Birthdays,Family, Fun and A Whole Lotta Love NC 2012

The Prince and I are so very lucky that we were able to fly to Cherokee, NC for my grandmother's 90th birthday in January of 2012. She shares a birthday with my niece, Miranda, so it was nice to take my niece to the casino on her birthday too! Too bad we didn't win big!!!

This is a posting of a million pictures and various comments. I love my family so much, dysfunction included.

Let's go...As you can see my travel partner, Prince AidenMan, is a pro at this traveling thing.

We stayed in this 4/2 bath cabin on the river with my mom, step dad, brother, his girlfriend, nephew and niece! Fun Times....Most of it, at least....HA !

Our backyard and fantastic fishin' hole!

When Nana is around, there are tons of junk snacks....AidenMan was in junk heaven!

AidenMan's fantastic Uncle Ronnie brought him a US floor puzzle. Jenny help construct it...In her world, Ohio may have attached to Hawaii...LMAO!

First visitor, my mom's brother, Uncle Jake!

LOVE

My brother, Uncle Ronnie; Uncle Jake, Jenny (brother's GF) and the Prince.

Love birds...tweet tweet

UNCLE UNCLE!!! Pap, I said UNCLE!! and Pap would say "you had enuff' boy??!" ...and then the laughing continued

The Prince loves his Uncle Ronnie more than words and he loves fishing almost as much!

Prince and his Mom

Prince and his Nana

Prince and his Great Grandma

What?!!! Well, of course Pooh Bear (me) is my favorite!!!

Grandma probably telling Jenny something important, like that I have always been her favorite.

 

I wish I could have captured the laughing that took place while taking this picture...we had to try at least 4 times!!!

Walking and talking with Uncle Jake

Walking and planning with Uncle Ronnie

Executing the plan

The Prince and I snuck off for some mining!

"How much do you think this is worth, Mom?"

Then we moved on to educating ourselves about our people/ancestry. We are of the Wolf Clan. The Prince wanted to know if we knew anyone from another clan. I explained to him that you take the clan of your mother so I called our cousin, Freida, and asked her which clan she belongs to. She is from the Sweet Potato Clan. The Prince then asked "Does she know our clan can eat her clan?" HA!

Wooden Sequoyah and his not-so-wooden descendant. Not sure why the Prince appears to be screaming for his life....maybe he was reacting the plight of his people....wait until you see how unhappy he is inside the museum. He does not take the history of his people lightly. I'm not sure what's going to happen when we study the plight of his daddy's lineage......

Throughout Cherokee NC there are bears that represent various aspects of the Cherokee. This one represents Sequoyah..the creator on the Cherokee written language and also the wooden depiction above.

The Prince is aware of the plight of the Cherokee people and he is very proud and very pissed at the same time...He is so much his mother's child.

Aiden references Sequoyah at least once monthly in our day-to-day lives.

Back at the cabin for a little rest and relaxation with his cousin, Logan.

Aiden sharing Sonic racing on the Ipad with Logan.

Love these three.

The cuddle bunny and his Uncle Jake.

HUSH GMA! I'm not squeezing you too tight...geesh!

Pap, if I were you I would listen...she's got a cane in her hand!

Good LAWD! We have big heads!

Aiden loves Jenny, but he does not like it when Uncle Ronnie lets Jenny catch the big fish!

Can you imagine the life story behind those eyes??

*HEART SMILE

Logan, hurry up and take a picture with grandma!! We gotta party to get to!!

Aiden loves cousins!!!

I'll get you!!

Or maybe they will get me!

Quick break...while the cousin with the busted nose gets cleaned up.

We are sweet.

We are scary.

Can I tell you that I have never been around my Great Aunt Annie without laughing? I love this lady!!!!! And her crazy daughter, you'll see below.

UMMMM???

Family Love

The Prince, his Great-Great Aunt Annie and his Uncle Happy...yep, my eldest brother is called Uncle Happy...that is 100% the fault of my niece, Kimberly....

Here she is...the crazy one I mentioned above..NITA! with my brother smashed in between.

My Great Aunt Lizzie and my momma. Just to let you know, my Aunt Lizzie makes some of the best bean bread...EVER!!!!!!! (but you may not have any clue what that is)

GEESH! Aunt Lizzie..you looked happy hugging Mom. I thought you liked me too?

The birthday girl gearing up for her thank you speech. HAPPY 90TH Grandma!!

My cousin, Lisa, hugging Grandma and laughing at me for just being scalded by her.

Uncle Happy or some random cowboy...one can never be sure.

There's my silly and sweet Great Auntie again!!

The Prince had to sit with his Pap for lunch.

The Prince and his Nana's sister, Aunt Abbie.

The cousin train.

After lunch, the Prince had something very important to explain to his Uncle Ronnie.

The apparent light bulb moment for the Uncle.

Awww, look at my nephew, Logan!!

Do you have a person in your family that the only words that could describe her are SUPER SWEET?! In this photo, in between the Prince and Gma, is Ms. Darlene. She is my Aunt Deb's mother and is a member of our family, not by blood but by love. We recently lost Ms. Darlene in flesh, but memories are ours forever.

I think she wished to win at Bingo that evening.

My Aunt Deb....Does everyone have a favorite Auntie?

Miranda, read the question right above! The answer better be Yes! and I better be it :)

Cousin Brenda

Cousin Brenda's Momma, Aunt Abbie.

SO check this out...If my Aunt can have a cool name like Alice Pocahontas and my cousin Freida can have the same fantastic middle name as my grandma, Nokomis,...then how do I get stuck with the middle name Faye??? Okay...so what that my momma is Bonnie Faye and my cousin (pictured above) is also named Lisa Faye and my other cousin ( not pictured above) is name Melinda Faye...I want a cooler middle name!!!! WAAAA! ...moving on..

Relaxing...

The day after the party and our final day, we stopped by and hung out with my grandmother. The highlight of that visit was her singing Amazing Grace in Cherokee to us...love her!

We had a fabulous time in NC and  of course when we are that close to FL we need to hang out with Nana " a touch bit" (The Prince's saying) more...so we headed South to Florida for a few days.

This is Presha Sue Ellen, a.k.a Suetee, she has been my little sister for approxiamtely 14 years. She is really sick with a heart condition, so I wanted to share this picture. We love her so much! My mom loves her even more.

Call the Tooth Fairy!

Here is my six-year-old with all of his teeth:

 

Here is my six-year-old minus one tooth!:




**tear,tear, sniff, sniff...it's all way to fast for me**


Today while I was grocery shopping the Prince and his daddy were out and about having fun, I received a text that stated "Call the Tooth Fairy!" and it was followed by the two toothless pictures from above. When I called the Prince he was so excited, I asked him if his daddy did all the things I would have done if I would have been there when his first tooth fell out;) and he said "not exactly, but he is buying me a special treat...a peach milkshake!" I think daddy did okay handling this milestone without momma...this time.


My Prince is now sleeping soundly and awaiting the Tooth Fairy. He was insistent upon leaving her a note and one penny. Here is what his note read: 


Hello Tooth Fairy,
My name is Aiden Jay Sharp. I know who you are. Look under the second pillow. The tooth might have blood on it. Here is a cent for all the hard work you do.
From,
Aiden
8-4-12
(*taped to the note was one penny)



**I'll update in the morning with the loot from the Tooth Fairy**

A note, $5 and a new electric tooth brush. This must be a different Tooth Fairy than the one that visited my house as a kid.

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

This is one of the yummiest dishes ever!! It is vegan, healthy and delicious....can't get much better than that.

Just don't try to say it three times fast, or do...I did...it wasn't pretty :). HA!

Ingredients

2 medium spaghetti squash

Stuffin'
2 teaspoons olive or corn oil
1 cup red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained well
1 cup sweet corn, frozen or fresh
2 teaspoons smoked paprika 

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

All of the reserved cooked squash
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice
salt to taste (please use a little salt...it brings out the flavor)

Method

Punch a few holes in squash with a sharp knife and roast squash WHOLE in a baking dish with a few inches of water. Roast in a 400°F oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour until tender, turn squash once or twice while baking. Cool enough to handle, or be careful and use a towel. When cool enough to handle, cut in half length ways, scoop and discard seeds and scoop out flesh from squash halves leaving the shell intact for stuffing.

For the filling, heat oil in a large pan and sauté red onion and red pepper for 2 minutes. Add beans, corn, red pepper flakes and smoked paprika; sauté 1 minute longer.

In a LARGE bowl, add bean mixture, cooked squash, cilantro, lime juice and salt.

Fill squash halves with filling, mounding mixture in the center.




***The Prince has an entire squash for lunch (leftovers) and sweet potato fries for lunch, this lil man can eat!***

6 Years Ago Today, He Entered My Life 5 Weeks Early

 Age 1


So I guess in keeping with his tradition of coming early, this morning he entered my room and hour early! Yep, 4:58 a.m. to be exact...YIKES. I know he was so excited to by turning 6...but UMMMM, that's a bit early for even this morning momma:)

It's only 3:30p.m. and we have had such a fun 6th bday thus far. Last night I put up a few decorations for our cake with friends time. This morning I made him breakfast and presented his GF Vegan (HA! but it is amazingly yummy) sausage to him with a candle as his daddy and I sang happy birthday.

We made it to swim class at 8:30 am, then met a couple friends for the movie, RIO, at 10:00 am and back to our house for a little play time, birthday cake and presents. This momma had a great time with friends too!

So I thought I would share a few (or more than a few) pictures of our day so far as the Prince and I take a few moments of silent time before the MOMMY/DADDY/PRINCE festivities this evening! We head out for the Grand Canyon this Friday and we are excited.

OH. By the way, a Prince that wakes up before 5am is liable to have a few meltdowns .....no pictures of that in this post.

 

 

 

 

On the eve of turning 6...

My dearest Aiden. Prince. Pigeon. AidenMan, mommy is so proud of you. It was so cute how excited you were this evening trying to fall asleep as you were filled to the brim with excitement of turning 6, tomorrow.

Please know, I love you more and more each day.

Thank you for obliging your mom tonight by taking pictures with me on your last day of being a 5-year old .

Happy birthday eve!

Love,
Mom

Multiplication Craftivity

Thanks to Step Into Second Grade for the inspiration.

So the Prince is moving right along thru multiplication; he can fairly quickly answer or find the answer for the 0s, 1s, 2s, 4s, 10s and 11s.

So of course my natural progression is to add a "craftivity" to reinforce the process :)

I whipped up a sample last night and today after returning home from seeing the movie, Chimpanzee, he created his own.

Happy Tuesday, y'all!

Fourth of July 2012

This year we spent independence day relaxing at home , mainly because hubby hurt his back while doing P90x, and eating festive food.



Menu
Bison burgers for the Man
Tofu hotdogs for the Prince and I
Skinny taste potato salad
Baked lays
and
Cayenne cocoa cake topped with low fat cool whip and fruit for America's independence day of birth

***the cake brand is Simple Organic, which is the best GF cake mix I have found....seriously delicious***

We did venture out for a sky full of fireworks about 8:30pm.

A five, almost six, year old's observation

My dear Prince Aiden. I love you. I am in awe of the way your mind works, but never truly shocked over what comes from your lips as you are such a thinker.

While having lunch today, two fried tofu hotdogs with melted cheese, red onion, ketchup and honey mustard on GF buns, you shared an observation.

Prince: Mom, during the Civil War, Americans were fighting Americans because some of them were against some people in America being free?

Me: Yes.

Prince: Well, that doesn't make any sense because during the Revolutionary War those living in America were fighting the British so that those in America could be free.

Me: Exactly, no sense at all.


After lunch we got in a little multiplication and spelling.

Have a fantastically free weekend ;)



*** okay, an update 2 seconds after I posted and showed the Prince. He said, " and Thomas Jefferson wanted slaves to be free and he had slaves, so how did he want slaves to be free..""?