Monkey business

We always stop at the zoo while in Gulf Shores, and were excited to do the Lemur animal encounter this time!!  We got to spend about a half hour with four 7 month old lemurs. They were crazy. They were swinging from ropes, jumping across the enclosure, and....they sat on our heads :-) 

 which was pretty fun, as you can see :-) . I hope Savannah will remember this, these animal encounters are such amazing, fun, and silly experiences!

We were warned to watch out if the lemurs got up in the rafters, because they tend to poop while up there. Well, Adam learned that first hand. He got pooped on!!!!  His head, neck, arm, leg --- covered!  The culprit is inspecting the poop stains here :-) We told Adam it was good luck, but he didn't really buy it!

 These guys were so soft it was incredible, and so playful.  I know Gage will probably not remember this, but he sure did enjoy it!

Good morning, beautiful beach!

We started our morning by bolting out to the beach to check for seashells.

 ...and we found a little tiny crab. We LOVE these little guys, especially because they don't pinch!

 Gage saw a flock of seagulls and took off running to try and catch a bird.

 he came back looking a little sad...don't let those birds get the best of you, buddy!

Ahh...the beach...we needed this

It has been a stressful couple of weeks around the Rapp household, so our beach weekend could not have come at a better time for us. We went to Gulf Shores again, but one of these days we need to try someplace else  (like Rosemary Beach, Destin, FL, etc.) as they are just a little further down the road.  We took Savannah out of school at lunchtime and hit the road. The minute we checked into the hotel (which Savannah told us smelled like "crab poop", and I have to agree with her), we hit the beach.

are you ready for some foooottballlll?

Saturday used to be "a rugby day" -- well, this week it was a football day.  There was a lot of running, falling, tackling, crying, laughing, and sweating!

after about 20 tackles I told Savannah to cool it.  She went off pouting. Gage started moping. He wanted MORE tackles. So, everyone got back in the action tackling...  and everyone was happy! Gage got so hot & sweaty that he came to me and told me he had a fever :-)

Riding the school bus

Before school started, Savannah decided that she wanted me to drive her to school rather than ride the school bus.  I agreed, because (a) she seems so little to be sending off on the school bus, and (b) her school is only a few miles away, so I figured dropping and picking her up would be easy.  I was wrong. There are 3 school zones in the 4 miles to school, and traffic is terrible. So it takes me 30 minutes to drive 4 miles. Two weeks ago she started telling me that she wants to ride the school bus.  The school is only K-2, so there are no "big" kids to worry about bullying the little kids. Also, her bus ride takes about 10-15 minutes. So, we signed her up for the bus. Daddy was home that first morning, so the whole family walked her to the bus stop. She was VERY excited about walking to the bus.

 and waiting at the bus stop (which is just on the otherside of our neighbor's house)...we worked on her remembering her bus #, which we made a rhyme for "118 don't be late"....

 ...and she was jumping up and down as the bus came over the hill.  Her bus drive (Mr. Tom) introduced himself and she climbed on. But, I have to say, she looked a little uncertain as she started walking down the aisle. The bus looked much more full than it does in the afternoon (when we see it drive by us as we wait in the pick-up lane at school).  So, I was curious to find out if she was happy about this bus riding decision or not....

...that afternoon when we asked how it was, she replied "I LOVE THE BUS!". She said she made a new friend already, she sat with a little girl who said "Hi Savannah", so she seemed so excited that the girl knew her name.  She also told me the most fun part is that the bus bumps along so she bounces on her seat with no seatbelt and she "even hit her head on the seat in front of her".  Exciting stuff!  So, now she is thrilled that she is a bus rider. Mommy is excited that I don't have to leave the house at 2:15 to pick her up at 2:45, and that I don't have to sit in that traffic every morning from 7:15 - 8:00!!  Instead, Gage & I just stroll down to the bus stop. He smooshes ants and throws rocks down the drain. It's only a matter of time before he loses a toy (like Lightening McQueen) down that drain adn it's gone FOREVER..mark my words.....

Gage taking gymnastics

We know that Savannah loves gymnastics. Well, Gage is usually a little wiggle bug sitting on the bleachers (who am I kidding -- he's walking on them, hiding under them, jumping off of them, begging me for my phone to play with, running around like a nut, etc). while his sister does her class. This year, I decided that he could try it to. Well, the first week he would not go in alone. I finally went in with him but he hung on my leg and said he would try again when he was a bigger boy. We even left class and went to Dollar General next door for a minute, where he saw a spiderman toothbrush he wanted. I agreed to buy it if he agreed to go in and give gymnastics a try. He agreed. I bought. Don't judge my parenting approach - it was $1. The little stinker went back inside the gym, took off his shoes, went out to the boys class, jumped across the trampoline once, and then told his teacher to bring him back to Mommy. When he got to me, he said that he did gymnastics and now he wanted his toothbrush.  Gage 1. Mommy 0.

The second week, he did it!!  He just walked into class and had a blast. He jumped around like he was spiderman, did the rings, the parallel bars, the trampoline, etc. You can't really tell by the picture, but this is Gage bouncing across the trampoline.

McWane Science Center

On what was supposed to be a rainy Sunday in Alabama while Daddy was away in NH for a wedding, Mommy decided that we needed a little adventure. So...off we went to the McWane Science Center in Birmingham!  I thought there would be no one there on a Sunday at noon when they open, but boy...was I WRONG!  It turns out they have a special Dora & Diego exhibit for a few weeks, and they were going to be there TODAY. So, it was crowded today, but a great place. We stood in line to meet Dora & Diego (apparently we are just warming up for a trip to Disney this Halloween!)....

Although Savannah is our budding paleontologist, it was Gage who LOVED the dino dig. He made friends with this little guy, and they went to town. At one point, the little boy fell down and Gage gave him his hand and pulled him back up - such a good little man.

 We had tons of fun playing with giant foam blocks. Savannah made a road, balanced some blocks on her head, and then Gage made a big tower that he of course plowed over...

We also saw some slithery things. First Gage found a ball python, and this is the closest he got to it. Savannah ran over and petted it with no fear. We also found an iguana, a bearded dragon lizard (who was so cute it was unbelievable), and a boa constrictor. Gage was not interested in petting any of those either. After I tried to persuade him to pet the iguana, he pouted and moped, saying "I not very brave" :-(

we smooshed our faces into these cool straw things (that is Gage's face & hands)...

we stood inside a tornado

and we played with all kinds of light things -- lasers, a disco floor, shadow walls, etc.

And that doesn't even begin to show what we did. There were so many exhibits -- we spent 3.5 hours there and could have spent at least 3 more. We have lots of things to try out next time we visit.  

Oh...but brave Gage DID have a milestone--- he pet a shark in the shark & ray tank.  He has tried to do that in Mystic, Atlanta, etc. and has always been afraid, But....this time...he did it!!

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 :-)