Bama swim school

This year.....BOTH of the kiddos are taking lessons. Last year we took them at a swim school that I wasn't completely happy with. This year I found that the university has a swim school, and Gage & Savannah could BOTH take lessons at the same time (and save a trip).  The first day they did a swim assessment, and about 5 minutes in they moved Savannah up to the bigger kids' class.  Gage was 1-on-1 with a teacher, and both of then had a blast. As I wondered to myself "Is it too early for Gage to be taking swim lessons...I saw 2 boys about 8-9 years old....and immediately felt glad that his is learning now.  I want these kids to be darn good swimmers -- not only for safety, but because if they love it, its an exercise that that will carry them through life. So far, we are loving Bama Swim School!

Gage at preschool

After telling Mommy that he just wanted to stay home with Mommy and did not want to go back to school this year....the day of school he was EXCITED!  He decided that he had to have a Spiderman backpack this year, so we took his sleeping back out of one (it is its carrying case) and decided to use that. We dropped Savannah off at school and he was SUPER excited to go to preschool, but I said that we were stopping home first to do some chores and get his backpack. wrong.thing.to.say.

Gage: You forgot my backpack? WAAAAAAAA...I WANMYBACKPACK...BACKPACKWAAA!
Mommy: Dude, it's okay, we'll be home in 5 minutes and we'll get it.
Gage: I WANT IT NOWWWWWWWW WAAAAAA

And then, we got home, he snagged his backpack and he got back in the car because he wanted to go to school N-O-W.  So, as any good mommy would, I closed the garage door and left him in the car with the door open to pout while I did some laundry and got ready for the gym. 

We got to school and were very excited to meet his new teachers, but it turns out we know them from last year! So, we hung out in his classroom for a while and then I opened his backpack to give his teachers the bag of extra clothes to leave at school (just in case) and hmmm...they were not in there, but, guess what was....a giant Captain America toy and a handful of random Super Hero Squad guys. He confirmed that he took the clothes out, he said "they at home, Mommy".  He had a great day, and Mommy is just a LITTLE happy (okay, I am ecstatic....bwahahahaha) to have BOTH kids at school for 3 hours, 3 days a week! :-)

Our big kindergartener!

My how time flies, Savannah is in Kindergarten!!!   She said she was a little nervous until we went to see her classroom and meet her teacher. But, then she was just excited, so she said....  we have been getting ready with a new backpack, a lunch box, etc. Mommy and Gage walked her into her class on the first day but were not supposed to stay long.  Mrs. Floyd gave her a big hug and got her settled putting her things away and getting into their routine.  Although she looked brave heading into school, when I was about to leave and gave her a kiss, there was definitely a little fear in her eyes. But, she had a good first day...and first week. She had 3 kids in her class that she already knew from swimming or preschool and that made her feel good. Mommy is making her healthly cute little lunches that she seems to love -- meatball and cheese on popsicle sticks, grape tomatoes and olives on popsicle sticks, melon cut into flower and cloud shapes. And..maybe a little stash of skittles for a treat...or some mint oreo cookies that she loves. The house has been hectic getting everyone ready. We need papers signed every day for teacher, lunches made, snacks made, backpacks packed up, and everyone is out the door by 7:15 these days. Phew...good thing that she WANTED an alarm clock -- that seems to have made wake up easier for our girl who was getting used to sleeping in until 8 or 9 in the summer!  She even started having homework, and can you believe this...she is BEGGING for more homework. I keep having to go print out more worksheets to do, and she's doing FAR more than she is assigned. Smarty pants :-)

two little monkeys jumping on the bed...

.....one smashes his face into the footboard...and this is what you get....a bloody nose. Poor boy, it must have really hurt, all he wanted was snuggles and a cold cloth, and then he got upset that he "wasn't a big boy anymore", and Mommy had to explain that even big boys cry when they get booboos.

The BOX...the best part

Sorry that we have been lazy in our blog upkeep lately.  It took us a while to get back into a routine.   We accumulated WAY too much stuff at Grammy's house this summer, so cousin June was nice enough to box it all up for us and ship it to us.  Hmm...turns out that we didn't have her box up enough because we were 10 lbs over the weight limit at the airport, so we unloaded another bag of stuff for Grammy to ship to us so we didn't have to pay the $75 fee!  The stuff in the box was fun, but the most fun was playing in the box (naked , or course) and hiding super heroes in the peanuts. Good times...

Sneaking one last beach trip in....

In AL we are 4-5 hours from the beach, but in CT we are 1 hour from the beach. That seemed like a perfect reason to head to the beach yet again for one last trip! This time it was Hammonassett State Park in Madison, and I will say -- it is my favorite beach in CT so far.  It is the place we always went to as kids. We head way to the end at Meig's Point, where the shady pavilion, bathrooms, and snackbar are all within easy reach, and the beach is wide, sandy, and clean. Although the kids were sad there were NO waves that day, Mommy was happy because it makes me less likely to lose a kid ;-)  We dug a giant hole, gobbled up a few popsicles, threw rocks in the water, chased seagulls, found some shells, and played in the mountain of shells that wash up right by the rock jetty.  Okay, all mommy did was dig a hole and eat a popsicle ;-)

Sunflower maze at Lyman Orchard

Driving along, we saw a sign for a sunflower maze and swerved in to check it out. That place - Lynman Orchards -- they have it all figured out. A sunflower maze in the summer, corn maze in fall. Pick your own berries, apples peaches pumpkins. A huge farm market. A golf center, and they turned the old homestead into a conference center. I imagine they are bringing in more money than they ever would by farming alone. The maze was hot (although sitting here in ALI laugh at myself -- it was not hot by AL standards, but by CT standards, it was a hot day) and Gage got cranky because he doesn't like to be hot. Savannah was in charge of the map but the map was useless. The map showed all the twists and turns, but unless you traced your route with a pen, you could not tell where you were once inside - they had no markers. But...we made it out alive, and just a little sweaty & cranky.  It was really beautiful -- a big field of flowers nested up amid the orchards on top of the hill. Gorgeous :-)

CT Science Center , where things got a little hairy ;-)

It took us until the last week to finally get together with my friend Carmela & her daughter! There were throngs of kids there -- camps. Ugh. Not as leisurely a trip as our last time there. But, fun anyway.  THe kids loved playing with the static ball, but Gage...well, his short hair made for a dull - and hardly picture-worthy -- experience.

The Hollow Park with our cousins

We headed over to Longmeadow Pond with Matthew & Ryan one day, but they got bored with the playground there quickly and wanted to head to the Hollow with its giant playsets. I guess that is a sign of things to come for me -- mine are still happy with a few swings & slides!! So, we set off down the road to the Hollow, where we did some swinging and sliding and basketball AND Jennie showed us that if we walk down a path we can get to the river where she takes the boys fishing. So, the kids happily threw sticks in the water to make "boats", and -- of course -- we threw rocks into the water. Gage was a little tuckered out on the way back and talked mommy into a piggy back ride.

Grave rubbings

In school, we would sometimes go "grave rubbing" for a field trip and rub crayons over paper laid over graves to get an impression of the text.  I seem to think this is "normal" (so does my grandmother, who happily supplied us with a big roll of paper to use and later called to see how our rubbings came out.  Others seem to think this is very creepy (Adam and Jennie, to name two).  Creepy of not, we went out behind Gram Rooney's church and found some old graves (1700s /1800s).  After we finished up, we played "monster hide & seek" -- Savannah would hide and pop out making monster faces (see below), while Gage would pop out and shoot spiderwebs at me (typical for him). So...creepy, or no, we had fun :-)

Sandy Beach on Lake Quassapaug

It took us a while to get there with our cousins Jennie, Ryan, and Matthew...but we made it!  It was par for the course there -- the kids played in the sand and lake, joined a game of wiffle ball, caught some minnows and crayfish, tried to climb a few poles, ate ice cream & candy, and we ran into some people I haven't seen in ages. It was a beautiful day :-)

 

Matthew is the master of catching fishies in the lake -- Gage is learning from the best!

 And, Gage is working on his impression of Aquaman -- or bug eye man. Either way, thanks to cousin Ryan for letting us borrow your goggles :-)

Kent Falls

We took a ride into the Litchfield Hills of Northwestern Ct and stopped by Kent Falls park. Although Grammy couldn't make it up the trail because she is stuck in a boot again for her foot problems, we went about halfway up.

 

 

We also took a ride through the Cornwall covered bridge that runs over the Housatonic River.  The kids said "HEY...Scooby Doo went through a bridge like this when they went to visit Shaggy's uncle." And yes, they were correct!!

Happy 3rd birthday to Gage!

We celebrated Gage's birthday on Sunday along with Elizabeth, who turns 4 in two weeks.  Gage had spiderman cupcakes, and did a great job blowing out his candles (he wished that Stash & Zoe would come back -- our 2 kitties that have run away since moving to AL).  I love how he does "3" on his fingers -- he holds his ring finger down, and worked very hard to master that :-)  We couldn't believe that after desperately wanting spiderman (miderman) cupcakes, he only took one lick of the frosting. He beelined it over to the presents to get into the good stuff!

At 3, Gage is becoming a very big boy. He is talking a lot now  -- it seemed like he didn't say a word for 3 years and suddenly started speaking in sentences. He LOVES superheroes and the ONE thing he wanted for his birthday was Spiderman Legos. He got spiderman legos, but it turns out he is most interested in his Batman batcave trio blocks from Gram Rooney. He also got a few new super hero squad guys that he loves and carries with him everywhere now. Gage is a sweet sweet boy who doles out lots of hugs & kisses. Lately, I love when he tells me "I wub you mama,  I no throw you in the garbage."  Translation - I love you Mommy, and I won't throw you in the garbage".  No idea where he got that one, but to him, it is a way of saying her really really loves me. Funny.

Hanging out on Grammy's front porch

 

 

A trip to Grandma & Grandpa Rapp's in PA

We headed west to Oil City, PA to visit Adam's parents last week. It's a long drive (7+ hours), so we broke up the drive and stayed in a hotel in Wilkes Barre each way.  The kids love to stay in hotels, and I always let them jump on the bed when we get to our room.  Our first night in the hotel we went our for sushi and noodles, where the kiddos loved watching the hibachi "show" with the chefs throwing food in people's mouths. Gage also managed to dump lemonade into my purse and ruin my camera :-(

 

But, we made it to PA and Grandpa somehow found a kid sized bow for Savannah. Since seeing Brave, she has wanted to shoot a bow. He also cut down a few arrows for her, showed her how to shoot, and pulled out a deer decoy for target practice.

 We spent a lot of time driving the golf cart around the yard...

 And, posed for pictures while shooting all of grandpa's "stuffed animals" that he has in the living room -- coyote, bears, peasants, deer, etc.

 It was a great visit, and so nice to see the Grandparents Rapp!  We snapped this great shot just before we hit the road to leave....

A berry good day

I have to say, we still miss Happy Berry Farm in SC -- well, at least *I* do.  There was something special about that place that I can't put my finger on.  But, while in CT we tagged along with Great Gram to pick berries early one morning at Evergreen Farm in Watertown.  The kids picked out their buckets according to the string color (Savannah = purple, Gage = green), and off we went. Picking is serious business for Gram - she is like the energizer bunny of picking. The kids and I nibble, pick a little, wander from bush to bush. The kids decided they were hungry, so we had to spread out a blanket between the rows and have a picnic of chocolate milk and biscuits.  We managed to pick a few pounds of berries and then sneak over to the raspberry bushes. Yum....

 

Another children's museum off the list

A day we had planned to go to the beach turned out blah & rainy.  We were going to just hang out in the house, until Savannah and Gage started fighting with each other and driving Mommy crazy enough that she decided we HAD to get out of the house and do something. So, off the the West Hartford children's museum. This one was a bit of a dud as kid's museums go, but hey...it kept them occupied for a few hours on a cloudy & drizzly day. Gage would not pose for a picture with this dino at the entrance because he was worried they were real "that real, mama?" he asked 10 times...

We checked out the animals when suddenly, I almost pooped myself when a man suddenly appeared holding a snake about a foot away from me. I knew there was an "animal encounter", but I wasn't expecting to have a python walking by and I am NOT a fan of snakes. The kids sat nicely while Mr. Snaketamer talked about snakes. When it came time to pet the snake, Savannah was all for it, Gage touched it with a finger, and Mommy just politely declined and moved further toward the wall to get away.

We learned about -- and acted like -- chimps in the chimpanzee exhibit and were VERY disappointed when we went to make a chimpanzee mask craft and they informed us they ran out of material :-(

We also made a dinosaur. They have a bunch of "spare parts" with velcro that you can attach to a dino body. I got my first clue that Gage was tired when we walked away from this and Gage suddenly freaked out that a little girl took our dino's head off. He was trying to wrestle it away from her saying "put that back...put that back".  He then proceeded the throw himself on the floor and cry/scream because I told him it was another person's turn to make a dino. At that point we had seen it all, and I carried him out of the museum over my shoulder while he screamed and cried.

I thought visiting the giant whale would console him....I was wrong. He sat on the sidewalk throwing a tantrum.  Savannah sat in the whale's mouth and got sprinkled with his spout. At that point Gage decided he wanted to get sprinkled and of course...we stood there waiting for for the whale to spout again. Gage was crying that he wanted to get sprinkled and of course...it seemed take that stupid whale an eternity to spout again. It finally did, and the kids spent all of 30 seconds dancing in the sprinkles. During that time, they -- of course -- ended up covered in mud. So, West Hartford children's museum -- been there, done that.

Lunch at the beach with Great Grandma

We TRY to make a trip to Jimmies in Savin Rock to have a giant pile of fries shrimp every time we are in CT.  This year, Grammy couldn't make it but Grandma Rooney could.  She has been going to Jimmies since it was a little hotdog stand at the beach many many years ago. We did a little sea shell hunting before lunch and then saved all of our extra french fries to throw to the seagulls.  Savannah didn't seem very interested in throwing french fries until the gulls started swarming us -- thennnn, she thought it was pretty cool and ran around trying to catch them all.  Gage just sat in the car watching and screaming because he thought we were throwing HIS leftover fries to the birds.

Pickin' & Fiddling Contest

We spent a sunny Saturday at the 38th annual pickin & fiddlin contest in Roxbury, CT.  The weather was hot, the kids were cranky, mommy was cranky, but it was still nice to hear some good ol' fiddlin'! The kids played on the big playset (at lot) and left Grammy to fend for herself in the shade. She was probably glad to have a moment of peace -- I know I would have been ;-) Grammy said the last time she was there was when I was 4 or 5 years old!!!