On Friday, we decided to head to Enchanted Rock. We packed a picnic and had a full day of fun planned with lights in Johnson City to close out the night.

We started off the day at Frye’s to buy some toys. This led us to delay our departure time, but considering the great deals we got it was a good call.

So we get to Enchanted Rock around Noon – park FULL! Come back in two hours. Well, we were prepared for that possibility, so no biggie. We decide to find a place to pull over and eat our lunch. Um, Daddy – where is the picnic lunch??

I think that our family adventures have become terribly formulaic..and similar to that of my childhood. Plan great adventure and then pack thoroughly for it. Get there and within the first part of the adventure, something goes wrong. We all get grumpy (okay..I get pissy) and it looks like the whole thing is going to hell. Then we adapt to our situation and the adventure turns out better than expected. At least we always seem to have a happy ending! :-p

So we head to Fredericksburg which was buzzing! Had lunch at Subway and then tooted around town. Rustlin’ Robs anyone? Candy store? Dreamy kitchen store (Mama didn’t want to leave….). It was fun!

We walked around and checked out the pond outside the store. I was amused watching Tyler test fate and stick his foot out over the water…then Quinn, who had been watching, decides to mimic big brother and test fate as well.

We figured it was too late to try E-Rock again, so we headed to Johnson Citry to have dinner. The restaurant recommended to us turned out to be a bit fancier than I was wanting with kids, but the food was good and we had a good time. After dinner, we headed to the Courthouse to see the lighting and watch the fireworks.

Perdenales Electric Cooperative
This was my favorite part of our adventure. We walked two blocks to the headquarters of the Perdenales Electric Cooperative. They wrap every tree on their property with lights. They wrapped them up to the branches and then into the leaves. It was nothing short of magical.

The kids and I could’t resist running around and playing chase. Then we laid down in the lush green grass and looked up. Here we were giddy under this magical canopy of lights. I could have stayed here for hours – it was so beautiful. My pictures really don’t do it justice. Johnson City is not that far away, you really have to go check it out! You will totally feel like a kid again…totally in awe.

And if a courthouse, lit main street, and the PEC lights weren’t enough, they had a mini Trail of Lights in their little city park. Santa was there too. They also had booths selling the requisite hot chocolate, apple cider and other goodies.

We put the kids in their PJs and seriously thought they weren’t going to fall asleep. Thankfully about 10 minutes away from home, they did. While the day did not go exactly as planned, we made the best of it and had a fantastic time!

This Thankgiving was a good, low-key one. We spent time with our families, went on some adventures, and put a good bit of energy into some projects at home. I wanted to share some pictures, especially our gratitude chain. I almost forgot about this tradition, so it didn’t have many days to grow very long. But it still contains many chains of thanks..and always makes me smile when I see it up.

This month’s family potluck at Pop’s place (as we call it), was a huge Thanksgiving celebration. We started our visit in my father’s room which is in the back closer to the folks who are in the later stages of Alzheimer’s. It was apparent that not all the residents were going to be at the Thanksgiving celebration. Mom was lamenting that not all of them would get to join in. I reminded Mom that we celebrate this day with Pop more for us than for him. He has no idea that it is Thanksgiving just as he doesn’t understand it is his birthday. He is naturally happy to see us and we enjoy visiting him, but there shouldn’t be any guilt because many of these folks wouldn’t understand and may even be more annoyed with the disruption to their routine.

I really do love our family get-togethers with Pop. We got there about an hour before the potluck began and hung out in Pop’s room as it was raining cats and dogs that day. The kids love to play with Pop’s toys, so it is always easy to take the kids. Today Quinn and my Mom got busy with dominoes on Pop’s bed, Tyler built with legos, and Pop and I played with wooden blocks.

My Dad does really well with these blocks and really enjoys them. He will focus for a good 30 minutes with them which is really great. Mom noted that he will sometimes get out a few full words while working with the blocks – it really helps his brain focus. Today he said “the whole thing” during that time. Most of his talk these days is garbled and cannot be understood.

Uncle Bryan showed up a bit before lunch. We all headed to the dining room which was quite festive. The residents decorated these place mats that were at all the tables – I do love how they get them involved in the holidays in whatever form or fashion they can. There was a woman dressed as a pilgrim and there was a gentleman singing lovely quiet country songs. We enjoyed the potluck together chatting and hanging out with Pop. Tyler had a good time with Uncle Bryan, whom he adores as you can see. After we ate, Pop went back to his room to take a nap and we headed out.

It is the new normal for us and I think we have adapted pretty well. There is one blessing in all this that I will be forever grateful for – that my Dad has a different dementia than Alzheimer’s and therefore knows exactly who we are. I am so very, very thankful for that.

Post-Guads trip, it seems that my sense of humor has returned. I have spent so much time being silly or laughing these last two weeks. It is an incredible sanity saver. I mean, if I spend the entire day around, “poop/pee/potty” jokes, I might as well dip into my own demented sense of humor.

At a recent “cupcake off” challenge (yes, you read that right) my friends put together, I had the most amazing time!! I had many glasses of wine and much silliness ensued. I had tears in my eyes at one point I was laughing so hard! It was a much needed release. I kept taking tons of nutty pictures and I have to share a few of my faves. The pictures are grainy, but what you can’t mistake is the genuine contentment, bliss, and joy in those faces. It is such a pleasure to see such joy reflected in my dear friends’ faces.

We have walked through so much shit together as friends and Mamas. It is nice to have these memories to remind us that we laughed just as much.

I have learned that if I am going to make things for my children, I have to let them go the moment the gift is unwrapped. There is no telling how much they will love or not love the gift. And so I try not to get too attached. Well, the morning of Tyler’s party, everyone was outside greeting Grandparents. I went back inside to see what Quinn was up to and my heart melted.

She was inside moving the high chair and kid chair to the middle of the living room. She then got the hammock I crocheted for her and hung it around them. She proceeded to get one of her dolls are put her in the hammock for a nap. It was so sweet and I was so happy to see her enjoying what I had created for her!

We had a really great morning the day after Tyler’s party. Just a bunch of cool things going on that I had to capture.

First we broke the rings of Tyler’s Saturn cake as instructed. We broke them into small pieces of candy that we can slowly enjoy! Also, Tyler had seen this project in his constellation book from our trip. So we found a shoebox and made the constellation projector. I don’t know that Tyler was that impressed, but I thought it came out really well….

This morning Tyler was raring to go on thank you notes. He drew one after the other. Sadly, Momma is the bottleneck in this process – I need to get them addressed and mailed out. Quinn was thinking about what she wanted to create that morning – I think the inspiration hit her a little later.

Tyler had to show me the rocket he made with his pencils

So the coolest thing happened this morning where the kids actually did their own thing for once. Tyler went over to play with his new parking garage. Quinn returned to the table and did her first self-directed art project! I thought it was so cool – she got the glue out and was on a mission. She had a vision! I love what she created!!

These birthday posts are hard for me. Usually I “save” them for when I have the time and energy to sum up the year and say some really profound things about the year. And then the pressure of composing such an important post weighs on me and I never do it. I enjoy blogging about every day life so much more – I think it speaks volumes compared to a summary of the year. And being a Mom my brains can only stretch about two days in any direction anyway. So I will keep this post simple.

People who know me might think that I get really into doing it up for birthdays, and actually, I don’t. I am incredible lazy when it comes to them. I like the small traditions we have at our house, but when it comes to the party part, we just have it at the park by our house with tacos, coffee and cake. The kids play at the playground and the adults chill and talk. My kind of party – I don’t have to do anything! :-p

Traditions
The night before we hang up the birthday flags, hang streamers from the dinging room light and then create a scene on the dining table with a bunch of their toys. The love to wake up and marvel at the scene. This year we incorporate Tyler’s gift from us into it. He looked very pleased.

Party
This year Tyler wanted a Saturn cake. I turned that challenge over to my very talented neighbor who does all kinds of cake creations. She did an excellent job! Especially with the awesome rings! Tyler wore his birthday crown which he was into this year! It had 5 stars on it and a moon that he wanted me to add last year. At the end of the part he was hanging with some friends showing them one of his favorite presents from Grandma Susie.

Kids with Cameras
Some days I get annoyed with the many pictures the kids have taken with my camera. Some days I take a moment to look at what they captured and have a pretty good laugh. Here I think Quinn was trying to take a close-up of one of Tyler’s new car. And we have a picture of Tyler’s new camera sitting on a doll’s high chair. I somehow wonder if his sister was trying to commandeer it..hmmmmm