My child is a bully

See this face?

Sweet, huh?

Charlie's foster mother described him to Sheref as a child who is very shy, and "when he plays with other kids, they take his toys and he cries."

Charlie has never struck me as particularly shy, but I still always thought of baby Charlie in Korea, getting his toys snatched away by other kids. And instead of snatching them back, just crying.

Then a few months ago, Charlie got bitten a few times by a classmate. The same classmate, 3 times. Poor Charlie, bullied by classmates.

Well, a few weeks ago Sheref arrived at Chucktown's school to pick him up, and the teachers said "We have to talk." Sheref thought maybe he had gotten bitten again. So imagine his surprise when the teachers told him it was Charlie causing the problem.

"Charlie has been, well, leaning really hard on his classmates, knocking them to the ground, then laying on them and laughing."

Ooops. This is something he and the girls do -- "wrestling." However, I suppose when you are bigger than your classmates, "leaning on them" is not cool, huh?

Park Day

My wife is out of town at a conference, so I am doing a guest post. The kids and I headed down the street to our annual Park Day and as you can see a good time was had by all! Rose just had to ride the mechanical bull. She showed some real spunk.
Is that all you got!
I missed my nap for this!!!
Correction. I refuse to miss my nap for this!
Little cowgirl Rosie trying on a live animal for size.
Charlie checking out the baby chicks that his sisters all loved.
Don't think you are supposed to ride this one, but Rose was on a role....
All girls love little fluffy bunnies, right?


I hope you enjoyed these cute pictures of our day in the park; but somewhere at a conference in Florida, there is someone saying to herself "he couldn't of at least brushed their hair before he took those pictures?" Love you too babe! Come home soon.

The Pumpkin Patch

Today the kids and I went to a local island in search of a real farm, a real pumpkin patch. We were looking for a fun outing, as well as a wagonload of pumpkins.

Literally.

On the way in [Charlie looks thrilled, doesn't he?]

They had a fairly large playground that the kids loved

Chuckles liked the little playhouse

I love this photograph

The farm also has a petting zoo, which the girls of course loved.

In the Midwest, we have corn mazes. In South Carolina, apparently we have crepe myrtle mazes (...not even kidding...). This apparently is the world's largest year-round crepe myrtle maze (as if there even WERE another crepe myrtle maze anywhere in the world...). It also cost $6 for adults, which was too much for me. Charlie and I waited outside while the girls had a blast inside the maze. Ella kept saying how awesome it was.

My advice to them? Watch out for snakes.

Waiting for the hayride

After the hayride, we got down to business. We picked out pumpkins for our porch, as well as pumpkins for a school project in Ella's class. The girls proved freakishly strong (anyone remember the Friends thread about Monica, the really skinny girl, being freakishly strong? Well, sort of similar with my skinny girls mustering the strength to lift giant pumpkins!) and did all the pumpkin haulin' as well as the wheelbarrow-pushing, while I pushed Charlie in his stroller.

Happy Birthday Twinks!

For the twins' birthday, I took them to Myrtle Beach for the weekend. They were super excited. In fact, I may have heard "are we almost there?" 50 times during the 2 hour drive.

I foolishly tried to explain that "almost" is a relative term. If anyone knows how to explain the concept of relativity to children, please let me know. Finally, I just gave Sheref's token answer of "yes." [The last time we took a family trip, he told me I should just lie and say "yes" whenever the kids ask "are we almost there?"]

In the car on the way there

The view from our hotel room

Another view from our balcony -- the "crazy river" as Rose & Lucy called it. Lazy river for the rest of us...

On the way to the pool

On our first morning, we went for a walk on the beach. Rose & Lucy collected shells and -- the phrase that comes to mind is "frolicked in the surf." I'm pretty sure I have never written or spoken that phrase before, but that is exactly what they did.

My parents have similar pictures of my sister Shannon and me at Myrtle Beach as children. In particular, the photo below reminds me of going to Myrtle Beach with my family as a child.

At lunch

We went to a local amusement park for the late afternoon and evening. They had a great time riding all the rides and consuming an amazing amount of cotton candy.

On our balcony last night after the amusement park.

We got home around 2pm today, and had a little party this evening. Ella baked and decorated this cake.

The Geburtstagstisch (birthday table)

It's amazing what you can buy at rural South Carolina gas stations. I was able to walk by the display of nails, hunting clothing and fishing bait, but just could not pass up the fireworks.

And now that our street is scorched with the remnants of my SC gas station purchases, to bed for the new 6 year olds!!

Happy Birthday, sweet loves.