Emerson's Pleasure

Being at the beach is a lot of fun...... But there are parts that aren't AS fun too....... Like the part when you get stung by a jellyfish. That bites..... Or stings, as the case may be.

Aleeya, Camden, Bronson and Brooks were out in the waves when Aleeya just starts a-SCREAMIN'!!! Bronson rushes to her to help her on shore and Brooks checked out her ankle. 

Yep, jellyfish sting.

Not that we are pros at jellyfish stings or anything (since this is our first), but I remember hearing that urine takes the sting out. I immediately asked Bronson if he needed to pee. He didn't. Camden didn't either so I TOLD Emerson he HAD to pee on Aleeya.

He looked at me and said "Dad will KILL me if I do!" I told him it will help Aleeya (who was still losing it......we were creating quite a little scene). He gave a little smirk and said, "Oh okay I think I can help you out but I need a little warm water."

We walked home to the outside shower in the garage and Emerson turned the water to warm. Then he pulled open his swim trunks so the warm water would go down them, then matter-of-factly said, "I'm ready."

Aleeya held out her ankle and Emerson, like all heroes, did what he had to do.

Aleeya sighed and said that it felt much better.

After his "medicinal" stream ended Emerson pulled up his pants and declared, "Sorry Aleeya, that's all I got."

She thanked him profusely then came upstairs to ice it and show Grandma.

Some heroic acts are harder to complete then others, but I have a feeling this heroic feat was truly Emerson's pleasure.

Days at Home

While the older kids are gone at school it's been kinda nice hanging out with JUST Royce, Kellyn and Everly. I love routine, so to have the fast paced morning and fast paced after school/dinner/homework stuff spaced out with a day of just chillin' with these 3 is so nice.

(my family loves grits)

We do all sorts of "high adventure" things like.........you know........

playing with grasshoppers on our backs

or belly buttons if the grasshopper want more of a ledge to play on.

These two are such good buddies and Brooks and I are constantly saying how sweet Royce is with Kellyn. To illustrate this is how I found them the other day, walking around, holding hands, while Kellyn was holding the cars that were stuffed down her swimsuit.(Don't mind their greasy heads, they just finished rubbing hand soap all over each other's heads)

I asked them what they were doing and Kellyn kept pointing to the cars saying, "baby, baby". Then Royce said, "We going to have a baby".

Huh. Okay. 

I asked if they were on their way to the hospital and Royce said, 

"No, we going night-night and baby come out."

(I guess these two have a thwarted view of childbirth after having Everly at home. haha)

Here they are heading to go night-night.

Speaking of naps, I found that Royce had moved this box up in his bed and taken a nap in it. Funny kid.

We bake a lot too. Kellyn doesn't like the sound of the hand mixer so Royce covers her ears for her when I do it. Seriously, that girl is so spoiled by Royce.

Meanwhile, Everly is usually sucking her thumb watching everything unfold.

One day Kellyn wasn't feeling well and had puked when she woke up. She was just laying around and Royce kept rubbing her saying, "It okay, baby, it okay"

And he would lay by her and read her books. 

But like I said, when everyone is healthy we prefer to stay busy with important baby-having, grasshopper playing activities that must be attended to.....

oh, and acting like "turtles".

Can NOT forget that!

Lake Keowee

One of our favorite places ON EARTH is Lake Keowee!!!!

Our friends have a house/boat up there and our schedules finally aligned to get our family up there.

First thing first......life jackets, then jump in.

Kellyn even got in for a while.....which is HUGE.

HUGE I SAY!!!!!

Actually it isn't that big of a big deal considering the water is amazing. Like bath water amazing. 

No joke. It was warmer in the water then out with the nice summer breeze.

It's like a little piece of paradise to me. See?

My kids LOVE being pulled on "Big Mable" behind the boat, but they also like playing "King of Mable" and try to throw each other off. Emerson won this time.....and actually is the kid that usually stays on Mable the longest while being pulled behind a boat too. He just lays down and waits until Camden or Bronson go off first. 

On top of Mable, the newest member of the boating was this missile thing......here is Emerson sitting in it where he said, "Take a picture and I will pretend I don't know you're doing it". Did it work?

So you climb in and hold on the black handle bars up at the top. It ALSO helps if you have an I'm-so-cool look, just for added effect.

Then you get pulled behind the boat. You never get thrown off like on Mable, you just get pulled really fast and possibly thrown around when you go over a wake. Brooks said it felt like he was in a washing machine when he got going. Soooooo, yea, that didn't make me want to try it.

I decided to stay back on the dock and take care of Everly.......oh wait, never mind, Mr. Lonnie had her asleep on his lap. (This child falls asleep wherever). So I just ate cake and jumped off the dock with Royce.

Emerson came back and started working on his "American Ninja Warrior" skills under the dock too.

Getting ready for the 6-kid-group-jump

BOMBS AWAY!!!!!

(the constant smiling faces of my kids the whole day makes these trips so enjoyable as a parent. I just couldn't stop laughing riding in the boat watching them out there with huge grins just WAITING to be thrown off Mable.)

This could possibly be my favorite picture of the whole trip and how I feel when I'm there.

Labor Day Weekend

CONTRARY to our usual It's-Labor-Day-therefore-you-must-LABOR attitude in the past I think the kids had a pretty good weekend starting with someone giving us free tickets to the Drive Game (the FARM team of the Boston Red Sox). This was the first time the WHOLE family has gone so I didn't know what to expect (I wasn't expecting much to be honest)

And we DEFINITELY weren't expecting the tickets to be on the front row RIGHT behind home plate!!!!!

 The boys had to test their pitching speeds first though....

I think Bronson had 54 and Emerson 37 or something. There was a huge line so I realized I should refrain from trying and let the kids behind me have a chance....but I wanted to!

 I know it's a baseball game.....but the younger kids were really (ONLY!) into the mascots. Thankfully there are 4

 Plus, the Chick-Fil-A cow.....always a bonus. THUMBS UP!!!

 It's kinda hard to see but you can see Bronson's neon (ALWAYS neon) shirt in the grass outfield....the three boys were waiting there for a home run ball. 

 Little did they know if they sat in our seats that the ballboy would just hand you a foul ball under the net, like they did Royce.

 By the 4th inning they came and sat down with us and all ended up with their own (foul) balls from the ball boys.

This is basically a normal shot of these three at the game.......not a ONE watching the game and only watching the dancing animals shaking their booties.

 Everly and her thumb.........SO SO glad about this because it makes her so content.

Uuuuuuuuuuuunlike KELLYN who didn't like the firework booms when a home run was hit.

 Everly just slept through it. That blessed thumb put her right to sleep in my lap.

 So of course there was golfing on Saturday and Monday but later on in the day we drove up just across the SC/NC border to the best apple-picking orchard with some friends.

I looooooove moments like this when they don't know I'm watching.

 Kellyn just walked around eating apple after apple. I love that cutie.

 They have a petting farm, playground, hayride there too..... Camden found a baby chick hiding under  his mom.

 Kellyn guarding her apple from the sheep.

 It was the most beautiful scenery and drive ever. It's called Sky Top so obvious we were winding up and up to get up there through pure paradise. It was super kid friendly too (obviously, we were there 5 hours!) which helps when you have 13 kids there between our two families. 

A few tips if you go though:

1) according to my kids you MUST buy the apple cider doughnuts

2) according to ME you must get the apple cider slushies

3) and do NOT let you kids just go on a picking spree, because ya know that rule "You pay for what you pick"?......well they enforce that......and.......um.......we had a LOT of apples. *GULP*

6th get ade

This post title......wow......and THAT my friends is what happens when I try to do a post from my phone. Thank you auto correct.

Anyway..... 6th GRADE

I still don't hear much about his day except that is was boring w/o recess or P.E. He never has any homework (he finishes it in class or on the bus), Spanish is easy and for two days this week in Computer Tech class he played games the whole time since he was the only kid done with his project by Wednesday...... and he can  put 26 drops of water on a penny in science.

Oh, occasionally he mentions he likes the lunch I packed him......although I'm sure he would prefer eating the Chick-Fil-A and Papa John's in the cafeteria like some of the other kids at school.

That is all folks!!!!

For 2 weeks of middle school and THAT is what I get.

Oh well, I still love this kid.

And I guess I should be grateful he hasn't gone through that awkward looking stage everyone goes through during 6th grade.

He must get that from me.....

Oooooooor not.

School is IN

Here we go.......another school year to begin!

And it ALWAYS begins with Back-to-School night and meeting their new teachers. 

But we could NOT go around and meet the new teachers until Emerson got to visit his teacher from last year. Ya know the one that he REALLY liked? and that he LOVED spending time with when he stapled his finger? or the one that carried him off the playground in her arms when he faked having the hurt leg?

Oh, and I never mentioned she bought him his own napkins monogrammed with the letter "E" for him to eat his spaghetti with every day for lunch (yes, he asks me to pack him spaghetti EVERY. DAY.....and he is NOT a clean eater)

It was REALLY weird for me to go to the middle school one with Bronson though.....there's lockers.....and a lot of kids.....and a lot of hallways......and.....well, just an adjustment for me. They walked the new 6th graders around their schedule and thankfully I knew his leader person would NOT lose him because he chose to wear these socks. (where were THOSE when we went camping?!?!)

The next back-to-school tradition is a carwash on the Monday night before for Family Home Evening.

Yes, I said carwash......and you might be thinking that's boring and all, but you CLEARLY have not experienced a carwash in the Yeti. The kids love it.

However Kellyn was NOT so sure what she thought about it at first.

The kids with their Sonic drinks during the carwash......Aleeya loving it, Royce covering his ears because it was too loud(because obviously we Smiths aren't used to noise. *cough* *cough*), and Kellyn STILL figuring out if she liked it or not.

Okay, okay, she decided and she was 100% NOT LIKING IT!

Like I said, car washes are loud, so you can't really hear Kellyn losing it, or all the squealing with delight, or even the hollers from the backseat of "Mom, there is agua coming in through the back door!!!!"

Apparently it's more effective to make sure all the doors are closed tight before going through a carwash.

Huh.

School morning came bright and early with the school-aged kids heading out the door at 6 for the yearly IHOP-with-dad-on-the-first-morning-of-school-breakfast tradition

(*note*- if you have sensitive eyes you may want to put on sunglasses before viewing the below picture. Camden's shoes might in fact blind you)

Kellyn was NOT happy they left without her 

(everything is just worse at 6 in the morning anyway, am I right or am I right?)

So I have a 3rd grader

A 4th grader

A 1st grader

And *drumroll please*.........

A KINDERGARTENER!!!!

Iris was so pleased to get her tote bag (K5 students aren't allowed backpacks) with her name on it.

Their bus drove off and I couldn't help myself.....but something came over me.....in the form of a dance in the middle of the road while I belted out the song

"EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!!"

(Royce was not amused)

Next it was my middle-schooler's turn to leave and I wasn't as thrilled.....kinda mother-bear worried actually. But once again, I knew someone would find him if he gets lost with another pair of his neon socks.

I'm SO thrilled about school uniforms for Bronson's school!!!! (and he's thrilled there's no rules on which socks to wear)

My day passed so peacefully......Kellyn went back to getting her two naps, Royce needed his one, but I still couldn't wait to hear how their days went......ESPECIALLY Bronson's.

When they got home it's funny how the girls (especially Aleeya) told me EVERY detail of their day from who wore what to each word of the 3 songs they learned to what the teacher said about their skirt to what they played at recess.

Aleeya came home with a little braid in the back of her hair. I told her how pretty that braid was and asked who did it. She told me Najalen on the bus did.

Wanting to keep the dialogue going I responded that this girl Najalen sure knows how to make pretty braids.

Then Aleeya just said, "Najalen is a boy, Mom!"

Oh, obviously......because ALL boys are named that and can braid better then me. Silly me for thinking otherwise.

I cornered Iris to ask her about kindergarten and if she made any friends. 

Iris- Yep, I made 4 friends

Me- Oh, that's great. What are their names?

Iris: I don't know, but the one with the 2 necklaces was my favorite. You know those people that have black skin? Well she looks like them.

Me- How fun! And you don't remember her name?

Iris: I think it's "Sorry"

(proooooobably not, it what I thought.)

Turns out the next day she came home and the girl's name is Sorria (pronounced Sorry-a), so Iris was pretty close.

Me: What were the teachers like?

Iris: they were kinda mean and they kept telling me to whisper

(good luck with that teachers!!!!!! I've been trying to get Iris to talk quietly for YEARS and to no avail. Her voice is just loud, cutting and can break weak windows, so they are just going to have to deal with that)

Iris: Oh, and there's a girl in my class with a small hand! It's like so small, it's like Everly's size. And it doesn't even open or close. It just sits there.

Me: Well, I hope you were extra nice to her and tried to be friends with her. Plus, I want you to make sure you never say anything rude or mean about her hand okay?

Iris: Oh, I didn't, I just sat there at stared at it all day!!!

(Because clearly, staring isn't rude OR mean)

I HATE it that the boys I get the "Oh it was fine" answers. They all had a great day and nothing bad happened but I didn't hear much. I had to pry everything I got out......ESPECIALLY with Bronson. Gosh, I wish I could just send a camera attached to his backpack so I could've seen how his day went!!! Creepy? Maybe?

Emerson's second day ended up being better the the first he said, because that was the day that he brought his brown bag with "5 things that describe you".

He chose:

-a picture of our family

-a picture of spaghetti

-a picture of the 3 Stooges

-a picture of A&W Root beer

-and he brought a snake skin

A really really long and huge gross shedder-off snakeskin. 

Apparently it won over the class and I can picture him just sitting there with his smile.

So with this school year started I guess I better gear up for the inevitable school nurse calls coming my way. Bring it on.