Sunday, October 30, 2011
Carving pumpkins!
We put a little spooky Monster Mash music on Pandora and got to carving the other day - hoping our pumpkins would not rot in the 5 sunny & warm days left to Halloween. Gage scribbled away to draw the face he wanted, Savannah was (of course) naked and making faces about how icky the seeks felt. We ended up with a spooky pumpkin and a kitty cat pumpkin. We went outside at dark to admire our work with glow sticks and Gage somehow managed to break the glowstick and get the liquid all over his face and in his eye. That meant a dash to read the instructions and find out if we would need a trip to the emergency room -- but turns out we just rinsed his eye out and kept a cool cloth on it for a few minutes and he was good to go. A little scary though...who knows what those thing are made of!!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Scary monsters
The kids watched Monsters Inc. for the first time a few days ago and they love it. But, Gage is still a little unsure of monsters. Whenever I ask him what a monster does, he growls, makes a monster face, and then it suddenly hits him that monsters are scary so he gets scared and runs in for a hug from mommy.
Our new building...almost finished
Adam and his dad put up a new building for us because our garage was overflowing with cars, tools, kid toys, etc.. Other than a few finishing touches like some trim work - it's about done. Love having the extra space!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Moundville Festival
Just south of Tuscaloosa is an old indian settlement that thrived from 1000-1450 along the Black Warrior River. Because the kids have fall break, it was a perfect day to check out their annual festival. We climbed the chieftan's mound, made headbands, shell and bead jewelry, learned about Indian life, visited the museum, and bought a few trinkets. By the end of the day, Savannah said she felt like an Indian Princess with all of her jewelery -- she is showing off her first "real ring" - silver with a turquoise unicorn -- in the last picture along with her necklaces and bracelet, all of which cost $1 much to Mommy's surprise! Gage chose to ride in the stroller because he had sore skinned knees so he fell asleep for almost the entire visit.
Alabama State Fair
Stopped by the state fair to check it out, ride some rides, and dodge all of the toothless carnies that run the game booths. Gage was happy to win a spiderman, but Savannah was sad to not win anything, so she got a special surprise at home that night ( a Mulan doll she's been wanting). Best part of the night was riding the tractor decked out as a train with tacky rickety trailers all lit up with Xmas lights that took us to the field we parked in. Gage dug the jeeps and Savannah dug the roller coaster too.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
brother and sister
Although there are days when I wonder if they love each other, there are other days when it is clear they do.
Elephant appreciation day at CHOM
Elephant appreciation day may not mean much in other places, but here in Alabama, it is celebrated! At the Children's Museum, Big Al (the Univ of AL mascot) appeared for pictures with the kids, and they had balloons, cookies, and all kinds of fun. The best part was when Big Al surprised the kids by hanging out with the kids in the animal room - Savannah gave him big hugs, the kids launched themselves onto him, and he pretended to chomp the kids with a big stuffed alligator.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
a trip to the Alabama coast
We spent a few days at Gulf Shores, AL for an end of summer beach trip. Beautiful beaches, warm & humid weather (although Savannah was cold on the breezy warm mornings!), a little fishing, a trip to the Little Zoo That Could. Who knew Alabama had such beautiful white sandy beaches!?
Sunday, September 18, 2011
The Hideaway
This used to be a plain white "storage area" under the stairs in our house...but abracadabra...Mommy turned it into a super cool kid hangout complete with chalkboards, magnetic paint squares, a beanbag and pillows tucked around the corner, glowing stars on the ceiling, and some fun polka-dots. Now, despite the stink of the magnetic paint...the kiddos dig hanging out in there!
Why hello, Gigi's cupcakes :-)
surprise surprise...Gigi's opened near us! Fridays are cupcake days at our house...and these were well-received - except by Daddy who thought they had too much frosting....pshawww..what does he know?!?!
gonna have to face it, you're addicted to superheroes!
Daddy decided to have the kids watch an old Spiderman episode with him and that was IT. Suddenly, the kids are crazy over superheroes. Gage is obsessed. If I try to put a NON-Spiderman shirt on him, he throws himself on the floor and screams forever. So, he's been wearing spiderman jammies and t-shirts every day for a few weeks now. His whole class is supposed to wear yellow this week and I expect a fight because we don't own any yellow spiderman shirts. Dear Santa....we need Spiderman stuff, Love, Gage ;-) p.s. we know this isn't a spiderman costume, it just happened to be a batman kind of day that day...
