Spring Break was last week

We didn't do much of anything. But one day we went to the park and had a picnic. Well, we went to Sonic and McDonald's and brought the food to the park. It was warm and the sun was shining, so every other person in town had the same idea.

I had to run a few errands after we ate so the kids stayed at the park. They tried teh river but said it was COLD!

Ella must have thanked me a thousand times for taking them. She is one "full of gratitude" kid!

I know, I know, I have been MIA....

I have a billion pictures to show you and stuff to tell you about. We have been to the beach. We have been to the mountains. We have had enough vacation to last a good long while. Next week the 3 oldest go to Church Camp. Then there is band camp. Then our Japanese exchange student. And then School starts back.



I WILL get to all of this. But first, THIS:







DO not rent this. Do not let the lady at the video store tell you that it just has a few swear words. I don't do swear words, but our TVGuardian can take care of those. Do not let her say that it is fine for family viewing. Do not be lulled into a sense of security because the middle school has a poster in the entry hallway advertising this movie.


Do not look at Owen Wilson on the cover. Because he is a hottie.


This movie sucks eggs. And it is vulgar. Disgusting. Rude. Inappropriate.


I had to fast forward through half of it and the other half we were reading because the TVGuardian was editing out some kind of vulgarity and muting the real words.

I took it back to Movie Gallery tonight. She sent me home with a replacement movie.


Bee Movie. Moviemom says that it is appropriate for preschoolers.


It better be. Or I am going to go all Drillbit Taylor crazy on Movie Gallery.

Last Monday we went kayaking

Okay, I use the term we very loosely. The kids went kayaking and I watched. It was really a chance for Ella and Molly to get some experience. The older kids have been kayaking but the little girls haven't had a chance, yet. They just paddled around at River Front Park. They had LOTS of fun. We even brought Bandit. He must not have much Retriever in him, even though it looks like he does cause he just will not get out in the water. But he laid in it on the edge of the river and drank about 10 gallons worth!

After the kayaking we had a picnic. Leftover tacos. It was a really good picnic food cause it was all in little containers in the fridge already from Friday night when we first had it. I just warmed the meat, beans and rice up.

And then a big banana pudding for dessert or leftover chocolate cake for the kids that don't like pudding. Even though I do NOT understand how anyone could not LOVE pudding!

and then some ducks showed up.
and then Molly got too cool for kayaking and put her feet up. How many of us can fit into a kayak with our feet up? Oh, Molly was so funny, she was soooo excited to kayak until she went to get into the kayak. She saw dirt and spiderwebs in them. She said she would not get in until Adrian cleaned out the kayak. Little Cynthia! Lucy did some paddle posing.

And the evening ended with Harrison accidentally flipping over. What a shocking accident it was, too!

more summer

We made freezer jam from some of our strawberries. We did not clean the counter behind Ella and Molly! We planted 4 tomato plants in our very sad, once grand herb garden. This used to have oregano, chives, mint, garlic, rhubarb, basil, sage (pretty PURPLE sage), and a rosemary plant that was waist high. I loved that rosemary plant! And then things started to die. Now it just has some oregano and garlic. And these happy little tomato plants. This is a far cry from the days when Adrian would plant 50 tomato plants. And equally large amounts of corn, potatoes, onion, cucumbers, etc.

I found these random pictures

First we have a very strange game that we played at our family night several years ago. They had to get a dime off of a pile of flour without using their hands.

What was I thinking letting Harrison do this on the carpet? We still have this same carpet and I understand now why it looks so creepy!

That is William. He is asleep. My guess is that he went camping the night before. he thinks it is fun to stay up ALL NIGHT when he is camping. What he calls fun we call "Family Torture Saturday"!!

What is this? Why do we have a picture of it? Someone help me please!
oh boy, must have been a spirit day activity. Go Pep Club! I have absolutely no memory of her ever looking like this. But this is my child, in my house, so chances are I saw it. Okay..... moving on.Good grief, what is this, the Rachel show?

Aright, grab your jackets, cause fall has arrived. We are morphing into October and the carnage that we like to call

AFTER THE TRIP TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH

It must have been a little cool out because the girls decided to put on a coat. But in true redneck spirit...

They are barefoot. And we obviously had a litter of puppies at this time.

So how was your Halloween candy? Good? Fabulous, because it is time for Thanksgiving at the beach house. Here is a little pilgrim girl we call Prudence, no, Charity, no wait, MOLLY! Okay, the worst part of this picture is that I sewed this same outfit for ALL of the little girls in Molly's kindergarten class. I just have oodles of free time I am trying to fill. Would anyone like me to sew some random costumes for their kids classrooms?Christmas just seems to come earlier and earlier each year. Molly sure enjoys a drumstick!I would enjoy it if I got the broom and laundry basket put away. Sheesh!

Bacon at 3

I found a hot new band.



The drummer and the base player are amazing.



They even look like me a little. I was destined to like this band.



And, I am the one that usually buys the bacon that they cook at 3. On Boy Scout camp outs.











Yeah, those are my kids. And their friends. The redhead on guitar has a recording studio in his basement. He knew what he was doing. The other 3 showed up that day and played the other instruments for the first time. Well, if you don't count the many hours they have played them on RockBand.

Jimi Hendrix better watch out.

Cool Gift

This Christmas our kids received a very cool gift from my brother's family. Each of the kids were given a Tis Best gift card. The Tis Best gift card is actually an eco friendly print out. Here is a picture of all of the printouts.When you receive a card you simply go to the website and pick a charitable organization to donate to. Here are Rachel and Molly looking at the 100's of choices that they offer. Do you feel passionately about pandas? Trees? Sick kids? If there is a reason to donate money, Tis Best has that group covered.
Are you wondering where the Hale kids sent their donation? As you can see here Molly likes animals. Cats to be specific. She looked and looked under the animal category. There were no cat specific charities but then she found this one that really caught her fancy:

Canine Companions for Independence® is a national nonprofit organization
that enhances the lives of children and adults with disabilities by
providing highly-trained assistance dogs and
ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships.

The rest of the kids sent donations to the following groups:

The Alzheimer’s Association

Save The Children

Autism Research

Make A Wish Foundation

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

We thought this was a great present. It was fun to spend the afternoon checking out these charities and trying to decide which one was closest to their hearts.

Thank you Uncle Pat, Aunt Jen, and Trevor

Date Night

Today Adrian took the boys to Gatlinburg to go skiing. Lucy and Rachel had a babysitting job. That meant I would get to spend the afternoon with Ella and Molly. What should we do? Well, if I wasn't so tired I would post the amazing pictures we took while we took a lazy walk on the Greenway along the river. We had such a fun time. We enjoyed the river and the trees and the flowers (Yes, FLOWERS!) and the wierd squirrel that we are sure actually fell out of a tree. We couldn't find him, but he actually fell!

We ate dinner at McDonald's. It cost me $6. Really. We are such unsavvy McDonalds people. The girl was tring to take our order and we didn't know what we wanted and she asked Molly, "What do you normally order?" Molly said, "We don't ever come here."

SAD! My poor kids. We have been to Mcdonald's. We just usually go through the drive thru cause we are usually on a road trip. We finally got some chicken sandwiches and apple dippers. We ate in the Playplace so they could play. Molly was thinking that they hadn't been in there since her 5th birthday. Or maybe her 4th. I think she has been in there since then with her Papa. But I don't really know. Anyway, you are getting the idea that we were trying to do something novel and different. Molly went down the slide once. Ella decided she didn't want to. We left. Another 2 years and we will be ready to go back!

Then we went and bought candy and went to the movies! As you can see from the pic we saw The Spiderwick Chronocles. It was diferent in a lot of ways from the book, but that didn't hurt it in anyway. It was very intense and exciting. We gave it 3 thumbs up. Ella liked how teh mom didn't help at all and that kids were the heroes. I liked the special effects. Nick Nolte played teh Ogre. And he is creepy. In real life. It was good casting! Molly was most amazed by how she saw kids smaller than herself looking so perky and playful after the movie ended. She and Ella were both exhausted and ready for bed. It ended at 8:50. They go to bed early! Ella slept till 10:15 this morning, so youthink she would have had more energy! It really blew her away when I pointed out the kids going in for the 9:15 show. I agree with her, I would not be able to watch a movie that late at night.

All in all a very fun date with my sweet "little" girls. They aren't really that little but will always have that moniker since it differentiates them from the "big" girls.

Okay, so what movies have you all seen that you recommend? I don't watch R rated movies and I usually find a reason to avoid PG 13 also. Though I am planning on watching Elizabeth, Umm.. I think it is Elizabeth Warrior Queen? I put it in the Netflix Queue. Has anyone seen it? I'm afraid I am a sucker for anything that is remotely related to Jane Grey and since Elizabeth was her cousin I want to give it a go.

Oh, and here is one for my British friends. I just found copies of the show 'Allo, 'Allo on Netflix. It was my fave show in 11th grade. Do you remember this show? What did you think of it?

Thankful Thursday

Allison is hosting Thankful Thursday this week.

I am very thankful for snow days. There are many of you that live in parts of the country that don't get to experience the random joy of an unexpected day off of school. I had never experienced snow days until we moved to Princeton, New Jersey when I was in 10th grade. We missed oodles of days for snow the year I lived there. It was so much fun.

Now that I have my own kids snow days are even more fun. In Middle Tennessee we don't usually have "real" snow. Yesterday we woke to some snow on the deck and on the dirt around the trees. We have nursery fields in front of the house and you could see white stripes in the furrows that the plow left.

Almost a BLIZZARD! NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday and today. I have no idea why today. We ran around yesterday. THe roads are dry. It didn't get above freezing yesterday, so maybe they want to protect kids that have to stand at bus stops. I don't know and don't care. I love snow days. We spent the day watching the two movies I bought and saved for the first snow day. I got Charade and I Dream of Jeannie. We had seen Charade before and loved it. Harrison says it gives him nightmares. It is so suspenseful! And who doesn't love Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn? Nuff said. I Dream of Jeannie was okay. It was cheesy. The boys left during it. It is loosely based on the life of Stephen Foster. It has so many musical numbers in it that I am not sure what the story was. Okay, I didn't relly watch much of it. I have admitted here before that I can't really watch TV. I breezed through and listened to the movies from the next room.

After movies came karoake. And more karoake. And piano playing. And more karoake.

We had a big crock pot full of warm cheese dip and chips for lunch. YUMMY

The boys went and moved railroad ties for William's eagle project. In the cold. And William and Harrison didn't wear coats. My kids do not know how to deal with cold weather. It was 17 degrees when they were outside. They put a hoodie on over their t-shirts. And wondered why they were cold.

Today has been filled with more karoake. I wish I could video Harrison this morning. He is wound up. He has sung Over the Rainbow, Material Girl, I will Survive and I Just Called To Say I Love You. Oh and Eternal Flame. Yes, this from Mr. Kissing and Hugging And Love are DISGUSTING. He was cracking us up singing Material Girl!

Last night the kids decorated teh table and dining room for Valentine's Day. We would have had a fancy breakfast, but William's school decided that there was not enough snow to close today also, so William had to go to school. :-( He goes to a private school and the rest go to public school.

So today we will bake and play games and sing more karoake. Because it is free, found day. With no responsibilities. And it is wonderful to have since our lives are so filled. Sleeping in and playing all day is such a treat!

I am so thankful for SNOW DAYS!

And what makes these snow days even better is that this Friday and Monday we are off for a winter break. That means 6 days off in a row! YIPEE!!!

Now head over to here to see what everyone else is thankful for!

Swampy's Super Hard MeMe ...but we love the ole witch anyway!

Did I just call Swampy an ole witch? I think I hear a cackle over the pounding rain. Is she out riding that broom of hers in this nasty weather?

I have been tagged. Again. By Swampy. I tagged her and she turned right around, changed the rules and tagged me right back.
OF ALL THE NERVE!

Well, apparantly Swampy misses the days of smacking poor students knuckles with a ruler and decided to do a collective smack to several of us at once. So here are the rules:

Write a 10, 000 word essay on the effect of Sartre on the existential movement
in Macedonia in the 1980's

.Had you going, didn't I? Here are the real rules, lovingly copied and pasted right off of Swampy's blog.

Here's how the Intelligent MeMe works:
1) Link to the person who tagged you and notify him/her that your MeMe post is up and running.
2) Once you create your Multiple Intelligent MeMe, tag any number of people who won't reach through your computer screen and choke you because you tagged them.
4) Alert them to the fact they have been tagged by any means possible. Smoke signals are an acceptable way to do this. Just make sure you have a fire extinguisher on hand.
5) Threaten them with marshmallow stonings and wet noodle beatings if they don't post the Intelligent MeMe within one week.
5) Post the rules and then do what you darn well please. Works for me.
RULES: (Made to be broken... or at least bent.)
A. List the 8 Multiple Intelligences:
1. Visual-Spatial2. Verbal-Linguistic3. Musical-Rhythmical4. Bodily-Kinesthetic5. Interpersonal6. Intrapersonal7. Naturalistic8. Logical-Mathematical
B. Here's where your creativity will shine through:
Post "something" that corresponds with each of the above. "Something" can be a quote, a picture, a drawing, a story, a song, a book, an anecdote... whatever corresponds with each intelligence.
So these 8 Multiple Intelligences are a creation of Dr. Howard Gardner's wild imagination. We will humor Swampy and pretend that we buy into these alternative learning styles. (-:

So here I go: My rules state that you have to find which category your kids best fit in.

1. Visual-Spatial

Here are my Visual Spacial kids. Molly and Lucy are all about art. Molly says shae wants to be an artist when she grows up. She won two Blue Ribbons at the county fair in kindergarten for her art. Lucy's hobbies all revolving around art. She paints, knits, decorates and re-decorates her room. ANd she scrapbooks. Here are the two of them at Scrapbooking Club.

2. Verbal-Linguistic

Ella, all the way. Here she is reading Agathe Christie's The Body in the Library. And most of you read her Mother's Day poem to me. And then there is the way she talks. and talks. and talks. All stories start with the Creation and end with the Ressurection and every detail in between. Run if you here these words, "Can I tell you about the book I am reading?" Run. Or for fun I like to say, "Yes, Tell me in three sentences." Her head spins and steam comes out her ears!

3. Musical-Rhythmical

This is William. He is so gifted musically. Actually, he is just gifted! And turning 16 in 19 days! And about to finish his Eagle project. Oh, back to music... He can play the trumpet and the French horn and the piano. He sang a solo in our church Christmas program a few years ago in Latin. He is great. Now, let me explain. I said he can play these things. But he won't. I'm a so sad mom! He plays the drums in Rock band. And the Guitar in Guitar Hero. Whoopie. Okay, Rock Band is really fun. I have a thing going with Jon Bon Jovi. We are both wanted Dead or Alive. And we are both from New Jersey.

4. Bodily-Kinesthetic

Rachel is always thinking of some new thing to act out. She initiates the snow dance avery night that there is even the slightest chance it may snow. She also dresses up and performs plays.

5. Interpersonal
I have decided that ALL of the kids need to be here. Since there are 6 of them they need these skills, so we are going to work on strenthening our Interpersonal skills.







But my favorite politition is Mitt Romney. And I also like Ron Paul But they are not in our family, so they don't really get to play here in this game. Cause I changed the rules. HA

6. Intrapersonal

This would be both Lucy and Rachel. They are avid journal keepers. They organize and follow through. I could go on and on, but I am tired!

7.Naturalistic

Hello! This has got to be Molly and her 2 million sea shells. And cats. And rocks. And little fossils from the school playground. And the Geode she had to buy at the Frist Center.

8. Logical-Mathmatical

The obvious person here is my husband. But I have put Harrison here also. Harrison was really more spread out than most of the kids across several of these areas, so I decided to try and find the one where he is most comfortable. Harrison is all about order, repetion and stability. Don't change the plan around Harrison. Trust me, not worth it! He is so reliable and does a wonderful job just as long as order is maintained. If things get chaotic though, he is out of there!

And then there is this guy. Mr Amortize. He has a bachelors in math and nothing makes him happier than an afternoon with a scientific calculator and some graph paper. And some hockey skates?

I cannot bear to tag anyone this time, since I just sent one out. And I have another one to do. (I will get to it this weekend hopefully, Katie)