It's no secret that the elder Turners are late night people. So it seemed completely normal that one night at 11pm, I was taken with the notion of making a dress for my sweet JoJo.
It only took 3 hours and 3 episodes of the Highlander to finish this dress. Now the idea wasn't mine; I saw it on a blog, but I am pretty proud of myself that I made my own pattern. And to add interest to it, you should know that the dress is made from a pillowcase.
So how does it fit?
I think she likes it! This shot isn't great, but it's the best I have of the dress on Georgie.
We ventured out in the yard for a mini-almost-1 photo shoot.
Those shoes stayed on for about 2 minutes after the pictures were done.
We've been to 5 Vacations Bible Schools this summer. Their themes were as follows:
1. Big Apple Adventure- Jesus loves NYC as much as New Yorkers do.
2. Field Trip of Faith
3. Mama doesn't know because she was at the beach that week, but it did have something to do with animals.
4. Rockin' it Old School- An eighties themed VBS!
5. Hometown Nazareth- Where Jesus was a Kid.
We loved all of the many, many VBS' we attended, and no doubt so did mama and papa, as it afforded them some free time from us. Mama ranks her favorite VBS as Hometown Nazareth, because she thinks it wasn't as much of a stretch. Come on, 80's Jesus? New York City Jesus?
We also liked this one the best because it had costumes! We carpooled with James and Andy. (Our friend Maddies was there too.) Carpooling- though loud and nerve-wracking is awesome, because then you only have to drive once a day!
On the last day we had a big finale to show what we'd been doing all week.
Henry approached Vacation Bible School with conviction and zeal. Notice I didn't mention joy. We got a CD with all of the songs we'd be singing. They were fun and the entire CD is only about 22 minutes long. Henry listened to it over and over to practice the hand motions.
Seriously, does this kid look like he's having fun? Maybe not, but he's nailing the choreography. This paired with the fact that Henry has taken a sudden interest nutrition and exercise and I think Henry just might have what it takes to excel as a cult member someday.
Meanwhile, this is what the rest of us were doing.
(Sidenote: we wish you could have seen the videos. All of the songs were sung by kids with arms spread in front of natural landmarks or lighthouse on windy days. Mama got the giggles when she imagined filming her own Clemson video. Cut to Mama with arms spread in front of Howard's Rock, Henry in front of a CAT bus, papa singing in front of the Bi-Lo.)
What mama never understands is how I always manage to find someone to carry me around. Usually at the end of the day, mama would arrive to find a whole flock of teenage girls fawning over me.
Henry got home and we spent some time relaxing and catching up on sleep.
June wet the bed during a nap. When mama was changing the sheets, June casually mentioned that she'd already changed her underpants. Eyeing June's wet underpants, mama asked her what she meant. June explained she took off her dirty underpants and put on new ones after she pooped. Mama's head turned a full circle when she found those underpants in the hamper. When it all happened again the next day, mama's head exploded and she told June that she couldn't have anything in her bed if she was just going to pee all over it. June took this all in stride and went to bed without even a pillow or blanket. Mama found her like this. That girl gives off attitude even in her sleep.
We switched out the attic toys and the big kids had a good time building and trying to keep me away from their creations. This is June's "neighborhood."
And Henry's perfectly symmetrical creation.
This looks like a recipe for disaster! Especially now that I refuse to sit down in the tub.
If you think I'm wiggly in the tub, check out how hard it is to get a cuddle from me these days.
Mama must have been going crazy with just two kids, because suddenly another baby showed up at our house. I don't care for him.
Baby Mason is our babysitter's new baby. He's almost 3 months old and already outweighs me. I'm not even kidding. But until he can crawl and start tackling me, I have the upper hand. Swing, baby!
Mama, can we get one of these?
On the other hand, maybe I don't want a little brother. This one cries a lot. He calmed down after mama put us to bed and gave him a good cuddle. Only children don't last very long in our house.
He slept all evening long while mama watched a movie. Maybe we will keep him after all.
Did you notice something special about the latest videos on the blog? A certain absence of non-stop chatter, maybe? That's because I went up to Ohio with Grams for a week. She casually mentioned it to mama and mama and I had my bags packed in 30 seconds flat.
Papa wasn't happy that mama sent me away as soon as he got back from his week in Winston Salem, but I had the best week ever! Why am I wearing this helmet?
So PawPaw and I can talk when we're out on the trike! (Don't worry, mama, we didn't go anywhere. PawPaw wants you to let me come back again.)
Here's something more suitable for kids. Sadie and I went to visit GG and GG. Lucky for us, it was raining at our rendezvous, so we had to take shelter in a Chucky Cheese.
I rode in this helicopter all afternoon. After this, we went to SKyline Chili for supper and then to Aunt Girl's new apartment to swim in her pool. I've declared it many times over as the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!
I'm not sure how Grams did this, but this is a cool compilation of me at the Harding Memorial.
We decided to take a tour of Marion's highlights and there were a lot of great things going on in Marion! Here I am on President Harding's front porch (and papa's former place of employment). It's hard to believe that a mere 100 years ago, a successful presidential campaign took place on this very spot. I bet it wasn't nearly as annoying as they are today.
We visited the old Marion Train Depot- a place none of us even knew existed.
It was closed at the time, but the old man running it let us go in. Rules Turner here was very worried that we'd get in trouble for going in after hours. I was relieved that we didn't get arrested.
While we were there, multiple trains went by just feet away from us.
We even got to see two trains go by at once, in opposite directions, a personal favorite of mine.
I quickly declared this the SECOND BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!
Grams told mama I couldn't stop grinning and hugging her, it was so exciting.
Back at home, I was put to work to earn some money. I had to do a bunch of chores before the end of the week so I could earn a Lego set PawPaw and Grams got me. Their yard is now free of sticks and the Lego boat is mine.
I also got to play my favorite game for the Wii- Walk It Out. It's the perfect video game for me. I get to play video games and I probably average walking 3 miles every hour I play. It keeps me happy and I'm exhausted by the end of the day. Plus I get to show off my awesome dance moves. This is exactly the kind of game someone with Seibert blood needs. Just this weekend, mama got brave and played Wii Tennis. She hit her arm on a railing so hard that the doctor there thought she may have broken it. All she got was a nice bruise and an evening of embarrassing ribbing.
On my way back home, we met papa in Cincinnati to spend the day at EnterTRAINment Junction- a train-loving boys' dream. (THIRD BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!). We don't have any pictures, but I did come home with a train pencil sharpener.
Why was Papa in Cincinnati?
Oh, just to see this guy!
At this ballpark!
If you haven't figured it out by now, Paul McCartney played a show at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. At the very last minute, mama got papa tickets to see it for an early Christmas present. She immediately regretted not finding a babysitter for the girls and also getting herself a ticket as papa declared it the best concert he's ever been to. Mama was excited to get a phone call to listen in when Paul played her favorite Beatles song and our long-time lullaby "I Will." The only shadow on an otherwise perfect evening? After papa explained to the girl sitting next to him that Paul was playing Beatles songs, she asked him (seriously!) if any of the Beatles were still alive.
Though we don't have any pictures to prove it, Grams was in town with us for a week. Papa was at a conference in North Carolina and mama was lucky enough that Grams came down to help. Grams may say she came down that week (and not when papa was alone with 2 kids) simply because PawPaw was out of town, but mama knows it's because she's Grams' favorite. Sorry, papa.
We had a great week. Henry had swim lessons every day, I had gymnastics, we went blueberry picking and every night we went to Vacation Bible School. (This week's theme: Rocking it Old School! That's right- an 80s themed VBS.) Between shuttling us around, mama and Grams didn't have time for much else.
They gave us a free bag of sweet corn at the blueberry farm. Mama and I ate all of it. Henry didn't eat any because it's too hard when you're missing your bottom teeth.
(See those little animals back there? They are called the Littlest Pet Shop. Audrey and Grace had some and June LOVED them. When we got back from NC, mama was having a hard time getting me to commit to using the potty. When I finally had a success, mama said I could have anything I wanted. I didn't even hesitate to tell her I wanted a purple puppy Pet Shop. Luckily for mama, she found a purple puppy in a set that was even on clearance. So after that, every successful- ahem- number two scored me a new animal. Grams upped the ante by getting me another set to earn full of very tiny ear bows, sunglasses and milkshakes.
I've had to be careful with all of my toys and their very tiny accessories. I'mm getting good about keeping them on the table and cleaning up whatever I'm playing with on the floor. Too bad JoJo is pretty tall. She's already able to reach up to the table to grab things from the edge.
But she spends most of her time standing at the train table playing with her own toys.
Jo is really scooting around everything these days.
And she loves playing in the kitchen,
Henry was busy earning money to buy a Cars backpack that he saw in the Target ad and HAD to have for kindergarten. Whenever he's hard at work he puts on his Ipod and gets busy jamming. His new favorite song is "Bicycle Race" by Queen.
I gave an impromptu dance recital in the kitchen. Mama gave me the choice between gymnastics (what she realy wanted) and dance. I chose dance lessons.
Notice how I fall at the end of the video when I'm impersonating mama? That's a pretty fair impersonation. She's actually managed to break her toe walking to the bathroom. (That door jam just jumped out at her!) Then last night she almost broke her arm playing Wii Tennis. She's seriously the only person who can actually hurt herself playing a video game.
June got to take gymnastics lessons, so mama signed me up for swim lessons.
We went every day at noon. It was so hot that the pool water was over 90 degrees. But even at 90 degrees, it was better than sitting on the deck.
I took lessons with Miss Kip- a legend among kids getting swimming lessons in Clemson. She teaches gymnastics in Pendleton and during the summer also gives private swim lessons. Since there is no public pool in Clemson (ask mama about her theory that it's a tradition left over from the days of segregation), Miss Kip gives lessons at private pools. We were really lucky to get our lessons at the Country Walk neighborhood pool. Fancy.
Lessons were awesome. I practiced floating on my back and swimming with my face down.
And I even got to jump in.
You can tell that Miss Kip is a stern teacher. But she was also quick with praise and I loved taking lessons with her.
By the end of the week, I could swim all the way across the pool.
