Please do not adjust your monitor...what you are seeing is real.

Yes, this is a new post. Let me give you a moment to catch your breath....better? Okay. I must warn you that this is a long one. We have a lot of catching up to do! Ready, let's just jump right in then...

We're going to skip February...I don't think anybody wants to hear why I refuse to celebrate Valentine's Day.

In March we went camping with Joe's brother Al, his wife Ashley, and their two kids, Will and Logan. This was not my favorite camping trip ever. It was kind of (okay, really) last minute. I had to work late, so I was the last one to get to the campground, which I had never been to before, so I got lost trying to find it...in the dark. By the time I got there the gate was closed, so I had to leave my van parked on the side of the road outside the gate and have Joe drive up to get me. I was sure that my van (or at least it's tires) would be gone by morning, luckily it wasn't. Dinner was good (isn't food always better when you're camping?), the weather was good (albeit a bit chilly - 30 degrees), and the kids were good. Until it was time to get ready for bed. Everytime I tried to take Afton to the bathhouse to use the bathroom she screamed as if I had suggested we chop off her left leg. Needless to say, she didn't use the potty before bed. So at approximately 1am she woke up, sort of. And started crying. And then screaming. Violently. We knew we were in the midst of a full blown night terror, she's had them before, but we had never had to deal with them in the middle of a tent in 30 degree weather. We knew that it was most likely caused by her needing to use the bathroom, so I picked her up and headed towards the bathhouse. She started screaming that she wanted to go home, so I turned around and we threw her ~ okay, we didn't throw her ~ we placed her ever so gently in the truck and headed toward the van. At which time she promptly urinated all over her daddy. This woke her up completely and she stopped screaming. And started crying. She didn't want to go home, she wanted to go camping with her friends. So we turned the truck around, drove back to the tent, changed her wet clothes, crawled back into bed and slept for about another 4 hours. We woke up at about 6am the next morning, ate breakfast, packed our stuff and went the heck home, vowing never to go camping again. What follows are the 4 pictures I have of a happier, drier, less tired Afton:

Afton and Will making Gravel Angels as opposed to Snow Angels?

Daddy made ribs...they were yummy!

Afton helping make the "pumper bed" (air mattress).

I think the headlamp is all the rage in Europe right now.

Later in March, something happened that had never happened before - and we were THRILLED to see it! Afton got 3 smiley faces during school, AND she was chosen to be the line leader! (I actually do have pictures of her standing next to the chart for her class with her 3 smiley faces on it, but it's on my phone and I have yet to figure out how to get them on the computer.) The smiley faces are a really big deal for their class. If you get 3 smiley faces in one day you get to pick something out of the Treasure Box before you go home. This box is a 3 year old's dream come true ~ Smarties, Lollipops, Whistles, Yo-Yos, Bubble Gum...all the good stuff. I was substituting in the room next door the day it happened and I could hear her teacher (the uber-patient Miss Candy) cheering for her when she got her first one, and then she got her second and Candy let her come over to tell me; she gave me a great big hug and was so excited. But when she got that third smiley face, man - you would have thought Miss Candy had given her the moon! Other kids in her class were cheering for her and she raced over to my room to tell me, I started crying (yes, because I'm that kind of dork). It was the most wonderful moment for her!! And then when Candy picked her to be the line leader at the end of the day she said Afton looked at her and said "Who? Me?!" She was incredibly proud of herself, and so are we! Afton is not a mean kid by any stretch of the imagination, and she isn't one of those kids that's sneaky and mischevious, constantly misbehaving when your back is turned (you know the kind of kid I'm talking about); but she is hard-headed, and getting her to do anything she doesn't want to do is like moving a mountain. So the smiley faces have been difficult for her because she doesn't want to clean up and she doesn't want to color pictures. But she's also a very, very smart kid ~ and if you put a challenge in front of her she will rise to the occassion, and she did. Candy says that sometimes she has to work with Afton differently. Other kids get smiley faces for coloring in the lines; although Afton could do that blind-folded, she gets bored with coloring so she may not get a smiley face for that particular assignment, but she'll get one for matching rhyming words or something more challenging than coloring. We are very lucky that Afton has a teacher that will put forth the extra effort to encourage Afton to do her best. Here's to more smiley faces and good days!!


So, now it's April. Warmer weather, more fun outside...on one of the first warmer days we had this year Afton and I went out and bought her a slip and slide. Now, I know they say for kids ages 5 and up, but tell me she doesn't look like she's having the time of her life...

April also brought the opportunity for us to take a mini-vacation as a family. We decided to take this weekend and go to Asheboro, NC and go camping for a couple nights and take Afton to the zoo. I didn't realize how little she understood about zoos until I asked her what she wanted to see when we got there. Her answer? Ants. My child ~ my smart, loving, beautiful, precocious child wanted to go to the zoo because she thought she could see ants. When I told her they had elephants, and polar bears she laughed at me. Well...needless to say when we got there she was so excited! More about the zoo in a minute. We camped at a place called Trails End Family Campground. It is literally one minute's drive from the Africa entrance to the zoo. Joe said he could hear the big cats grunting and "roaring" at night - I wouldn't know, I was dead tired! But the owners say that they've heard it before too. Creepy. Afton has found that she loves to camp. She got her very first fishing pole this weekend, of course it has Dora on it - she used it even when we weren't near the water. She loves to fish, to cook in the fire (she kept asking Joe to "turn on the fire"), and of course she loves to run and get dirty. We really enjoyed camping this weekend...a lot more than the last time we went! There were no night terrors, no screaming about the potty, we were all on our best behavior! And the weather was almost perfect - about 60 at night (that's the perfect part) and 90 during the day...a touch warm, but not too bad. The Asheboro Zoo is a huge zoo. We split it into two days. We drove up to Asheboro on Friday, camped Friday night, some good friends of ours (Ashley, Troy and Jordan) drove up on Saturday and went to the zoo with us. We toured the African side of the zoo, and it took us the better part of 3 to 4 hours. By the time we reached North America we were beat! So we only went to the Polar Bear exhibit and called it a day. Ashley and her family had to leave after that, but we had decided to camp one more night, so we went back to the zoo to finish the North America side today. This second trip to the zoo was made possible because Joe had a brilliant idea about a week ago. He found a coupon for a Family Membership to the American Zoological Society, we paid $49 for a one year membership and it allows us to get into 150 zoos and aquariums across the country either free or 1/2 price, and the Asheboro Zoo is on the free list! Considering that it would have cost us $30 dollars to get in for one day, this membership has already paid for itself! Rest assured that you will be seeing a lot more aquarium/zoo posts and photos in the future!

Going fishing with daddy.

This was just before she fell in.

Riding the elephant at the zoo.


The Carousel ~ it appears she has a fondness for giraffes. First on the carousel, and then she picked a giraffe snowglobe at the gift shop.

I can't help it...I love this guy!

And now, for the final installment...Mr. Caterpillar. That's what we named him. Afton found this little guy in our backyard today, crawling across our patio. He's lucky that Wookie didn't find him first! She let him crawl on her finger for a minute or two, and when I suggested that we might want to put him back in the garden she asked why. I said he might be scared because she's so much bigger than he is and she said to him "It's okay little guy. I'm your friend." I finally did convince her to put him in the garden so he could find some leaves to eat. She told him she would see him later. It really was very sweet.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...again.

Ok, I know you're going to find this hard to believe, but it snowed here today...a lot. It started at about 9:30 this morning and snowed all day until around 5pm. These weren't the teeny tiny flakes we see around here (on the rare occasion we see any flakes at all), these were really large, fluffy flakes - and they came down fast! I think the news said we recieved two inches. Laugh if you must, but two inches will shut this little town down, and it did. There was no school, the banks were closed, grocery stores were closed...there was nothing open. This was Afton's first time seeing snow and she loved it! I had to stop her at the back door (actually, it was more like a tackle when she was halfway through the back door) because she was still in her pajamas with no socks, no shoes and no coat. I have never seen that child get dressed so fast! Too bad she couldn't have given me 3 minutes to get out of my pajamas. I'm sure the neighbors loved to see me in my flannel pants and sweatshirt! My only regret is that Joe wasn't here to share this first with us. He's still in Peru on business. The irony of it all is that he was supposed to be home yesterday, but decided to stay on for another week so that he wouldn't have to go back. As you can imagine, he's pretty bitter. I want to post all 20 pictures, but I'm trying to be better about editing them down...so here are a few of my favorites from today...

Girl's Night Out

A couple of the women that I work with decided that we needed a Girl's Night Out. So we did something that was completely unexpected and went to a little cafe here called The Juggling Gypsy and watched a Belly Dancing Showcase. Now, before you start thinking "how wierd is that?"...let me tell you how much crazy fun it was!! We heard about it from a mother of one of our preschoolers who is currently taking belly dancing lessons. It was her first showcase and she invited us to come watch. The atmosphere was fun and relaxing, the music was great...they even danced to some live music. Most of them danced to very traditional music, and had the little bells and tassles on their skirts - it was very "gypsy-esque". At one point they talked a little about how belly dancing was believed to be a way for women to improve the strength of their core muscles and their back to prepare for childbirth and then, lo and behold, out comes this dancer who is at least 4 or 5 months pregnant & she was phenomenal! She's in better shape then I am now and I'm not pregnant! These women moved with such grace and confidence that I found myself wondering how much these lessons cost, and if they could teach me not to be so clumsy!! We took about 400 pictures, but none of them with my camera, so as soon as I have the other girls email them to me I'll post them. I am so glad that I accepted the invitation and did something a little different, we're already talking about going back for the showcase next month.

Happy Birthday Afton & Ella!!

We had Afton & Ella's birthday party today. Beth (Ella's mom) and I have been the best of friends since we were about 16, we had the exact same due dates for our girls, Ella came early and Afton came late - so they are about one week apart; and they are quickly becoming fast friends! We decided to have a joint birthday party for them at Scooters Family Skating - they were so excited!! We were hoping to find something that the little kids would enjoy, as well as the older cousins; and I think we succeeded. We had such a great time! Even some of the adults laced up (yours truly included) - we soon realized that we are not as young as we used to be! There was only one major collision that I'm aware of, and the girls were so proud to show off their skates! The staff at the rink was awesome! They have a projection screen that kept flashing "Happy Birthday Ella" and "Happy Birthday Afton" through the whole party, they offered to play any CDs we brought in, they let the littlest ones bring scooters and ride on toys from home (Avery even brought a big wheels), the birthday girls got one month of free admission to the rink and they gave free admission coupons to all of our guests. Joe burned a CD for them to play, a mixture of Veggie Tales, Backyardigans, High School Musical, and Miley Cyrus. It was a My Little Pony theme, from the tablecloths to the goody bags to the amazing cake that Beth's mom made (check out the picture in the slideshow...it was beautiful and yummy!!) The only tears that I noticed from Afton were after the crash (although I think it was mostly because Ella was hurt, and Afton noticed the attention she was getting because she was crying), and then again when it was time to go. She refused to take her skates off and wore them all the way home. As we were leaving, we were already making plans for next year...this could become tradition! What a great day!

Sunbeams & Cookies

Yesterday was Afton's first day as a Sunbeam. She wasn't particularly excited about leaving Nursery. I kept trying to explain to her that she would be in "Big Kids Primary" with her cousin Nikki, and her friends Rebecca and Aiden. I told her that she was such a big girl that now she was going to be a Sunbeam. She said "No I'm not, I'm just Afton". She did pretty good for opening exercises she got to sit with Nikki during the talks and things. Class was a little harder, because there aren't any toys to play with, and Singing Time was mostly "Dancing and Singing Time" in her world. I'm torn between my calling as Primary President, and being her mom. But trying to see it from her perspective, there is a huge difference between what's expected of them in Nursery and Primary. We're going to have to do something to make that transition easier for all of them. Anyway - here are some pictures I took before we left for church. Although she couldn't have cared less about being a Sunbeam, she was really excited about the dress!

When we got home from church, Afton and Joe made some chocolate chip cookies together. They were so cute together - messy, but cute!

Licking her finger...

and the spoon...

and the beaters...it's amazing we had anything left to make cookies with!

The fruits (ummm...cookies?) of their labors.

So...where was I?

Oh yes, December. Afton chose the colors for our Christmas tree this year, so we ended up with purple and silver. I wasn't so crazy about the combo at first, but it actually turned out to be really beautiful. I was putting the wreath together one night when she asked to help...so I let her. She decided where all the ornaments went and under no circumstances was I to move any of them (okay, maybe when she wasn't looking I tweaked it just a touch), but either way; here's the finished product. We're very proud...

After she was finished supervising the tree decorating (think "No, mommy, not there! Next to the little purple one!" and "No, higher!") Joe and I let her put the star on the Christmas tree, with a little help of course...

I was the party mom for Afton's class Christmas Party at her Preschool, and it was so much fun!! Unfortunately, I was to busy to take any pictures, but as soon as I get them from the other moms I'll post them. We had a really low-key, non-crazy kind of party. I baked a couple dozen Chrismas sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and tinted vanilla frosting green. We let each child take a couple of cookies and a big glob of frosting and had them decorate their own cookies, complete with sprinkles and sparkly green sugar. They were... ummm...interesting. And, just a note - if you are ever a party mom, I HIGHLY recommend letting them do that! It took a good 15 - 20 minutes and they were so quiet! We had pizza and some fruit and veggies - then onto the cupcakes. They also had a gift exchange, each child drew a name and bought a gift for that little boy or girl. We tried to keep it somewhat organized, but once the wrapping paper started to fly it was all over. After that we sang a couple Christmas carols and then sent them packing. Sugar them up and send them home...that's how I roll.

Now for the highlight of the month...Christmas!! This was such a fun Christmas! The week after Thanksgiving I went through a couple of toy books with Afton. I told her to circle the things that she wanted Santa to bring to her; and we would make a list for him. She was so into it!! At first she was very discriminating...only circling the things that really appealed to her, but by the end of it she was circling every page. On one page I asked her "Do you want these drums? Is that why they're circled?" and she said "No, I want the boy who plays the drums." I'm so proud...my little girl digs drummers. Well, needless to say, she did NOT get the little boy, neither did she get the drums. She did, however, rack up. Here are some pictures from Christmas morning...

I love a Christmas tree that's all lit up with tons of presents!!

Who knew that My Little Pony made a working Ferris Wheel and Roller Coaster?

Ok, this thing rocks! It's a Snugglekins by Fisher Price and the baby monkey coos and gurgles. But not in a creepy, going-to-chew-your-face-off-in-your-sleep kind of way. The swing plays a lullaby and lights up...it's Uber-cute!

I think this is the part where Afton yelled "LOOK MOMMY...IT"S A BABY MONKEY!!"

Every kid needs Candy Land - and this kid has beaten both

Joe and I at it almost every time we play!!

This adorable, fuzzy, pink back pack comes complete with a detachable ballerina teddy bear.

And nothin' says Christmas Day better than a giant lollipop for breakfast!