why oh why do my children wake up so early?

Today started with the cats waking up, meowing, batting the blinds, and being generally annoying at 4:20am.  Gage woke up at 5:30, and Savannah was up at 6.  So, what do we do around our house at 6:30? We get some seeds for our garden started.

baaaa...it's farm dress-up day at school

Everyone at school dressed up as either farm animals or farmers the other day.  The kids decided they wanted to be sheep, so Mommy went crazy with a package of hanes t-shirts and some cotton balls. Of course, Gage decided on the morning of dress-up that he wanted to be a HORSE. Mommy is good, but not good enough to pull together a horse costume out of nothing. So, he protested and went to school in jeans, a red spiderman t-shirt, and Savannah's ladybug rain boots. Savannah happily wore her sheepy costume.

Savannah and the six dwarfs!

Today was mommy-daughter day, so we went to the Snow White ballet!!  Before the show we got lucky enough to get a picture of Snow White, the Queen, and six of the dwarfs.  The show was really cute and it was hard to keep Savannah quiet -- she kept cheering, laughing, screaming, etc.! :-)

Spooky brooms!

We heard that there is some kind of planetary alignment effect going on now that lets a broom stand on its own. Wow...it worked!! Now, we'll have to see if it works every day or if today really was something unusual?!

Playing in the shower

Savannah has always liked to play in our big shower, but now Gage has joined in on the action. Here's two happy kids bundled up in towels after splashing in the shower until the hot water ran out!

Sewing on a Sunday

Mommy FINALLY picked up some more fabric so Savannah could do some sewing.  She is making a blanket for her kitty, Lola.

Taking care of her dollies

Grandma Rapp sent Savannah 2 baby blankets because she knows Savannah takes such good care of her babies. That night, she covered her 2 dolls up in blankets on the table, and instructed the entire family to be quiet because the babies were sleeping - not to turn the tv up too loud, not to talk to loudly, and not to let the kitties bother them. Sounds like something mommy used to say when SHE was the baby!

Twenty Question for Savannah - Age 5

We asked Savannah these 20 questions on her 5th birthday, and plan to do the same thing each year to see how her answers change over the years.

1. What is your favorite color?  Pink & purple

2. What is your favorite toy?  Monster high doll

3. What is your favorite fruit?  oranges

4. What is your favorite tv show?  Scooby doo

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Macaroni & cheese

6. What is your favorite outfit?  Purple sundress with ruffles, pink sparkle hairband, black butterfly shoes

7. What is your favorite game?  candyland

 8. What is your favorite snack?  apple

9. What is your favorite animal?  elephant

10. What is your favorite song?  abcs

11. What is your favorite book? Elmo colors

12. Who is your best friend? Kelsie

13. What is your favorite cereal?  the square crunchy cereal (wheat chex)

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Color chalk

15. What is your favorite drink?  milk

16. What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? kitties

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Raisin toast with butter, lots of butter

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Macaroni & cheese (she later changed her mind!)

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Zoologist

Happy 5th Birthday, Savannah

It is hard to believe that our little Valentine's "baby" has turned 5!  Savannah's school celebrated her birthday with 2 parties -- one for valentine's day, and one for Savannah's birthday. She was very excited that she got to bring cupcakes, be the leader for the day, and pick from the special "birthday box" that their classroom has (she chose a pink bracelet). At home, she was VERY excited to find mommy had decorated with streamers and balloons. She discussed her "schedule" with Daddy (who came home early) and decided she wanted to open presents before dinner and have cupcakes after dinner. Her special birthday dinner was "cream macaroni, like Grandma Rooney makes" - and she chose pink flower cupcakes instead of a cake. She was happy to let Gage blow out some candles (about 5 times) on his cupcake after she blew hers out.  She got some new clothes and stuff for her American Girl doll (okay, it's a fake from Target, but she' doesn't know that!), some new monster high dolls, and a Leapfrog Explorer. When all the Grandmas & Grandpa's called us that night to say happy birthday, she did NOT want to step away from that Explorer (it's a hand-held learning video game). She's proving to be addicted!!!

Funny hair day!

We had funny hat day last month, pajama day recently, and today was funny hair day at school!!  Gage thought she looked very silly :-)

Wait...are those underpants Gage is wearing?!

Thanks to some superhero bribes, Gage has been doing a great job peeing on the potty lately!!!  He even gave in and wore underpants for a little while the other day.  Mommy forgot how much work it is to potty train...but saying goodbye to diapers for good will make it all worth it!

Homemade playdough

Our Saturday surprise was to make homemade GLITTER playdough, which was much easier than Mommy expected!!!  Each kiddo got their own bowl to mix up their own batch, and then we broke out the cookie cutters and went to town. Fun stuff...we will definitely make more one of these days!

Sad boy

I took Gage down to the riverwalk in Tuscaloosa to stroll the other day, and the path was blocked by a cement truck pouring for a new farmer's market. Gage was -- shall we say....disappointed...and cried, cried cried when I turned around and begged to go back back back.  Not sure if he wanted to just stand there and watch the cement truck, or keep on walking...but he was definitely sad!

Busy kids, busy mom!

We definitely keep busy these days!  Savannah is taking gymnastics, swimming lessons, and tap / ballet classes. That means our Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are busy between activities and school.  In gymnastics, Savannah was recently moved up to the 5-6 year old class, and it is a different world from the preschool class. She is walking on (and jumping off) the high balance beam by herself (no one holding her hand), and is starting to do handstands, hang on the high bar, and learn to use the springboard. She is still working HARD on her cartwheels.  Swimming is a new class for us, but she loves it. Her instructor is from CT and has a unique teaching approach that Mommy loves. Savannah LOVES her swim lessons, and a bonus is that her friend Ember (from school) is the only other girl in her class.  Dancing is still big fun and they are getting ready for their big recital this spring.  Gage just comes along for the ride to everything, but he is an awesome little dude while we wait for big sister. It's just a matter of time before he's doing swimming, soccer, little league, etc.!

warm January day :-)

We were treated to a 73 degree day today!  The magnolias are blooming and a few daffodils are popping up here and there. Apparently spring isn't that far away here in Alabama. After playing on the swings outside, we found a big ladybug who crawled all over the kids and finally flew off. Gage is still saying "buh buh" (= bug bug) and then making flying motions with his arms.

Silly hat day

The kids had silly hat day at school today, and although Gage just wanted to wear a spiderman baseball cap, we turned Savannah's hat into a bouncy flower garden. 

Enough with the twisters, already!

We knew there was bad weather heading our way with a chance of tornadoes, so it was no surprise when the tornado sirens woke us at 2:30am the other day.  We got the kids out of bed and all piled into "the hideaway" -- which is usually the kids' playroom under the stairs, but also happens to be one of the safest places in the house without a basement. We stayed there the rest of the night and although the kids woke up rested and happy...mommy & daddy were less well rested.  Now that we've done that once, we have a better plan to be safer and more comfortable the next time we need to duck & cover. Who knew there were so many twisters in AL!?

Atlanta stop #3 -- World of Coca Cola

Our last stop in Atlanta was the World of Coke.  Although they had some cool coke memorabilia, the museum was very busy, and not very interesting to the kids.  They did love meeting the polar bear, playing in the Christmas displays, and testing out Coke products from around the world in the tasting room (Africa was everyone's favorite!).

Atlanta stop #2...Georgia Aquarium

We took the exhausted troops back to our hotel on Emory University's campus, dragged them back out to dinner for sushi & thai food, stopped at a few comic book stores for Adam's latest collecting obsession, and finally headed back to the hotel for a drink in lobby while the monkeys ran around and exhausted themselves again.  We "slept in" until 7:30 (which drove Daddy NUTS) and headed out to the aquarium. Luckily, we got there early -- it was one of the busiest days of the year there.  The kids seemed to love the beluga whales the most, but the walk-through glass tunnel in the giant tank is always a hit (sharks, manta rays, giant grouper, and whale sharks glide right over your head!).  Savannah was into all of the touching exhibits, but Gage was a chicken!  He finally agreed to touch a ray and after rolling up his sleeve and getting him in position, he screamed and jumped away before the little ray could even get near him :-)

Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, GA

We took a mini vacation to Atlanta and the dinos were our first stop!  There weren't many dinosaurs (compared to Carnegie in Pittsburgh, or Chicago), but we loved the Sensing Nature exhibit (that was very science-museum-ish) and the giant kids play area upstairs.