Gracieism - That's my magic!

About a year ago, I bought a journal because I wanted to write some of the things down that Gracie says that I think are sweet or comical. For those of you that know me very well know that has never happened. The journal sits in a closet somewhere and has never even seen a pen. It was actually a major step for me to even buy the thing! I've decided to start writing them on my blog instead. This way I can share it with others too!

The other day I took Gracie to buy ballet shoes. She starts back at ballet tonight and she has outgrown the shoes she wore last year. We were riding back home and were stopped at a red light. It was a rather long red light. Gracie, proudly sitting in her new high back booster seat, says "Abba Dabba, light turn GREEN!" Nothing. "Abba Dabba, light turn GREEN!" Still nothing. In a very small and defeated voice, Gracie says "I guess I'm not really magic." Not to be magic is devastating for a 4 year old, but she did not give up. She said to me "Mama, give me your magic!" I pretended to throw something at her and she said again "Abba Dabba, light turn GREEN!" Nothing. She proceeds to tell me that my magic isn't working either. Not to be deterred, she says she is going to grab someone else's magic from one of the cars next to us. Once she "grabs" it, she says once again "Abba Dabba, light turn GREEN!" Success!! She was very excited that at least someone's magic had worked!

It was also raining that day. Not too much, so I had the wipers on a delay. She decided she was going to make the wipers go on and off with her newfound magic ability, so she says "Magic, magic, turn the wipers OFF!" I, of course, turned them off without her noticing. She was so proud. The windshield was filling up with raindrops so I told her to turn them back on because before long, I wouldn't be able to see where we were going. She says "Magic, magic, turn the wipers ON!" I turned them back on. She beamed! I asked her in a very amazed voice "Gracie, HOW do you do that?" She said "That's my magic!"

State #2 - Virginia

Last year I planned a surprise trip to Las Vegas for Matt's 30th Birthday. I invited Scott and Wendy to come along and we turned it into a surprise for both Matt and Scott's 30th Birthdays. We spent a long weekend there and we really had a good time. While we were there, we decided to travel the 50 states together over our lifetimes. When we were trying to decide where to go this year, there were several factors that came into play. First, Matt and I had spent a week in Hilton Head already, so finances were tight! Second, Wendy is about 5 months pregnant (it's a girl!), so we didn't want to do anything too strenuous or stressful. Third, we thought we would do a couple only trip since Wendy will have a baby next year that she probably won't want to leave with someone yet and we want some of our trips to be couple only trips. So...we settled on Virginia. We went to Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia which is in between Roanoke and Bedford.

There were some historical sites as you can see in the slide show. We visited the National D-Day Memorial. It has only been open since 2000. It was a very nice tribute to the troops that lost their lives that day. We had a great guide who had actually talked to several of the troops that had survived that day so he shared his "inside information" with us. Scott & Wendy also planted a flag in the flag garden in honor of his grandfather.

We also visited the Natural Bridge, which is the only natural bridge in the world. It was, at one time, on the list of 7 wonders of the world. You could see where people had carved their names in the rock walls, with dates as far back as the 1800s. Even George Washington had carved his initials there. It was amazing. In this same area was the indian village replica and the waterfall. We actually were not too happy when we got to the waterfall and realized we had hiked about a mile for barely a stream of water!! Oh well, I'm sure we all needed the exercise.

We visited a haunted house that had me and Wendy screaming at the top of our lungs! Scott was our fearless leader as the rest of us huddled behind him as he led us through the house. It was pretty creepy, but fun! We also went to a cavern that is about 30 stories deep. There was a huge crack in one of the "ceilings" that the guide said was caused by an earthquake. There was also an area that they had been giving tours in until they found out the floor was only about 3 inches deep! Thank goodness no one had ever fallen through!! At one point the guide turned out the lights so that we could see how dark it actually was in there. It was so dark you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. I can't even imagine how scary it would have been to be the first person down there!

Booker T. Washington's birthplace was our last stop. We visited the place where he was a slave until he was 9. They have built a replica of what the farm looked like while he was there. The tiny house was amazing - we were told that around 8 or 9people lived there. I didn't realize before this that he was one of the founders of Tuskegee University. I'm not a real history buff, but his life story was pretty incredible!

We also ate a lot of good food and we stayed on the lake which Matt and Scott enjoyed. They fished during our down times and late into the night. We really had a great time and I can't wait to see where we'll go next year!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

We had Gracie's birthday party at the Bounce House. It's one of those places that has several of those inflatable slides, etc. to play on. Every kid there had the time of their lives. They did not stop running, screaming, and laughing for the whole hour and fifteen minutes of play time. It was great! Katherine was a little scared of the big slide at first, but after she went down it (against her will, of course) a few times, she began to like it a little more.

We did a Barbie princess theme. I thought the cake turned out pretty. Gracie was distraught at first because she didn't want anyone to eat the Barbie cake. I guess she thought we could just take it home and keep it forever!

She also got lots of presents. We bought her a digital camera, which she loves. She has been taking pictures of EVERYTHING! She also got a fairy dress up costume and a jewelry box to put all of her earrings in (We had her ears pierced Father's Day.) She got lots of other stuff too, but I won't bore you with all of those details.

Her actual birthday is tomorrow, the 26th. I'm still denying the fact that I'm about to have a 4 year old!! I know Kindergarten will be here before I know it and I am just not ready for that!!

Happy Birthday Katherine!!

Ok, I know this is going backwards, but I couldn't stand to not post Katherine's birthday. It was on 7/10 and we had her party at my parents house. We used the Abby Cadabby theme. I think she is such a cute Sesame Street character. Bear with me - I couldn't choose on the pictures:)

Mystery Mine Disaster...

You will never believe what happened to me this weekend! My parents were here and we all went to Dollywood on Saturday. It was packed!! I guess people were trying to get one more trip in before school started this week. We had a good time. Gracie rode most of the kiddie rides and she played for quite a while in the water area. She also rode a water log ride with the four of us, which she LOVED! I can't wait until she is a little taller, because I think she will be just like me and love all of the roller coasters - the faster the better!

Speaking of which...Matt, Daddy and I wanted to ride the newest roller coaster they have, called the Mystery Mine. I had heard a lot of people say it was a great coaster and was really scary. I thought, hey, the scarier the better, right?!? WRONG!!! There is a point in the roller coaster where you go straight up (your back is parallel to the ground below) about 40 foot and then you go straight back down (your stomach is parallel to the ground below). Unfortunately, we never made it down. We got to the top and the all the lights went out and the car just stopped!! We were just hanging there...looking at the ceiling...thinking that it was to going to let go at any moment and we were all going to DIE!!! (At least, that's what I was thinking.) I also made the mistake of looking behind me and realizing that it was so far down, I couldn't even see the ground! My dad was perfectly calm, saying that even if the brakes let go, we would just go backwards, but we would stay on the track. I was thinking that he was probably right, but I sure didn't want to test his theory. After a few minutes, a voice over the loud speaker told us they knew we were stuck and they were coming to get us. They told us this about every 5 minutes for the next 30 minutes or so. There were 7 of us in the car and I don't think any of us were certain how they were going to get us down. We thought for sure we were going to have to rappel (sp?) down the side of the building. FINALLY, they came to get us in what Matt called a "man lift". It was a metal basket that was on a cable system that they brought up next to us. They lifted up our harness thing (OMG, I'm going to fall!!!) and we had to scoot over to the basket. From start to finish, we were probably in there about an hour. It was the scariest thing I think I have ever experienced (besides childbirth:))

I did get 5 day passes and a free dinner out of it:) I haven't decided if I'll ride it again. What would you do???

http://www.dollywood.com/mmine/defaultb.htm

We're Late!

For about the last year, Gracie has been at the age that a lot of things that come out of her mouth are just so funny! It is amazing and comical to see her figure out how the world works. This is the latest story:

Background: We have a smoke alarm in just about every room in the house. For probably close to a year now, various ones have been acting up, beeping at us at random times. We thought this meant that the batteries were running low, so we have replaced them. That seems to work for a short period, but not too long. One actually started alarming at various times (mostly in the middle of the night!!) so Matt ended up just taking it down. For several months now, the one in the living room has started beeping in the middle of the night and just over the last day or two, the one in our bedroom has started beeping! (We obviously have issues, I know!)

So anyway, I was changing Katherine's diaper before we were leaving to go to daycare and one of the smoke alarms beeped. Gracie said "Mama, do you hear that? That means we are running late! When that thing beeps, it means we are running late! We have to hurry!"

I'm pretty certain she got the beeping from our alarm clocks, because we are avid snoozers. And I am always telling her we are late to get her moving faster (or because we really ARE running late:)). I guess she just put the two together. I LOVE this age!

Our Trip to the Beach...

We just got back (well, a week ago) from the beach at Hilton Head, SC. We went with some friends of ours, Denton & Jessica and their two kids, Bryson (8 years old) and Dane (11 months).

We had a blast. I was anxious to get there to see what the Carolina beaches looked like. I've been told all of my life that Florida beaches were the more beautiful beaches and they were right! Florida beaches are more beautiful, but I liked the texture of the sand in SC better. We could actually walk on the beach without sinking a foot into it. It was more like dirt, with a little bit of sand on top.

Just so you know, Gracie adores Bryson! There were some other boys his age there with us off and on (they stayed at a different location) and Gracie kept telling me they needed to go home so Bryson would play with her instead!

The house we rented was right on a small waterway. Every time I couldn't find Matt, I knew just where to look:) Gracie caught a fish while we were there. She was so proud! As was her Daddy! (See the smile on his face)

Well...I'm finally blogging. Let me know what you think!