Kiddie Stories

Just some fun kid stories that I have to write down before I forget.

First, the kids and I were sitting around the table having dinner one night (Brent was out of town) and all of a sudden Will says, "I want a baby." I think, "WHAT?!?!" But, I ask, "Why?" He simple says, "Because there should be two boys." I tried really, really hard not to bust out laughing and managed to say, "Well, just because you have a baby doesn't mean that you get a boy. What if we get another girl?" He thought about that and then said, "How about another puppy?" I immediately bust out laughing and tell him that our family is great just the way it is, pets included.

The kids were playing in the basement - alone - the other morning. I went down to see them and saw that one of the ceiling tiles was half falling down. I asked Will what happened. He said, "Sofia threw a ball up there. Is she in trouble?" I said, "No - you just have to tell Mommy so I can fix it," to which he responded, "Well, I did it. Sorry Mommy." What a smart little 4 year old - make sure you're not in trouble before you admit to something. :)

Today, the kids were playing musical potty (my turn, your turn) in an effort to delay rest time (Fi's done napping - so sad - and I'm trying to get her used to the idea of resting in your room). While we're getting everyone organized, Will says, "When I grow up, I want to be a dad." My heart just melted. And then Sofia said, "I want to be mommy." So sweet and a dream I hope they keep. :)

Meet Bismark!

Meet Bismark - the newest member of the Maxwell family! He's a (now) 4 month old border collie puppy that we rescued with the help of Phoenix Rising Border Collie Rescue. We're not sure what he was doing the first 2 months of his life, but he was dropped off at a shelter in Georgia and lived there for 3 weeks. Unfortunately, it was a kill shelter, so the rescue group got him when his time was up. We got him 5 days later - we got the message when we came home from MI on Sunday with the cats; I talked with Phyllis (the foster mom) on Monday; and he came to visit us on Tuesday - and we kept him! (In an idea world, I would have gotten him a little later as I really wanted to give the cats time to get used to being with us again and to the house - oh well, my poor kitties!)

We can't believe no one adopted him in GA - he's so darn cute! And, he's house broken (more or less - no accidents since the first 3 days) and crate trained. For a puppy, and especially for a border collie puppy, he's very mellow. He likes to play for about an hour in the morning, then he's content to chill until after dinner when he really gets excited and wants to run around.

His name is part of the doggie bargain Brent and I made - he likes to name dogs after dictators. Brent really isn't a dog person and was scared of a border collie (his only experience was my grandpap's crazy, super-hyper, untrained border collie). But, after watching the kids play with him and tell them that they love their dog, he's come around.

Bismark is doing well in puppy school too - we're 4 weeks into the PetsMart training program and he's the alpha dog of the class (and that's not me talking, that's what the instructor says). After tons of small car rides with fun destinations and lots of treats, he finally (this past week actually) thinks that car rides are fun. My only real issue with him is that he's teething (sounds so weird to talk about that with a dog) and prefers the kids toys to his. I spend part of the morning and night just taking toys and trying to distract him. He's getting better though. And, this past week, he discovered that he actually CAN chase the cats (before he kind of just ignored them - that was so much better). Sigh - my poor kitties!

But, all in all, we're having fun with our new addition and can't wait to show him off to everyone!

July - At the Beach and Thomas

In July, after 2 weeks of getting things organized in the house, we headed off to Litchfield Beach (30 minutes south of Myrtle Beach) for the week of July 4th. We rented a great little beach house with all the Maxwells and just had such a great time. Such a good time, in fact, that I didn't take any pictures or video at all (except this one of Holly painting Fi's nails - she loved it and still talks about it). . . I can't believe it!

We basically walked to the beach every day (it took almost a whole minute - w/out the kids) and hung out there. We made sand castles, swam in the ocean, boogie boarded, and read books. Gradma Carlene was awesome and took the kids into the house for naptime every day so I could stay at the beach and actually have some grown-up time. It was awesome and we can't wait to do it again next year.


At the end of July, my friend, Jaime, her son, Reid, Will, Fi and I headed up to the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad to ride Thomas the Tank Engine. I think this is pretty much the highlight of Will's summer as asks almost every day when Thomas is coming back. Jaime and I laughed about driving 2 and half hours with 3 kids in the mini-van for a 35 minute train ride. :) The kids were pretty good in the car (thank goodness for the DVD player) and Will was pretty excited to ride in the 3rd row with Reid.








The set-up was nice too - Bryson City has a nice train museum the kids all enjoyed and there were a ton of "Thomas" activities - train bouncy houses, Thomas tattoos, a petting zoo, an awesome bubble station with fans, sand boxes, and, of course, lots of train tables. It got really humid that day, so I was very thankful there were lots of fans out and that the ice cream store was open.






We had a great ride on Thomas - we waved to the people at the station as we left and as we crossed the road; we stopped over a river and "whooshed" out tons of steam; and we got Conductor Certificates. Totally worth the drive and, as long as the train obsession continues, we'll do it again next year!

June Weekend in the Mountains

In June, we decided to take our time-share presentation vacation and go to Pigeon Forge, TN for a long weekend. I totally love the mountains and get a small thrill every time we drive through them - I'm very lucky that they are so close (relatively).

While Pigeon Forge is a total and complete cheesy tourist trap (seriously), Gatlinburg is really cute. When we go next time (yes, there will be a next time), we'll stay there. We took a tram up the mountain and the kids really enjoyed looking out the windows (thanks to a very nice Asian family who moved aside so we could actually sit - everyone else stood in the middle of the car that held about 120 people).

After that, we took a short drive through the Smokey Mountain National Park. The signs and maps were terrible so that's also something else we hope to do again, along with some actual hiking. But the little that we saw was just breath taking.

While driving between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, we came across this cute little permanent toddler-size carnival. We planned to stop because they had a train and Will REALLY wanted to ride the train (of course). The train was OK. The best thing they had were go-karts for toddlers!!! It was by height, so Fi could have actually done it . . . but after some debating, we decided that would probably be a bad idea. But, Will was all for it and had a great time. He had a hard time focusing on the turns and didn't like getting hit from behind (see the video post - I know it's long, but it's funny) but we were all cheering for him in the end (even Fi - she was saying, "Turn it, Will - turn it!").




We had fun with them on other rides too - there was a little pirate ship, swings, spinner cars (they LOVED those), and Fi flew up in an airplane (Will didn't like the loud noise and refused to go near them - she marched right up and picked out her plane). We had a great time with that.

To round out the weekend, we spent the day at Dollywood. I really thought it would be backwoods cheesey, but it was nice. Great price (especially when we lied and told them Will was 3 so we didn't have to pay for him) and it was a good lay-out for smaller kids. We went to the train first (duh!) and that was really cool. It's actually a steam train they used to settle Alaska and it just had a great history to it. The engine itself is massive, and so is it's coal tender. It was the highlight of Will's trip and he still talks about going back to Dollywood just to go back on the train.

After the train, we went to the children's section and rode the teacups, the merry-go-round (still one of my favorites), and then Will got to go on his very first roller-coaster ride! Since I get to see a lot of firsts, Brent got to do this one (see him in the orange car?). You can't really see Will in this picture, but he's there! :) He doesn't talk about that as much as the train though . . .

We ended the day at Dollywood at the splash area, which was good cuz it was super hot and humid. And, it totally poured on us getting back to the car.

But, we had a great weekend in the mountains and look forward to going again soon.

First Drive - Go Karts

While in Pigeon Forge, we took advantage of a permanent kiddie carnival and Will did some driving. They actually had go-karts for 4 yr olds! Sofia could have driven too (it was by height) but we decided it was not a good plan for her. Will had a great time - except when he got hit by other cars. We can't wait to see when he gets another chance to drive again! :)

The Maxwell Summer

Since school has started and we have (more or less) settled into a schedule, I thought I should restart the blog. Remember in grade school when you had to write a short essay on "What I Did On Summer Vacation"? Well, this is my report to all of you. :)

We celebrated the start of summer with a long weekend in Gatlinburg, TN. (I absolutely love how close we are to the mountains and a get a little thrill every time we drive through them.) Despite Pigeon Forge being a total tourist trap, we had a great time. We rode up a tram to the top of a mountain (the kids loved that), went to a mini carnival where Will drove his first go-cart (video to come - totally hilarious), and spent the day at Dollywood (Will still talks about the giant steam engine and his first real roller coaster ride). We didn't really get a chance to enjoy the Great Smokey Mountain National Park but plan on doing it soon.

We met up with my parents on our way out of Gatlinburg. They (thankfully) came down for the week and were a huge, HUGE help. I don't think we could have managed without them at all. And, they were troopers since the day after we moved in the AC for the main floor (yup - we have 3 units - one per floor) died. And, it was the hottest week (thus far) of the summer. Good times! But, they helped make sure we found and unpacked all the boxes we needed to fully function (kitchen, bedrooms, toys); they humored me and painted all the closets (when else were they going to be empty?); and Dad even mowed the lawn (Brent's never done the first cut at either of our new houses - Steven moved the one in RO since Brent was on crutches).

Two weeks after moving in (beginning of July), we headed to Litchfield Beach (just south of Myrtle Beach) for a week with Brent's family. It was a wonderful, relaxing time. The beach house was a block away from the beach and had a great screened in porch. The kids played in the sand and the water (although they never buried Uncle Chris like they talked about); I attempted boogie-boarding (very fun the few times it worked). It was a much needed rest and we're looking forward to doing it again next year.

We spent the rest of July unpacking boxes and trying to organize the house. We took several trips to IKEA (after fervently hating the giant blue store, Brent now really, really likes it), we organized the playroom. I painted our formal sitting room a "billard green" color (it's lovely) and with several IKEA bookcases, the room is now our library. Brent and I both really like it (and I'm slightly amazed at how many books we own and have read).

After looking over our schedule for the rest of the year, we determined we probably wouldn't make it to MI unless we took a trip in August. So, we started our final summer month with a week trip to MI to see family and friends - and pick up our cats (Thanks Jerry and Carlene - I know you hated every minute of having them and we appreciate your tolerance). I was lucky enough to spend time with Ann and her new little girl, Evelyn, and big sister Sylvia and Jason - it was a fun afternoon and I got both my Ann and baby fix (I could still use more of both though). We went to Adrian for the day to see Grandma Veneda(Veddy Sue) and Sofia fell in love with scary dolly (more on that later). Kristi and her kids met us at the zoo for the day - so much fun. I still get a kick out of her kid's Korean lunch versus my kids Lunchables. :) We met our tenants (very nice couple) and tried to fix the leak in our basement and roof (the landlord post is also for another time). Between all of that, we tried to visit with everyone.

We got everyone (including the cats) home in one piece. And, because we never do anything in half measures) we got our dog two days later. Bismark is a 3/4 month old border collie rescue puppy and he's a wonderful addition to our family.

That pretty much sums up what the Maxwell's did this summer. :) It was a total whirlwind and I'm ready to settle into the house and neighborhood. Pictures and videos to come from our summer adventures.

The SUV is dead . . .

Long live the (gulp) van?!?! Yup, I had to trade in my wonderful Envoy for something with a little more room for out of town guest and stuff you need when you travel with children. I am very sad and view this as the first step into realizing my age (and I'm not even sad to be 34 - it's a good age).

After visiting too many dealers and getting sticker shock (I am truly missing the GM employee pricing), I ended up with a Honda Odyssey mini-van. It was totally and completely due to the price, and the fact that they still had good lease options. After driving the Honda for almost a month now, I will admit the extra room is nice and I like the side-opening automatic doors. And, our out of town guests like actually being able to travel with us and the kids in one car (without being squashed between two kid seats). So, I begrudingly give it that.

But, I'm still not happy to have it. It's not a "swagger wagon" (Toyota's motto) or a "party bus" (one of my girlfriend's names) - it's a dustbuster mini-van. But, the kids do like it (Will gets really excited to go in his new car) and we managed to get all of our Ikea purchases in it this past weekend.

Who knows? In 3 years (when the lease is up), I may want to keep it (highly unlikely, but you never know). Until then, I'm trying to remain practical and just drive.