Carson's Halloween Party

Carson Savannah invited some of her ghoulish goblin friends over Saturday for a pre-Halloween Bash. Thank goodness everyone's parents had an SUV or truck to get them through the high water that hit much of Chucktown Friday including much of the West Ashley area. Apples were bobbed, haunted mansions were made, and pizza snakes were baked. The evening ended with some marshmallow roasting and a great game of Goblin Tag (kick-the-can with no can). Thanks to LaLa the fortune teller and Lee the fire builder. Bumbum would be proud of your ability to coax a fire out of damp wood. No one will mention the fat lighter! Boo ya'll!!

First Fire Fest

First Fire Fest 2008 was deemed a success. The Fall Fire Season officially started last night with good friends and freshly split wood, hickory and red oak. Thank goodness Bum Bum the fire starter showed up and got things going.


Jimmy, the traditionalist, forewent the fat lighter and went with the small twig methods. Thank goodness there was a structurally correct fire-frame of hickory to compliment his magic.
Note to other Kin: There will be other fires including the First Family Fire Fest and since some of you were returning to the good ole US of A, we did not think a 3 hour trip would bring you great pleasure! I'm sure your backyard was kicking too!

Triplet's Mural

I haven't finished this, but the garage is clean and I found the slip-and-slide which will still be in play until early November!

Summer Painting

Now that everyone is on Facebook, Blog time is at a premium. Here are some pictures of the murals I painted this summer. I have some work to do on the triplets mural. We're hoping Sully's mural entices him into his room to sleep. All the stars glow, but no luck so far.

Back To School

Tough to take back to school pictures when you're still asleep. Sully's bus leaves at 7:10 am and Carson's leaves at 8:15 am. Guess which one I handle? I'm no sure why but the kids love riding the bus. Sully wants to ride it even when Lynne has to go to school anyways? What's up with that?

Sully's first day went well. He was a little worried when he came home about having to write in his journal the next day. I said, "Hey Diesel, don't worry. You've got all kinds of things to write about. There's no way to get it wrong. You get to put your thoughts on paper. Be creative and put down what you want." Great advice. Then he says, "Dad, there's a problem. I can't write." Oh yeah first grade. I forgot. "Sully, that's okay. They'll let you draw a picture." Not the best save. Lynne now is officially handling all academic advice for the early years.

His week got tougher when he had to confess his recess activity on Day 2. Poor guy got busted telling his sister what he was doing and Lynne overheard it. I knew I was in trouble when Lynne whispered to me, "you can't laugh until he's 16." Seems Sully was hanging out under the sliding board so he could see what the girls were wearing under their dresses. Wow - who's genetic contribution is responsible for that? I hugged him because he was sobbing and asked him if he was "curious"? He said he was and deep down I wanted to give him a high-five, but I told him being curious is okay but coping a look under the slide wasn't the way to go about it. The wisdom flows.

The triplets are in Lynne's class for the next year. She has a song she sings with her class each morning that typifies the boy's personalities. The song starts, "Good morning, good morning, something something something, then she goes around the circle and each kid says their name and the morning________." Hey, they're only 4. class says, "GoodWell, when the circle got to Cooper, he blushed, put his head down and swayed back and forth giving a warm, but slightly shy greeting. Keegan was next. He dropped to the floor with his forehead on the carpet and booty in the air, held it for a few seconds and did a forward role. Goofy but cute. Collin was next and when the class said "good morning" to him he pulled out two helicopters from his pockets, pretended they were guns, and shot everyone in the room. Wow.

Carson did great at her new Middle School. I was a little more nervous than her but she had a great day. Middle school...am I old enough to have a child at St. Andrew's Middle School? She did get a warning on the first day. Some teacher said her pants were too tight. Carson with tight pants? If that teacher keeps it up we may just have to tell Collin.

Summer 2008 cont.

The family had a blast again this summer at the annual Snead Week on Isle of Palms. The kids swam, body surfed and rode their boogy boards. The highlight though had to be the nightly ghost crab hunts with the kids and their cousins. Sully considers himself an expert, but Cooper gave him a run for his money. Eventually everyone pooled their talents and with the help of their older cousin, Lauren, and actually caught a few!

Summer 2008

Summer vacation is almost over and its been a blast. The last four weeks have been a blur. Carson, Sully and I just got back from Knoxville with Uncle Lee. We spent a few days on the TN River swimming, skiing, fishing and just hanging out with Lee's parents and Brother Eric and his wife, Robin. Sully jumped off the roof of the boathouse and hooked a carp. Carson tried skiing but preferred being pulled on Big Mable at fast rapid speed. She caught some fish and spent plenty of time trying to swim across the River.

Lynne sacrificed and spent some quality time with the triplets at home. Luckily (or un-luckily - however you choose to see it) she had new AC in the house and a new minivan to transport. So much for the "extra" cash made teaching summer school!

Congratulations Kristen, Jeff and Graysen!!!

Check out the link to my buddies the Harpers. They just had their first child, Graysen Elizabeth and she's awesome. We could not be more proud of Kristen and happy for all! Wow - what a beautiful baby! http://kittyandjeff.blogspot.com/

Carson

Carson now has a post.

Black Jack Sparklers

July 4th

Thanks David and Lori for a great 4th! All was good until Tom got the BlackJack sparklers from the bottom of his sock drawer!

Perkins Drive-By Seafood Blowout

Any time you get a phone call from Mike Perkins that starts with "Have you had lunch yet?" you know a couple of things will happen: 1) Your stomach will be full by the time it's all over and 2) The food will be some of the best you've ever had. When you add seafood from Raul's (not telling you where unless you beg) and Jan Perkins in the kitchen then it's hard to even concentrate.
Perk did the drive-by and showed up at my office this week. We went back to the place on Folly Beach they're staying this week after stopping on ShemCreek to pick up 7 pounds of 21-30 shrimp - LOCAL, 48 bluecrabs, 2 beautiful bags of scallops and a bushel of local clams. The next two nights were amazing and included: Night 1- fried shrimp (more like tempura), boiled shrimp, clams with garlic and a white wine reduction, sweet low country blue crab, grilled corn and chewing bread to sop it all up with. Cooper loved the compound butter served with the corn (butter, lemon juice, salt, and paprika) so much that he just started eating without the corn - finger style!
Night 2: First, for lunch Day 1 - a fresh tomato (SC-no worries) Janwhich which is grilled Marathon bread from a local baker with cheddar and mayo pressed.

Lunch on Day 2 - shrimp and grits that was perfect...perfect.
Back to dinner on Day 2 - After some hard-core crab picking by the crew, Jan whipped up some Grilled Corn and Crab Bisque with more chewing Bread (French baguette). Then we had the main course, Scrimp and Scallop Risotto that made me wish I could write music. Wow.
Wait there's more - For dessert we had fresh SC peaches served over a corn bread muffin with cream and Vanilla Ice Cream. Speechless.

Summer Swim Team

Carson and Sully are swimming with the Shadowmoss Sharks. This is Sully's first year and everyone at the pool was pretty pumped to see him swim his first event - the 25 Free. Last week he received the "swim of the meet" award for taking 30 seconds off his 25 Back! He's taking his early success in stride though. In fact, for him, its ALL about the nachos at the end of the race!

One Month later and I'm finally adding content. This summer's been crazy so far but what's new? We've been hitting the pool as often as possible to try to stay cool. Taking the triplets to the pool everyday also means no need for showers when we get home! Thank God for chlorine. I've included some pictures. Enjoy!

Yes, Collin's bellybutton is BLUE. No matter where we hide the permanent markers Collin finds them. He's into CAVEMAN art, especially on the couches, wash machine, cat, body parts....

Thanks to Kitty Harper I am starting a BLOG to give everyone a glimpse into the Chaos that is the Carroll Family.