Holiday World

We headed out to Holiday World early Monday morning.  We drove and drove.  Shortly before we got there we passed this...

Andrew piped up from the back seat and said, "Hey, wook it's where the clouds come from."  Too sweet. 
We arrived at Holiday World, had a little picnic and then headed in.  It was amazing.  I cannot brag on Holiday World enough.  It was the cleanest park I've ever been to.  All the workers were top notch.  Simply amazing.  
We actually rode the tram in from the parking lot.  Upon exiting the tram Andrew said, "That was a fun ride, mom."  Ha! Maybe we should have just let him ride the tram all day since it was so much fun instead of buying him a ticket...just kidding. :-)

We rode all kind of rides.  Andrew found the kiddie area and he was set.  He climbed up and slid down with the biggest grin on his face for hours. 

We would take turns riding water slides with the big boys and staying with Andrew.  Then

 

we headed over to the amusement park side.  Andrew wanted to ride the log ride.  I was more nervous than him, but he loved it.  Jack's favorite ride was the swings (The pic below is of swings that went 20 feet in the air and then went round and round.  Jack really preferred the old school swings).  Andrew liked the antique cars.  Clayton liked the log ride. 

One day Clayton and I waited in line for about 45 minutes.  I was worried that Fred might be missing us and that it was taking too long.  Right as we got the front Clayton looked up and me and said, "Mom, I'm glad we waited in this line together.  This is going to be so much fun!"  Worth.every.minute.of.wait. 
When we got home Tuesday night around midnight Fred lifted a sleeping Andrew out of the car.  He looked at Fred and said in a half asleep voice, "Can we ride that again, dad?"
Jack rode the bumper cars.  He grinned from ear to ear and giggled.  He kept getting turned around and then he would get tickled.  It still makes me smile just remembering his face.  I hope I never forget it. 
The hotel we stayed in had a free breakfast:  waffles, eggs, sausage, muffins, etc.  We walked in Tuesday morning and Jack said, "Mom, you know I'll eat ALL of this, right?!?"  Loves a breakfast!  Dream come true for the big boy.

Lessons learned at Holiday World:
1.  Fred is still the only one in our family that likes a roller coaster.  He rode them alone. 

2.  Rides that go round and round make me and Fred sick.  We are too old for a scrambler.  I rode the swings with Jack and was green.  Green. 
3.  The pavement is super hot and rough.  You must wear some kind of shoes.  Even with shoes though you still get blisters, lots of blisters.  (By you, I mean the adults, not the kids.)
4.  Being at an amusement park is exhausting on adults.  Exhausting.  I just wanted to lay around when we got back.  The boys were ready to go.  In fact, Clayton asked if we could go to the pool.  I politely said, "No."  Seriously, my legs are still tired and it's been 3 days since we got back. 
5.  One of our big boys does not like waiting in a line to ride a ride.  He gets extremely irritable.  After waiting for 20 minutes or so he might even punch the other brother in the head that is annoying him.  Then you have to leave that line, go find his dad and explain the situation.  All the while adding more blisters to your feet.  Whew, the feet. 

We are hoping to head back next year.  Mental notes are being made and I'm sure a good time will be had by all!!


 

Five on Friday

1.  Fred is at children's camp this week.  He even got to go a day early with the 4th and 5th grade boys.  I may or may not be a little jealous that he gets to go and I don't.  I sent him a text after the first night to see how he slept.  His response, "Like a log".  Only 6'5' Fred could sleep like a log on a wooden bunk bed that's 6 feet long with a 2 inch plastic covered foam mattress.  Mercy.
2.  This was a big week around here.  I conned convinced the boys to help me mow the yard.  I would mow a big square and then tell them to mow in between it.  They did it.  It looks awesome. With all three of us working we weeded the flower beds, hoed the garden, mowed every bit of grass and used the blower on the patio, driveway and walk...in about 2 hours.  Since the words, "It's a boy!"  I've dreamed of this day.  It's here and it's everything I thought it would be!  Bless my soul, is that not a beautiful sight?!?  My, I love those boys...not just because they can mow though.

3.  We have tried to squeeze every little bit out of summer that we can.  This week we went to Incredible Pizza in Memphis with some friends.  Each week day at lunch they have some kind of special.  For a flat fee you get two hours of unlimited attractions.  Unlimited, for two hours: laser tag, putt putt golf, go carts, bowling!!  (All inside!)  The boys were pumped.  Our friends had not been there.  Upon arriving Clayton pulled out a hand drawn map of Incredible Pizza from his pocket. He wanted to make sure he and his friends made the most of every moment.  Precious.

4.  Jack asked me if they would get paid for mowing the yard.  I replied with a hearty, "Yes...I will feed you!"
5.  Andrew and I dropped off the last camper yesterday.  When we were leaving the parking lot he said pitifully, "Mom, I'm going to miss Dad, Jack and Clayton."  Me too, buddy.
On a side note...Andrew talks a lot.  All three of my boys do.  I become acutely aware of how much they talk when I am alone with one of them.  They don't have a brother/friend to talk to. Andrew and I have covered a lot of conversational ground since the boys left.  

Past couple of weeks...

A friend told me last night that she was missing my blog updates, honestly, I haven't even thought about it.  It just so happened that the boys were away for almost two weeks visiting with grandparents.  Fred and I were just really enjoying our time together.  It is amazing to me that after all these years we are still friends.  I tried to enjoy my "vacation" to the max.  While Fred still went to work during the day, we both viewed it as a HUGE blessing to have this time together and actually finish a sentence.  It was epic.

-Fred participated in a 100K bike ride on July 4th with a good friend.  A 100K ride is 65 miles.  That's a long time to pedal.  Who am I kidding?!?  That's a long time to ride in a car.  I asked him if he had a picture of himself.  I just got "the look" that communicated that he did not have a picture...bummer.
-While the kiddos were in Memphis a young couple at church got married.  The mother of the bride asked me if I would be willing to coordinate the food at the reception.  In the end I planned out the food and purchased it.  It was a blast!  I am not going to say how little I spent, but I'm thinking I might go in to business.  It was a great day of working some friends, my mom and hopefully, a blessing to this sweet couple.

 -My Aunt Janice organizes/orchestrates a swim weekend each year around July 4th for our family.  It is a weekend filled with food, family, swimming and fun and did I mention food?!?  I ate dessert two times a day.  It.was.awesome.  One day during the weekend a storm started blowing in.  I snapped a picture when everyone ran inside to capture the tranquility of the literal "calm before the storm".  It was a great weekend!

-I also had the opportunity to go a a long walk each morning with my Uncle.  I cannot begin to tell you how much fun this was.  

-As an update to Clayton's Lego Robotics camp...I asked him if he had the opportunity to make any friends and his reply was, "Mom, there wasn't really much time for socializing."  

-Fred's granddad got married a couple of weeks ago.  Fred performed the ceremony.  It was really sweet.  We are so excited to welcome Francis into the family!  Here are a few pictures from the day.  I had an outfit similar to Jack's laid out for Clayton to wear.  At the last minute he asked to wear a suit.  I was pulling stuff together at the last minute, but I'm glad it worked out!

 Here we are with Fred's siblings, minus Dan and Tami.  We'll be getting a picture with everyone before we know it!

 Here's the whole crew in the church.  That is quite the crew right there.

And now just the Shackelford crew...minus Dan and Tami, of course.

-I served the boys homemade cinnamon rolls this morning.  Homemade.  You know they've been at Mawmaw and Mimi's house too long when the replies were, "I really like Mimi's cinnamon rolls out of a can better" or "Your icing is not as good as Mimi's."  Feel the love.  Feel it.  

-I cannot believe July is here.  The boys have children's camp this week, we are going to Holiday World for a few days next week and then the big boys and I go to Seattle the last week of July.  Where has summer gone?!?  We have loved every minute of it, well, minus the boys complaining about homemade cinnamon rolls.  Homemade people!!

This week...

1.  After nine years of living in this town Fred and I just discovered a treasure.  Are you ready for this?!?  Every Thursday at Captain D's in Paris kids eat free.  Kids eat free!  It's a game changer.  Two kids (under 12!) eat free with every paying adult.  They get a choice of chicken, fish or shrimp and one side, plus their drink.  Amazing.  Why have we not partaken of this yet?!?  I do not know.  So, if you come to visit us on a Thursday night and we aren't home you'll know where to find us.
2.  We had a yard sale at our house last weekend to raise support for our upcoming mission trip to Seattle.  He had a great turn out of people and items to sell.

Andrew thought this yard sale was the coolest thing EVER.  He shopped ALL.DAY.LONG!!  Every time he went outside he was dragging something back in my house.  (For those of you who don't know me well...I do not like clutter.)  We ended up with a 2 chairs and table, a Thomas tent (which we've had before and I sold at a yard sale), and multiple little trinkets.  It became quite the battle.  

3.  Clayton is at Lego Robotics Camp this week.  His "professor" (his words, not mine) allowed them to take a robot apart and then rebuild it.  Then they got to program it using the computer.  Today they are using a Lego Scorpion (?).  I have never heard so much excitement in a child's voice as he told me all about his class.

In the car Sunday on the way to meet up with Mawmaw and Pawpaw, I had a discussion with the boys about these camps they were going to.  I told them they might feel out of place or awkward in the beginning, but not to worry, because it would get better.  I also told them , with a lump in my throat, that I would be praying for them.  Clayton very matter of fact responded with, "Mom, you sound worried about us.  Don't worry.  We are all very social."  Fast forward to Monday afternoon...
Once he got finished with his class he called me.  When I asked him if he had made any friends he said (again, very matter of fact), "Mom, there really wasn't much time for socializing.  A kid did teach me how to play chess, though."  Good times!
4.  Jack's tball team had their final game (sniff, sniff) last week.  Jack was fired up.  We lost.  But in the end no one cared, because our coach passed out trophies.  Trophies make everything better, don't they?!?
Our coach took the entire team to Jackson for a Generals game.  He provided Jack's ticket, meal card and bounce pass AND he paid for an adult to go as well.  Jack and his team got to run out on the field and they had their team name announced.  We stayed until the end for the fireworks show and then the kids got to run the bases.  It was a magical night.
Since we live in rural West TN the little things in life excite my children....like escalators, carnivals and fireworks.  These two are amused and no, we did not set this picture up.  That really was their natural reaction.

 One is this picture was amused, one was not.  Shocker.  Although, after it was all over he did not stop talking about how neat it was.

5.  For Jack's party I was preparing water balloons.  Andrew came outside to "help" me.  I asked him repeatedly to go check on his brothers.  It was taking forever.  Finally I said, "Andrew if you'll just give me fifteen minutes by myself I can get this done a lot faster."  He said, "Oh, that's okay mom.  I've got plenty of time."  Great.

I work with our children at church on Wednesday nights.  Andrew comes with me a lot.  We always have a few things that we work on...books of the Bible, 12 disciples, fruits of the spirit, etc.  This semester I challenged them to memorize Psalm 100 with me.  About 25 kiddos memorized it.  We worked each Wednesday night.  What I didn't know was how much of it Andrew was picking up.  Janice got a video the other day.  For some reason it cut off the end, but you can get the general idea.  The hand motions that he's doing were memory cues that I taught the kiddos to help them memorize it.  I pray Andrew keeps this in his heart forever.

This week...

-It goes without saying that Clayton is a rule follower.  He went to the pool this week with some friends and then I met him there later.  Before I got there an announcement was made that PDA was not allowed at the pool.  Clayton later told me (still concerned), "Mom, I didn't know what CBD was, so I asked the life guard what it was to make sure I wasn't doing it."  Nice.  Glad we are all in line.  
-Clayton asked me last night if I would help him create his own app.  He'd like to create an app that is a site for bartering.  He loves the concept of bartering.  Unfortunately, I'm out on creating an app.  While I appreciate his vote of confidence, what he doesn't know is that I barely know how to move the icons around on my phone screen.
 -Jack is a beast.  He completed a triathlon this week with our team from Paris.  He loves all things outside and all things sports.  He is not competitive (unless it's with his brother) by nature.  I told him before the race to do his best and have fun, but there might be a chance that he could win.  Well, he worked so hard.  He came to the finish line with sheer determination written all over his face.  It chokes me up just thinking about it.  He came in 2nd place and we were thrilled for him.

-On the ball field this week while Jack was playing first base this conversation was overheard:

Kid A:  Do you think I could hit a homerun?

Jack:  Sure.  Anything is possible with God.  

-Also at the ball field this week...Jack made a great play at first base.  The mother sitting in front of me, obviously unaware that I was Jack's mother, turned to me and said, "Does anyone know how old that kid is?!?"  I answered her politely and she laughed once she saw Fred.  We took a picture of Jack's birth certificate on Fred's phone for occasions like this one.  

 -Andrew went with our friends to VBS here this week.  He was all about it Monday morning.  Tuesday morning was a little different.  Because of the theme, one of the workers came dressed in a clown costume.  Andrew was stuck to my leg from that point forward.  Fred had the opportunity to take him Friday.  The clown was back.  Andrew did not let that clown out of his sight.  As evidenced by his eyes below...

We do not like a clown, people.

-All the boys went to VBS I mentioned above.  The church challenged the children to give their missions offering to provide a year's supply of vitamins for a child in West Africa.  It cost roughly $8 to supply a year.   Each morning they would count the number of bottles they provided.  My boys were very moved by this.  Clayton got $8 of his OWN money to give and then Jack got some of his own and Andrew got some of his money.  Too sweet.  They came home everyday and told me how many bottles of medicine the group gave...after Jack told me what was for snack, of course.  

Nashville Fun with Fred

Fred and I decided to get away for the weekend.  We went to Nashville and had a blast!  We went to Whole Foods for breakfast, downtown to Antique Archaeology, a gourmet popcicle and the Tennessee State Museum. (We also threw in a hospital visit since we were downtown.) Around lunch we headed to the Nashville Farmer's Market to eat at Jamaicaway.  Delicious.  

The pictures below are of us at Antique Archaeology.  It is a store from a TV show called American Pickers.  We loved it.  We might be a little nerdy, but we're okay with it.

Later that evening we went to Puckett's Grocery in Leiper's Fork.  I highly recommend this.  It was the coolest date night Fred and I have had in a while.  The drive out to Leiper's Fork was worth it.  A word to the wise though, call ahead to reserve your spot.  We almost didn't get in.

The weather was just perfect.  The windows were opened and the band started playing just as it got dark.  Perfection.

The next morning we went to the Franklin Farmer's Market and enjoyed a homemade donut (gracious!) and a biscuit from a food truck called Biscuit Love.  Possibly the greatest breakfast I've ever had.  Once we pa-roused the farmer's market we headed to the Carter House and toured it.  The Carter House is an historic home in Franklin that was part of the Battle of Franklin during the Civil War.  It was great! We grabbed lunch/dinner at a Greek restaurant in downtown Nashville and headed home to a quiet house.
The house was quiet Sunday morning, but somehow Fred and I managed to almost be late.  Maybe it's not the kids after all.  Maybe it's us?!?
We spent Memorial Day in Memphis for lunch and then Jackson for dinner.  You know, spread the love.  Here are the boys at their kick off to summer.

 Does this not just say, "Happy Summer"?!?  I love it!

One other thing happened while we were in Nashville...
Fred and I were working out in the gym (did you see all the food we ate?!?) and I saw a commercial for Bill Walker Chevrolet.  They were offering 4 free tickets to Holiday World if you test drove a car.  Four free tickets?  I couldn't resist.  Fred could, so I dropped him off at the hotel.  I met the nicest car salesman, drove the most expensive car I've ever driven and walked out with 4 free tickets.  Yes, free tickets.  Score!
On a side note, I told both the big boys what had happened.  They were elated!  Although, Jack quickly and quietly said, "Four tickets?  Who's not going, mom?"  I assured him we would buy a ticket for the fifth member of our family and all was well with his little mind.  Priceless.

Visitors

After school got out I realized that we had a few days before life got too crazy.  I've been wanting to keep Liz's kiddos since she had baby number 3. I thought this would be the perfect time.  I met Renee in Jackson and picked up these two precious boys.  

Before we departed we ate at Snappy Tomato Pizza.  E enjoyed a piece of chocolate pizza.  I mean...he really enjoyed it.  This picture does not do it justice.  He had it in his hair, his ears, up his nose, etc.  I knew E and I would be just fine!!

 After leaving South Jackson we stopped at the train store.  I learned two things while there:
1.  Z is afraid of the dark.
2.  It is hard to get a picture of 5 boys.

Once we got home the Memphis boys hit the backyard.  Z promptly removed his shorts and then everyone began exploring the hole that Jack dug in our backyard.  Good times!

 At one point I looked out my window to see this picture.  Jack was showing E how to eat a popcicle.  Just precious.

 Once it stopped raining we went to Sonic for a treat and then to the park.  E found the only water puddle and did a face plant in it.  It was too funny.

 Walking to the car.  That's a sweet group of boys, isn't it?!?

 This was our last breakfast together.  I can't remember what we had, but everyone had a good time.  Once again evidence that getting a picture of five boys is next to impossible.

 We went to church Wednesday night and E thoroughly enjoyed some banana pudding.  Almost as much as he loved the chocolate pizza.  Same scenario...it was in his hair, his ears, up his nose, etc.  Classic.

After three fun filled days with this crew we loaded up to meet Mawmaw in Jackson again, but this time she took all five kiddos with her back to Memphis.  I headed back to Paris and cleaned this house from top to bottom and packed my bag, because Fred and I left late Thursday evening for a little fun in Nashville!