Spitoono- Georgie.

Papa went to Nashville for the weekend to go see the 601 guys, leaving us at home with mama, who was suffering from the 4 month summer blues. Luckily, McKain (THE Kain!) and his mom invited us over to enjoy some smoked beef. (When a friend smokes a large piece of meat for 16 hours and immediately thinks of you, you know you've done something right, mama says.)

Mama was feeling so good, she decided to take us over to Spitoono for the evening.

For you out-of-staters, you should first know that Charleston holds a huge festival of classical music, opera, and theater every year called Spoleto. 32 years ago, a bar in Clemson decided to hold their own festival to celebrate Clemson's country culture and gave it the tongue-in-cheek name Spittoono. Now it's a 3 day long charitable festival on a baseball featuring live bands, delicious food trucks, and cheap beer.

Friday night was so fun, we decided to go back on Saturday night for a good night of family fun (before the sun goes down at least).

That guys that sells glow necklaces came on Friday night and was also selling glow light sabers. Henry was dying to buy one. So he did chores all day Saturday and earned four dollars to augment the dollar he already had in his wallet. To our dismay, the guy had already sold out of the light sabers. Henry took the disappointment pretty well, but did blame mama for not buying him one the night before and letting him earn the money afterwards. Mama says she's not a payday loan business.

She did, however, treat us to some sweet potato rolls. Sweet potato pie filling rolled up in a burrito and deep fried. Like a piece of southern heaven. Even Henry said they were almost as good as the sweet potato pies from Bojangles. And that's really saying something.

Then the rowdy fun began. The music was in the outfield and the kids ruled the baseball field. Remember that it hadn't rained in Clemson in about 6 weeks at this point.

June settled down to shower red dirt over her legs.

I don't think you missed any spots, Juner.

Henry shuffled around kicking up dust, then he and June decided to wrestle.

How's about a group shot, guys?

Look at these kids! Mama had to clean out the bathtub three times to get them clean. (I had to stay in my stroller, so I wasn't filthy.)

The best part of the night? Miss Kerri caught wind of our mischief and left a present of stuffed jalapeno peppers and a margarita waiting for mama when we got home. Now that's a good friend.

First Day of school- June.

Did you know that the Pickens County School District is the last school district to start this fall? All so they had time to finish the new middle school and high school, neither of which are actually done yet.

So August has been a long month for all of us. Summer should end at 3 months. We're pushing 4. But guess who was lucky enough to start school?

This guy. Doesn't he look professorial?

And so excited to have his first day picture taken.

So I guess it's up to me to put some comedy back into this blog post. This is my new routine to get George to laugh. She can hardly stand it, she thinks it's so funny.

Henry took this video, and it's a pretty good representation of our daily life here at home. JoJo is crawling all over someone, I'm scolding mama for talking and waking up my baby. And Henry is obtrusively sticking something in your face. The only difference is that Henry's usually talking a mile a minute and demanding your attention as well. Then I pull my dress up over my head. Please, school, start soon.

Getting bold- Georgiana.

Mama took these pictures on August 24th. I'd already technically taken my first steps, but I still wasn't quite ready to walk.

So I decided to get back to the basics- standing up on my own.

Why do I look so flushed? Mama wondered the same thing. First she thought I'd eaten something and had an allergic reaction. She figured I might be sensitive to muskmelon, since I'd eaten a ton of it the night before. But after a few days it didn't go away. Now mama figures I at some point contracted Fifth's Disease- one of those fever and rash viruses. Mama doesn't remember the fever, but the rash certainly fits the bill. And it gets worse when I get hot, which has been a lot down here.

After I mastered standing, I worked on getting up and down without any help. (Isn't it funny how clothes that looked fine on a crawler suddenly look ridiculous on a stander?)

Those are some deep squats right there.

When I got tired on standing, I did some good old-fashioned cute rolling around on the floor.

Nothing beats a good book.

Week in review- June.

Every once in a blue moon, mama and papa actually hire a babysitter (for money!) so they can go out. This happened a few weekends ago when they found out Miss Cooper was throwing a surprise birthday party for Mister Jeff.

This was no ordinary surprise party. It was at a Greenville Drive game. In a dugout! How awesome is that? And when it stormed and the game was delayed, they just retired to their private party room under the bleachers and ate delicious game food, drank from their keg, and played Wii.

This is the party where mama almost broke her arm playing Wii. (That with the broken toe she's still nursing after she accidentally kicked the door jam, mama's in bad shape these days.) Even with the injury, it certainly was worth the babysitter.

We did a little geocaching and found a cache we've been seeking for a while. Pretty tricky.

We ventured on to campus to find another, but a storm was rolling in, so the GPS wasn't really working. Plus, all three of us kids were running in opposite directions. Mama gave up before we found the treasure, but not before we posed in front of this cool sculpture.

Musical Interlude: Who doesn't sing about the genders of their ponies? (Mama thought they were all girls...)

Have we mentioned the new jeep? One of our friends gave it to us and it's all the rage. Henry usually doesn't let anyone drive it, but he did let our friend McKain have a turn because he's also got a jeep of his own at home. Does this count as riding in cars with boys?

Mama and Henry got up really early one morning to start a new project- a lego maze for Henry's hexbug.

Here's the finished project.

And here it is in action. Pretty fun stuff. Henry spent the next three days adding tunnels and buildings. It was very impressive before mama dropped it on the floor. Oops.

It was quite cute when I wrapped up my baby for bed, but this picture frankly looks kind of creepy.

Finally, Georgie received two presents in the mail from Aunt Molly and Uncle Michael. They looked so fancy gift-wrapped, we couldn't resist taking a picture. And the toys inside were so fun, you can guarantee that Georgie hasn't even had the opportunity to play with them herself! Thanks, Molly and Mike!

Henry the inventor- Mama.

It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of Disney. Although the Disney princesses are all smart, strong-willed women, all June seems to notice is how pretty they are, their toys are expensive, the shows are the Disney channel are annoying and filled with annoying kids that overact, and most of the show is commercials shoving Disney World down my throat. (I never, ever, ever, ever want to go to Disney World. It's overwhelming and expensive. I know, I know, I just committed parent blasphemy.)

Now that I've climbed off my soapbox, I'll commence in eating my own words. Phineas and Ferb is a great show. Those little guys are smart and inventive. The jokes are appropriate and very witty. It's animated, so I don't have to watch an pre-teen actresses that will eventually spiral into drug abuse and insanity. And since the entire series is on Netflix, I don't have to listen to Henry ask me about when we're going to go on a Disney cruise. (My only beef is that Phineas and Ferb's sister, Candace is a flake.)

Anyhoo, I really started to love P&F when Henry decided he wanted to be an inventor like they are. His first invention was finding a way to pull the wagon with his jeep. Naturally, the next step was to find a way to cover the wagon. Here's Henry's plan.

Here's how he and Brandon rigged it up. Pretty impressive.

We were going to staple fabric to the top, but a dirty blanket ended up working just as well. Not bad for a kid who's been watching Disney shows.

Party time!- Henry.

We invited the neighbors over to help celebrate Georgie's birthday.

The biggest accomplishment of the day is that we got a picture of all 7 kids looking in the same direction. And most of us were smiling! (If only there were some more girls in the neighborhood.)

We ate pizza and made sure to get a picture of George wearing a George shirt next to her George cake.

The big moment didn't go over quite as planned.

Poor Georgie was so overwhelmed, there was no way she was going to eat cake.

So we had to postpone the cake eating. Georgie eventually calmed down and opened up her presents. Then she surprised everyone by taking her first steps into Miss Laura's arms! She did this a few times, but only to Miss Laura. (No surprise there, because the Turner kids LOVE Miss Laura.)

After all the loud and rowdy kids were distracted elsewhere, mama was finally able to get George back into her chair to try her cake.

Jo was reluctant to dig in, so mama let her chew on a chocolate-filled strawberry marshmallow for a while.

It's not going to hurt! It's just frosting!

Finally, she gave it a try.

It tastes great!

So what's Georgiana like at one year old? She remains the most social and wiggliest kid we know. She hates to be left alone, though it's marginally easier now that she can crawl after mama when she walks away. She's not afraid of strangers, but prefers mama and papa. And she has a special 10-year-old friend named Nikki who plays with her every morning at the gym.

She's a skinny little girl- maybe because she's so wiggly. Georgie likes to be held, but it's hard to do it because she never stops kicking and wiggling. There's no cuddling Georgie, unless she's got her nuk and big blankie and she's really tired. but even then, you only get about 5 seconds of cuddling out of her. There's no rocking Georgie to sleep.

Georgie will eat just about anything (again, a surprise for such a skinny little girl). Her favorite foods are grapes, cheese, peas, and mama's ice cream. The only things she won't eat is feta cheese and mushrooms. She even eats asparagus.

We haven't had her one year appointment yet, but she's much taller than either June or I was at one. Mama knows for sure because at one, all of the kids loved to stand at the chairs underneath the kitchen table. June and I could cruise out from under the table without hitting our heads. Georgie is a good two inches too tall to get under the table.

Georgie loves to follow June and I around. And she's surprisingly patient when I carry her away from my legos (she LOVES to get in those!) and even puts up with June's poor sharing skills. Her favorite toys are babydolls, any toy that involves balls, and all LeapFrog toys with buttons.

The only improvement we'd make to Sweet G is her sleeping. she's still not a great sleeper, though she has improved in recent months. Most times she wakes up, she just needs a nuk and her blankie to get back to sleep. Mama was nursing her at 5am, but they gave that up last week. Even though she's not the best nighttime sleeper, she's a pretty good napper. She usually takes two 2-3 hout naps during the day or one long nap that lasts up to 4 hours.

Happy birthday, Sweet Georgiana Mae!

Birthday party prep- Henry.

August 18th was Georgie's first birthday. We decided to have a little party with the neighbors, but it involved a lot of preparation.

Okay, this wasn't for the party, but June and I were pumped to have a tea party on the kitchen floor and eat out of the toy plates and bowls.

Then we kicked the work into high gear. I cracked the eggs for Jo's cake.

Mama recruited the boys to make Georgie a bubble poster. Mama added food coloring to bubble solution and you blow them onto the paper and it leaves a stain when it pops. I guess it didn't have enough food coloring in it to make a good ring on the paper, so we improvised and jsut splatted the soap all over the paper.

Here's the finished project. June added the stickers.

I insisted on making this tiny sign for Georgie.

Mama asked me to stock up the fridge for the party, and she thought it was funny (and clever) that I used a shopping cart to transport the drinks.

A George cake for our George. After a failed attempt and making marshmallow fondant (it was good, but mama could not get the food coloring right), mama resorted to decorating Georgie's cake with frosting. She was pleased at how well it turned out.

And a little cake just for Georgie.

Georgie generally sleeps in the bunkhouse with us, but some nights she needs to go to bed earlier and goes to sleep in mama and papa's room. Then she gets moved back into our room after everyone is asleep. When mama moved her in that night, she realized it was after midnight and officially Georgiana's birthday, so she made papa take a picture.

Our one year old!