Meet Bandit, our new bear

Daddy went to Texas and came home with a HUGE bear, whom we dubbed "Bandit". The kids LOVE him!

Gage -- on the move and getting into trouble

Gage is into everything...drawers, dishwasher, plants, Savannah's toys, the refrigerator...he is trouble, and looks to be loving every minute of it!

Project Butterfly

Two weeks ago, the mailman delivered a butterfly kit, which Savannah was very excited about. We started out with 6 baby caterpillars who we watched for 7 days before they turned into chrysalis (cocoons, essentially). Mommy and Savannah were fascinated watching them. When they changed they all crawled to the top of their jar, hung in a J shape, and started shaking. You could literally see them changing as you watched them. Once they were in chrysalis form, they sat for 8 days in their butterfly house. This weekend we "hatched" six painted lady butterflies. This morning Savannah decided it was time to let the butterflies free, so we released them this morning. That was probably a good idea because Smidgey had discovered them flying around their house and was trying to get to them. I could barely get her to look at the camera this morning...she couldn't take her eyes off the butterflies. We hope to see them around our yard. What a neat little project.

Savannah's First Dance Recital

Last night was Savannah's first dance recital, held at the Brooks Center on Clemson's campus. She was *very* excited to dance on the big stage. I was not planning to buy the DVD, but after her performance, we changed our minds about that. They danced to "A Spoonful of Sugar". She is the youngest in the class, with most girls 4-5 years old, but she did great. She fell down at one point (whoops!), and at the end of the routine all the girls lined up and filed out - except Savannah, that is. She was distracted and just standing in place with a bunch of girls stuck behind her. But, she realized she was holding up the line and then ran across stage to catch up. It was a very cute 3 minutes!

Loving springtime.....

We have had a great spring playing in the pool, feeding the birds, gardening, etc. This spring alone we have planted 21 trees and about 30 shrubs. Phew! That's a lot of digging. Savannah has 1 month of school left, and is excited about her dance recital next week. She'd better be excited, her dance costume cost a fortune! Gage is busy growing -- he walks along the furniture, scoots on his belly, says mama and kkkkkkk (we think that means cat, he says it every time he seems Smidge), he claps, blows raspberries, waves, and does a few other "pet tricks". He's working on crawling but isn't quite there yet.

Cute little guy

Gage must be his Daddy's son...he's already quite fond of both the phone and the remote control ;-)

The pool continues to get better!

After a long day of laying sod, we finally have a beautiful lawn in our backyard! Last year it was just red dirt with a few weeds. This year...gorgeous!

Our new pool!

The pool is almost finished. The pool guys have a few details left, sod goes in this weekend, and a fence to follow shortly after. Guess who will be having a GREAT summer this year....

Getting to be a big boy!

Gage has learned to pull himself up on things and has taken the first steps toward "cruising" the furniture. He's also progressed beyond baby food and has started eating real food -- some tilapia, brown rice, oatmeal, mango, cookies, etc.  And...he now happily takes a bath with his sister in the big bathtub. He's a little fish, just like his sister, and LOVES bath time. Still a happy guy, except at night when those stubborn teeth bother him.

Savannah's Springtime

The weather has been beautiful and we've been enjoying every minute of it!  Relaxing in the warm sun on the front porch, playing, planting sunflower & pumpkin seeds, and *finally* being big enough to ride her tricycle.  She tells me she has to be careful that her tricycle doesn't fall off the "clip" when she rides in the driveway. The "clip" is a "cliff", which is a 3 inch drop-off to the grass :-)

A long visit to CT

Talk about a busy visit. In the 2 weeks Mommy and the kids were in CT, we had a family birthday party, went to the Beardsley Zoo, the children's museum, the Indian museum, the pottery painting place, visited UConn, had lunch at the cold beach, picked lots of pussy willows, fed Grammy's moo cows often, and went to cousin Ryan's 4th b-day party at the bouncy place and then make-your own pizza's at Perrotti's Pizza -- yum!  The 2 weeks flew by, and we were lucky to have some gorgeous spring weather.

Ballerina Savannah

Savannah is taking dance class and loves it. Here are a few pictures of her in a new tutu she got for her birthday. They celebrated her birthday by having her wear a crown and medallion (which she was totally preoccupied with for the whole class).

 

 

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Savannah!

It is hard to believe that Savannah is 3 already! Her birthday celebration started at school, where the teachers put together a timeline of pictures and walked through each year of her life. When her teacher Trish finished the first year, she said "And now, Savannah is 1", and Savannah started crying and saying "I'm TWO". She didn't understand that she had 2 more years of pictures to walk through. Cute. On her birthday, we had a big party at the house with 16 (or more?) kids and as many adults. It was a fun, marvelous mad house and she had the Sleeping Beauty cake that she requested. Oh...and her day started out with a cupcake & candles for breakfast, which was a nice surprise for her, judging by the picture! :-)

Gage & Smidge

Today, Gage was sitting on the couch (he is sitting unsupported now!) and Smidge cruised by. First, he looked excited about catching Smidgey's tail. Next, he looked happy that Smidge sat down. Then, he tried to "pet" her and she looked content at first, but got a bit annoyed. I caught it all happening.

Snowflakes in South Carolina

We had a wintry mix of ice and sleet on Friday night, but on Saturday night, we were surprised to have about 15 minutes of heavy snow! Savannah was excited to run outside and play for a few minutes, and Gage...well...he was just cold in his jammies (it was a last minute decision to add him into the picture).

A trip to the Greenville zoo

It was a beautiful day in SC, so we took a trip to the Greenville zoo. Savannah was hoping that a fairy would come by and make the bear come to life.

Sushi night

Mommy was 25 years old before she tried sushi, yet here is Savannah eating a California roll at not-quite 3 years old.  She tried her hand at chop sticks, but took the "poke it and eat it" approach - it got the job done!

Growing up so fast!

Gage just seems to be growing up so fast! He is such a happy little guy...

A week full of new things

Last week was full of firsts for Savannah. She started pre-school last week at Clemson Montessori. She loves her new school, and I love to watch the kids at pick-up time. Trish (her teacher) calls them down in pairs and they hold the railing as they come down the stairs. At the bottom, they have to sit on the white benches and wait for the rest of the kids before Trish calls them (in pairs, again) to go meet their mommies at the gate. So cute. Savannah also started dance class at Fain's Dance in Clemson. She is SO tiny compared to the other girls, but she seemed to have a blast.