Whoa - was that a WEEK?

This week brought lots of busyness and excitement. Mr. Handsome took three days off!! We usually have to use his vacation to travel to his parents so it was great to stay here. We were considering a looooonnnnnggg trip to Raleigh (2 hrs.) but decided to save the money and stay home. Monday and Tuesday consisted of school and visiting Dorothy. We got to see my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew. That was a fun visit. And of course, we saw Dagmar the wonder puppy!

One of my FRIENDS (this is in caps because I always worry when one of my FRIENDS asks me to sew for them. Being a procrastinator, I am never sure what adequate time frame to do things is.) asked me to make her two skirts. This is the prototype. One of my Sister-Friends thought it was the final copy!! I can't laugh because it is rather similar to my skirts that I make for myself. Anyway, my FRIEND's skirt, who is also a Sister-Friend, is ecru. I know this because her zipper package had the color on it: ecru. It is all ecru. It was the hardest thing I've ever made because it would look so cute with a dark brown rick rack on it and some kind of frilly thing on the hem. But I restrained the Peg Bundy in me and kept it like she wanted it. It is, after all, HER skirt. Anyway, I will post photos this week. It's not quite done, two slits, and a hem. But it came out quite nice. I may make a couple for myself and buy some boots to go with them. OK, maybe not the boots.

I am told this is Snow's Cut. I don't know what that means, but I thought it was the Intracoastal waterway. Anyway, here we are on Wednesday, on our way to the Fort Fisher Aquarium.

We stopped to eat lunch at A&G Barbecue. Guy Fieri needs to come here for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. But the only people that come to Wilmington are Jim Cantore and tourists. Yup. Too far from everything. It's at least a two hour drive everywhere. Well, everywhere but the ocean. That's a ten minute drive. Anyway, this place makes HOMEMADE onion rings. They fresh cut them, use their own BATTER, no bread crumbs here, and boy were they delicious. Our bill was outrageous. The drinks were about 35% of the bill!!!

This is my new motto. I think I will get some bright pink wall vinyl and cut it on my cricut to hang in my kitchen, put in my bathroom, tape on my phone.

Here we are at the aquarium. This is albino alligator happily behind a fence.

I don't know if you can see from this photo, but the turtle's head is out. They were quite frisky while we were there. Since this is a family blog, I will not post what my children thought was so funny about the turtles since it would involve discussing procreating. Use your imagination and then laugh at the children noticing this!!

Maddie and big alligator guy. Scccccarrrrryyyyyy....

Robert it the one big claw crab. I can't remember what they are called, fiddler crabs maybe? I don't know. Did I say I homeschool?! Just kidding... I mean, YES, I homeschool! Just kidding about the comment!

In the jaws of megaladon - 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 - oh phooey!! I don't know how many zeros they would put for years old. But he's really not more than 6,000 years old. Fossils are NOT made over millions of years. Let's think about this for a minute. If I bury something dead in the dirt, in due time, it will become, well, dirt. Fossils are made by a cataclysmic event that causes dirt and water to compress QUICKLY keeping any oxygen from getting near the dead thing, thus creating a fossil. This happens in a very short period of time in comparison to millions of years. There's your science lesson for the day. And think Noah's Ark and the Great Flood.

We saw a presentation on sea turtles and the teacher had a bag with things the turtles like to eat and were good for them and things the turtles liked to eat and were bad for them. Kristinie the Great pulled out a squid. And the teacher said, "Well, you've probably never had calamari but others of you might have." And our children, as well as myself, said, "OH NO!! She LOVES calamari (true statement)!!" The teacher was very surprised by this comical revelation.

Bags ARE NOT good for turtles.

Kid photo op!

Kid photo op AGAIN!

And AGAIN!

In the bubble at the BIG tank. Our aquarium, if you are really really slow, takes a whole, oh, I don't know, hour, to get through but it's perfect for our family.

Is that Robert swimming in the big tank.

Thankfully, it only took two times to get a good photo. NOt sure which one is the good photo, though.

In the front row, and grumpy: Kristinie the great; in the Back: Lindsay, Robert, Maddie, and Bea on the nose of the frog.

Here we are at Outback Steakhouse after the Aquarium. Mr. Handsome was given a reward at work and he can cash them in for gift cards. (I usually get Land's End but decided to be unselfish in a gratuitous sort of way!) So we got a restaurant we don't normally go to. Voila!! Here we are!

Waiting for Daddy.

Ah, the love of a brother and his sister!

Somewhat cooperative.

In hindsight, this was probably not a good idea, but on Thursday we went to Poplar Grove Plantation to walk on their walking trail and have a picnic. We forgot that they were set up for their Haunted Hayride. We saw a lot of spooky stuff!! After the first two or three, everyone was pretty calm. L to R - Lindsay, Maddie, Robert, Kristine, Beatrice

Cypress tree.

After we arrived home Thursday, we ate dinner and went to Robert's Pack meeting. The firemen were there!! Yay!

Ooops! This picture is out of order. After Poplar Grove, we went to the mall. Here is the ultimate couponing experience: I love, love, love, love, love Land's End. For just about every Christmas, I get something from someone from Land's End. Last year, I started returning it. Yes, you can return Land's End products at ANY TIME for ANY REASON. AND you can return them to Sear's now. So I returned a bunch of stuff and got $211.00 back!! They give you a gift card and you can use it at Land's End, Sears, OR K-mart!! I bought myself some shirts and I am saving the rest for Christmas presents. This is Kristinie the Great sanitizing the shopping stroller!

Back to the Fire Department.

Just about every night, we do our family devotion. Afterwards, the children pick songs they want to sing. Here is Beatrice and Beaker doing their action songs.

On Friday, we had co-op. I am teaching a class called  I Spy Jesus in the Old Testament. I invited one of our missionaries - whom we also count great friends - to come and give a presentation on Christ in the Passover. Of course since it's Old Testament it would be Messiah to a Jew. Preacher Symes and his wife, Mrs. Symes, are missionaries to the Jewish people in America. They travel all over, as they are able, and teach Christians how to witness to our Jewish brothers and sisters. If it were not for the Jews, we would not have Messiah, or Jesus Christ. God's chosen people, begot God's chosen One.  In both photos he is showing the children how a typical Jewish boy would dress for Passover.

Saturday was basketball sign-ups. Yay!! I hope the children enjoy it. We found a league that fits our budget, and most importantly, our schedule.

The silliness of being cross-eyed.

Since I could not get up with my FRIEND who I was making the skirt for, I decided to make Beaker and Beatrice jumpers. Here is Beaker's. And below is the little embellishment I did for the skirt of it.

Here they are with their jumpers. One of my OTHER Sister-Friends told me the name of Beatrice's pattern but I forgot. It was quite long, but it was WAVERLY! :)

And here is Maddie's quick skirt I made this afternoon. Of course, you can see where she gets her eye for color from!!

I would be remiss in forgetting to mention our very special event last Sunday at church. After each of our children are born, we have them dedicated. This is not to be confused with baptism. Baptism is something a person does after salvation. We bring the children before our church and let them know we plan to rasie them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Well, with Kristinie the Great, we forgot. Mr. Handsome mentioned it to our preacher after she was born and we never went any further. He decided to have a dedication service and there were eight babies, from 5 months to 3 yeras old. It was such a tremendous blessing to be a part of it. Kristinie the Great and her little friends were all dedicated together, too!!  A friend of ours took photos so I will post them when I get them from him.