, TV shows, magazines, and even signs on the street calling us to buy something. And then we talked about what he does want to spend his money on, and oh boy, he'd better start saving those dollars. He wants to go to the Eiffel Tower, Alaska, the Taj Mahal, the Golden Gate Bridge, Machu Picchu, the North & South Poles and the Trans Siberia Railway. Okay, so he was eating dinner on his world place mat at the time. But he does want to travel to a lot of those places.


I guess everyone is talking about money these days. Heck, even Gwenyth sent me an e-mail about it (you know we're BFFs). As nerdy about money as his mom & dad are, we figure it's not too early to teach him the ins and outs of savings. And now when he asks for Chick Fil A for lunch or a toy at the store I just say, "do you want that or.... to go the Eiffel Tower?" And he usually says "Eiffel Tower!" Wonder when he'll wise up on that trick.

And sweet Audrey, I seem to have left her out over the last few posts. She's entered the terrible twos in full force. We're getting the full body flailing on the floor, screaming, pinching & scratching (I'm the main receiver of the pain). Joy. She has been teething something terrible this week and has had all the fun stuff that goes with that. She's into everything, check out her hands in the photo below. Um, that's magic marker. And it was all over the floor and a cabinet too. And while she has given up napping with her pacifier at school (they are so awesome) she refuses to do that at home. Or maybe it's that mommy & daddy are wimps. It could be that.

But ohhhhh my goodness how she can make your heart melt with her "iwa wubna oooo mom-eee" {translation: I love you, mommy}, or dad-deee, or Mouwse, or Chechee & apaw-woh. such a cutie! We've been working on please and thank you, so she'll randomly pipe up with "tank ewe, mom-eee" or "peas!" But the best are the sneak attack hugs, usually targeted at Miles, but they are absolutely the greatest, sweetest thing in the world. Both of them!

Just got paid

He earned his first allowance this weekend! He went with Wayne to Kroger and wavered between a Hot Wheels car and M&Ms. The candy won.

Wayne said he handled his own transaction and he was so excited when the lady gave him some coins AND candy! He thought he hit the jackpot. Too bad it was only a dime and some pennies.

Big Guy

Miles graduated to a booster seat. I cannot believe he is old enough to use a seat belt! He loves it. We got the same seat that his cousins have, so of course it's the coolest thing ever. And it has TWO!! CUP HOLDERS!!! Don't worry, we already broke them in with some Cherry Limeade after school today.

He has grown up so much, even since his birthday 6 weeks ago. He's very independent - when it's time to get dressed he goes in his room, shuts the doors then emerges fully dressed a few minutes later, most of the time. Sometimes he comes out and streaks around the house a few times first. Not to jinx myself, but he hasn't thrown any big fits lately. He's been diligently working on writing his letters and spelling words. He got a Magna-doodle for his birthday and uses it to practice his letters: "Mom, how do you spell 'football'?" We're even working up a chore chart so he can earn some money every week. So far we have 1) feed the dogs 2) bring in trash cans 3) empty top rack of dishwasher 4) pick up toys/clothes.

I am kicking myself for not having my camera, but he & Audrey were the cutest things ever after school yesterday. For pick-up, I entered school in through his room and said "hi" but then went to Audrey's room first. I let her walk back to the 4-year old room and she was shouting "Miwes? Miwes?" all the way. It actually sounded a little like "Mouse? Mouse?" She walked right in, went over to where he was sitting for story time and climbed in his lap for a hug. He sat there snuggling her and grinning for the rest of the story. So, so sweet. If only they could be like that all the time, right?

PI, SC

Did you miss us? We've been playing all week long at our favorite beach, Pawleys Island, SC. For the 3rd year we were joined by our friends Robb & Yen, and this year we got to meet their 7 month old daughter Elizabeth. And in a crazy coincidence, some friends from Knoxville who have a son in Miles's class were 3 houses down from us.
The weather was gorgeous with a couple of big storms at night. It is so cool to watch lightning over the night ocean (at least it's cool when you know there's not a hurricane behind it!). One afternoon there was a rainbow stretching from shore to the sea, huge and bright. Our house couldn't have been closer to the ocean, it literally lapped on our steps at high tide.

Audrey did not like the ocean when we got there. In fact as I carried her over the waves she screamed, "DON'T LIKE! DON'T LIKE!" But by Friday she was running into the waves, trying to stand in the (her) waist deep water and not minding at all when she got knocked down.

Miles loved every bit of it, splashing in the surf, digging in the sand, all of it. Until bedtime when he would tell me how much he missed his doggies Apollo & Chelsea.
And anythig can be made better with a Cherry Limeade!

More pictures are on the Shutterfly site: click here.

The Fair!

Beebe & PopPop were here this week and took Miles to the Tennessee Valley Fair for some belated birthday fun. Hooooooo boy did they have some fun! Miles rode his first rides - the ferris wheel, the Wacky Worm, the Sizzler, the Up Up & Away, and the Mardi Gras funhouse. I don't think I ever got to ride that many rides when I went to the fair!

He saw all the cool horticulture and some animals, but the coolest thing he did was at the Bovine Birthing Center. Yes, he saw the birthing of a calf. Don't ask him to show you what happened. He will. And I'm not explaining any further details! But after it was born they came over to him and asked him what he wanted to name the new boy. He chose "Miles". What a lovely name!!
We also celebrated his 4th birthday again, this time with a doughnut hole cake at his request.

The stitch count won't increase today! Miles was playing batman and crashed onto a side table, cutting his eyebrow a little. The dr. said it would heal just fine.

we love Sonic happy hour!

Power of the T

It's football time in Tennessee! It's been a while since we've had a reason to be excited about football season, and though there's still a lot to prove, we started off with a bang. There's a lot of hype for them to back up, so well see how it goes this weekend.
Our neighbors Janna & Rob invited us to go to the game with them. They had seats in a skybox, which was somewhere I'd never sat before. There was a great view (see Wayne's view, above), air conditioning and a full buffet going on through the whole game. They did have game dogs and popcorn, but also BBQ, etouffee, bananas foster and a Mayfield cooler stocked with ice cream novelties. I brought Miles a "power T" cookie, but I think he had plenty of fun at home during the game. Janna & Rob's daughter came over to play during the game (don't worry, we left them with TWO babysitters). When we walked in after the game, Miles came running out saying, "No, leave! Go back!" They were having a blast.

Check out Miles's cool game day shirt. My friend Amy makes all sorts of cute items like this, and gave this to Miles for his birthday.

{Practicing his touchdown yell}

Sunday was a fun afternoon with Tracy, Jennifer & Davey (who were in town from Atlanta), Lori and Elise & Daniel. Miles & Davey had major lego fun and did a little wrasslin' before watching Robin Hood. The rest of us (including Audrey!) sat around the kitchen table laughing all afternoon. I'm sorry we didn't get a photo before Elise & Daniel headed out for Boomsday. Can't wait for everyone to come in town again!

artsy fartsy

I almost forgot one of my favorite parts of the trip to Asheville... browsing the art galleries. The art scene is very vibrant and we found gallery after gallery with all sorts of objet d'art - some that could only be described as things that make you go "...hmmmmm." But we did find some prints to bring home, including a cool digital diptych, several quirky natural scenes, and some clouds.

But here is a self portrait by my favorite artist!

Altitude Affects Attitude

After the birthday weekend, Mimi & PawPaw offered to stay longer so Wayne & I could go on a little vacation. While we dreamed of more far flung adventures, we kept it within a 2 hour radius and visited lovely Asheville, NC, for 2 nights. We had a little guilt for missing Miles's actual birthday on Monday but got over that. We stayed at the Richmond Hill Inn which was not far from downtown, so much of our time was spent strolling that area, finding some fantastic food and doing a little shopping. We ate at My Father's Pizza in Black Mountain, Thai Basil, The Laughing Seed & Salsa downtown. Wayne's favorite had to be Luella's BBQ. One of his high school classmates owns it, but unfortunately she wasn't there when we stopped by. The 'que was fantastic, but my fave was their hush puppies side dish. I got more for dessert!

The next photos are of the porch of our cottage and the gardens of the main building at Richmond Hill Inn.


Neither of us had been to the Biltmore, so that was the main stop. We toured the amazing "house" and gardens, and visited their winery. Here is some of the beautiful scenery.




It was a relaxing break, thanks Mimi & PawPaw!

Happy 4th Birthday, Miles!

We celebrated Miles turning 4 last weekend with a little Jumpity Jump fun. Miles wanted a Superman party and I think some of these kids were leaping buildings in a single bound by the end of the afternoon. Here are some scenes of the fun with his buddies. Thanks to all who came to celebrate with us!

we're here

So that virus hung around a lot longer than expected, but I'm finally back on track. I'm still amazed that the kids stayed well the entire time, but I guess my cracked cuticles are testament to how much hand washing I did. So what did we do over the last week and a half? Hmmmm....
The kiddos are bundles of energy from sunup to sundown. Audrey has given up her morning nap, and Miles has pretty much given up his nap altogether. That means we get to go and do things in the morning now, but mommy's "me" time is seriously limited. I can get him to do "quiet time" in his room for an hour which means he flips through 80 books off his shelves, comes out to potty 3 times, and asks "how much longer?" every 4 minutes. C'est la vie.
The last couple of weeks at his school they've been learning about the circus. The even put on a little circus and Miles was a cute little clown. He was pretty funny, doing pratfalls somersaults and rolling around on the mat. And next week Miles will turn 4 years old..... four... IV... quatre... I'm a bit amazed at that fact. He's such a big kid now!
Wayne and I are excited about a little getaway we have planned for next week. Since the grandparents will be in town for Miles's 4th birthday, Mimi & PawPaw have offered to stay a couple of extra nights so we can have a much needed vacay. We found a beautiful place to stay in Asheville, and already have a list of must do & eat in the works.
Hopefully the little princess won't be too much of a pistol for her grandparents. She's still pretty attached to me although much of it is just for my benefit I know. Today I took them to childcare at the gym (for Zumba!!)and she had tears rolling down her cheeks. But as soon as I was out the door she was fine. She's also showing a feisty side, fueled (I hope) by her inability to communicate verbally. She'll get frustrated and flail about, hit, throw things and even pinch. And of course she has learned the power of a forceful "no!". Our favorite move is when she preemptively starts screaming and running from her brother. She already knows how to play the blame game and I try to catch myself from automatically asking Miles what he did to her. Ahh, the terrible twos, here you come again! But look at that cute face, it's hard to get mad at a sweetheart like that.

Back from Nashville

We're finally back home after a long visit in Nashville. We had to be there two weekends in a row so we thought it would be easier to stay a few nights between than to go back and forth over and over. I ended up catching a lovely virus which hit while we were there, so I helped a lot that YaYa & B (& Aunt Elizabeth and the cousins) were around to entertain my kiddos. Thank you all so much for having us visit.
It happened that my brother & his wife were in Nashville the first weekend, so we got to visit with them a lot and even went swimming at their hotel pool. Here we are at one of our two breakfasts at Puckett's that weekend. Saturday was cousin Evan's 7th (!) birthday, so the big kids went to the indoor climbing wall. Miles made it up about 10' and tried a couple more times. Wayne thinks he liked it, until he looked down.

We spent the rest of the week playing, jumping, eating , running, napping & having all sorts of fun. Oh and shoe shopping (see previous post). Wayne came back for the next weekend when we had tickets to see Green Day. What an incredible show! If you're a fan and they come near you, I encourage you to go. As Wayne said, it's got good Return on Investment. Saturday we headed home after a quick lunch with some Alpha Chi friends and their babies. We also stopped in along the way to visit Wayne's grandpa and several of his cousins who were in town from Virginia. It was a fun filled week of visits, but we are glad to be home again!

I literally chased her for 5 minutes trying to take this! Audrey went on her 1st shoe shopping trip today and she Loved it. Picked out just what she wanted, these cute little Italian sneaks. She had her eye on some pink ones, but we'll save those for later.

Wee wee wee.....

Some silly sibling fun from the evening. Listen to where Miles sends the little piggies. It changes every time and I love this round of errands!

Her Paparazzi Shot

Oh yeah, the oversized dark glasses, the oversized bag (with her little pet inside) she's a star, baby!

It's summertime!

And the living is easy. We've been having a very relaxing summer, doing all sorts of fun things. Miles has been in daily swim lessons for the last 3 weeks and has 1 more week to go. He can swim the length of the pool with only a noodle supporting him and jumps in with much enthusiasm (and splashing). He's getting better about putting his head under. He'll do it, but it's very quick. In class they tossed rings on the bottom for the kids to retrieve and Miles used his toes to grab it. Even bribing with a cupcake didn't entice him to reach down and grab it. But he wasn't wearing goggles on those tries, so maybe next time he'll try harder.
Audrey is dying to get in the water herself. She sits in her stroller, watching & waving to "Miy!". We've been going to the baby pool after lessons and she loves splashing around. She will walk all around the 1' deep area and last time was trying to put her face in the water. Brave girl. She's really opening up, showing us some of who she'll be. She talks A.LOT. I started making a list of the words she says: da-deeee!, bite, cup, nigh-nigh, ohm (home), hive (five for high five), snhoo (shoe, not sure how to phonetically write her sound, it's sort of a snort), huh-bo (hair bow). Oh yes, hair bow. She is quite a fashionista, very into her accessories. She loves her bows, hats, sunglasses and has started her bag collection. And forget about trying to talk on the phone around her, she must have it.
Miles is still a goofball...
This is not Audrey screaming. This is Audrey letting us know that she's ready for another bite of dinner.
We had a fun July 4th, with our friends Jen & Davey, Elise & Daniel and Janna & Rob visiting. Miles got to hold his first sparkler and stayed up waaaaaaay past bedtime. Of course he was still wide awake at 6:30am, no rest for the weary.
Anyway we just had our Saturday family lunch at Chick Fil A and they had about 20 big trucks in their parking lot for the kids to climb in. Miles walked around checking them out, and we got in the Icebears' touring bus and a recycling truck before it was time to go eat.

Audrey is enjoying our pool time this summer. She's very brave, holding the edge at first but then letting go to follow Miles. She's gone under (by accident) a few time but powers on.