Early Anticipating:

a couple of "children's" books for our family reading time. The first book I am looking forward to is Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry, et al. The book reviewer on Amazon states that the book is written, as well as, Peter and the Starcatchers, which was a captivating read from the first page. The second book I'm look forward to is Book the Thirteenth by Lemony Snicket. This macabre and witty series has kept up our curiosity about VFD for quite some time. As I write this it comes to my mind that most of the books that we read are about kids with dead parents, which my husband points out (ad nauseum), so to appease this very apparent truth I have remembered that there is yet another book coming out that will appease: Junie B. First Grader: Aloha-ha-ha by Barbara Park. Junie B. Jones is a character that makes me laugh so hard whilst reading out loud that I often have to read it two to three times so that the children can follow the story line. A common thread in these books is that they are verbal gardens of Eden. These books expand your vocabulary, as well as, your children from that of the mundane to extraordinary. As the ever wise Sam I Am advised: "Try them and you may I say".

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Memorial Day Weekend activities:

We drove up to Rocktown, which is in LaFayette, Georgia to check on a campsite for the Boy Scouts to use next week. We had planned to camp, but Aaron's hiking book delaminated. These are boots that are well made, but haven't been used in about 3 years, so Aaron was left without foot wear. Since their is too much broken glass in the campsite areas Michael didn't feel it safe for him to wonder around bare foot, so he axed the camping plans. We did get 1 geocache in before the shoe incident. Rachel and Michael actually found a 2nd geocache on the same path up further, while I took the other 3 back to the car. We picked up a "travel bug" that Michael plans to place somewhere this week. We drove to the top of the mountain and located a third geocache. I found clusters of ripening wild blueberries that I thought were beautiful. We listed all of the fun things the kids saw: 2 wild turkeys, a magnificently colored bluebird (I believe it was a Mountain Bluebird), Cotton-tailed rabbits, Brown Bat, salamanders, and a score of different butterflies (the smallest were periwinkle colored). Before leaving the mountian Michael took the kids to the mouth of Pettijohn's Cave. Rachel went in, but it was muddy so he didn't take the youngest two in and Aaron didn't have proper shoes. One of the brown bats landed on Michael's head for just a second before flying off.

On the way home we played a word game of our own design based on neologisms. As defined on wikipedia "A neologism is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created ("coined") — often to apply to new concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language form. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context." We took words from signs and made up new definitions. For example,

Galleria: When you get diarrhea while touring a museum. (Rachel)
Publix: What happens when the drunk person next to you gives your arm a lick. (Victoria)
There were several more since the drive is about 2 hours to get back home. I'll have to pick Michael's brain to remember some of the clever ones he came up with during the trip.

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When we got home we "camped" in the living room, which was basically throwing down our sleeping bags and turning off the lights, but to add some excitement I popped the cd of Orson Welles original broadcast of War of the Worlds from 1939. The kids made it about 10 minutes into the hour long broadcast, so in the morning I played it all over again. Rachel was the most interested.

We went over to my parent's house to hang out. Then, Michael, Aaron and I went to see the new X-Men flick. It was good, but not as stellar as 1 and 2. I find I really like Ian McKellan's acting in the films I have seen him.

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Off to maintain "dis"order and do some digital layouts:)