Smells

Ok, so after some of the comments from my last post I have to admit I do relate to the smell thing with peoples houses. But it's really houses more than the people. When we leave our house for a few days I can walk back in and smell that new house smell. In middle school my friend, Ashlee, used to have a family on the bus that they called the sausage family. Everyone thought they smelled like sausage. I never knew it as a sausage smell, but they did have a smell to them. Funny stuff!

What color is your name?

I have always said that I don't believe in having dvd players in the car all the time. Don't get me wrong...we definitely use the tv for long trips, but for day to day I think it's important to not let the kids watch tv in the car and instead have conversation with my kids. Of course some days I would love to put in a dvd and not have to listen to argueing, complaining, play 1,000 questions, etc. and there are plenty of times that I'm on the phone and tuning the kids out. But many times the kids and I have some great conversations in the car where we are all captive without distractions of tv, computers, phones, etc.

Today was one of those funny thought provoking conversations and it made me think how simple minded I am and made me wonder if other people think the way Maddi does. She was telling me that some names to her are soft and some are hard and she would assign a color to names to relate to their hardness and softness. For example, Grace is soft and makes her think of light green. Jack is hard and makes her think of dark blue. She said most boy names are hard and girl names can be either way. Cade seemed to understand what she was talking about and they ususally agreed with whether a name was hard or soft and they even agreed on the color for the name. Then Maddi started telling me how she thinks different people, specifically families, have their own smells. We went through most of the people we know and she identitified a smell to go with the family. Don't ask me what your family smells like, you don't want to know. Ha ha. She can't say what we smell like because she is part of our family. She's brought this up before and she said the same smell for people she has said previously.

Maddi is such a sensitive little girl so it seems fitting that she views people in more ways than just a name and face. I know she didn't get this from me so I asked Brett if he sees names as colors. He doesn't do colors, but he can relate to the hard and soft and come to find out he sees people as lizards or turtles. I've known the man for 13 years and I've never known that about him! So now I'm wondering if I'm the only person who simply takes people for what they are. I'd love to hear about everyone elses view of people and names and find out if I'm the only simple minded one left out there!

Fun in the Sun

The kids are going to Vacation Bible School this week and they are loving it. In true Maddi style, she was crying the first morning because she was scared to go but little brother Cade consoled her and reminded her he would be in her group and take care of her. Probably as soon as we left she stopped the tears and decided it would be fun. To be fair, here's a story typical of Cade. They are collecting money for missions at VBS so we gave each of them $10 to take for offering Tuesday. Cade wanted to keep the $10 and donate his change in his piggy bank instead. I don't know how much change he has, but I'm certain it is less than $10 since it's mostly pennies. Monday night before he went to bed, he let me pull his tooth (yeah! you know how those loose teeth bug me!). The tooth fairy gave him $2.00 for his tooth. This morning he was trying to bargain with Brett to let him give the $2.00 to church and he could keep the $10. Of course we made him take the $10 to church and hopefully he'll start to learn that not every child has the life he has been blessed with.

The first picture is not from VBS, it's from a Family Fun center that we went to Monday afternoon. The kids are doing a reading program with the library and they get free coupons for things in the area. The got to drive the bumper boats which they LOVED and I got to drive the go karts and take each of them on a ride.

Tuesday after VBS we went to the Brookfield Zoo. We watched the dolphin show which was great. Everytime I watch dolphins I'm just amazed that they are so smart. I love how dolphins always look like they are smiling. Then we rode the carousel. Cade started on the leopard and then changed to a wolf. Maddi rode a polar bear cub. We saw the polar bears swimming in their pool and playing with balls. They were so cute!

Another hi-light of the zoo trip was cooling off in the spray grounds. I love to watch the fountains and try to figure out which one will spray next.

We rode the train to the zoo because it is one of the stops on the way to the city. Everytime we see the zoo stop Cade asks when we can ride the train to the zoo. Since I knew we would be coming home around rush hour I decided today would be a good day to ride the train instead of sit in traffic. The kids found a nice tree to climb while we waited to catch the train on the way home. We don't have trees to climb in our neighborhood so this was a real treat for them.

I love my little monkeys!

Weekend

The pictures are sort of out of order, but I'm not sure how to fix it, so here it goes....Maddi had our neighbor, Grace, spend the night on Saturday. Grace is 2 years younger than Maddi and it was her first sleepover. She ended up going home at 10:00 pm since she has to sleep with the light on and Maddi can't sleep that way. Neither of them were falling asleep and Grace said she'd feel better going home. That was okay, because Maddi went to sleep anyway and when she woke up Sunday we went with Grace and her mom to see the Kit Kittridge American Girl movie. It's been nice that Maddi has been playing with Grace so much this summer because it keeps her younger and more innocent. The movie had a really good story and really hit home with times today with foreclosures and job losses. Brett and Grace's dad took Cade and her brothers to see Kung Fu Panda. I had no desire to see that movie, so I was thrilled that I got out of that one. The boys enjoyed it.

This was the week of haircuts for the youngest McDonalds. Don't you love Cade's face? He was being very obstinate and told me it hurts to take pictures and you can see from the pain in his smile. Cade was in need of a regular haircut. Maddi got 4 1/2 inches cut since she doesn't have to have her hair back for dance for a while and Cocoa was totally in need of a bath and groom.

Rookie baseball season is over. Friday night the team had a party at Cici's pizza and they got their medals and trophies. Cade's shirt was ridiculously huge and he wants to save it and wear it when he's a coach one day. He really showed a lot of improvement during the year. The last game of the year he hit a double and he was so excited. After the pizza party we went home and the kids played outside with the neighbors and they caught lightning bugs. There are so many of them here. I certainly don't remember seeing so many in Texas. Maybe because it's too hot there, I don't know. Then they had smores and ran off some more energy before we called it a night.

Saturday morning Maddi had tryouts for the dance company again. The two owners at the studio she is at are splitting up and we are trying to decide if we are staying where we were or going to the new company. There are pros and cons to each so I think we are going to have her tryout for the new company this Friday and then we will make our decision. It's like a divorce and we are having to decide which parent to live with. We have to decide for sure what she is going to do by July 28th. I will be glad when the decision is made because it's been eating me up inside.

Cade had his first sleepover with is friend Jack Saturday night. We sent him with his ipod so he could watch a movie until his friend woke up. He didn't need the ipod because Jack's brother, Liam, woke up when Cade did so they played and waited for the rest of the house to arouse. Cade did great for his first sleepover and now I'm afraid he'll be asking for one every weekend.

The rest of Myrtle Beach

Cade was a boogie boarding maniac. He absolutely LOVED it. Brett would go out with him and then I would go out with him and he hardly ever wanted to come in out of the ocean. He has always been a little fish and just takes to the water so naturally. It was so nice that the kids were old enough that they are good swimmers and we really didn't have to worry too much about their safety in the ocean or pools.

After riding a wave in, Cade is on his way back out to catch another wave.

Maddi enjoyed boogie boarding as well. She only did it a little bit because she didn't like the salt water in her mouth. Most of her friends were not so fond of the ocean, so the girls pretty much stayed at the pool.

I was really worried about the sand and salt and dance makeup and everything being a disaster for her eczema. It actually was really good for it and her flare ups cleared up pretty well. I guess we are going to have to make frequent trips to the ocean to keep her skin under control!

Maddi and Cade made some new friends on the beach. Most of the others dancers were dancing this day and Maddi had a day off and Cade immediately made a new friend. Problem was that they didn't speak much English. Not sure where they were from, but their parents sounded French but since I don't speak any other language other than English and very little Spanish I guess I have no clue what they were speaking.

Thursday we finally went to play putt putt golf as a family. Brett had taken Cade and a friend to another golf place earlier in the week while Maddi and I were making a t-shirt with her friends. Apparently Myrtle Beach is the mini golf capital of the U.S. Who knew? We drove by this Captain Hook golf place every time we left our hotel and Cade wanted to play it because of the pirategetting eaten by the alligator in the background of the picture.

Notice the street is right next to the golf course. Right when we got to the back of the course away from the road we heard what sounded like a terrible car accident. Then we heard more and more banging and glass shattering. We decided it couldn't have been a car wreck b/c it went on forever, more like fireworks. We went to eat at Fuddruckers right next door to the golf place and saw that it actually was a terrible accident right in front of Fuddruckers. It had actually started down the street and an Escalade full of people came down the road 90 mph and slammed into 5 or 6 cars, just one right after the other. I am so thankful that we were not right by this pirate boat b/c the kids would have seen it happening and it would have freaked them out (it'd freak me out too). There was a lady Brett talked to right outside Fuddruckers and she was telling him about it b/c she saw the car flying down the road and told her husband to move in the left lane to get out of his way. One second later they saw the first accident and the ones after that. Pretty scary.

The familia near the end of the round. Maddi got two holes in one! I got one hole in one and the girls beat the boys. Girls rule!

After putt putt and dinner we headed back to Broadway at the Beach. Cade got an "ugly doll" for Christmas and he was thrilled to find a whole rack of ugly dolls in the "It's Sugar" candy store. Both kids were able to pick out a souvenir and he almost picked an ugly doll, but he chose to go to Ridemakerz instead.

Ridemakerz is the coolest place for boys. It's owned by Build a Bear and is the same concept. You pick out your body style. Then you choose monster or regular and then you can pay extra for remote control, you pick the tires and wheels, accessories, stickers, etc. You could easily drop $100 on a car. Once they choose everything they use screwdrivers to put the body on the frame.

After you build the whole thing you "back it in the garage" where it registers your car by body style, color, rc, etc. and prints out a certificate of ownership.

Brett definitely had just as much fun as Cade making the car. We joked that if Brett wanted his own rc car to race Cade then he would have to call his friends and cancel his golf plans for Friday morning. He chose golf over the car, but I don't think it was an easy choice. Check out ridemakerz.com to see if they have a location near you. It was a really fun place and we found out we have one in the Chicago area, so we'll definitely be going back.

Maddi spent so much time at the pool and running around from pool to pool that she got blisters on the bottom of her feet. Brett carried her to the car so she could make it through her last dance on Friday. It's rough being a Diva.

Friday morning we headed back to Broadway at the Beach so Maddi could make her blue haired doll that came out Friday morning. Again, another Build a Bear owned store, and cute concept. Maddi was fixing her dolls hair in the salon chair.

There wer 8 girls that met Friday morning to get the doll together. This is Bailey B., Maddi, Lily and Emily with their dolls.

Coudn't resist the goofy tourist picture!

The whole dance company before production. Can you find Maddi?

After their production Friday night, which was the 4th of July, we headed back to the hotel for a party at the pool. There were fireworks all along the beach (even though they are illegal) and we had a good time. Then it was back to the room to pack up and load the car. We decided to leave at 5:30 am to avoid traffic heading home. Morning came early, but it was a good choice to leave then. We had smooth sailing heading home and made it all the way with 5 or 6 stops along the way in 16 hours. The kids were awesome in the car and I must admit I did pretty well myself. I was TOTALLY dreading being in the car that long, but it wasn't so bad. Once we got to Idianapolis I had it in my mind we were home, but we were still 3-4 hours out, so that was the hardest part. Myrtle Beach certainly isn't the Carribean or Mexico, but it was still LOTS of fun!

Tuesday and Wednesday at MB

After dance Tuesday we headed back to the hotel and the kids had a blast boogie boarding and playing in the sand. I forgot to take the camera, so I don't have any pictures, but it was so much fun. While at the beach we made plans with two other families to go back to Abuelo's where we had eaten the night before for their Happy Hour with $2.00 margaritas. Before we knew it, there were about 10 families going and we called and reserved the patio for our group. Poor waiter is all I can say. He was keeping the bills by family with the adults at one long table, the boys at another big table and the girls were all over the uncovered part of the patio. Everyone had a great time. After dinner we headed to the Myrtle Waves water park from 8-11pm. It was open only for the dancers and their families and the kids had a BLAST! These are some of the girls at dinner.

Cade was pouting for a bit for some reason. Can't remember why he was pouting, but Brett got a picture of him sulking. It didn't last too long and then he was back with the boys playing around.

Wednesday the girls didn't have to be at the competition until 11:00 am. Maddi was still sleeping at 10:00 since she was so wiped from the water park the night before. They had their Musical Theater dance and again did well, but got gold instead of platinum. The moms have joked all year that their costumes look like bikinis and we were going to get a picture of them down by the ocean in their costumes, but we never did. The song they dance to is from the Producers and is called, If you Got It, Flaunt It. Not my favorite costume or dance, but they always scored well.

After dance and lunch we headed back to the Broadway at the Beach for the girls to visit the Make a Doll store. I thought it was pretty cute that they were sitting talking about the dolls and above Maddi, Emily and Bailey L. it said friendship begins here. It's the same parent company as Build A Bear and they also have Build a Dino and Ridemakerz where you can build a car. The girls decided to wait until Friday to make the new blue haired doll. Brett took Cade and Nolan to play mini golf while the girls checked out the doll store and got tank tops spray painted with their names on it. Then it was back to the pool with friends to burn off their last bit of energy before crashing to bed.

Any OFFICE fans out there? Brett LOVES The Office and when he was playing golf with a bunch of the dance dads Sunday he found out that Phylliss is a cousin of one of Maddi's teachers, Miss Debbie, and that Phylliss was going to be staying at our hotel. Miss Debbie's daughter is also in Maddi's dance company so Phylliss came to watch the dance competition. When we heard she was on the beach, we had to get a picture with her. She was so sweet and such a good sport about getting her picture taken with several parents.

Andie MacDowell is also staying at our hotel. Her 13 year old daughter is in the dance competition. I haven't seen her yet, but several people have ridden in the elevator with her and say she is very nice and even more beautiful in person.

First Few Days of Myrtle Beach

We are in Myrtle Beach and we are having a quiet, early evening in the room so I thought I'd update the blog with our first few days here. We left Friday and drove to my dad's sisters house in Morristown, TN. We got there around 2 am and my dear, sweet Aunt Lynn was waiting up for us. I felt horrible that we kept her up all night, but she was as sweet as can be about staying up so late. We got a few hours of shut eye before we woke up to a nice breakfast of french toast and sausage that Uncle Floyd made. Aunt Lynn has a craft room (or play room as Uncle Floyd calls it) in the basement and Maddi could hardly wait to get her hands on all the stamps and start doing crafts. Aunt Lynn, I know you didn't want a pic of yourself on the blog, but I couldn't resist. At least I put one where you are not looking at the camera. The kids had a blast meeting Aunt Lynn and Uncle Floyd for their first time and talked about how sweet Aunt Lynn was and how funny Uncle Floyd was the whole way to Myrtle Beach. Thank you for your hospitality and it was so great to see you all! We left their house around 10:30 and had a long, traffic filled drive to Myrtle Beach. We didn't get to our hotel until around 6:30pm and once we got unpacked, we headed to the pool for a bit before heading back to the room and getting some rest. Sunday Maddi had a practice for dance from 1-2 so we didn't swim in the morning. We walked the beach and it was torture for the kids to get their feet in the water but not get all wet.

On our walk Maddi wrote her name in the sand.

After dance practice it was back to the pool and the ocean for a while. Cade was all ready to boogie board but there was a storm coming in and there was a major rip tide in the ocean. It was too dangerous for the kids, so boogie boarding had to wait till another day and we headed to the pool for a bit.

After the pool we headed to Broadway at the Beach which is like an outdoor mall/theme park/vaccuum sucking money out of you. They have all kinds of ways to spend LOTS of money. Maddi chose to do the trampoline bungey jump. I got a pic of her smiling before she freaked out that she was so high in the air and started crying. Poor girl is afraid of heights and it was too much for her. I SO badly wanted to do it, but I was wearing a skirt and decided not to flash the poor tourists since I would have jumped and flipped and gone wild acting like I'm a young kid. Luckily when she started crying they tightened the bungey so she didn't get too high off the trampoline and she stopped crying and somewhat enjoyed it.

Then we headed over for dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. It was a lot of fun. They had people walking around on stilts making balloon animals for the kids and Jimmy Buffett concerts playing on a big screen. Every hour the tv would show a weather man telling of a hurricane and they would have everyone stand up and bow down to a spinning hurricane on the ceiling. A huge tequilla bottle came down and poured into a blender and everyone started singing Margaritaville.

The kids are showing off their sword and puppy made from the balloon stilt guy.

Maddi took a picture of Brett and I. She's pretty good at getting things centered in pictures. We went right back to the hotel after dinner because Monday morning Maddi had to be dressed and ready to go at 7:20 am.

These are the 5 girls in their tap dance, Big Girls Don't Cry, with their teacher Miss Katie. Maddi adores Miss Katie and we will miss her next year since Katie's leaving the studio. After tap they had their lyrical dance. They did really well, but didn't get as high of scores as they have at other competitions. Nationals has some really stiff competition. That night we went to dinner at Abuelo's, one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants from Texas. Then it was back to the hotel since Tuesday was another early morning.

These are some of the girls from their jazz dance, Mambo #5. Starting in pink it's Emily and then going clockwise Maddi, Bailey L., Rennee, Bayley I., and Bailey B.

The kids were making a Cade sandwhich. Cade has no idea how lucky he is that he has an older sister who will always have friends around who think he's so cute and fun!

It's been a lot of dance, but the good thing is that several of the little girls have little brothers and all the boys have a great time playing together. Brice and Cade were watching a movie on Cade's ipod and they were sharing the ear buds. So cute. Right after this picture Brett and the other dads took the boys back to the hotel to play at the beach. After the awards the moms and girls hit the pool and beach as well. I'll update with the remainder of Tuesday night later.