Ski Jeans

All Caroline wants for Christmas is snow. She has been talking about it for 10 months. So, C and I will be headed to Minnesota to see new baby Parker (and or course his parents, puppies and grandparents) over Thanksgiving week. Since we had to purchase all the gear we decided to teach C to ski this year as well. So, C, H and I are going to Jackson Hole Wyoming in December to ski for a few days.

C now puts on her "ski jeans" and practices "Auntie Jill skiing" (cross country) and "Christmas skiing" (downhill) complete with actions. She will be ready.

Halloween

The news is out. Caroline's secret identity is Violet Parr of the Incredibles.

We went to Port A for Halloween again this year. C loved trick or treating with Tres (C's godfather's son and her good friend in PA) last year and we added the twins to the mix this year.

As soon as C is in costume she IS Violet. She will throw a force field to save you from danger or go invisible at the first sign of intruders. At one point the kids were all loading in the golf cart to head out and C fell out. We went running over and John replied, "She is ok. She has a force field."

Of course Violet could not go alone. So, I made shirts for Hunter and I as well. It was pretty cold, so we both wore ours under a jacket, but flashed our family identity several times along the trick or treat route to ward off the bad guys.

Adelyn was Junie B. Jones of second grade book fame and John was Clint Eastwood from "the Man with No Name." He was working his cigar and even tipped his hat when he said thank you.

A Supercalifragilistic kind of day

In August, I saw the ad for Mary Poppins - the Musical. I knew it was the moment I had been waiting for for six years. My baby girl was old enough to accompany me to musicals! Oddly enough, C saw the same ad and tore it out of the newspaper and had me hang it in her room. She LOVES the movie.

Of course this was an extra special Fancy Nancy kind of event so C got to wear her Jane Banks pinafore. Mimi brought this back from NOLA over the summer. Every grandma we passed did a double take and smiled. You gotta love a little girl in braids and a pinafore.

If you have a chance, this was an incredible technical musical. It was done by the same people as the Lion King. Of course the show is not just a reproduction of the movie and actually follows the book more, so we had to have several whispered discussions. But we attended the first matinee of the show and it was full of whispering kids.

Spoiler alert: at the end, MP flys off into the sky and goes out over the crowd. She landed right in front of us. C jumped up and started clapping. I am pretty sure she liked her first big girl musical performance

the new deer blind

Over the summer, Hunter built a new blind for the deer lease. This was then taken over by Caroline and I to camouflage. I truly hope the deer are color blind and not art critics because this blind is light pink and VERY interesting. The portrait on the front is John, Mimi, Adelyn, Papa and Caroline. The tiny rat looking thing is actually our dog. And the best part- I drew it. C added her dinosaurs, palm trees and bats to the other sides.

C, Hunter and Cia went to the lease for the weekend to put it up for the season. Caroline and Cia went exploring while Hunter was working (and Mommy was back home scrapbooking) and found lots of treasures- real and imagined.She even got to eat smore's for breakfast.

Happy Birthday Parker James!

Butterball is finally here!

Jill's baby, Parker James, was born September 30 at 2:52 am. Mom and baby are fine (though a bit groggy). Parker weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz and 20 inches. FYI: Parker means keeper of the trees. A pretty fitting name for the newest Clennon.

Details are still fuzzy since I spoke with Jill (who is coming off meds) and Becky (who has been awake for 24 hours), so check back for corrections. Jill went into labor yesterday afternoon.

When I talked to Jill the first thing she told me- before a name or a birth story- was "Mom had to be taken out in a wheelchair." What?? After a long day of waiting and traveling (Becky and Brian's mom Mary Clennon drove up Tuesday night), Becky lay down on the floor of the room and a passing nurse grew concerned. They made Mary Clennon wheel Becky out of the hospital when they left.

Stay tuned for pictures or check Jill's blog for updates.

Congratulations Jill and Brian! Welcome Parker!

All things China

I was scanning back through the blog and I can't believe I didn't post this story.

Caroline loves all things China. I don't know where she got the idea, but one day (she was about 3.5) she told us that she was going to China when she got older. This expanded to going to college in China, moving to China (and taking her dog and family with her), and learning Chinese (which Hunter has taught her). She loves to read about China and visit a neighbor of ours who lived in China. So, when the Houston Museum of Natural History was the first museum to host the Terra Cotta warriors exhibit I knew we had to go.

In July the two of us went up to HMNS for the exhibit. We read about the Terra Cotta Warriors in several fiction (thank you Miss Frizzle) and non-fiction books and she was ready. Of course the place was packed with people who are listening to the exhibit notes and aren't looking down so C kept getting run over. So at each main stop I would sit down in front of the windows and pull her into my lap to read the information out loud to her.

The exhibit is amazing. If you get a chance to see it you must go. The description of how these statues were made is incredible. Each statue is incredibly life like.

We were almost through the "learning" part and headed around a corner to where they had one of each kind lined up like they are in the pits and we came across an archer in a corner. I was reading and Caroline was just staring at it. All of a sudden she screams and takes off running. I chased after her and she finally stopped and said " It blinked at me". Her little heart was pounding. I asked her again what happened (and by now a bunch of people have gathered to make sure she is ok) and she said," The Scarry Cotta Warrior blinked at me". We sat near a wall until she had calmed down and then she wanted to see the rest, while holding hands of course.

So, Scarry Cotta Warriors they have become. Caroline has told tons of people about Scarry Cotta Warriors and that when they go see them, they should hold someone's hand so they won't be afraid.

Offshore with the family

Labor Day weekend we went offshore "like a family" as Caroline would say. The fish were apparently told of our evil plan ahead of time and all went on vacation because it was slow fishing.

C was kept entertained by the shrimp boats in the area, dolphin watching and the occasional "puuuullll, reeel, reel, reel, reel, reel."

At one point Caroline mentioned that she wanted to go swimming. I think she may have meant in Maddy's pool, but Daddy threw her overboard in 89 feet of water! She had "an island" on the end of a rope and had a grand time swimming around the back of the boat. She thought it was pretty cool that the tallest building she could think of would fit under her and she wouldn't even touch it. (she recently watched Drain the Ocean on Discovery)

On the way home, I practiced driving the boat. As you can see, I am not a very confident driver. Hunter was standing up front stowing gear as we were approaching a barge and I freaked out that I could not see out the windows. Aftert that he took this picture.

Of course Caroline missed it all becasue she is her mother's daughter and can't stay awake.