soldier things

We drive by this Veteran's park constantly, but never stop. Today, Gage and I decided to check everything out.  He thought everything was there courtesy of Captain America :-)  He was terrified of this jeep because it was stripped of its seats and the floorboards were rocking when he stood on them!

 He thought this granite sign was a "secret book" that we found and other people can't read -- only us!

 And, he LOVED the "rockets" underneath the fighter jet.

The goal for the summer is to take time to smell the roses -- we're going to try to do all of the "stuff" here in Alabama that we haven't done yet.  I (of course) have started a list so we can check them off as we go :-)

hatching butterflies

We are hatching painted lady butterflies again this year and after days of watching those chrysalids, we saw our first butterflies hatch!! Actually, I walked in and saw their habitat on the floor and saw 3 butterflies inside. Smidge was nearby, so I wonder if she was involved in the habitat laying sideways on the floor?!?  May have to lock these butterflies in a safe room to keep them away form the cats! I seem to remember having this problem the last time we did this.

 Gage was super excited! 

 We yelled for Savannah to come in, and then we had to run (literally RUN) to the garden to pick some zinnias for them, cut up some oranges, and mix up some nectar. 

One more has hatched today, and we have loved watching them unfold their wings and stretch their legs, tongues, and antennae, and flap their wings for the first time. So amazing.  We have one more that we are still checking on.

zoo field trip

Yesterday was the day Savannah has been looking forward to for months -- her class field trip to the zoo!  She's been singing a song "we're going to the zoo zoo zoo..how about you you you...you can come too too too" for weeks!  Adam is out of town in DC (he was asked to be a keynote speaker at one of a big sales training company), so I got our babysitter to stay with Gage so I could go. 

Her teacher insisted we were staying together as a group (although none of the other teachers asked that parents stay together), which was chaotic and difficult to manage. Parents were losing kids, and if anyone stepped away to the restroom, they couldn't find us anymore. I noticed some parents mysteriously "vanishing" so we decided to pull our own vanishing act at the first chance we got.  So, we snuck off and hung out with just a few of her friends similarly rebellious parents ;-)

 Feeding the lorikeets was fun at first, until one of them bit savannah and she had a big 'dent' in her hand. So, the tears ensued.

 BUT...I distracted her by putting her in charge of the camera.She took some nice pictures, but she also took a picture of this bird's butt?!?! 

 One cool thing we did was explore the new dino exhibit.   They have a trail though wetlands that is now populated by animatronic dinosaurs!!!  They were moving and making noise...

 This little one was trying to bite her finger off ;-)

 she was actually a little scared of this big t-rex!

 and as we rounded the corner at the end, there was a sign that said "beware..spitting dinosaurs ahead".  She faced off with this guy...and waited...giggling...until...

 He got her!!!!! Of course that was HUGE fun. so we hung out so she could be sprayed over and over again for a while until she was soaked. 

It was long day, and since she was with all of her buddies...she was going nuts.  She was exhausted by the time we got home.  And so was Gage. I gave our babysitter our membership card for the kid's museum, so they spent the day there, went out for ice cream, etc. He was zonked too. They were both asleep before 8:00. And, since Adam wasn't home, I was also asleep by 8:30 ;-)

captain america

Adam's local comic book store is closing!  I won't even tell anyone how much stuff he bought at their 75% off sale. He promises he's going to see a lot of it on eBay.  Please, cross your fingers along with me!  He asked me to stop by there while he was shopping...and I think the reason is that he could not fit all his loot in his car!!!!  He had to fill mine up too! Oh, boy. The kids each picked a few things out (flintstones figures, transformers, etc.) and I asked if Adam could get the giant Captain America for Gage. For $7 we are the proud owners of Cap -- they were so excited when Adam brought him into the house!

Last night after bath time, we were all exhausted from a big day.  I really wanted to lay on the couch and read, but Gage asked me to "pees have a sword fight" - he was holding a violin bow and he handed me a pink recorder. "pretty pees". Okay, let's have a sword fight. So, we "fought" and I showed him how to defend himself by blocking my sword, but also how to "sneak in" and stab me in the belly (and I would collapse on the bed and pretend to be dead). It was one of those moments as a mom, that I was glad I gave in to play even though I really didn't "want" to.  We had fun!

 

After he stabbed me enough times, he turned on Captain America and pretended to battle it out with him.

He woke up in the morning and said "Mom, I wasn't even scared of Cap when I woke up this morning-- I KNEW it was him!!!"  He has scared the crap out of Savannah when she's walked in there, however.  It really does look like there's a guy standing in the room!

caterpillars

We are "hatching" butterflies again this year, are are now anxiously waiting for our painted lady caterpillars to hatch from their chrysalis. On a walk the other day we found this caterpillar, which Savannah wanted to put into our butterfly habitat and see what kind of butterfly he turned into. She got a little silly with him... Here he is crawling on her shoulder..

 and here...he's on her nose?!

 While we were walking, Gage got a blister on his foot, so I had to piggy back ride him home because he was whining up a storm. When we got back, miss great big sister told him that she'd make him feel better, so she set him up on the couch with some animals, a glass of water, some tissues (he was crying), and she propped his foot up on the ottoman. She was saying "is that better, buddy?"  He kept saying "thanks, ana" - as I've said before, so times they want to kill each other, but I think they love each other!

 When we got home, we did some research online and found out he was an eastern tent caterpillar.  Similar to a gypsy month up north, he makes those ugly white nests in trees.  Turns out, he doesn't become a beautiful butterfly, but a "boring brown moth", so Savannah decided we would not keep him. With a sniffle and a stray tear, she let him go outside.

campfire

Saturday was a busy day.  It was the "A-day game" here at the university, which is a spring scrimmage game that is open to the public for free.  We didn't go to the game, but we did go to an A-day cookout. Then, we went to a birthday party at a bouncy-house place where the kids went CRAZY for a few hours.  It was such a beautiful day I thought we should have a campfire and cook marshmallows out back.  I announced that this would be a great idea in front of the kids, which meant that Adam had NO choice but to go get a fire going. I'm not sure if he wanted to or not.  When I got out there, I saw that he only took 3 campchairs out (and he took them out of there back of my car where there were 2 adult chairs and 2 kid chairs!), so I take that as a hint that we was not all that thrilled about the campfire plan ;-)

 We didn't have big marshmallows, so we used peeps.  Moments after taking this picture I told Savannah I needed to check the peep and see if it was melty and she somehow swung it right into my hand. Well, it was definitely melty, and the scorching marshmallow got stuck all over my fingers and of course being sticky, couldn't come off. So, I ran screaming in the house to wash my burning hand off. I now have about 15 small blisters covering my fingers and slept with my hand on a bag of ice. Fun :-)

Gage was very cautious about the fire, but Savannah was gathering sticks and adding them to the fire.

Adam even taught her how to break a big stick in half using her knee for leverage. I love watching those small "life lessons" :-)

As with so many of those kid "moments", it turned out that everyone ended up tired and whining. They were cold, they were tired, there were bugs, they wanted to go inside. Ugh. So, in we went. Where, after their busy day, they crashed out cold in a matter of minutes, exhausted :-)

Face painting

Last weekend was beautiful weather, so we started off our Saturday by going to the farmer's market down at the riverwalk in Tuscaloosa.  We picked out some veggies, giant shrimp, and jalapeno jelly, and the kids tasted all of the homemade jellies that they could find. They also spotted the facepainting people, and I gave in. Savannah chose to be a fairly, and Gage (surprise) chose Wolverine.

After the farmer's market, we zipped over to the library to pick up some books. Gage chose a random bunch of superhero books, clifford the red dog, dinosaurs, tucans, and some random story books. Savannah can't be bothered with fiction, she says "I'm a nonfiction kind of girl". So, we loaded up on books about mummies, more mummies, Indians, the White House gardens, and more mummies. She's already planning next week's haul -- Indians and yoga.  Her haul from the school library this week included another book about the titanic and pompeii. She's something else!

Clowning around

Last week at Gage's preschool, they talked about occupations.  This week, they talked about the circus.  I think the funniest thing was a flyer that his teacher sent home that explained how there was such a nice transition between the two weeks, because they could talk about circus workers as a type of job. Hopefully Gage chooses another occupation than circus worker!  He is usually "resistant" to getting dressed up at school. If it doesn't involve dressing like a superhero, he is not interested. But, this time, I started hyping up the circus dress up day, and he said that he would dress as a clown.  This is the best we could do -- mismatched striped shirts, a spiderman hat, and a purple Clemson crazy hair wig. 

We tried to add one of daddy's ties, and a few other accessories, but he was not interested. So, I figured we would just go with it.  He was very worried that people would laugh at him, but I assured him that everyone would think he looked great, and if anyone laughed it was only because clowns are silly, not because they were laughing at HIM.  His teachers were very excited that he dressed up at ALL.  When I picked him up, he had  a certificate saying that he participated in the circus, and told me that he had a great day (that the day seemed to go by very fast), that he finished his painting of a circus tent for me even though he was really tired of holding the paintbrush because he "wanted to have something very special to give to his best mama," and that the best part of the day was making "popcorn" with the parachute.

Sister tortures brother

  I don't know how Savannah managed it, but she somehow managed to get a dress on her brother and stick him in the bathtub. He wasn't very happy about it :-) Ah...brothers and sisters...they love to torture each other.

My little girl is growing up...

Savannah is suddenly growing up into a big kid!  She gets home from school, grabs her ipod, and bolts outside to swing while she listens to music and sings - loudly!

You'll notice she has silver sandals on in both pictures. I picked these up for her a few weeks ago and she went nuts.  She LOVES them and tries to wear them every day.

smidge

My little Smidge is almost 7 years old already.  Everyone knows she is my baby. Well, over the past week both kids have come down with stomach bugs, so I have had a LOT of laundry to do and a lot of sheets to change. When I was changing Gage's sheets, she bolted into the room and wiggled her way under the sheets.  She then proceeded to go crazy. I don't know what it is about sheets being changed, but that simple thing can turn an old cat into a crazy kitten. I peeked under and she was sandwiched in there wiggling her behind before she attacked me!

jungle cart

Spring has sprung here in the south. Every day we wake up to a coating of yellow pollen. Thankfully no one is allergic to whatever is pollinating at the moment because we would be miserable. It looks like yellow snow. The mudwasps are going crazy trying to build nests on our deck, which makes Gage run inside screaming about scary stinging bugs. And....I have to plant, of course. I went to Home Depot to get pine needle straw (instead of mulch this year) and could not pass up some plants.  I told the kids that we were turning the cart into a jungle and they loved it -- making monkey and elephant sounds as we walked along.  People must think we are crazy, and we probably are.

goggle boy

During his swimming lessons, Gage is always trying to wear these super cheap Spiderman goggles that we got at the dollar store. They are pieces of crap and do not keep water out.  I decided that it was time for real goggles.  He loves them, and this picture makes me think of the one Jenni took at Sandy Beach last summer :-)

a boy and a vegetable

Gage does not like vegetables. I keep giving them to him, and every now and then he tastes one. He makes a disgusted face and says ick-yuck-bleck, or something to that effect. Well, the other day, the kids and I went to the movies to see the Crudes (which was GREAT, by the way!). Against my better judgment I agreed to go to the 4:55 showing, knowing that they had played outside like maniacs that day and would be exhausted.  As we drove home at 6:45 they were falling asleep, so we grabbed Chinese food so I could feed them quickly before they zonked out.  Well, Gage ATE BROCOLLI, and liked it. He actually said "hey...this is yummy...I never knew I liked brocolli".  Now, I suspect that the fact that it was smothered in delicious sauce made it taste better than it would have just plain steamed (as his sister likes it). But...hello...he ate a vegetable!

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny arrived early at Grammy's house, on Saturday (and then arrived at house on Sunday!).  The kids were wondering if would hide their baskets at Grammy's (like he does at home) and he did! Barney was not happy that no one was sharing their candy with him!

 Later that day, the family arrived for an early Easter dinner.   After dinner, everyone went outside for a wild and crazy egg hunt in the yard!

Then, it was time to go inside and sort through all their bunny booty!

 

 After everyone gobbled up some candy, the cousins all headed outside to visit the cows.  They boys took the lead. Gage loves hanging out with the big boys, Matthew & Ryan :-)

Everyone fed and watered the cows. Notice that Elizabeth is there with her hands over her ears. The entire time we were out there, she kept her hands that way...she was prepared in case Holly moo-d.  She gets scared with Holly moos! Holly never moo-d!

 

And then...we had to stop and play on the giant marshmallows :-) I love this picture!

Back inside, the kids were going crazy.  It sounded like a heard of buffalo upstairs as they ran and jumped around.  Grandpa Pauly kept enlisting various moms to go see what the heck they were doing. Every time we went up there, they told us we were not allowed -- no grown ups allowed. At some point they started doing an egg drop -- with the little kids upstairs dropping eggs down to Matthew to catch.

And then...horsey rides in the kitchen from Matthew!  He is so good with the little kids :-)

 

Lunch at Jimmie's

We had lunch one day at Jimmie's -- best friend shrimp ever!  Gram Rooney has been going there for 40 years, I imagine!  We always save our extra fries and take them out to feed the gulls. Gage got a little scared because they mob you as soon as they see you have food, but Savannah ran around like a nutcase chasing them, as happy as a clam :-)  We also found sea shells, which were stinky, and are now drying out at Grammy's house. No way they were getting near our suitcase as stinky as they were! Maybe there was a dead crab inside one of them or something!