March Inn

Why"March Inn?" March Inn was the name of that magic place where I spent my summers growing up. I have alluded to this place before, and I probably will again. March Inn is no longer standing. The waters of Katrina rendered it unlivable so my children will never know that "March Inn." That makes me sad. In fact it brings me to tears whenever I think about it. I want my children to have their own "March Inn," and I want to capture our lives as they are growing and changing. I invite you to "march inn" to our lives. My hope is that you will catch glimpses of the real world. You will see our creations. You will see our chaos. You will see our affection. You will also see our frustrations, fears, and disappointments. Enjoy your march!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Runaway Bunny



My eldest boy has a vivid imagination for Halloween costumes. Last year, at two, he came up with the idea of the big bad wolf on his own. This year he decided that he wanted to be a bunny and Walker could be the carrot. Mary Frances actually bit on this idea and locked onto the idea of being the mommy bunny and Stephen could be the baby bunny with Walker as the carrot. I loved the idea as Margaret Wise Brown's book The Runaway Bunny has always been among my favorites, and I really wanted them to dress as a theme.




As always I procrastinated on creating their costumes but with good reason this year {at least that's what I'm telling myself}. Frank and I just couldn't decide if we wanted to ensure we were back from our trip to Florida in time to trick-or-treat. If we weren't going to be back from Florida there was no reason to have costumes. Well, we decided we would make the effort to be home around dusk because we realize there are going to be far too few years that our children not only want to trick-or-treat together.




I'm so glad we did! They were super excited to arrive home and throw on their costumes. In reality we only went to a handful of houses, but they had a ball during the time we were out. This is definitely the most they have ever gotten into Halloween and we might have been on the street for thirty minutes.







Saturday, October 30, 2010

Cousins!

As many of you know, the boys and I drove to Clearwater, Florida on Wednesday. Call us {or rather me} crazy! I left Birmingham just after 8:00 a.m. CST and arrived in Clearwater around 8:30 p.m. EST. It was actually an easy drive ~ just long. My brother and I made what I consider a tactical error in getting there so we went through LOTS of small towns with LOTS of lights particularly as we approached Clearwater.

The boys did great and were very patient with being in the car for the entirety of the day. Not including our stop on Highway 280 {mind you that is before we even reach the interstate from our house} we only stopped twice ~ once for a picnic lunch and once for gas.


Being somewhat of a prude and a definite follower of the rules, I hated to take Mary Frances out of school for more than necessary. Frank had some Southwest vouchers so the two of them flew to Tampa on Thursday evening. What a gift that they were able to have that experience together!


Why the jaunt to Florida? My cousin, Dan, was getting married on Friday evening. It was a lovely event. It's always nice to see family though I don't ever feel like I get to visit the way I want to because I am watching after my little ones {as I should be}. My favorite part of these family gatherings is watching the cousins play together.



I didn't really take many pictures. I left that up to my mother... Too bad I can't get her pictures off of Snapfish because there are some great ones.

I enjoyed watching Mary Frances love on Sarah and then run around with Maggie's clan. Maggie is my double first cousin who is six months older than me. We were in the same grade and had a lot, yet nothing in common. We were pretty close as children thanks to her parents making an effort to spend as much time as possible in Alabama. They lived in Rye, New York but spent six weeks in the summer and two weeks at Christmas with their family in Alabama. Many of the memories I have from Point Clear include Maggie and her sister, Leah, and brother, Dillon. It was a blessing to know and love my cousins as a child, and I hope that my children share that sentiment as they get older.

I'm a bit sad that this is our last family wedding for a good while. My mom's brother has two but they are still in high school and college so it should be a while for them. We are going to have to find ways to keep bringing the extended family together so my children can know my cousins' children.





Thursday, October 7, 2010

Call Me Linus

It was a good day, and this mama needed a good day! I didn't get that shower I really wanted {really needed} this morning, but I'm off to do that as soon as I finish this post. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from today, but I'll insert some from days gone by.

We are all doing fine, but we have a lot going on. I am definitely feeling the stress of all of the transitions and uncertainty. Unfortunately, many of my own tears have been shed over the past few weeks. As I shared with Stephen's teacher and another mother yesterday, poor Frank gets the brunt of my stress and for that I am sorry.
Back to our day...After a battle with Mary Frances over clothes, she was deposited at school {with a smile on her face} and the boys and I set out to make lasagna and cookies. I was hopeful to get those tasks completed before taking Stephen to school at 10:00. It almost happened! Stephen opened and "chopped" Skor bars while I worked on the lasagna and then Walker and I put together the cookie batter. Yes, it took Stephen a while, and I still threw his crumbs into the food processor to quickly finish the process.

By 11:00 there were two lasagnas in the refrigerator, the cookies were cool and put away, the kitchen was clean and the dishwasher running so that Walker could be fed and put down for a nap at the other house. I wanted to spend his nap packing boxes to be put in storage. I was successful in getting Mary Frances and Stephen's room completely empty. Yeah!

On with our day...The next stop was St. Luke's to help with carpool and pick up Stephen. Then back to the house to give the boys one of the cookies they helped make and to grab the extra lasagna and accoutrements for our new minister's family. {They just welcomed their third precious child into their family.} Now to big school carpool to retrieve big sister and a friend who we were taking to a birthday party at the zoo. We delivered dinner and spent the remainder of this glorious fall afternoon playing with friends at the Tot Lot.
I got home with two tired, hungry, and filthy boys. Fortunately I was able to hold them off on all accounts until Mary Frances arrived home from the birthday party and Frank and his dad arrived home for work.

You know the Peanuts character who always had his blanket...well I think I have a new nickname for my baby. We came home from a long full day late this afternoon and he immediately went to the crib to find his blanket. He curled up on the den floor with his blanket and his thumb in his mouth just to chill. Mind you there was no t.v. playing, no music ~ just Walker and his blanket. After a bit he decided he wanted to go outside to play with Stephen. His mean mommy wouldn't take his blanket outside so he opted to stay inside. I told him he was welcome to go outside but the blanket had to stay inside. I took it and put it on the counter. He pitched a fit! I then told him he was welcome to have the blanket but inside. He asked for it back and went back to the spot on the floor. A couple of minutes later, he came to me, handed me the blanket and pointed to the door. Wow! He got it! I was floored...my baby, let's call him Linus, is growing up.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Boosterthon!

Who knew this could be so much fun! What is it? It's called the Boosterthon Fun Run and it
is a fundraiser for schools. After a google search to find the website, I learned there is a fair bit of controversy over this event. Apparently some like it and some don't {isn't that true of anything?}, but best I can understand, they are able to raise a bunch money for your school, encourage exercises in a fun environment, and teach valuable character traits. Yes, they give out prizes and encourage competition but isn't that life! Yes, they keep a percentage, but what fundraising organization doesn't. Yes, they take up a bit of time in your child's classroom, but as a former classroom teacher let me tell you that there is always something going on that takes up teaching time in your classroom. Five minutes a day for five days plus a bit more time for the initial pep rally and the actual event is not so bad. Plus, I didn't have to buy anything nor did I have to go door to door selling anything.



We left it up to Mary Frances. She could call who she wanted to call to ask for support and we could knock on the doors she wanted to knock on, but she had to do the asking. The Boosterthon does encourage the children to get sponsors for a dollar amount per lap {25-35 laps}, but there is a place where you can also make a flat donation. I encouraged Mary Frances to eagerly accept a flat donation. We did not emphasize the prizes or the competition of getting money. Instead we focused on raising money to support her school in order to buy things such as books...

In my eyes, five dollars to the school is more than they had before! Though I graduated from a private school, I am a strong believer in public education, and I am going to try to support my children's school in anyway that I can especially during the current time of proration where state classroom money was cut to $0. My small donation to the school for the Boosterthon is certainly more economical than shelling out thousands of dollars for private school tuition, and it is providing valuable curriculum materials for these students.


It helps that we had a glorious fall day!

Sweet Pops came to support his granddaughter! Walker wanted to hold his hand the whole time which was pretty sweet.
Mary Frances had a smile on her face for the majority of the run! She completed 35 laps and kept going. Frank ascertained she ran 75% of those laps ~ not so shabby for a five year old. {I read somewhere that one lap = 1/16 of a mile.}

Once she had capped out at 35 laps, she wanted to keep running. Stephen wanted to go to!


Any suggestions on getting a picture of my three children where they are all happy and looking at the camera. These days it seems impossible!