Craft Camp

While we were gone my parents watched the kids (thank you).   As I have previously mentioned, I generally fail in the crafting requirements of a stay at home mom.  Something about being a biology major and PA that just doesn't lead to a lot of crafting enthusiasm.

Luckily, my kids got in a years worth of crafts during the 2.5 days we were gone as their kindergarten teacher grandmother happens to be quite comfortable in the crafting world.

Look at the the projects they managed to complete while we were gone....

Painting

This was generic painting. 

They also painted pictures of Easter eggs and decorated them with glitter.

 Dying Easter eggs

AND if you look closely in the photo below you 

will also see they tie-dyed paper towels.

Really, Mom?! 

Just a bit of an over-acheiver! :)

 Don't forget the homemade Easter cookies!

Along with many homemade meals.

Dad made sure to closely supervise in the background.

Haha! 

They also took lots of walks where apparently Erik discovered a bow.

I'm just kidding about the supervising!

The kids had a great time with Dad too.

I'm lucky my parents are young, healthy, and more than willing to watch the trio 

while we get away occasionally.

The kids have a lot of fun with Grandma and Papa but so far seem happy to see us when we get back.

I have not yet been asked to go live in Wisconsin and have Grandma and Papa live with them in Maryland as a certain spunky 5 year old may have suggested to her mom recently. 

(This is still making me laugh Kristal!)

There is still time for that I guess as my mom just left today.

Winner!

I almost forgot!  There is finally a winner of my book giveaway. :)  Kristal - you were the first person to comment once the comments got to (actually over) 1000 that had previously mentioned things you were grateful for!

Daron - you were the 1000th comment but didn't leave a previous comment so you have missed out on the opportunity to read Wheat Belly and One Thousand Gifts (at least the opportunity to own them for free).

Kristal - I hope you like the books!  I promise to send them to you soon!

Searching for Spring In Charleston

Victor and I spent three nights in Charleston this week.  We had a late flight on Saturday evening and when we got to the car rental counter Hertz said our reservation, which I had booked 2 days prior via priceline, had been canceled.  What?!  Hertz wouldn't/couldn't help us so we were left with the 1-800 number priceline provides.  Too make a long story short after 1 hr and 41 minutes of arguing with Priceline, they still wouldn't cave and admit any fault.  So FINALLY the Hertz lady called her manager and got permission to match the price that Priceline gave us and priceline agreed to refund us our money (or said they would at least - we'll see!) so at 11:30 PM we finally picked up a car and headed to the hotel.  I had also booked the hotel through Priceline and was a bit nervous that that would be messed up but thankfully, it was not.

The next morning we got up to a monsoon! This was as close to spring as we got while we were there (April Showers a little early, right?).

We had a specific restaurant in mind that morning and were not going to let a "little" rain stop us!  We bought some umbrellas and headed out to find the restaurant Hominy Grill.  We didn't make it.  We tried multiple different routes and each of them ended up like this.....

Totally Flooded!

So, we headed back to a main drag and just stopped at the first restaurant we came to which happened to be the best meal I ate while I was there.  It had a nutritional value of zero but it was sooooo good!  I can still taste it and almost went back for it a second day but the caloric counter in my brain got the best of me. Ha!

Grit cake, poached egg, Cajun shrimp at Virginia's

This meal alone might be worth a trip to Charleston.

Unfortunately, Victor is allergic to shellfish so I had no one to share it with.

Despite the monsoon and highs around 50 with blustery winds we managed to see quite a bit and had a nice time.  Charleston is full of history.  We walked on the campus of the Citadel (and went to the museum), went to the Slave Market museum, toured a working tea plantation, walked down to Battery Park and Riverfront park, shopped a little, visited Boone Plantation, ate quite a bit, and walked a lot!

We wanted to visit Fort Sumter (site of the first battle of the civil war) but the Ferry was canceled due to high winds. 

My favorite place we visited was the tea plantation.

Did you know that the only tea grown in America is found in Charleston.

The next closest tea producer is 4000 miles away!

It was a fun tour - lots of free tea!

Tea plants - I believe the tour guide said they are in the evergreen family

Tea Harvester

(One machine replaces 500 workers)

Tea Factory

If you want to purchase the only tea grown on American soil you can do so HERE.

(I was happy to hear they use no chemicals on their tea plants!)

Otherwise, you can come visit us as I bought quite a bit of it! :)