Easter Finery

As the habit of many, we always have to take Easter pictures; and this year was before and after church! Most of the pics were taken before church so we wouldn't have to worry about kids staying clean and tucked in...Camden especially had many problems staying tucked in! But here is how we looked on Easter; at least for a little while!

Camden couldn't resist the hair!










We stopped at the iris garden on the way home from church

Alabama

In Nathan's study of states we are almost finished with Alabama. We picked this state since we were driving through there in order to get to Memphis for Easter. Our exploration of the state involved the Huntsville Space Center and a hotel in Anniston. In all of our talk of Alabama, we cannot help but remember how devastating the tornadoes were to them recently. It was a little sobering to think that we had just driven through many of the places hit hard. In fact a friend of ours from church is right now in Huntsville serving food to people through the Southern Baptist Mission Board.




Mom and the boys at the lunar landing


While we were in Huntsville, however, we were focused on space. There were huge rockets and space shuttles and everyone's favorite, Space Shot! This was a drop ride that first shot you up like a space ship. It was actually very scary the first time when you went straight up! There was also a mini space shot that Camden really liked. In addition to seeing all the huge space ships, it was also neat to read about the beginning of the space program and especially about the moon landing. Mom really was into reading about it since she remembered it. I think it would have been cool to have been able to sit in front of the TV just like every other American while I watched the moon landing! There are so few things now that everyone watches that bring us together as a nation. It must have been a proud day to be an American!

There was a moon landing the day after I was born!!


The Space Shot! Must have been before we went up because I am still smiling!


Camden on the mini space shot. It was hard to take a picture of him at the top because it kept bouncing him!


Nathan on the climbing wall



Playing with rockets!




So our Alabama experience ends tomorrow with our Alabama meal. It will be real easy since their food is very similar to SC food! We are doing fried chicken, grits, fried green tomatoes and cornbread! Hopefully we won't have a heart attack after eating dinner! But we should be okay as long as we don't break any of Alabama's laws...operating a vehicle while blindfolded and flicking boogers into the wind!

My future barber!

Camden may have his career lined up! He loves to cut! At the beginning of school his teacher told us to work on his cutting, so I bought a book that has lots of cutting activities. His skills have improved and he really enjoys cutting. He also enjoys pretending to cut hair; but last week he actually cut his own hair! He had been placing my niece's dolls in her hair dresser chair and playing barber, but then he and his cousin Josiah found real scissors. Uh, oh! they come running out all happy about their adventure, while I screamed in horror at the sight of him holding a clump of his hair in his hand!


Fortunately you cannot tell where he cut...he did a good job I guess! But we have had a firm talk about what you do and not do with scissors!

Road Trip!

It is Spring Break and the perfect time for a road trip! It began with my sister asking us to come to Memphis for Easter, and the kids begging to go, so we decided to make it a little interesting. Mom wanted to come to, so we waited until she got off work today, Wednesday, at noon, and then hit the road. Our destination for tonight was Chattanooga. But first we had to stop in Atlanta for a snack at the Varsity. Their orange slushes, Varsity Orange or Squirt One, are really good. We also had strings (french fries), ring one (onion rings), a hot dog (hot dog with chili and mustard) and a naked dog (self explanatory).





We then got back on the road and made our way to Chattanooga. Nathan had been there before and had had a really fun time in their waterway beside the aquarium. So bathing suits on, we walked up to the waterway only to find that it was dry for the season! Oh well! Camden at least found a puddle to jump in. So it was off to dinner at the Mellow Mushroom and Ben and Jerry's.


The dry waterway

Grammie, Nathan and Camden by the river


Camden always seems to find the water!


Couldn't resist taking a picture of the bathroom sign!?!



Can't finish a night without ice cream!


Now the boys are in bed and I am relaxing! One more stop tomorrow at the Huntsville Space Center before we make our way to Memphis!

My Garden

The other week I went to the grocery store just for a tomato and some other produce. After paying over $2 for one tomato, I decided to make sure my garden actually produces this year! For the past few years I have planted a few plants, but have not had much to show for it. Last year I harvested maybe 4 tomatoes and then just had a green bush growing. I also did not get any eggplant last year (after getting several the year before), and my cucumbers were bitter.



So I am determined to feed my family from my yard this year. In fact, I have been telling Nathan that we are all becoming vegans by the end of the summer! Well we would be very skinny vegans if we only ate the veggies I grow, but I do plan to have more vegetables on our plate this year.




So I had Dave build me a box. The dirt in our yard is full of clay, so my thought is that is we added good dirt in the box, then this would help our produce grow better. I don't know if this will actually work, but the box looks really nice!








And then I started a commpost pile. I have a coworker that has been telling me how to do this, so hopefully I will have lots of good dirt soon to fertilize my garden. At least it has been more fun putting bannana peels and eggshells outside in my bin instead of in the trash. In fact, I look for opportunities to peel and chop vegetables and fruit!






And I have my own sunshine for rainy days!

So that is my summer plan. Eat more veggies!!!

The Real Thing!

Well, after trying to make a black and white, I have been craving one! So Saturday night my sister and I go on the hunt for one around 9:00. We first went to the Publix bakery in Columbia where we found out that they had some the night before, but not that night. So off to Panera bread, but they were closed. We settled for red velvet cupcakes at Publix. (yes, we went back!) The next day I was heading home to Charleston so we stopped at Atlanta Bread where Nathan said he used to get black and white cookies. But alas, they only had shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate on one half. Nathan was satisfied, but I could only satisfied with a chocolate croissant (which was yummy!). But finally, Monday afternoon on my Publix run, I spot black and whites in the deli!! What joy! About the time Nathan was to have his, he turned on Unwrapped and guess what they were talking about? Black and whites!!!

After watching the show and eating our cookies, I found out that they were reportedly first made at a bakery called Zora. And they are not really a cookie, but a cake. And you have to ice the white side first because that is how grandad did it! And they were invented because a mom had two children and one liked chocolate and one liked vanilla. Of course our cookies were not authentic because you are supposed to use NYC tap water. Maybe that was my real problem! Oh, well, authentic or not, they were delicious! And if you want to try one, try the Sam Rittenburg Publix, but don't ask me to make one!

I am no pastry chef!

I like to try new things and sometimes I find out I am good at them and other times I find out that I am not so good! That is what I found out last night when I tried to make black and white cookies. The recipe seemed so easy; at least until the icing Part. Although that was not hard, it was very time consuming to ice, 2x, 3 dozen cookies. Nathan and Dave were watching a movie aNd Nathan was very anxious to get a cookie. I finally finished them and although they were really brown and white cookies, I thought they turned out okay. I took one in to each of the guys and then went back to get mine. On return I found Nathan had not finished his and although Dave had, his review was not too positive. I did finish all of mine, if for no other reason than I had spent so much time on them I was going to enjoy it!! Well, at least the icing tasted good. The cookies were not disgusting, but certainly a little on the blah side. I think I am going to blame it on the fact that I only used plain flour and not cake and plain flour. Or on the fact that I am not a pastry chef. It always looks so fun on TV!

But I will say that my blue cheese sauce and homemade potato chips were superb!!! I only wish I had more potatos to cook up tonight!