Learning to Leap

A few weeks ago we went on our annual Smith family vacation to Watercolor, located 30 minutes from Destin, Florida. We LOVE it there. It’s basically a great neighborhood with bike rides, several community pools to choose from, Camp Watercolor where the kids can make crafts, and of course, the glorious, white sandy beaches of the Gulf. We’ve been making the trip for years, even before the grandkids came along. These days, the sounds of excited kids can be heard for miles around as you approach our beach house. With eight grandkids ages 11 years to 16 months, it’s a little chaotic, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. This is the first year in a LONG time the little Webber crew didn’t lug all the baby gear with us. No more pack ‘n plays, swim diapers, baby food, bottles, pacifiers, or naptimes to deal with. It was fantastic. The ride down to the beach was peaceful and quiet as we played some games or watched DVDs. Everyone slept all night. Nobody ate sand. ...

This week was VBS at our church. For those of you who don’t know, VBS stands for ‘vacation Bible school’. Next to Christmas, this is one of the most anticipated four days of the year to a lot of kiddos. Not to brag, but our church pretty much blows it out when it comes to fun, and I hope they learn a little about Jesus while we’re at it. Anyway, this year I taught the Bible lesson to four groups of kids ages 1 st -4 th grades each day. Because I didn’t want to be the schmuck who totally blows it and makes the kids dread Bible time each day (and consequently be eaten alive by 4 th grade boys who are bored), it took a little time to study and prepare. And this is generally how it went each evening… First item to understand about my week: my husband was out of town for most of it. He was hard at work visiting agents and handling the details of his job. This left me solely responsible for everything regarding the children and the dog and the home. Second it...

We love visiting the botanical gardens. It is one of our favorite places. The kids love it because of the train, the great children’s area, the butterfly house, etc. I love it because they get plenty of exercise without realizing it, lots of fresh air, and are totally exhausted by the time we leave. Win/win, folks. We have been members at the gardens for years and enjoyed many hours of nature’s bliss. Here’s a picture of them in years past: This day was no different, really. We were having a marvelous time exploring the fish pond, playing in the ball pit, having a picnic lunch (which of course was the highlight since I packed them lunchables…crackers, deli meat, and cheese. Why didn’t I think of this ingenious business idea?). Anyway, we had a great time and decided to wrap up our outing by taking a stroll thru the peaceful and beautiful butterfly house. It just happens to be the largest enclosed butterfly house in the country, by the way. Only the be...

Most of you know about the recent tornadoes that swept through my sweet home Alabama. It was a terrible day and I don’t mean to make light of the immense suffering and tragedy that so many experienced, but I do want to share what was going on in the little Webber corner of the world that day. As a native of Huntsville, I have grown accustomed to tornado sirens and watches and warnings. Up until that fateful day, hearing my child frantically saying she needed to go potty alarmed me much more than hearing sirens. We have warnings all the time around here. However, eventually I just could not ignore the potential for danger. I emptied out the game closet underneath the stairs, lined the walls with our couch and chair cushions, put the girls’ bike helmets on them, and herded everyone in. The power had already gone out from the first round of storms earlier that day, so there we were, stuffed in the closet, armed with Tinkerbell lanterns and a pig flashlight that oi...

I’m raising a criminal. Really. My two-year-old has a problem. Mail fraud. We live on a nice little cul-de-sac. There are just seven other houses grouped with ours and we love the freedom a quiet cul-de-sac grants us. It’s kind of cozy and quaint. We’re like a family and the kids enjoy great freedom to run around and play. This freedom has proved too much for Leighanne. She has recently begun doing this: Exhibit A...not our mailbox Exhibit B...also not our mailbox Exhibit C...still not our mailbox It’s becoming a problem. She absolutely delights in darting from mailbox to mailbox. She happily opens lids, examines letters, sometimes licks letters, plays with mailbox flags, and has even been caught switching letters from one box to the next. It’s great fun to her. I witnessed this criminal behavior going on just yesterday afternoon. I looked up to the sound of Lauren yelling at the top of her lungs. “Leighanne! Stop opening ma...

Some of you readers out there are first time parents. You are swaddling your sweet smelling newborn and dreaming of the fun outings and adventures you will have as a family. You will be inseparable, gazing into your spouse’s eyes with love as you hold hands with your precious little one. You’ll introduce your children to the wonders of nature and relish the joys of watching them discover the world. Then you go on your first family outing and all that gets thrown out the window. Recently the kids had a couple days off from school for Easter. Not being ones to waste valuable time off, we discussed our options and decided rather than travel, we would spend our day at a nearby park, playing and hiking on the mountain. Don’t get me wrong. It started out GREAT! Beautiful day, perfect temperature, everybody pleasant and excited. We spent time on the seesaws, experimenting with combining our weight as teams to see if we could balance it out (seesaws were NOT on the top of my list as...