Our Gang!

I had been wracking my brain trying to figure out who our family reminds me of. As I was watching Matea (our 3 year old pose like a model) and wag her finger at her new African brother Jared it dawned on me that she could play Darla in the OUR GANG/LITTLE RASCALS movie. Then as Jared was dancing with the entire cast at Johnny Rockets and holding his own audience (totally upstaging the waiter performers at the restaurant) I couldn't help but think that he reminded me of Stymie or Buckwheat from OUR GANG. Then Andrew continued to organize the day as if he was some producer (ala Alfalfa or Spanky)...the side kicks Grace and Ella were hitting and kicking eachother reminiscent of the three stooges....Sam the frustrated teen trying to manage all of them (while simultaneously being embarrassed and bored) just added to the very bizarre and delightful familial combination. Our family is so hysterically funny to me. I am constantly entertained.

I know this isn't funny really because Jared cried and cried about it and then threw a tantrum, but he had a melt down because the dragon at Broadway on the Beach in Myrtle Beach failed to make an appearance. There is this giant fake dragon that usually comes out every 5 minutes over this miniature golf course. We went there specifically for the dragon ( a free thing to do). We told Jared and all of the kids all about it and then we waited and waited. While walking to our viewing spot I had to spend a lot of time answering questions from Matea. "Mommy is it a real dragon?" "No Honey"..."Does it fly?" "No Honey" "Can I be a princess and not like dragons?" "Yes honey." "does it breathe real fire?" on and on.... Then it took a million slow baby steps to get there because she was so scared. Finally we found out that due to minor winds the dragon was "ASLEEP". If he woke up and breathed the fire we may all be toast so they canceled his appearance. Well Jared with his very strong testosterone driven pride was beyond upset. How could the dragon be asleep? AND who cares? Let's wake him up. It is only 7pm. And then he had to yell at Mark and Andrew for not waking the dragon up. He was totally inconsolable. This went on all the way to the car into the hotel and until Jared fell asleep. I hope by tomorrow he will no longer be upset about the dragon.

Earlier in the day we went to the beach. We saved money on souvenirs by picking up all the shells we could find with holes in them. Then we went to WALMART and bought string for 3 dollars and made the cutest shell necklaces.

AND Grace tells me while eating an ice cream cone..."I like these things" I say "cone" it is called "ice cream cone"...Thank you God for the sweet reminders of the simple things we have taken for granted. The delight of a simple soft serve vanilla ice cream cone from chick filet is something to be appreciated.