It's "only " going to be 94 today kids, let's go to the zoo!

At nearly 10 degrees below last week's temperatures, this morning I decided that a trip to the Birmingham zoo was in order! We may have had more fun there than any other zoo. First, we rode a camel (which yes, part of me thinks is a little cruel for the camel --being in captivity AND having to schlep people around a little dirt track all day for the economic gain of the zoo can't be a good life --  but I gave in the the pleas of my kids). Then we saw a lion who kept roaring at us -- full blown roar that the kids were LOVING! Gage is still walking around roaring every time we mention the lion at home. Then, we got to feed flamingos, which was super cool. We bought some flamingo "kibble" and they pecked it from Savannah's hand. The first time she ran out, one of the little buggers bit her, but luckily she found it amusing and fed them again. Flamingos always remind me that Savannah used to say "mangos come from flamingos butts"!  We road a train, which Gage loved, and just had a blast. After spending 3 hours there we didn't even get to 2 sections of the zoo, so we have something to look forward to on our next trip!

Lions and tigers and JACKRABBITS...OH MY!

Savannah *finally* has the hang of driving her Barbie Jeep!  We "retired" it for a bit in SC because she didn't do so well steering, but she's got it now!  We went for a drive the other day down to the next cul-de-sac and Adam kept asking her if she wanted to put it in "jackrabbit" gear (that is FAST, for all of you non-Barbie jeep owners). She finally agreed and WHOA...OFF SHE WENT!!  We had to jog to keep up with the jeep, Gage was not buckled in and was hanging on as he nearly fell out of the side a few times, but they were both giggling and smiling like crazy. Adam kept yelling "EYES ON THE ROAD" as she veered crazily toward mailboxes, trees, the curb, etc. I just tried not to pee my pants laughing at the whole scene while I ran to keep up with her.  Then we went to an empty lot to drive up and down the hill (off-roading) and she had a crazy determined look on her face that the pictures does not do justice for.

I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream!

We joined the Children's Museum  when we first moved here and went back again. The kids had a great time playing ice cream shop.  It is a vintage ice cream parlor counter complete with marble, all the scoops, dishes, order tablets, and lots of fake fruit to make pretend milkshakes with.  Gage kept trying to lick the face ice creams until I told him to "pretend to chomp it" and then he got it, and proceeded to make loud exaggerated chomping sounds while he pretended to take big bites. He is an ice cream junky!

Sweet Home Alabama

We are settled in, unpacked, and just tying up loose ends like ordering blinds, curtains, and doing some re-organizing.  The house is just beautiful and we love it!  Smidge ran away for 3 days but came back! Both kids are sleeping well and a 4 year old boy (Jay) next door has been over to play already. Sweet home, indeed :-)

We made it to Alabama!!

After signing the documents for our SC house sale, we made it to AL and spent our first night at a friend's condo.  The next day we spent the morning at the children's museum to have some fun before we signed the documents to buy our house in AL.  I think we'll be there a lot...we bought a family membership! We finished off the morning with a trip to Mellow Mushroom pizza, where the kids were excited to ride their elephant :-)

one last bit of excitement before we move

The night before we moved we were awakened by a crash in our driveway. Our neighbor's son left his truck in neutral, with no emergency break on, and his wheels pointed toward our house. Surprise...it rolled down the road, into our driveway, and smashed into Adam's jeep. Whoops!  It's a good thing the jeep was there or else it would have taken out the corner of our basement and THAT would have messed up our house closings, surely!

One last trip to Happy Berry Farm before we leave..

We were afraid we would miss blueberry season at Happy Berry Farm -- they were predicting their blueberry crop to come in after our moving date. But...as luck would have it, the blueberries were ready for picking before we left!  We will certainly miss the Happy Berry!

one last playdate with best friend Kelsie

The girls squealed like crazy, made bracelets, swam, at ice cream, tuckered out Gage, and definitely did NOT want to say goodbye :-(

pool days, pool days....

Savannah is swimming like a fish these days. She can jump in at the deep end and swim all the way to the steps now and is very proud (as are mommy & daddy!). Gage is suddenly fearless and jumps into the pool over and over and over.  Both kids certainly love the water!

Hot fun in the summertime....

We do a lot of playing in the sprinkler these days because we haven't had a day under 92 in weeks!  The driveway is constantly littered with scooters, trikes, big wheels, balls, and various kid "stuff".  I especially like this picture of Savannah playing (naked, of course) and Gage laying on the driveway throwing a temper tantrum because I told him he could not put the scooter inside the turtle sandbox (which is now empty for our move and functioning as a mini pool). Crazy kids!

Gage -- what he's up to these days..

It's hard to believe Gage is coming up on two years old. The time certainly has gone by quickly. Gage is a good little dude with such a sweet happy disposition. Since getting a big boy bed he is sleeping much better than he ever has. Yesterday he was napping after a hard day of playing and swimming, and in sleep I could see so much of that little baby that he once was. Lately he has been looking like such a little boy (especially with his new haircut), it's nice to catch an occasional glimpse of "my baby."  He is still not very interested in talking, but he is making steady progress trying out new sounds (t, w, etc.) and he certainly understands just about everything we say to him. Gage is very into construction equipment (and he oooooooos and points every time we drive by "a digger""), tools (he carries a play hammer and screwdriver everywhere we go), and anything mechanical (cars, trains, planes, etc.). He drives them all around while making vroom vroom sounds. He is starting to "get" riding the tricycle (he doesn't care that it's pink & purple a bit!) and I'm always amused that he flips anything with wheels (scooter, cozy coupe, trike, big wheels, etc.) over so he can spin the wheels and "work on it" with his tools. He LOVES his big sister, and anytime she has a bandaid, he goes over to kiss it. He climbs on everything and is starting to manage the steps by himself. He loves to lock himself in our closet and come out wearing daddy's shoes, a baseball cap, and maybe a tie or two wrapped around his neck. He would gladly spend every waking minute outside, which means we need a playset at our new house!

Savannah -- what she is up to these days?

To start with, Savannah is excited about moving into our new house, and excitedly tells people that the new house is "as big as a dinosaur's butt!!"  She picked out the biggest bedroom upstairs, and it is BIG!! She cannot wait to have all of her princess castles in her room.She has 1 day of school left at Clemson Montessori and she's sad to be leaving her beloved teacher Susan and her best friend Kelsie. Kelsie is equally devastated and has been sending Savannah home with pictures of the two of them together every day for weeks now. I am sad to see my girlie so sad about leaving her sweet little friend. But, she is so adaptable that she will be making new friends quickly in AL.  She got her "report card" from school and we didn't need it to tell us that she is a smart cookie. She's been working hard at counting to 100 (she needs some reminders), but she's getting there! Her vocabulary is amazing.  She's also working hard at swimming. Every day she challenges herself to do a little more than she did the day before. She will stand at the edge of the pool after deciding how far she'll swim today and say to herself "I can do this, I can do this".  She can dive down for rings, swim across the shorter side of the pool, and she's getting the hang of what we call "dolphin arms" (getting those arms up out of the water). She's finally gotten the hang of her tricycle, so a big girl bike may be in her future when we get to AL. She loves making rivers in the dirt/rocks on the side of the driveway with the sprinkler, and as always -- loves painting and coloring.  We are excited for a full week of Princess  Dance Camp at Ms. Fain's before we move!!  She and Gage are becoming good buddies and she's learning how to let him play with her in a "good way" -- my favorite is when she takes her princess castle out and asks Gage to go get some tools so he can "fix the castle".  At times they play together for long stretches, and at other times they nearly kill each other - such are brothers and sisters!

Little Picasso

Gage was painting the other day and thing got a little too quiet at the table so I snuck over to see what was what, and found this....and the picture doesn't do his body painting justice!

tiny little dolls that dance

Savannah's recital song went like this ~~

there's a great big shiny music box
if you open it by chance
surprise surprise
before your eyes
are tiny little dolls that dance

Buzz

I mentioned to Adam that I wanted to take Gage to get a short hair cut for summer and he dug out his old clippers to do the job himself!  He is looking like a handsome little dude!

Hercules

The other day the kids were playing with the Barbie jeep and Gage started pushing Savannah up the hill in the driveway. Now mind you...the jeep is hard to push when it's not "running" because it's motorized, and Savannah weights 32lbs.  My neighbor Judy was visiting at the time and commented that she could  not believe he could push her up hill. Gage is a little Hercules!

Issaqueena Trails

We had a little early morning adventure exploring the lake and dam at Issaqueena Trails just around the corner from our house. The best surprise was having two duckies come visit us. They ate all of the snacks we had in our car -- puffs, granola bars, strawberry bars, and a few organic fruit strips! As you can see, Gage is a boy in every sense...he carries a golf club everywhere now...or balls...or hammers...or all of the above!