It's starting to feel like fall

Parker had his first soccer practice with the Futbol Club of Cary. Greg and I sat on the edge of the field with perma-grins on our faces. They were all so cute in their bright orange t-shirts sponsored by NY Pizza. They were also so cute trying to coordinate jumping jacks, alternate tapping their toes on the top of the ball, and dribbling with both feet. Our little Kindergartner looked so big out there. He seems to be growing up before our very eyes. They also have their first game this Saturday. After one practice, I am sure it is gonna be amazing. :)









































Meadow started a dance class and is taking to it like a fish to water. We are also practicing some gymnastics at home for now. AND in unrelated other news, Meadow is finished with pull-ups except at night. Woooooo! Go big girl Meadow!!

Home Made Laundry Soap

A lady in my ward sent this link out and I thought some of you might want to try it with me. It is much less expensive to make your own soap. If you try it our let me know what you think. I think I need to buy some 5 gallon jugs.

Here is the link: Harris Teeter supposedly carries all of these ingredients.

Also you can make your own hand soap to refill your current dispensers by boiling 3.5 - 4 cups of water, removing from the heat and stirring in the shavings (cheese graters are supposed to work great) of your favorite bar soap until melted. Give it another good stir before you fill the bottles.

The Airborne and Special Operations Museum, Fayetteville

We lucked out and just happened to go check out the Airborne and Special Operations Museum on National Airborne Day (Saturday, August 15, who knew?!) in downtown Fayetteville. This year’s annual National Airborne Day commemorated the 69th anniversary of the Army Parachute Test Platoon’s first official jump and the ninth anniversary of the museum.

It was a really nice, visual, free museum. There were a couple of things that cost money if you wanted to participate: a flight simulator and an HD movie on the military. As you can tell from the pictures the kids had a great time looking at different weapons and transport vehicles used from WW II to the present day and meeting soldiers currently serving our country. This is an especially terrific trip for little boys but Meadow also really enjoyed it.

Is that a beluga whale or a toilet?

While riding in the car:

Parker - Dad, I don't like beluga whales.
Greg - Why not?
Park - Because they look like toilets.
Greg - Oh yeah...they do look like porcelain don't they.
Park - Yeah.
Greg - Well, I really like beluga whales because they are really nice and gentle whales.
Park - Well, I guess I will just have to get used to them.
He thinks for a bit
Park - Maybe when I am older I will travel up the arctic, swim into the ocean, grab onto a beluga whales fin and swim with it. Ya know, just hang out and stuff.
Meadow - I'm gonna stand on a whale's fin!

Sweetle-di-dee

Sweet Meadow trying out the twist and snap curlers from Grandma Debbie



P.S. The curlers worked great and they were comfortable to sleep in

Funny quote from Meadow yesterday:

She was watching Sleeping Beauty while I was making lunch and she came running into the kitchen:

"Mom! That bad Queen is making bad choices!"

Cardinal Rescue Service

I was driving down the road early this morning to go to a park to run and I saw a bird sitting on the line in the middle of the road between the right and left lanes. I didn't think much about it until it never flew away as the car approached and past it. I looked at "him" (I don't know why every animal I don't know the gender of is a him) in the rear view mirror and there he sat. Definitely something wrong. Is he stuck? I turned the car around and parked on the side of salem street. I grabbed a pottery barn kids magazine that just happened to be in the car and walked over to the bird who sat on his belly with his legs kind of splayed blinking his little black eyes at me. He is pretty young because of the sparseness of feathers on his head and the ones that are there are fluffy and a light reddish brown. I noticed he had a little bit of blood on the side of his head as I tore the magazine in half and scooped him up from the front and back and walked back to the car wondering what exactly I was going to do. I put him in the car with me and drove back home. He didn't make a peep. What if he started flying around in the car? I don't know, but I was pretty sure he wouldn't.

When we got there I took him to the porch and he was able to swallow a little water and after probably 10 minutes he stood up on his feet. I was considering trying to grind up the bird seed in a food processor and maybe roll it in some soy nut butter or something like the bird feeders you make in elementary school when he took a couple of hops, went to the bathroom and flew up into a tree.

Maybe he was injured and in shock and couldn't recover with all of the cars zooming past him on the street. Moral to the story? Get out of the road, relax, drink some water, go to the bathroom and you'll be just fine.

Maple View Farms, Hillsborough, NC

We heard about this wonderful Dairy Farm in Hillsborough that has been operating since 1922, selling farm fresh milk, butter, veggies, home-made ice cream and also a delicious dairy free strawberry sorbet and naturally we had to go check it out. Well, not only was the ice cream delicious, it came with the bonus of fantastic atmosphere. First of all, when we walked into the door it smelled like waffle cone heaven. If they sold waffle cone perfume I think would buy it. The waffle cones tasted as good as they smelled and there was a large selection of all natural, homemade flavors to choose from. I highly recommend the butter pecan. :) Secondly, I swear the ice cream tasted even better because we could sit in rocking chairs on a wide wooden front porch overlooking corn fields and cows!

It was about a 40 minute drive and well worth it to all of us. It was peaceful, quiet and simply beautiful out there. Some locals told us that it gets really crowded after dinner time (they are open until 10 pm) so the best time to go is after an early dinner so that you can rock on the porch and enjoy the peace and quiet. We got there at about 5:30 and it was perfect. On a side note, sometimes we like to drive places on family night and have the lesson in the car while the children are strapped into their seats. It's a good little trick if you haven't tried it.