{Summer FUN} Parks, Presidents, and Potties...

...yes, you read that right!

Sooo, today was potty-training day for little M...

and while M and I were at home doing this...

(teaching Bitty Baby Betsy how to potty)

Hubby took both B and L off to do a little of this...

this.. 

and this...

They headed to Spartanburg and stopped at one of Hubby's old college hang-outs, the Beacon Drive-In, for lunch...

After lunch, they headed over to Cowpens National Battlefield...

where they got to explore...

play...

and learn...






B earned another Junior Ranger Badge...

and they got their Passport Books stamped...

The last stop on their Sunday adventure was at Andrew Jackson State Park...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...


Using the recommendation of 2 different friends from college with (at the time) 5 children between them, I used this book to train B and have since used it for L, too.

At first I was very skeptical, but the method used in this book, that was published before I was even born (in 1974), has now worked on all 3 of my little ones.  By lunchtime yesterday, M (who had woken up in a diaper) seemed like a pottying pro!


After a little more than 6 1/2 years, it feels really good to take "diapers" off of our grocery list!

{Summer FUN} Out & About in Athens

 Today we decided to take a little day trip to Athens... On the way, we stopped at the Hartwell Dam and walked across part of it...

As we headed in to Athens, I drove the little ones around my old stomping grounds...  We checked in on my old houses...  Yes, I do lay claim to every house that I ever lived in...  AND, yes, there are a lot of them out there...  My mom used to say that as soon as she had the window treatments complete and the yard landscaped, my dad would decide to move...

We bought this one and moved here from sweet little Washington-Wilkes when I was in 5th grade, but only lived here for about a year and a half...

while we were building this one just one street over!!!  Believe it or not, we moved into this house before the front steps were built...  I need to find that photo...  It was a trip now that I think about it!  My mom had to keep the front door bolted so that no one walked out and fell a whole story down.  That would've been bad...bad...bad...  It seems that the brick mason was there a day or two after we moved in...  I remember my mom being really perturbed at the builder about that one...  I mean NO front steps...you walk into this house on the 2nd floor!!!

After my dad moved his office out of our house and no longer needed the extra space at home, we moved again my senior year of high school!  It's hard to believe that we really only lived here for about 2 years before my parents moved up to NC permanently...

Don't get me started on how many houses they have owned up there!

After our mini "Tour of Homes", we headed downtown to grab lunch and split a milkshake at The Grill...

make a stop at the double-barrelled cannon (the only one in the world)...

and swing by both my middle school and my high school...

Before embarking on our stormy drive back home, we had to swing by the Tree That Owns Itself...

I love to reminisce and it was so fun taking my little ones along on my trip down memory lane!

{Summer FUN} Children's Museum of the Lowcountry

In celebration of our sweet boy turning 6 1/2 at the beach...

we made a visit to the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry...

As soon as our admission was paid and the entrance sticker attached, B was off to "the golfball room"...

He loves to collect golfballs and almost always comes home from the beach with a pocket full of them,  begging to search for them each evening in Grams' & Pops' backyard...

Next, we headed to "the water room"...

"the pirate ship"...

 

and "the grocery store"...

It is actually a Publix!

Then, we made our way over to "the castle"...

before making our way outside to climb on "the fire truck"...

and to explore "the garden"...

 

before hitting the road back home, deciding to skip "the painting room" this time...