Love, Nana and Papa

Another Special Letter from our Grandparents...

Dear Leigh and your new friends,

We were so surprised and excited to get the beautiful card that you sent us about Grandparents. Leigh, you did such a good job on your handprints and cutouts. We will keep it for a very long time. It is hard to believe that you are big enough to be going to real school and can do such nice artwork.

Did Leigh tell all of you that her Nana and Papa live in Tennessee? We do not get to see her as often as we would like, but we had a great time in July when Leigh and her family met us with her aunts, uncles and cousins in Gatlinburg. We rode a cable car to the top of the mountain where there were a lot of fun rides for everyone. Nana and Papa took Leigh to ride the smaller rides while her big brother rode the big rides. She also went down a BIG GIANT water slide with her Mom, and loved it. Then we had Cotton Candy Dipping Dots.

Since we live so far away, Leigh’s mother puts pictures on the computer for us to see. We check every day to see if there are new pictures. It helps us to see what she is doing with her family and friends. We saw pictures of Leigh and Cameron on the first day of school. We also saw pictures of them getting ready for Halloween. We hope to go to North Carolina to see Leigh soon.

With all our love to Leigh and her friends,

Nana and Papa

Ordinary Miracles

Some of our most special days are the ones we spend in our own backyard, which just happens to be Southpoint Mall. On the way to lunch today, we discovered that Darth Vader, Han Solo, and a few Storm Troopers had stopped by Pottery Barn Kids for a photo op, which we couldn't pass up.

We then headed to Cheesecake Factory, where we had the coolest booth in the house and an opportunity to see 4 grumpy Leigh's at once.

After impressing the restaurant patrons with her hanging-bread trick, Leigh and I shared some M&M cookies while waiting for the boys at the movie theater to catch an afternoon flick.

I guess it only takes two silly kids and a few hours to turn a gray, cloudy day into a pretty great one.

Halloween XXX-press

I admit I was disappointed when Linens And Things went out of business earlier this year, but imagine my delight when I discovered that the vacant store had been temporarily transformed into a Gozillion-square-foot Halloween Express. So I was thrilled to take the Bigs there the other day, with Hunter in search of a High King Peter sword and Jackie in tow for a Gabriella (HSM) wig. It started off innocently enough, with plenty of laughs in store for big hair and crazy glasses...

...but before I knew it, our two worldly 5-yr-olds had wandered into the risque section, where I found them busting a gut over fake bosoms and plastic butt cracks.

Instead of feigning shock, I figured I would just laugh and take pictures. What's a Mom to do?

Sir Poops-A-Lot

Dog Show

Masson was the main attraction at Pet Show & Tell Day at Hunter's school last week. Here his handlers wait anxiously before the show begins.

Mr. Chad thoroughly enjoyed showing off his Best Friend to Hunter's classmates and performing his world-famous trick of laying a treat on top of Masson's nose. Despite becoming quite the food hound in his old age, Masson waited patiently for his master's special Navajo command ("Ya at eeh") before he ate the treat. Everyone was suitably impressed.

Although some classmates brought fish and one a kitty-cat, the dogs clearly stole the show.

Toddlers in a Trunk

Although we bought this trunk to use mostly as a table on the screen porch, Cameron and Leigh had different ideas for it.

And in case you're wondering, the Littles are 3 YEARS OLD:

Little Tarheels

After a big breakfast at Elmo's this morning, I decided it was high time to let the kids experience a little taste of Chapel Hill. After riding around 20 minutes trying to find a place to park, we raided Johnny T-Shirt and I let them both pick out Carolina T-shirts to wear during our Chapel Hill adventure.

Forty-five minutes later, we left Johnny T-Shirt and transformed into Jr. Tar Heels to hang out on Franklin Street.

Although I swore as a teenager that I'd never make my kids travel down Memory Lane as I had with the Chief and Nanny whenever we crossed the Alabama state line, I couldn't help myself. I showed them my old dorm, the buildings I studied in, the path I walked to get to those buildings, Time Out, the Quad, the Old Well, and lots of other things that are surely fascinating to 5-yr-olds and 2-yr-olds.
They were good sports for the most part, but after about 2 hours, Hunter's only concern was how many miles we had walked (his guess, 100 million), and Leigh's overriding concern was when we were going home. The only savings grace was the UNC Student Store, which Hunter loudly announced was "The Bomb!"
One Tired Tarheel