Dot Dot

Last Sunday we drove up to Greenville for Brian's grandmother's memorial service. Dot Davis was a wonderful woman, and taught so many people about living and loving family. The center of her life was God and her family, and she spent almost 89 years here on earth.

While there we also spent time with Brian's grandfather, also 89, Jack. Below are Brian's sisters with him.

All of the family came together, minus Brian's brother Barry (he and his family were representing our family at an Uncle's funeral in Texas). It was a beautiful service at the church where both Dot and Jack (and their son, and grandchildren) attended.

Jillianne, Stephanie, Lori, and Lisa

My daughters with their Aunt Lori and Aunt Jillianne

Cheesie and her cousin T.

Aunt Jillianne, Big Al, and cousin Will

Brian's cousins, Julie and Melissa

Although very sad to lose Dot, we recognize the long, influential life that she lived. We were very thankful to meet cousins who have recently moved back to SC, and visit with extended family.

The night before Dot died, Brian also lost his Uncle Dorman. He had been ill for awhile, but we are still very sad for his family. Both sides of Brian's family are very close, and I know they will continue to support each other, and remember with love those that are no longer with us.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today my family gathered for a very nice afternoon. All of the girls helped cook, and then we all sat down to eat together. My family, my Mom, sister Natalie, brother Colin and his girlfriend Charley, and later my sister Christy and niece Cate stopped by.

While I was finishing up cooking, my mom and Brian took the kids out to take a few pictures. I can see Christmas presents coming from some of them.

Sunday was Natalie's birthday, and my mom had bought a cake to celebrate. She didn't realize that she bought the candles that act like sparklers and then relight. Thankfully Natalie is also a fire-eater with her circus Columbia Alternacirque.

After dinner we went outside and took a bunch of family pics. The only ones missing were my brother-in-law Chad, and of course my Dad. I'll leave you with the good ones, and the out takes.

One more of those days when we wish we could have my Dad back, and live closer to Brian's family too.

Watch out Top Chef

I decided to take advantage of a big sale, and allow T-Rex to buy those candy molds at the craft store thinking that it would be fun, and of course, useful. We found a couple of them we liked - one for chocolate covered pretzels (a favorite at our house) and one for chocolate bowls.
We can't wait to try out these bowls tomorrow at Thanksgiving dinner.

The biggest pile ever

This may end up being part 1 of 2, because Blondie and Cheesie are quite determined to rake and build the biggest pile of leaves ever seen by humankind. Last fall we were raking the yard and taking pictures of them jumping in piles. Apparently that was a favorite memory, and they are looking to recreate it, even with only one hand working (she didn't want to use two). Unfortunately for them it is COLD right now in SC, not cool..... COLD, so they were on their own.

Obviously Cheesie has very busy parents because no parent in their right mind would let their kiddo wear cotton capris, a short sleeved shirt, and flip-flops when it was necessary to apparently also wear gloves. Honestly, I tried to get her to wear more clothes, but she said she was fine, so that's that. I'm curious to see how long they are willing to rake to get this gigantic pile of leaves they envision.

Settling in for election results

Voting, at our house, is a big deal. We go to vote on just about everything, and we always take the girls. Tonight with so much at stake, we all settled in to watch, but still did our own things. (T-Rex and Blondie were in and out with homework, or reading, I didn't catch their pictures).


Cheesie read some, and then graphed out her Halloween candy (school assignment).

Brian is the most obsessive about politics in our house (notice the stress ball in one hand and the remote to check commentaries in the other). He shushed Big Al and I a LOT tonight.

Big Al just returned from D.C. on a school trip, and has to make a scrapbook as a project, and she chose the living room floor to spread out.

I'm sure it will be cleaned up before bed (yeah.... I know....if I keep repeating that it may happen).

I started cutting out a fall banner that I wanted to make (I'm trying to not be too anal about my sewing and freely put things together, but honestly it stresses me out not to have some math, so these were cut on a 60 degree angle).

So hopefully we are comfy, because its going to be a very long evening/night.

Halloween

Brian and Big Al working on the pumpkins....

The other girls looking on....

The final result.

Yesterday I spoke to my uncle about bringing our cousin CJ to go trick-or-treating with us. We had a ball with them last year, and wanted to see how they dressed up this year. They let us know that CJ was going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, so the girls and I started pulling things out to see what we could come up with. I bought face paint, and a few accessories, but everything was pretty much here in the house. Big Al was the scarecrow - wore jeans, flannel shirt, and bought a straw hat and Raffia to make into neck/wrist/anklets of straw. T-Rex wore an old witch costume and painted her face to become the Wicked Witch of the West. Blondie grabbed a princess dress and was Glenda the Good Witch, and Cheesie was the Tin Man - wore gray sweatpants and shirt, covered a funnel with aluminum foil and hot glued an elastic chin strap, and bought her a plastic woodsman's axe and painted her face grayish blue.

Big Al was up for painting her scarecrow face, but after she saw it she just couldn't go through with it. This was the only pic we got before she washed her face.

T-Rex gets ready for her face painting. She and Cheesie kept theirs on all night, Blondie simply needed some glitter for her cheeks.

About to start the fun....

The Wicked T-Rex.

We brought the wagon which helped Little CJ get through the evening, and came in handy when Blondie eventually got tired. BUT I was quite surprised at how far the little girls made it this year - about 2 hours for the whole night. Usually I bring them back and then switch off with Brian taking out the big girls for more fun. Tonight though they made it all the way through. CJ kept handing her mom candy at most houses and asking her to open it.

And then back home to check through the candy, and have a couple pieces before heading for bed (school tomorrow).

The ocean and the marsh

Back on the field study..... We left the maritime forest and headed for the beach. The kids noticed immediately how the breeze kept the mosquitoes away. We discussed the longshore current, waves, tides (full moon making it the largest one of the month), and picked up/observed the critters washed ashore.



A horseshoe crab



A jellyfish

This is the area where we stood in the forest at the end of the trail.

The gorgeous lighthouse

The students learned about sand dunes, how necessary they are to the barrier island, and how the fences are there to catch blowing sand and create new dunes. We also learned that one of the grasses on the dune has about 10 inches of root system for every inch above ground.

After the ocean, we ate lunch, and headed for the marsh. I think the rangers learned a valuable lesson at the marsh - when landlocked suburban kids come to the marsh, let them lie down on the boardwalk and watch the snails and crabs.

If you look closely at the spartina grass you'll see little mud snails. Apparently when the tide comes in they crawl up the grass because otherwise they become food for the blue crabs in the marsh.

Then there were the fiddler crabs. An absolute favorite. The males have one claw larger than the other, and wave it outside their burrows to attract the lady crabs. This was big time viewing by my students. I definitely have to go find something fun like this to keep in my classroom. The picture below is of some volcano-like burrows for the crabs.

We finally arrived at the hammack (an island completely surrounded by marsh, and looked at the plants, trees, and amazing views. Walking to the end of the second boardwalk we watched a tidal creek heading for low tide, but the students thoroughly understood the difference between tides, waves, and current after this - check that off my standards to teach. I heard one girl tell another, "OHHHHHH, now I know what she's talking about."

This is a view from the parking lot of the boardwalk and hammack. This was a totally worthwhile trip for my students, but I think I'm going to make sure I go back with my own kids. Heaven must have a marsh.