Fodder Dodder Canoe Trip

There is something magical that happens every spring on a river in Arkansas.

The annual Fodder Dodder Canoe Trip.

Canoeing and magical together in the same sentence???  What?

That's right.  Magical.

Because to a little girl having her big, strong daddy all too herself for two whole days is very magical.

He is her hero.

Her knight in shining armor.

Her very own daddy.

Just nothing but time and a river to spend together.

She knows her daddy is all there for her.

When he should could be working.

He choose her.

And that, my friends, is magical.

True love between a daddy and his princess. 

And his really big hat.

I probably broke a million rules filming this...

Race on over to THE TRACK BLOG to read my testimonial about our date night with the kids. While you are there, use their website to plan you next Branson vacation, including a fabulous trip to any one of The Track locations. Sign up your email address and you can receive Branson/Track insider information all year long. You must come visit our fun town!!

My mission as a mom is complete. I have successfully embarrassed my children with this video.

Score.

I have a feeling, however, that when Langley starts driving I will be the one telling her to put her phone down and she will be the one blowing me off.

Score for her.

In the meantime, we will stick to go-carts!

Disclaimers (for my peace of mind only):
1. I hate hate hate the sound of my voice! Can you say, shrill?
2. Sorry about the crotch shot at the end. Nice.
3.  I bet there are a handful of people that go watch the video again just to see what I'm talking about.  That's just awkward.

The Happy Halfs.

Today is Langley's Happy Half Birthday!

I know what you are thinking. Isn't April crazy enough with real birthdays that you make up more things to celebrate?

Oh, yes. We do.

There are some traditions that I am happy to let go of like decorating Easter eggs.  We tried to be consistent with that for the first couple of years and lately we don't even bother.  The kids don't miss it, and frankly, NEITHER DO I.

Bye, bye mess! 

Bye, bye guilt!

But the tradition of the "Happy Halfs" is one of my favorite keepers.  On the day of your Happy Half you get to decide who to have a date with and where to go.  We keep the choices pretty simple.  Donuts or ice cream?  Mom or Dad?

Last night Langley was almost asleep when I went into her room to check on her.  She gave me a sleepy hug and asked me if I would mind if she choose to date her daddy instead of me.

"Of course not, sweetie."  As my heart melted into a puddle of sugary goo.

She smiled and rolled over to sleep.

Her daddy woke up early this morning to get ready for his special date.  He was excited to spend time with his favorite girl.  Tell me.  Is there anything sweeter than a daddy who delights in his baby girl? 

No.  I didn't think so.

Celebrating the Happy Halfs is a simple and easy tradition.  I love it because it tells our kids that they are special to us.  It creates some one-on-one time with a parent.  That alone time is in high demand with our crazy scheduled life.

And when you are the one chosen for this special date. 

PURE JOY.

Nothing compares to the feeling of being chosen.

Prom 2.11

Saturday was the night of the high school prom.  What a wonderful night it was!  Langley was asked to the prom by a very sweet, very handsome HS senior.  He is the son of very dear friends and he was in charge of choosing the attending flower girl.  He chose my beautiful girl. 

Which of course meant that I got to go to prom!! 

(jumping up and down!)

YAY, me!

The last time I went to prom, I was 18 and I looked like this.

Why Skip isn't smiling is beyond me. 

Maybe it was cool not to show emotions back in 1991. 

I'm too old to remember.

And why we ordered this picture is also beyond me.

Also, too old to remember.

But, I do know this.  Three major things have changed in these last 20 years. 

1.  Dresses are STUNNING!  Literally, works of art.
2.  No one dyes their shoes to match anymore.  I know!
3.  Boys smile.

Anyway, back to PROM 2011!! 

That sweet HS boy that I mentioned earlier, well he has an even sweeter sister.  She is the MASTER OF ALL THINGS HAIR.  I asked begged her to come over early and do Langley's hair for the special night.  She was so happy to come get her hands on Langley's blond curls.  I had an idea in mind but she BLEW ME AWAY with the final product.

Gorgeous.

After her hair was perfected, it was time to get dressed in an ivory silk dress with a pink sash.  She looked like Cinderella.  We borrowed the dress from a friend of ours and I have been a nervous wreck ever since.  I am well aware of the fact that this dress could be ruined by a certain TWO YEAR old boy that lives here.  As a result, I have had the dress locked up avoiding any kind of disaster.  (I must return it quickly!)  Thanks, Jenn, for the amazing dress.  I am just sad that I couldn't get a picture that did this dress justice.  It was heavenly.

Here is my beautiful girl.  I barely recognize her without her sport shorts and t-shirt.  She cleans up nice!

Here is the cutie boy that asked her to the prom. 

By the way, he was nominated for Prom King so his mommy came with me.  We had the best time people watching and NOT AT ALL judging the revealing (good golly) nature of some dresses.  Nope.  Not us.  We are not judgers.

My girl was so nervous.  We had to be there an hour before coronation and I think the waiting was killing her.

But they had lots of surprises for her. Isn't this dreamy?

Langley's escort was a girl that I taught in Kindergarten.  I adore this girl!  Not only is she GORGEOUS, but she also loves the Lord.  She is dear to me!  I voted her dress BEST OF THE NIGHT.  And the best part was that she and Langley had the same hair style! 

Love.

I am so proud of Langley for stepping out of her comfort zone and indulging her mommy by wearing a special dress.  I don't think of her as shy, but she really REALLY is.  Experiences like this are so good for her. 

Thank you, Tag, for inviting her to be the flower girl for PROM 2011.  This will be a special memory for her!

I think I liked this prom better than mine!

At least my date smiled more.

Heroes of the hallway.

One of the greatest things our school participates in is the WATCH D.O.G.S (Dads of Great Students) program.  Fathers, Grandfathers, Uncles, or other father figures take a day off work to spend at their child's school.  They follow a schedule of activities that they participate in throughout the day.  They provide help monitoring the hallways, loading busses, reading to students, playing on the playground, working with small groups of students. 

You name it, the WATCH D.O.G.S are there ready to help.

Today, Skip had the honor to spend the day with Langley at her school.  This is one of his favorite days of the whole year.  A chance to be an important part of our children's education is such a privilege for him.  He volunteers four times a year for this program-two times for both kids.  It is a sacrifice, but he loves it. 

(Actually loves it so much that he wishes it was his full-time job!)

He spent the day being a HERO to lots of squirrely first graders who love getting attention from a WATCH D.O.G.

But most importantly, he spent the day being her HERO.

And at the end of the day, that's all that really matters.

Daddy's little girl.

The year of the Apple.

I know Christmas 2010 was SO LAST YEAR, but I wanted to share Langley's letter to Santa. I just love this list, her writing, her thinking and all the hard work put into it. Someday in the future, when she is jetting around the iEarth in her iBug, drinking her iCafe, connecting with her friends via iMind she will remember the year she gave Santa her iList.

"I want for Christmas is a pool and a Ipod and a ds and a computter, and a gutar, and a dsI and a Ipad and a Itouch.  How do your reindeer fly?  I have blue eyes my name is Langley and my brother Zeb wats a Ipad.  Love Langley."

And she got exactly one of those things.  A guitar.  A real one...not even an iGuitar.  There are many reasons why she didn't get all of those things on her list.  The obvious being FINANCIAL ONES.  Pair that with the fact that Skip hates anything with little i.  He is a PC man.  But that is a whole blog post for another day.  Suffice it to say, it's so not gonna happen.   Santa did, however, bring her great things.  Things that were fun but also things she needed.

(I will go on record to say that a pool is a definite NEED.  I was kind of hoping that would work in her favor. Maybe next year!)

Part of me wonders if this was her "is Santa really real list?"  Her Santa litmus test.  Give Santa the impossible.  If he delivers then he must be real. 

Hopefully, not. 

It's probably just Apple's mad marketing genius that got her hooked!

You can bet that her daddy is going to spend this year trying to outplay, outwit, outlast the power of the little i.

The meaning of friendship.

Secret telling.
Truth revealing.
Judgement withholding.
Arms hugging.
Time investing.
Tears drying.
Laughter exploding.
Differences understanding.
Viewpoints clarifying.
Junk food splurging.
Mood altering.
Thoughts sharpening.
Clothes swapping.
Advice giving.
Hope wishing.
Needs serving.
Feelings protecting.
Moments celebrating.
Safety securing.
Words encouraging.
Fun expecting.
Treasure seeking.
Problem solving.
Struggles praying.
Sisterhood bonding.
Sometimes fighting.
Always loving.
So worth having.

Yada, Yada, Yada, October.

Hi. My name is Janelle.

I have a blog. There was a time that I loved to update often, almost daily.

Then came baby 3 and all of life turned topsy-turvy. So in hopes that I don't loose all my loyal friends, I need to review the month of October. It was a big one...birthday, birthday, Halloween, and more birthday.

But I must warn you...

Unless you are family, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. It's all pictures, albeit cute ones but may be as boring as Uncle Frank's slideshow of his trip to Tennessee. If you are a relative, sorry. There is no getting out of this one.

Just pull up a chair and sit awhile.

Do you remember the purple hands? This is why. Our little Loulabelle turned 5 and she desperately wanted a bowling party. I said tea party, she said bowling. Tea? No, mom. Bowling!! To put a spin on it, we did a 70s Groovy Bowling Party.

Our Lou. What a firecracker she is. From day one, she has had a spunk about her that we adore. She kept us on our toes in the early days. I had never heard so much crying, crying and more crying. So much crying! Nowadays, the crying has been replaced with laughter and silliness.

My kids. I love them and am so proud that I get to be their GROOOOVY mom. Whether they think so, or not!

My lollipop girl!

What is better than a blue Slug Bug? A blue Slug Bug made out of chocolate!!

The bowling was fun. I loved watching all the little ones bounce their ball down the lane. They were so cute!

The Tie-Dyed cuties!

The next day was Preschool Helper day and we celebrated some more! This time we had KK donuts. They were yummy. One little boy in her class kept saying, "This is the best bagel I have ever eaten!"

The one thing she wanted for her birthday was an American Girl doll. She named her Hannah. It stood to reason that Hannah needed to celebrate her birthday, too!

Happy Halloween, Great Pumpkin! This in one pumpkin I could eat up!Little stroller action! Look out, next year!

Padme and the Clone Trooper had to join us. I wonder if there are any Reese's in that bag?

That about sums up the night for him. No candy, no walking, no tricks. Just fingers.

Happy Birthday to ME!! Good friends joined me in celebrating at the local BBQ joint. Good friends, greasy burger, ranch dressing and funny stories. HEAVEN!

And a surprise Banana Foster, to boot. I have never had one of these treats. IT WAS AWESOME!

Spoiled me rotten!

Photo bomb!

These girls are amazing. I love each and every one of them. They are all so special to me, my husband and my kids. I love this town!

If only I would have known to stop smiling!

The most exciting part of the night was a late showing of High School Musical 3. You can tell who my REAL friends are in this picture. Surprising that the whole group didn't want to go!! It wasn't ONE BIT CORNY! I had tears and I will defend that to the death!

So, yada, yada, yada this is October. Actually just the last week of October. I am still catching my breath! I promise not to stay away for all of November. I won't make you suffer through that again!

Love you all!