Stephenson Family

Today is my mom’s 60th birthday. We surprised her a little early by ‘mom-napping’ her for the weekend and we had a blast!

My sister-in-law, Danielle (along with my brother, Will), and sister, Martha, took Mom out to dinner for her birthday on Friday. The original plan was for the rest of us coming into town to meet up with them there to surprise Mom, but we began to think all forces were against us. My sister, Eliza, was flying in from Utah as a stand-by and was having no luck getting a flight even though she left a day earlier than planned. My plane ran into problems and was grounded, delaying us for over an hour while they found another plane. But, luck was on our side and Liza and I somehow made it to the St. Louis airport at the same time, being able to catch the MetroLink train together to meet up with our sister, Helen, who had driven in from Kentucky.

Needless to say, we missed dinner but Danielle and Martha were quick on their toes and insisted they go on a shopping spree so Mom could pick out a birthday outfit. They did have to stall a little bit but we met up with Mom none the wiser. She was shocked and happy and gave us the look we were all hoping we’d see - pure surprise!

After the big shock and my dad stealing away from work so he could witness the surprise through the store window, we had a family reunion in The Loft (thankfully Martha’s co-workers were understanding). It was great to see everyone.

Mom said she was excited we had all come to help finish up her kitchen remodel. Little did she know her bag was already packed in the trunk and we were off to Springfield, IL. Surprisingly, Mom was okay with that and trusted Danielle and Martha had packed everything she needed. Honestly, Mom made out just fine with what they packed - they did a great job!

We checked into our hotel and sat up talking until almost 2:00 a.m. Why does that always happen when you get girls together?! Then we were up in the morning to enjoy a great hot breakfast and then on to explore Springfield. I started to worry when the rain started. I had checked and rechecked the forecast and they weren’t supposed to have any rain so I worried it would put a damper on things, but it didn’t last long and we had a beautiful day. We explored Abraham Lincoln’s family home and enjoyed reading about his neighbors as we walked up and down his street.

We were told the Lincoln Museum was definitely worth our time to visit so we made our way there. It was amazing! We were there for a couple hours and could have spent more time there exploring. The videos they had there were amazing as well with their effects that made you feel you were right in the center of the Civil War or at some other point of Lincoln’s life.

Our last historical stop was at Lincoln’s tomb. We were disppointed it was partly under construction and we couldn’t go up onto the different outside levels, but it was still neat to walk through.

After our long morning we had a late lunch at Applebee’s. I’m sure the waitress was surprised to have a table of 6 women all order steaks! We had really worked up an appetite.

After dinner we were ready to be pampered a little more. I had called different nail salons the afternoon before while I was at the airport and found a place that would take all 6 of us for Saturday afternoon so we all enjoyed a little pampering. Most of us got both a manicure and pedicure, but Mom just opted for a manicure.

We finished off our big day by attending an outdoor theater, The Muni, where we saw ‘The Secret Garden’. It was a great production, especially for a community theater, and we had almost front row seats, which always makes the show seem more real to me.

We were all exhausted but happy when we made our way back to the hotel that night. Then first thing the next morning we drove Mom back home in time for us all to start dispersing our separate ways again. It was such a great weekend having all the ‘girls’ together with everything working out almost better than we had planned. Mom was such a sport and we were grateful we were able to do something to celebrate her, who she is, and what she has helped all of us become. Happy birthday, Mom. We love you!

I am not a fan of messes, but I am a fan of teaching kids to do things on their own. These don’t always go hand in hand. For instance, I love that my kids can cook some of their lunches and breakfasts on their own, but I don’t always love the mess they leave behind. This is why “Fried Egg Friday” was instituted at our house - we have cereal all other weekday mornings, but on Fridays I let them make a fried egg (or whatever egg they want). Even then we had egg whites strewn from the bowl to the trash can or all over the counter. THEN Chris came home from the grocery store with this:

I love it! You just shake it up and pour. The consistency is good to go for scrambled eggs. They are even thick so Caleb has now mastered omelets on his own! He is loving this new independence and I’m loving the lack of mess left behind!

This month has been a season of goodbyes with so many friends moving away from our little area of New Jersey. It really has left me feeling a little melancholy. I don’t like having to say goodbyes and being left behind. As a military brat and even in our marriage, we are usually the ones leaving - the excitement of being on the other side is a lot better than feeling sad and left behind. So, to our friends who have left us and are leaving, don’t forget us We miss you already!

Yes, I’m a week behind but we’ve been busy!

We had a good, quiet 4th of July weekend.  Here’s the run-down:

- slept in on Friday

- family outing to “Wall-E” (decided Cami is NOT ready to go to the movies again!)

- BBQ with lots of fresh corn on the cob!

- parking on the highest hill in town we could find and saw 16 different fireworks shows, including 2 in NYC

- massage, manicure, AND pedicure on Saturday (cashing in my Mother’s Day gift certificate)

- getting the house cleaned

- then spent rest of Saturday ‘getting ready for Sunday’

We hope everyone else had a ‘delicious’ 4th of July!

I’m no photographer but I like taking pictures. I also think it’s fun to play around with pictures to make them better. Yesterday we found some water balloons in the dollar section of Target so of course, I had the camera out to capture some moments. None of the pictures came out very well but today I played around to see if I could make them any better (with the help of Jessica Sprague). Here are a couple that I played around with - before and afters.

Kids with Balloons:

Balloons:

With Jessica’s technique the balloons in both photos seem to add a new dimension and come more alive and individual. If I had some cute pics of the kids on my camera that would have been fun to see how they turned out, but there’s always next time.

I have often wondered how you know what your kids’ talents are and how to help them excel. What if they missed out on a talent because as a parent I didn’t introduce it to them? When your oldest is young you want to introduce them to everything to see what they really grab onto. Now, I see their talents seem to find them and when they do, as parents, we can find the perfect outlet.

Emma has always been very DRAMATIC. When we moved to the NYC area we thought this was a perfect place to find an outlet for her drama. She has taken a couple of classes intermittently through an acting school, but this month she started acting camp. It is 9 - 4 every day and she was a little nervous as it got closer because she would be one of the youngest, but she LOVES it! It is so fun to pick her up in the afternoon, see how happy she is, and hear all the fun things she did during the day. Today they auditioned for parts in the ‘end-of-camp show’ and she received a part with a solo. I guess we’ll be hearing a lot of her song this month as she practices.

Caleb was always doing flips off his bed or anything he could mastermind into a trampoline. We started to worry for his safety and decided to put him in gymnastics so he’d have a safe environment to ‘flip’ in. Surprisingly he did very well and after a few months his coach talked to me about putting him in the boys’ team. Caleb didn’t want to do it - he didn’t want a different coach or group of kids. This kid loves consistency. So, we decided to wait until this summer to address the issue again as the subject was brought up to us by more coaches. Caleb decided to ‘try it out’ - we’re talking 12 hours a week! I actually thought this was going to be too much for a 7 year old but he has proved me wrong. When he was in the 1 hour class once a week he wouldn’t let me leave or he’d start to cry. Now he begs to be dropped off early every day so he can get started on his 200 jump ropes and when I pick him up after 3 hours, it’s like pulling teeth to get him to leave. How did we go from one extreme to the other so quickly?!

Their talents and interests may change as time goes on but it’s fun to see your children doing something they love . . . and doing well in it. It makes me wonder, what talents do I have that I may need to unearth for myself?

I just saw on ‘Pink Christmas’ that sign-ups start today and go through July 31st. So, if you want to participate in this ‘Girlfriend Give and Get’ this year, be sure to go here to sign up. (If you aren’t sure what this is, click here for more information.) I had a blast doing this last year - in making a gift to give and also in receiving. Don’t miss out!

We did get to California before the reunion started so we took the opportunity to have a little family day. We drove down to Vallejo to go to Six Flags. This is actually the first time we’ve ever taken the kids to an amusement park like this, but truthfully we did it mainly for the animals.

We had a great time spending time on the kids’ rides. This was perfect for us since Chris and I aren’t too much into thrill rides and Chris gets motion sickness. The kids and I did one roller coaster and it was the perfect speed for all of us. They went around the track twice and stopped after the first go-round to see if anyone needed to get off. How kid friendly is that?!

Cami’s all-time favorite for the day was getting to ride the Thomas the Tank Engine train. I didn’t think she was that ‘into’ him but as soon as she saw that area of the park, we HAD to go on it and she was all smiles!

And of course, we LOVED the animal shows! Emma was in heaven, cheering after each dolphin or killer whale trick.

We just got back from a week in California for the annual Stephenson Family Reunion. We look forward to this event every year, no matter what the date is, but we especially love it in the summer because then Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard can be used to its max. Here’s a taste of our adventures in the backyard:

Our big family outing was bowling - this has become a tradition. Chris hit a record high by getting 5 strikes in a row and almost passing the 200 mark. I would be happy if I could get up to 100! The kids had a blast bowling with ‘the cousins.’ We sure wish we all lived closer!

We had some great late night firesides for the adults (while the kids had a slumber party in Grandma & Grandpa’s room). I didn’t get any pictures of these, although one was in the hot tub and the other in front of the projector for some slide shows. I did however get a picture of the aftermath of the slideshow night.

We were all excited to get to spend time with Great-Grandma Myers, who moved in with Grandma & Grandpa about a year ago. For most of our little family, it had been 5 years since we’d seen her! Great-Grandma had many ‘kid visitors’ in her apartment during the day because she has some fun birds and a little dog. Then on our last day there, Great-Grandma let all the kids go into her dove aviary and hold the birds. Each of the kids had been able to name a bird when she got them so it was fun for the kids to finally meet the birds they named. Emma’s was ‘Sally’, Caleb’s was ‘Spiderman’, and Hannah’s was ‘Baby’.

Of course, we couldn’t go through a reunion without family pics with our annual reunion shirts. Here are a few shots, but rest assured there were shots with every mix-up possible - grandkids, individual families, everyone, grandparents with grandkids, great-grandma with kids, etc. I think the only mix-up we may have missed was the ‘in-law’ picture with myself and the two great men who have also married into this incredible family.

Stratford-Upon-Avon (Thursday/Friday):

Even though Stratford-Upon-Avon is technically in the Cotswolds, this deserves a post of its own, as it’s famous due to being William Shakespeare’s birthplace. Although, we started our day by riding the bus out to Warwick where we went to see Warwick Castle. This was like an extension of Medeival Time Dinner Theater, if you’ve ever gone to one of those. I think my kids would have loved it. There were archers, knight hand to hand battles, falconry, and more. Haley and I climbed up to the castle towers. I cannot imagine going up those narrow windy passageways at night with a torch. It’s hard enough going up and down them during the light of day with lights guiding your path. But, the view from the top was beautiful, of course.

We did tour Shakespeare’s birthplace next and learned many interesting facts about him. I’d never really been a fan for or against Shakespeare but after finding out more about him, I wasn’t too impressed with him as a person. However, he did have a talent for writing plays.

That night, staying with the Shakespeare theme, we had tickets to see “The Taming of the Shrew.” Before we left on our trip, Mom had us watch the movie version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was actually pretty good. Then we got to the play. It was one that I was glad I didn’t have any of my kids there with me. We honestly tried to decide if we should leave and then we thought, it has to get better and before you know it, you’ve sat through the whole thing. Needless to say, we didn’t care for it. If you want to watch the play, go for the movie version rather than the live play.

Friday we finished up in Stratford by touring Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway’s house. Her house was actually only a mile from our bed & breakfast so we walked on a little path through neighborhoods to get there. It was a great walk first thing in the morning with no one about. The house was interesting as the tour guide told us where different sayings came from, like “given the ‘cold shoulder’” and ‘chairman of the board’ - all having to do with where people were positioned in the main meeting area of the house. The gardens there were beautiful.

London (Friday/Saturday/Sunday):

We took a train to London. It was a weird feeling being back in a city again, after enjoying the English countryside. We started out strong by going on a double decker bus tour of the city. We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to see everything we wanted to in a day and a half, so at least we were able to see the major sites of the city, snap a photo, and say that we have seen it. I have to admit, Haley and I acted like true tourists sitting on the top of the open bus, snapping picture after picture. Some of the highlights we saw were the gates to Buckingham Palace, Trafalger Square, Piccadilly Circus, the London Eye, Big Ben, London Bridge, and London Square.

We had tickets that night to see “Gone with the Wind” in a theater on Drury Lane. Mom had read some reviews that said the show wasn’t very good so our hopes weren’t too high. But, it was amazing. We all loved it! I had never seen the movie all the way through so a lot of it was new to me and I thought it was well performed. I loved some of the native American songs. Honestly, everyone in that theater could have fallen in love with that Rhett Butler. He was superb!

Saturday was our only full day in London so we made use of it by making it our museum day. As we walked to our first museum, we made sure to walk by Buckingham Palace as we had only seen the gates the day before. We were disappointed the normal guards weren’t on duty as they were practicing for the queen’s birthday celebration for the following week. We were able to peek onto their training grounds and watch for a little while.

Our first museum was technically not a museum, but rather a church. We walked around Westminster Abbey and saw where many historical figures are buried or memorialized. It was fun to walk through “Poet’s Corner,” looking for names such as Tennyson, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling. There is a memorial there to Jane Austen as well!

We then went to the Imperial War Museum, which included the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. I know I have learned the history that these places cover, but I seem to hear names, dates, and places and they go right out of my mind after I regurgitate them on a test. So, now that I’ve seen the places and learned more about the people I can do more research knowing where they were and what they’ve done - perhaps it will stick longer. It will have a bigger impact, nonetheless. But, I did love learning more about Winston Churchill and how his family was very involved with what he did. The museum, in and of itself, was amazing with video clips to watch and many interactive displays. We were in there for a couple hours and didn’t even see everything.

We hit the National Art Gallery. We actually started feeling ‘museum-ed out’ so aside from a Picasso and a few other famous artists, we weren’t too enthralled. Then Mom and I hit the National Portrait Gallery, which was very interesting as they were portraits of ‘real people.’ Each area was set up with portraits from a specific era. We only had time to see the older era and a quick run through the 90’s era to see a portrait of Princess Diana. Mom’s history knowledge is vast so I felt like I had my own personal tour guide as she told me about a number of individuals and what they did, who their friends were, what ‘clubs’ they were in, etc.

That night we had tickets for “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.” What a fun show! I had seen the musical with Donny Osmond on video so I knew the music. But this show was high energy - ‘Joseph’ for this show was actually the winner off of Britain’s reality show “Any Dream Will Do” where they competed for who would be the lead for the show. When ‘Joseph’ (Lee Mead) came out on stage, the reaction was surprising - he was a big celebrity and you could tell the reality show must have been a big hit in Britain. The show was truly amazing - if you want to see a little bit of Lee Mead’s talent, click here for a video with little excerpts from the reality show.

Sunday morning after breakfast I parted ways with everyone else as I had to fly home a day early to take care of my family. I was sad to leave, but excited to see Chris and the kids. I kept myself busy the entire flight to New York City, finishing up a book, catching up on my journal, and working on Sudoku puzzles. And, of course, when I got through customs, I could barely hold myself back from sprinting to the door to give everyone hugs. I was proud of myself - I didn’t cry (I’m always so emotional) but I couldn’t stop smiling - a great trip and a great homecoming.