May Recap - Memorial Weekend

We had a great Memorial weekend!

We started out with a trip to the Scottish Festival, which was held on the beautiful Furman University campus (seriously, it's gorgeous). We started looking (and drooling) over some British import sports cars - Lotus, Aston Martins . . Will was having a blast looking at all the engines and noting that the steering wheels were on the other side - he's such a little gear-head.

After that, we went to the main festival and watched the border collies herd sheep and ducks. It was just amazing and the kids kept saying we should bring Bismark. Maybe next year . . .

Brent and I wanted to watch some of the games as well. We started with the women's caber toss, completely amazed that people were lifting telephone poles. But, the kids got hot and bored so we moved onto the clan tents.

And, we found Clan Maxwell!! The man who had everything organized wasn't even a Maxwell, but he was very helpful and gave us everything we needed to join the clan. (I got a huge laugh out of Brent when I said, "We need to join the clan" cuz down here, that could mean a very different group.)

After learning about the clan, we headed over to "Wee Scotland," the awesome kids section. Now, we've found in most cases, that even after you pay to get into an event, you still have to pay for the kid stuff (like bouncy houses, face painting, ect). Not here and we were super excited! The kids did the bouncy houses several times, Will climbed the rock wall, and Fi got her face painted for the first time. She told the lady she wanted to be a "pink, scary fairy!" But, she did great sitting still and was very proud of her paint. Will wasn't interested in anything else but the sand box, so while he did that, Fi and I went and made a Scottish flag and a sash - she said, "I'm a Scottish Lass" (after some prompting) when she showed it all to Brent and Will. :)

We rounded out the Festival with some food and Scottish music - the kids liked the pipes and drums. Oh, and we did get Bismark a Maxwell clan collar (so he can come next year and be the Maxwell clan mascot at the both).

That night, we went to the Greenville Drive game with our friends, the Bries's. Andy is one of the Drive's orthopedists and he was able to get us tickets on the 3rd base line. As usual, we had a great time at the game and it was fun to share it with Cooper and Ali.

And, although this post is belated, Memorial Weekend will always be a special time for us - it's when we moved to Greenville! I can't believe we've been down here 2 years - we've bought a house, got a dog, reconnected with family, and made some wonderful friends. It's been a wonderful 2 years and we look forward to making many more memories in Greenville.

May Recap - Friday the 20th

It seems a bit strange to just talk about one day (especially almost a month later) but this day was such a busy, fun day that I couldn't leave it out of my May recap.

To start, we had our end of school party - 2 weeks before the end of school. I know, I know. Originally, the party was supposed to be the 27th but Mrs. Armstrong asked to move it - we have a ton of multiples in our class (whose siblings parties were on the 27th) and she wanted all parents to attend the event. Unfortunately, because I'm the room mom, I had to organize it. It was not fun and I'm sure I had more than a few mom's cursing my name and thinking, "This stay-at-home mom has nothing better to do than change things around." So, just a side note to all parents out there (working and stay-at-home), schedule changes usually aren't the room mom's fault and try to go with it - that's my public service announcement for the day.

In any event, we had the party on the 20th at a very cute public park with a playground near downtown. Will's class has 9 boys and 3 girls. Being mostly boys showed - they climbed the fire pit and throw stuff in, they found the bordering trees and creek, they found drains to throw things in, they found lots of branches and sticks. . . . It was pretty funny and we did try to reign them in and at least keep them in the park area.

We also had lots of balls and room to play - they played soccer, baseball, and basketball. I love the picture (on the side) of Emerson (girl) with the basketball and all the boys chasing her. She was a tough competitor and didn't want to share the basketball.

It was nice to have the park to ourselves and not have to do anything formal to make it that way. There were a few neighborhood families that showed up, but they just went with it and joined in.

We ended the fun with a picnic complete with Chick-Fil-A nuggets, fruit, chips, and brownies. And, I got all the kids a bucket filled with a sand shovel, bubbles, and a star balloon. :) The kids had a good time, we had good weather (the original party day, it rained all day) - Happy End of School!



But, our day wasn't done yet. All of Will's class was invited to his friend Jackson's cowboy birthday party. It was themed up to the max - I had no idea going into it how serious it was or I would have had the kids dress the part. The mom had cowboy hats, sheriff badges, and bandannas for everyone. The picture on the side has Jackson (birthday boy) in the middle with some of his friends from church - they were ready to protect the town from all bad guys.

Will envied Jackson's friend with the double barrel shotgun, telling me "I want a gun like that guy with two spots, not the little gun!" Ah, he's becoming a Southerner already! :)














Now, no cowboy party would be complete without horses and Jackson didn't disappoint there. Luckily for him, his uncle owns 3 horses and brought them to the party with a huge pick-up truck and 6 stall horse trailer. I'm not sure which Will was more excited about - the pick-up, the trailer, or the horses. He keeps talking about his farm and his huge truck that can haul 30 horses, so I'm guessing the horse was his least favorite. But, he was excited to "ride" and smiled the entire time.

Fi was a girl after my own heart - she couldn't get enough of the horses and was so excited to get up there. When she was done, she kept petting the horse anywhere she could. She actually hugged his leg before I picked her up to pet his mane and face. So cute - I'll have to find out how old she has to be to start riding lessons! And, it's totally made me start thinking about a dude ranch vacation - Ann, Kristi, Suneela - a Rimrock Ranch family recap may have to happen!



















We ended the round-up with cake and ice cream and a cowboy boot pinata. Will started a trend of using his cowboy hat to store his candy. Good times were had by all and I totally compliment Jackson's mom on her organization and theme!

May Recap - Birthday Party

On May 15th, we had our first milestone birthday party (aside from Will's 1st birthday which was a huge event, even if it was really for me - to help me celebrate and mark the milestone of one major year of change). We've only done family birthday events since then - that's just our thing. But, we felt that 5 was a big deal (especially with kindergarten coming) and wanted to celebrate that.

So, we booked an event at Pump-It-Up, a huge indoor bouncy house place, and Will was allowed to invite 15 friends. However, since Will and Fi share their birthdays, we didn't want her to feel left out. So, we told her the party was for her too.

And, we told all invited "NO presents." Boy, did we get some confused looks/calls/texts on that one. But, we know our children are spoiled enough by family and we don't want them to think that parties are only about presents. We want them to learn that parties are about celebrating with people that you love, and who are important in your life. And, as we warned them in advance that there would only be presents from Mommy and Daddy, they were OK with that. And, it also helped that some wonderful friends brought presents over during the week - thanks!!




So, I made yet another train cake . . . I'm getting pretty good at them now! :) This time Percy was requested, even though he's the #6 engine. Oh well - gotta go with what the birthday boy wants. It was a night filled with icing (seriously - it was ridiculous) but I'm glad I did it the night before and not the day of. No one at the bouncy place wanted to move the cake (I carried it everywhere, except the car - Brent held it in his lap then). I also made little treat bags with a thank you card that matched the invitations - aren't they cute?

So, we got to Pump-It-Up and gathered kids and parents together. All in all, we had 15 kids and 15 adults spend a crazy 2 hours going through all kinds of bouncies - the giant slide was the biggest hit (the picture of Will and Fi with scary eyes), with both the parents and the kids. We also did the climbing wall (again, both parents and kids), where I was most definately less than graceful.

After all that, we were more than ready to adjurn to the party room for pizza, cake, and ice cream. Then, both kids got to open our small presents in a giant throne and then hand-out our thank you treats. I think everyone had a good time (I know our kids did!) and we're glad we did it. But, I'm also glad I don't have to organize something like this every year, and that I have 2 more years until Fi's #5 milestone! :)