Goldman Reunion: special post, Mattie Anne's Bike

So, as Matt was reading the last blog post he thinks that I left out some important details pertaining to the bike.

As we were leaving LaPlace, Mattie Anne starts making sure we haven't forgotten anything (in her usual fashion ).  She specifically asks about her bike. We tell her it is. on top of the car. She proceeds to ask if it is buckled, which I answer yes. She asks 3 more times and after finally stating, yes the bike is buckled, she accepts the response. Though you can tell of her concern and unsureness of the bike having a buckle on top of the car.

Well, it was devastating when the bike's buckle broke! (Make sure to read part 2 of the Goldman reunnion)

After promising the purchase of a new bike (which we know won't end up being the $25 day-after-thanksgiving generic variety, Barbie has already been mentioned) she states that it needs to ride in the front seat!

No more on top of the car buckling for Mattie Anne's bike!

Will add a picture of the new bike soon!

Goldman Reunion Part 2: Not even there yet

I got off work at noon today, we were on the road by 2, my goal was 1:30 but can't complain!

Off to Jellystone! We have to make a stop in Brookhaven at my parents to drop of Mickelson (our dog, who will be camping out with my parents dogs while we are away) , then to Madison, MS drop of Carly (our cousin that stayed with us this week to help Matt with the kids! She's been great!), and finally to Jellystone!

Or at least that was the plan....

We did have our first stop in Brookhaven, though it was on the side of the road a few exits early as our stuff on top of the car was spilling into the interstate!

We had an ice chest, stroller, wagon, and Mattie Anne's bike all tied down and we made it fine for over 90 miles just fine...

But then the wagon came out into the middle of I 55, with that all the other stuff came tumbling off the side but still within the strap. We made it to the side of the interstate quickly and thank God there wasn't anyone behind us!

We had a nice state trooper that helped us out, a little glimpse of his car in a pic below.

The wagon survived, we think ....

The ice chest survived with surprisingly low spillage of food! A cool whip container with grilled chicken was sitting unharmed on the side of the road! I should have taken more pictures but prob not the best thing for my marriage!

The stroller made it out with the least damage!

But Mattie Anne's bike didn't make it! There is a picture below as well.

This happened at exit 38, we were able to get everything back into the car or re-tied to make it to exit 41 which is the exit my Mom works a mile from. There we (Matt) did a little more rearranging, dropped off a box with my mom and said a tear-filled farewell to the bike with promises to purchase a new one soon!

We then made it to my parent's house off of exit 48 where we successfully completed our first planned stop, resecured the top load with some loaners from my dad, got a bottle for Evans were back on the road!

Currently we are only a few miles from Carly's! We have added another planned stop for Wal-Mart before heading off to Jellystone, for a pink Barbie bike!

See some pics below of only our first few hours of Safley vacation!

Goldman Reunion Part 1: Background

Today is the start of the Goldman Reunion! Most people dread family reunions but they aren't Goldman's!

The Goldmans have been having the Goldman reunion since before my patents were married! Growing up it was always one of the highlights of summer! And now it is special getting to share the tradition with my husband and children.

Even more exciting is the new generation! In a little over 4 years we have added 15 children. Yes, 15 children 4 and under! It makes for some good memories!

You may wonder how in the world we all get together, well it isn't a small feat! For the past 4 years Jellystone Park in Pelahatchie, MS has been the place. It is a great park!  But it us all about the family! Guys play golf, the girls do crafts, and the kids play hard!

I'm sure there will be lots of great photos to come!

Mattie Anne Fashion Update

Here are some of Mattie Anne's recent choice of outfits. Again,  not sure what's best the outfits or the poses!

Memorial Day Weekend Part 2

Sorry for the delay, these pictures were taken from Matt's phone so I had to wait until I got a chance to get his phone before I could post.

Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend Matt's siblings all had to get back to their daily lives but we were able to stay in Gulfport. We were lucky to have some friends of ours come over to Gulfport as well. Jayce, Emily and their son Cohen joined us Sunday afternoon. We played in the pool and the after supper we took the kids to the beach.

I have to admit I wasn't that excited about the beach, I'm not a big sand fan and with toddlers there is always crying over salt or sand in the eyes.... Needlessly to say it was also the Mississippi beaches that aren't something to get excited about. But I was gratefully surprised at how nice of a trip it was! Our kids love the sand and Cohen had never been to the beach. We went out around 7:00 pm which was great because it wasn't dreadfully hot and the tide was out so the kids were able to walk out a good ways onto the water. The waves were calm and just perfect for our little ones! 

We played for about an hour and a half and the only way we got them away was talk of icecream!

Cohen was practicing for Baywatch most of the time, he loved running in the waves! Mattie Anne loved that she was able lay down and get her hair wet! Lyons liked the sand for the first half but then ended up having a great time in the water as well. I obviously wasn't prepared for that based on a photo of his diaper you can see below. Evans had a great tome in the breeze taking it all in!

I have several pictures below of the beach fun! 

We didn't take pictures of our Monday adventures but we took out the boat and played lots more in the pool!

It was a great time! Emily has much better photos on her blog page if you like to see more!

We had a great full memorial day weekend with family and friends!

Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

Memorial day weekend was extra special this year because we got to spend time with all of Matt's siblings and their families! It is so hard to get us all in the same room together. We all spent the weekend at Matt's parents newly built gorgeous house on the back bay in Gulfport, MS. It was a great time of catching up by the pool, boating, and corralling kids!

Fin and Brown ready for some swimming!

Aunt Lauren and Evans

Evans chillin' in the shade

Aunt Eylse

Mattie Anne in her goggles!

Fin and Brown, not sure what Brown is doing but he looks great!

Brown chillin' in the pool, he was our little fish all weekend!

Fin playing in the truck!

A

AWANA Awards

FBC Laplace started AWANA this year. It was a huge success. It is amazing how many versus these little ones learned!  Mattie Anne loves Cubbies! She couldn't understand why it had to end for the summer, but she is making due! I have put some pictures for Mattie with her vest and completion certificate. Matt took some video that I'll add later.

Those that know the fashion diva that Mattie Anne is would understand that the blue and red vest was a source of contention each week. It never matched what she was wearing and is "just not cute, Momma! "

Children's Choir

Those of you that experienced or have watched the videos of Mattie Anne's last children's choir performance you ate probably getting excited seeing the title of the post. Well, it was a flop! I think I sat too close, she kept wanting to come see me, she sat there with her fingers on her mouth most of the time and ended up only singing the end of the last song, but still not anywhere close to her first performance.  I will add the video when I actually get to a computer. There ate some pictures below. 

For those who have not seen the first videos they are in my you tube account which is linked in the side bar, totally recommend listening!

Backyard Landscaping

Last year we took on the project to redoing the front yard landscaping. We started on the back but got burnt out before we finished, or really even started.... I had dug a trench, planted bulbs, and bought 10 bags of mulch which we stored for a year because it never got put out.
Well, with the excuse of Lyons' Birthday party we decided to finish up that project. My parents came down and helped! It looked great for the party and just a couple weeks later my bulbs bloomed! Though I still don't know what they are, but aren't they pretty!

I never fully appretiated Pillsbury until now...

Before this recent encounter I would have said that I liked Pillsbury.
I would have admitted to appreciating the convience and ease, but not said that I needed the brand or like brands. Well, I was shopping in Win Dixie and saw this red celery looking stuff and thought that must be rhubarb (this in itself is a little odd since I've never eaten or even seen the food). I had a friend in Kansas City that always talked about strawberry rhubarb pies. Luckily the strawberries were on sell and I thought I'd take a stab of making a strawberry rhubarb pie. I went home and got out my Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe, it called for double crust, no big deal I have some frozen pie crusts in the freezer - that's were I was wrong! No pie crusts and a ton of rhubarb and two containers of strawberries.  The strawberries wouldn't have been a problem to get rid of but the rhubarb, I'm not even sure what it is! Well, Betty Crockery has never heard of Pillsbury and has her own recipes for pie crust, what else am I going to do with all this stuff, might as well try my luck at pie dough.... this is now when I discovered my new appreciation for Pillsbury.  I don't have trouble reading, and though I can be rebellious at times, I like to think of it more as strong-willed, I can follow instructions. This is what I hate about cooking.... you can follow the directions, do everything right and still fail. I don't like to fail! Well my pie crust was pretty close to failure, the only disclaimer is that I didn't have a dough roller, which might have been important .... the dough wasn't big enough, I never got it to roll thin enough,  but even thick it cracked, I had to just press the bottom layer into the pan, the top layer didn't meet at the edges, it cracked as well.... but at least I got all the ingredients correct which means it at least tasted good! I have shared some pictures of the creation below, including the lovely mess that the edges not meeting created at the bottom of my oven!
I guess the moral of the story is that as much as I'd like to be Betty Crocker, I think I'm going to settle for that Semi - Homemade lady.