The State Fair

Well I have no idea why I have underlines on this, but I can't get them to go away so here goes. Last Saturday we had a family adventure at the South Carolina State Fair. The following pictures are not in chronological order for the evening, and no we did not go to the future, the time stamp on them is wrong. Also there was a smudge on my lens that I didn't notice at the time, but it makes the pictures look blurry, sorry about that. Yay! the underline went away!
This the the 100th anniversary year for Boy Scouts (oh dear the line is back) so if a scout or leader wore their uniform they got in free. Jonas always looks for reasons to wear his scout uniform so this was a big one for him. We saw people in all sorts of outfits including this guy. Jonas thought his glasses were so cool he went up and asked if he could take a picture with him.

I don't know what happened, but my typing just went back to normal. We had all kinds of fun. Emily and Jonas went down the BIG slide.
Maggie had her own ride all night! She really enjoyed eating sweet potatoe french fries! She also tried funnel cakes and elephant ears and of course loved them both!
All that excitement and a full belly wore her out!
I think this is the only picture of me there since I was the one taking most of the pictures.
Even Lydia and Adam got to ride some rides.
Daddy stood in line with them to make sure everyone had the correct tickets and was able to get on ok.
We enjoyed a break in one of the exhibit halls. The SC dairy farmers were giving out free milk. Everyone got chocolate of course.
Ok my pictures got a little out of order, but this was the real reason we were in the exhibit hall.
Oh, more of the milk break.





Ok so the real reason we went to the fair in the first place was because Emily Mae's art teacher submitted one of her projects from last year and although it did not win any awards it was chosen to be on display. We are so proud! Look she's pointing to her self portrait.


Way to go Emmy! Thanks for giving us an excuse for another fun family adventure!

You can now stop holding your breath

I know all of you have been waiting for this for quite a while, (though not as anxiously as I have) so I am happy to announce that yes, we finally have a new computer. The ramifications of that being that I can finally check my email regularly again and update my blog a little more often and of course keep better track of my budget and all those other 50 million little things that we do with computers nowadays. and to top it off I can actually download pictures again. Yay. In fact I downloaded a bunch this morning and will next post our latest adventure...the state fair.

Maggie's 6 month Stats

You may not know it, but our Maggie ('Miss' Mary Alice to Grandma Cindy) is quite the petite little girl! But she doesn't know she is just a little thing. Why when she was a mere 4 months old she was already showing off her 'mad' equestrian skills!
Yesterday she went to the Dr. for her 6 month check up and we found out how big she really isn't. (yes, you read that right)

Little Miss Maggie measured 25 inches tall and weighed in at 15 lbs. That puts her in the 25%- 50% for her age. She is such a petite little thing! (Unlike cousin Ransom and the other Guffey boys, more like Uncle Cody....wait, that didn't sound right. More like Aunt Skye). She was pronounced Healthy as a miniture horse by the Dr. and she didn't cry or wimper until they gave her the 3 shots in her legs. That she didn't like at all. She did get Iron Man Band-aids for the shots, which her brother's thought was really cool! All the attention from the big brothers helped to calm her down. Her only other problem was her little legs were so sore that when she tried to stand up on Mommy's lap she couldn't. Poor little thing.
We sure love you sweet Maggie!

Conversations with Maggie and Adam's Mimi Cheer!

What We Learned at the Zoo

Hello Family and Friends. I thought I would tell you about what lessons I learned while staying at Grandma and Grandpas house with Jonas, Adrianna, Preston and Lydia while Mom, Adam, Maggie, Aunt Cami, Aunt Cali, Lily Ransom and Gideon ran off some where for a few days.

I learned there are two types of concrete burns. The kind you get from wet cement and the kind you get when your head smacks a concrete wall.

Preston was the teacher of this life lesson. You should have seen the wall... Ha,ha,ha.
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I also learned it is okay for kids to act like monkeys at the zoo.

Actually, this type of primate behavior is almost expected.

We learned that a full grown tiger is large enough to carry more than half of the Guffey family.

I give us a 6.5 on the group dismount. Some of us had a little trouble sticking it.

Lydia taught us that to control and unruly tiger you just grab it by the ear and squeeze it real hard. Turn it down and the tiger walks forward, turn it backwards and the tiger will sit. Let go and he will eat you.

After several tries we concluded that three Guffey heads are all that will fit in a lions mouth at one time.

"Listen to me you guys, 4 Guffey heads will not fit in the lion's mouth."... "What do you mean drinking fountain? On his tongue? That's just gross!"

Adrianna was fearless when she entered the wild goat pen. She is like a "goat whisperer" and soon had them all calm enough that we were able to brush their fur.

Adrianna is very wise when it comes to dealing with wild goats. She was especially thoughtful and thanked the goats personally for being so well behaved.

She taught Preston and Lydia the secret touch to calm an anxious goat. This one was on the verge of breaking out until Odi Podi worked her magic.

Did you know that Llama's can spit? Yeah... Preston and Lydia asked this guy to demonstrate....

Jonas was a little puzzled about the thinking and planning on the part of zoo officials when it came to the Donkey pen. They put a framed square in the fence for you to reach through to pet the donkeys. Then they put a sign up warning you that if you try to pet the donkeys they may bite. What kind of twisted grown up logic is this? Is it a trick? A test? Well, we were too smart for them. We could care less if we ever pet a biting donkey.

"Pick a little, talk a little, Pick a little, talks a little, ... cheep, cheep, cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more......"

"It's a bird?, It's a Monkey?.... What is it?"

"Then Adrianna, Preston and I hatched a great plan......"

We learned that grandpa Darryl is not really a bird expert,
even though he knows a lot of cool stuff!
"This my grandchildren, is an Osprey. Or a deformed owl, which ever you want it to be."

Just so you know, we are not staring at a fence in the window. There are penguins on the other side of that glass. "The penguin Cabaret" ...sort of. (That was a Metaphor.... or maybe an idiom.)

So, Mom's computer is dying and she can't get online to put up any posts right now. If any of my aunts have pictures from this summer of us having fun, please call my mom and she will tell you all the magic words so you can post the pictures on her blog for all of her friends to see.
I'll talk to you later.
Love,
Emily

Proof that the Easter Bunny Cares About Personal Hygiene

Easter morning we awoke to the joyous sounds of children wondering if the Easter Bunny had visited our house. Now I should explain how this tradition works at our house. The Easter Bunny is a bit of a trickster, he likes to hide things. Our children know that mom and dad get the easter baskets and stuff and the bunny comes in the early morning hours and hides the eggs we've decorated and usually the entire easter baskets too. Everything is hidden somewhere downstairs. No room is off limits including the bathroom and pantry. Occasionally the bunny will bring a small surprise that he adds to the baskets. This year Emily helped me lay out everyone's new outfits on the couch and put the easter baskets, complete with name tags, in front of each one. When the children came down in the morning to see everything set up it was all gone. That silly bunny had even taken their new clothes and hidden them. Well of course they have to wait for Mom and Dad before they were allowed to search, that's just one of those rules.

Now, Adrianna is convinced that she knows who the Easter Bunny really is. When I questioned her she answered me that it is her friend Grady's dad. I asked how she knew Grady's dad was the Easter Bunny and she replied, "Grady told me that he knows his dad is the Easter Bunny and it's not a secret anymore." And, she is convinced she saw a man and a boy running around the corner in our neighborhood that morning (we do live in a neighborhood of several hundred people).

The clencher was when I asked how they knew the Easter Bunny had even come to our house because I didn't see any Easter baskets or anything and Preston piped up with this gem, "I know the Easter Bunny was here because he took a bath in our bath tub!!"

I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything. It would have been out my nose and all over the floor. Instead I just asked how he knew the bunny took a bath. His response, "Because he left fur in the bathtub."

Now that may not make much sense yet, but picture this scenerio:
It's Saturday evening and almost bath time all the boys need haircuts before Sunday. Since it's a beautiful warm evening we take the clippers to the back porch let them take off their shirts then cut their hair and send them straight up to the bath. Yeah, there was "fur" left in the bathtub.

So with that irrefutable evidence we started the great easter basket search. Under tables, behind doors and curtains, in the pantry, and even behind the mini fridge and fishtank. They eventually each found their basket with the new clothes folded neatly on top. The eggs magically got hidden at Nana and Poppa's where we were headed later.

The lesson in all of this? There will always be evidence to support whatever you want to believe in, you just have to find it. The other lesson, The Easter Bunny may care about his personal hygeine, but he doesn't care about the cleanliness of your bathroom.

Coming Soon......

I'm working on several posts, but it's taking me a while so be on the look out for Baby Maggie update, April Fools at School, Easter and proof that the Easter Bunny cares about personal hygiene, and The Legend of the Five Year-Old Would-Be Stunt Man. These should be fun or at least mildly entertaining. I also have a bunch of Easter pictures and family pics to put up. Speaking of which check out the family easter outfit co-ordination in the new pics I already added. Is it normal to get such a thrill out of making my family dress alike? Because it truly is one of the highlights of my year. Anyway, more later.