Wow..it's been 2 months since I last posted...
I've been neglecting my LJ in favour of facebook and games I guess. I've also been quite busy with the kids since they got out of school. Lots of free summer activities at local (and some not so local but the stuff is free so we travel) public libraries and so on. There have also been free movies at the cinema in Gastonia. So far Livvie and I saw Planet 51 while Wes was at his one-week Cub Scout daycamp back in June and then the three of us have seen a couple more. I can't remember the first one because I"m old and senile but this past week we saw Arctic Tale, a National Geographic film that chronicles the life of a polar bear and a walrus from when they are infants until they have infants of their own about 8 years later. It was interesting and funny in parts (the kids enjoyed the farting walruses scene) and heartbreaking at times too.
Anyways..so we've been busy and I've been neglecting LJ. I'm feeling icky this morning due to having indulged in too much chicken-bacon pizza last night (I love bacon but it doesn't love me :P ) and so I'm gonna post a few photos that I haven't posted here yet. If you're on my facebook, you will probably have seen at least some of them...but whatever. That's what you get when you're on both friends lists. :P
I looked but I never posted any of the pictures of Olivia when she was all dressed up for her Father-Daughter banquet and dance for Daisy Scouts...not here anyways. She was SO excited and she picked out her dress (I told her she could pick out any one she wanted and it took quite a bit of trying on and twirling before she decided) and accessories and they ended up having a really fun time. I took Wes to Chuck E. Cheese and played a lot of the shoot the gross spiders video game with him that night. :) Anyways, here's Livvie, all dressed up and ready to go. If you want to see more pictures, they're on facebook where you can find me if you look up happytootum@livejournal.com :)
Okay okay. I'll stop with the Livvie pictures..heh.
Bill and the kids as we were going into the new Pirates exhibit at the Schiele Museum. We were there for a preview of the exhibit and breakfast with Blackbeard since we're members there.
I love how Livvie just spontaneously posed like that. She rocks. :) Wesley's no slouch either. He was saying Arrrrrr! :)
Livvie inside the exhibit.
Blackbeard himself, addressing the crowd just before the firing of the cannon signaling the official opening of the exhibit. You can see the cannon going off (kinda..hehe) in my previous entry.
Olivia, while volunteering to help hold the tightrope at a marionette show at one of the libraries. Wes was there too but didn't volunteer for anything. Olivia, however, had a blast and volunteered twice. This was the first time...
And the second time...they were dancing along with one of the marionettes during the last segment of the show.You can see the back of Wesley's head in the foreground.These were taken with my cellphone camera because my digicam stopped working properly in February...the flash makes things darker rather than lighter. Thankfully, my parents decided that they had 2 cameras that they don't use that often and just yesterday I received one of them, a Canon A540, via UPS at my door. I'm so grateful. :)
A very long and VERY heavy (the guy asked me to help him unload her from her bin so that these adults could hold her and that snake was HEAVY!) python named Rosie. She was the finale of sorts at a program called Snakes Alive! that we went to at a not-so-local (read 35 minute drive) public library one evening. It was worth it because he'd had the show at a larger venue earlier in the day but I knew, having been there for a presentation last year, that there would be tons of people and that the kids wouldn't get a nice close-up view. This library, however, is tiny and so we had a great chance to see and hold and touch lots of snakes. I volunteered to hold a black rat snake (the largest snake in this area) that was about 4 feet long or so when it was time for the kids to take turns holding and touching the various snakes he had. His name (the rat snake) was Julius Squeezer. :) Anyways..this python was at the end of the presentation and it took 6 adults to hold him.
Then the kids all lined up and they could go along and pet the python...Here's Livvie petting her...
and then they went around back and took turns holding the python. Here's a very happy Wesley having his turn. :)
I have a picture of Olivia holding the snake but she was upset in the picture so I'm not posting it. She'd been pushed around while waiting her turn (some parents really need to teach their children some manners and teach them the art of waiting their turn) and she desperately wanted to have a turn holding the snake but was crying at the same time because she had been pushed and shoved. Some parents thought she was crying because she was afraid of the snake...like I'd MADE her hold it or something. I had to explain to a few concerned parents why she was adamantly standing there holding the snake...but crying at the same time..heh. She got over it but it just annoyed me that a few rude children had to ruin it for her.
We went to a Deep Sea Crafts (the theme of the Summer Reading program at the libraries this year is Make a Splash with REading...so there are lots of water/ocean-themed activities) event at the Tuckaseegee Center. It was put on by the Mount Holly library. I like how they do it at the Tuckaseegee Center because there is SO much more room there and the kids have fun. I had forgotten my camera and my cellphone when we went ther so I took a picture of the kids on the back deck with most of what they'd made when we got home.
A close-up of Livvie in her lobster hat and with her bejeweled octopus.
Here's a happy Wesley, in our laundry room, holding the fireworks (fountains and so on...they don't sell the fly-up-into-the-air-go-boom stuff in this state ... although it's easy to get if we just go over the border into South Carolina, which isn't far at all) he'd bought at Walmart with his savings. He'd saved some of the money his grandma sent him and had saved up his weekly allowance and ended up spending $24.78 on fireworks. Bill also bought some and we had a good time setting them off on the 4th in our driveway. :)
The kids, drawing on the back door window with some Crayola Window Crayons. I'd bought some as parts of birthday presents for a couple of kid birthday parties we'd been to and when I went to pick up yet another package for yet another birthday party, I finally picked up a package of them for my own kids. They're awesome. They come off with a wet paper towel but don't really rub off on you if you happen to brush up against them. The kids have had a great time drawing on the back and the front doors (we have a glass door on the inside in the back and on the outside in the front). This picture was taken the first time they were using them.
Okay..I guess that's enough for now. I'll have more later, no doubt, as I try to catch up.
Anyways..so we've been busy and I've been neglecting LJ. I'm feeling icky this morning due to having indulged in too much chicken-bacon pizza last night (I love bacon but it doesn't love me :P ) and so I'm gonna post a few photos that I haven't posted here yet. If you're on my facebook, you will probably have seen at least some of them...but whatever. That's what you get when you're on both friends lists. :P
I looked but I never posted any of the pictures of Olivia when she was all dressed up for her Father-Daughter banquet and dance for Daisy Scouts...not here anyways. She was SO excited and she picked out her dress (I told her she could pick out any one she wanted and it took quite a bit of trying on and twirling before she decided) and accessories and they ended up having a really fun time. I took Wes to Chuck E. Cheese and played a lot of the shoot the gross spiders video game with him that night. :) Anyways, here's Livvie, all dressed up and ready to go. If you want to see more pictures, they're on facebook where you can find me if you look up happytootum@livejournal.com :)
Okay okay. I'll stop with the Livvie pictures..heh.
Bill and the kids as we were going into the new Pirates exhibit at the Schiele Museum. We were there for a preview of the exhibit and breakfast with Blackbeard since we're members there.
I love how Livvie just spontaneously posed like that. She rocks. :) Wesley's no slouch either. He was saying Arrrrrr! :)
Livvie inside the exhibit.
Blackbeard himself, addressing the crowd just before the firing of the cannon signaling the official opening of the exhibit. You can see the cannon going off (kinda..hehe) in my previous entry.
Olivia, while volunteering to help hold the tightrope at a marionette show at one of the libraries. Wes was there too but didn't volunteer for anything. Olivia, however, had a blast and volunteered twice. This was the first time...
And the second time...they were dancing along with one of the marionettes during the last segment of the show.You can see the back of Wesley's head in the foreground.These were taken with my cellphone camera because my digicam stopped working properly in February...the flash makes things darker rather than lighter. Thankfully, my parents decided that they had 2 cameras that they don't use that often and just yesterday I received one of them, a Canon A540, via UPS at my door. I'm so grateful. :)
A very long and VERY heavy (the guy asked me to help him unload her from her bin so that these adults could hold her and that snake was HEAVY!) python named Rosie. She was the finale of sorts at a program called Snakes Alive! that we went to at a not-so-local (read 35 minute drive) public library one evening. It was worth it because he'd had the show at a larger venue earlier in the day but I knew, having been there for a presentation last year, that there would be tons of people and that the kids wouldn't get a nice close-up view. This library, however, is tiny and so we had a great chance to see and hold and touch lots of snakes. I volunteered to hold a black rat snake (the largest snake in this area) that was about 4 feet long or so when it was time for the kids to take turns holding and touching the various snakes he had. His name (the rat snake) was Julius Squeezer. :) Anyways..this python was at the end of the presentation and it took 6 adults to hold him.
Then the kids all lined up and they could go along and pet the python...Here's Livvie petting her...
and then they went around back and took turns holding the python. Here's a very happy Wesley having his turn. :)
I have a picture of Olivia holding the snake but she was upset in the picture so I'm not posting it. She'd been pushed around while waiting her turn (some parents really need to teach their children some manners and teach them the art of waiting their turn) and she desperately wanted to have a turn holding the snake but was crying at the same time because she had been pushed and shoved. Some parents thought she was crying because she was afraid of the snake...like I'd MADE her hold it or something. I had to explain to a few concerned parents why she was adamantly standing there holding the snake...but crying at the same time..heh. She got over it but it just annoyed me that a few rude children had to ruin it for her.
We went to a Deep Sea Crafts (the theme of the Summer Reading program at the libraries this year is Make a Splash with REading...so there are lots of water/ocean-themed activities) event at the Tuckaseegee Center. It was put on by the Mount Holly library. I like how they do it at the Tuckaseegee Center because there is SO much more room there and the kids have fun. I had forgotten my camera and my cellphone when we went ther so I took a picture of the kids on the back deck with most of what they'd made when we got home.
A close-up of Livvie in her lobster hat and with her bejeweled octopus.
Here's a happy Wesley, in our laundry room, holding the fireworks (fountains and so on...they don't sell the fly-up-into-the-air-go-boom stuff in this state ... although it's easy to get if we just go over the border into South Carolina, which isn't far at all) he'd bought at Walmart with his savings. He'd saved some of the money his grandma sent him and had saved up his weekly allowance and ended up spending $24.78 on fireworks. Bill also bought some and we had a good time setting them off on the 4th in our driveway. :)
The kids, drawing on the back door window with some Crayola Window Crayons. I'd bought some as parts of birthday presents for a couple of kid birthday parties we'd been to and when I went to pick up yet another package for yet another birthday party, I finally picked up a package of them for my own kids. They're awesome. They come off with a wet paper towel but don't really rub off on you if you happen to brush up against them. The kids have had a great time drawing on the back and the front doors (we have a glass door on the inside in the back and on the outside in the front). This picture was taken the first time they were using them.
Okay..I guess that's enough for now. I'll have more later, no doubt, as I try to catch up.