Southern Living

"The South, for the most part, has assimilated just fine into the so-called modern world, but we happily remain more firmly grounded in traditions than other places. We make no apologies for expecting a certain nicety in our communications, a certain graciousness in our homes, and a certain indulgence at our tables." 

--M. Lindsay Bierman, editor of Southern Living

As it begins to get warmer I can feel the summer inside of me. To me, the true essence of the South is drenched in summertime. I think I speak for all of my sisters when I say we love the South. We are so grateful for the sticky-sweet summer nights of catching fireflies in our front yard and the days and days spent selling lemonade on the roadside. 

Our childhood was enchanting. We spent whimsical years taking nature walks and singing around the piano. I have only begun to realize how blessed we were. Our mother taught us to love reading and all things musical as we grew up. She often tells us that our childhood was "a blur," what with the four of us being born in just over 3 years. (Just think about that for a minute!) But boy did we play. She taught us that an imagination is of immeasurable value and we grew up creating and laughing. For those of you who know our mother, I'm sure you will agree; she is the epitome of grace and charm. She is a woman of God who stands on convictions and poise. She is a "Southern Belle." She is a gracious hostess, a gifted musician, a delightful cook, a constant servant, an ever-present encourager, a joyful laugher, and a gorgeous woman. And we are so lucky to have her for our mother. :)

As I close my freshman year of college, I feel a sort of loss for this carefree time of joy. Memories of such sweet summers will forever be near to my heart. I can't wait for the days when I have children of my own and can offer them half of the magic my childhood contained. 

So today I'm grateful for two things: my Southern roots and my Southern mother.

:) Thanks, Mommy for always being alongside us in the dirt and making room for us at the piano bench. Words cannot express our appreciation. 

Easter

Happy Belated Easter from the girls! He has risen!

The whole family was together again. What a joy!

We got to see our Gran on Easter day!

I think we all look alike here--Gran, too!

The Easter bunny was good to us; he brought us some bunny ears!

We have a tradition of getting our Easter baskets on the stairs. 

It's one of those traditions we just can't let go!

We had a little too much fun with our gifts--thanks, Mommy!

Traditional Easter egg dying in our bunny ears. 

Finally we can't forget our precious baby angel, Tucker. 

She sported her Easter nautical-inpsired Easter dress with some bunny ears.

Possibly the cutest picture ever taken of her! (photo cred to Anna)

Also, this little lady just had a birthday yesterday! She's seven years old.

Our family wouldn't be the same without this lovely addition. 

We love you, Tucker!

We hope you all had wonderful Easters and special times with family. 

Blessings,

-Mary Claire

Traditionnn...Tradition!

   Welcome to 2012, everyone!  Even though Christmas is over, I thought it would be nice to share a few of our Christmas traditions.   Two of our favorites are decorating the tree and making pretzels for our neighbors.
   First of all, we get a REAL tree.  This is very important to us... we pick it out together and it always makes the house instantly turn Christmasy when we haul it into the house and the pine-needle smell fills the living room.  We use a homemade felt tree skirt and our collection of ornaments.  Atop the tree is perched an angel that Mama and Daddy bought in Maine before any of us were born!  We put on Christmas music and decorate the tree.
   Every girl goes into her own decorating zone.  Sarah puts her favorites and the prettiest ones on the tree, and gets done pretty quickly.  Anna wants to get as many ornaments hung as possible and be done with it as quickly as possible.  I take my time and am in my own little world of remembering.  I put mine all over the tree, making sure each part is decorated.  Mary Claire is systematic and puts on her favorites but doesn't waste time.  She knows when to stop and is usually finished first, or second to Anna.  Mama and Daddy love to watch and give suggestions or join in on the reminiscing.  What I love about our tree is that every ornament has a story.

Dancing with Tucker!

Never too old to dance on Daddy's feet.

Daddy playing the Hershey kisses bells.

Already finished and relaxing, of course. 

Anna and my first Christmas!  And Sarah's is the Precious Moments one to the left.

    Now that the tree's all decorated, on to our next tradition...white-chocolate-pretzel-making!  Every year we make white-chocolate-covered pretzels for our neighbors and deliver them to everyone on our street.  We have been told that our neighbors enjoy them and we enjoy the time spent making them!  By now we are a well-oiled pretzel-making machine.

Every girl takes a corner of the wax paper and we work until there is no room or pretzels left!

Mama supervises and Daddy eats.

The finished product!  These go into bags that we hand-decorate.

   Usually Mama drives us down the street and we all ride in the trunk and hop out at each house.  This year Anna manned the wheel and we brought Tucker to escort us.  We persevered through the cold (it was Christmas Eve) and left surprises on our nieghbors' porches.  A few days later we ran into one of our neighbors.  She thanked us for the pretzels and said that her husband had been afraid that we had outgrown the tradition.  We answered, "Of course not!"  It takes effort and planning to get these traditions done (especially now that 3/4 of the sisters are at college), but they are important and we enjoy them year after year!  Here's to another year of old and new traditions!

The Good Stuff

We title this post "The Good Stuff" because that's what our last two days were, plainly and simply put.  Mary Claire, our mom, and I went to visit our grandfather, W.C., in his hometown.  W.C., or PaPa, is the best grandfather ever, and being with him is such a joy.  We played wii bowling, tennis, and golf, and just enjoyed each others' company.  We are so thankful that we can spend time with our grandpa.  We went to our favorite restaurant, The Bulldog, to pick up ice cream.  The Bulldog is famous for its strawberry shortcake only served in the summer.  It's my personal favorite, and I think it weighs as much as a small baby.  I always surprise myself and eat the whole thing!

Mary Claire's favorite is the butterscotch flavorburst cone...yumm.

PaPa owns a lumberyard and we love to visit it.  On the side of one of the buildings is a Coca Cola ad that they had restored... we love it's nostalgia factor and the fact that coke is such an icon.  As we were leaving, a salesman took a picture of it with his phone.  I think that makes it a full-time tourist attraction!  PaPa joked about charging admission.  :)

PaPa also has farmland that we decided to visit, and it was amazing!  We hadn't been since we were very little and would ride in PaPa's truck to go feed the cows.  MC and I loved going back and breathing the fresh open air.  

We call this the Red Barn. :)

We loved the orange flowers on that tree.

These are my favorite colors.

As I get older I realize that I would not be half the person I am without my family.  There are few things I enjoy more than being with my family and seeing where I come from.  Mary Claire and I are so blessed and wish our sisters could have been with us on this trip!  We loved being with our mom and with PaPa!  We love you!!!

Surprise Bag

For as long as we can remember, we have always had a surprise bag on our trips.  Mama's solution to long car rides with four little girls was to pack a bag (preferably one with fish on it) containing many things to keep us entertained.  

Surprise bag contents:

• Candy...lots of it.
• Stickers to use as rewards for good behavior.
• Travel games (Don't Wake Daddy, Old Maid, Hangman,  etc.)
• Fruit-Stripe Gum.
• Movies.
• Books-on-tape.
• A good book for Mama to read aloud.
• Paper dolls.

We always looked forward to the opening of the surprise bag.  Mama delayed it until we could wait no longer and the contents never disappointed.  We are lucky to have such a creative mom.  On our last trip Mama packed a surprise bag, although our favorite fish bag has been mysteriously misplaced.  The favorite treat was a snack we had in the past- Dunkaroos.  Only found at Wal-Mart.  No surprise bag is complete without them.

The Girls

Library Run

Today was a great day, although Anna is off being immersed in college life at her orientation. The three remaining sisters began our day with a water aerobics class. Our first water aerobics class was wonderful, mostly because the established group of ladies (mostly grandmothers) welcomed us with open arms. Surprisingly enough water aerobics makes one very hungry, thus we traveled to a burger place. Because Sarah's thirst was insatiable, or because sweet tea calls for water and burgers call for shakes, Sarah had three drinks at one time (as pictured below).

(And no, Sarah is not drinking through her nose)

Then, the three of us went on a library run to our childhood library. We were looking for Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the copy we found had a hideous and terrifying picture on the cover. We decided that looking at that for a few days would be more than we could handle, so we put it back for a braver reader. Also, there were creepy illustrations. But our visit to the library was not a waste. We wandered into the children's section and relived the happy days there, and the wonderful books we used to check out. Our favorites were the Little House on the Prairie books and Nancy Drew books. Also, we loved the Boxcar Children books. We highly recommend all of these series for those of you with children. Or without.