bird feeders

I've already heard "I'm bored" more times than I would like to admit.  But, I have a list of fun crafts, activities, etc. for us to do this summer. The first one we tackled was making our old favorites -- bird feeders. Pine cones & toilet paper rolls, peanut butter and bird food.  The birdies love them.  Savannah usually eats bird food, but really, how bad can it be for her -- she also still nibbles dry cat food now and then when she thinks I'm not looking.

 Gage was proud of his tp feeder. This time we stepped up our game and punched holes at the bottom, and fed sticks through the feeder so the birdies have a little perch. We believe in Lowes' logo -- never stop improving :-)

Savannah scoped out some good spots to hang our feeders ---- right next to our pine tree that fell down.  Speaking of the pine tree -- that is where we always got the pine cones for our birdfeeders!!  Luckily I had a bag of them upstairs in our craft bin.  We had a few left in our craft bin, but we need to go find a new pine tree!! I'll miss having one in our front yard -- very convenient for craft making. We make pine cones into everything -- ghosts, bats, pumpkins, Xmas trees, etc.

school's out

Gage and I stopped by Mary's Cakes to buy gift certificates for his and Savannah's teachers as an end-of-the year thank you gift.  We did not know that they give out free cookies to kids! Gage picked out a frosted fish cookie, and then we sat in the shady courtyard to eat it up. And yes, he is still wearing his pj's - some fights are just not worth fighting :-)

 The next day was Savannah's last day. It's hard to believe that she is finished with Kindergarten. Her hair is all grown out, she is reading books, and doing math that seems far too advanced for her age.

 she's also just a regular silly girl

 While she was at school, I made crazy cupcakes that I loaded up with all kinds of random candy we have left from Easter.

 And... I filled a bucket with water balloons!!!   We went in the backyard and had a water balloon fight :-)

 

We have to get out and enjoy these "mild" 90 degree days while we can -- before we know it, it will be 105 and dripping humidity. Hopefully when that weather hits, Mommy & the kids head north!

bananas

Did you know that if you "write" on a banana, when it ripens, whatever you wrote turns brown?  Well...last week we woke up to find that our bananas said "eat me"  and the kids thought it was awesome. The figured that our elf on the shelf must have popped back in for a mischievous visit to do it.  However it happened, everyone wanted to eat bananas for breakfast that day!  Now...if only I could find a way to write on spinach, tomatoes, lettuce...

 

ribbit

The froggy towel used to be Gage's favorite, but then he got a Spiderman towel for Xmas.  I miss the froggy towel, and recently I got him to give in and use it again.  I had to snap a picture because it was one of those rare moments that my big boy actually looked "little"!

 

one last gymnastics playtime

We decided to squeeze in one more gymnastics playtime before summer -- once Savannah is out of school she will be with us and we won't be able to go - it's only for kids 4 and under and I don't think it's fair for Savannah to sit out and watch. He had fun as usual

go fly a kite

One windy day, we decided to take our kites for a spin.  Gage finally had the hang of it, and  flew it down to the empty building lot. Savannah was wrestling with hers because the cross support would not stay in, but she was determined to fly that Barblie kite.

She finally got it working, but after it fell apart ten times, we had to go get a different one from the garage.  Once we got the new one, she had it going really high!

Gage was working it and realized that he could make it do dips if he swung his arm up and down. 

When we finally got bored of kites, Gage found a "wish flower" and tried hard to make some wishes fly away. But, these are not dandelions, they are a weed that looks like dandelions, and let me tell you...they are not as delicate.  You need to REALLY blow hard to get these wishes to fly away. He finally gave up and asked me to blow his wishes for him.  You have to work hard for wishes in Alabama -- especially when Daddy keeps the grass so nice that dandelions don't grow in it and we have to resort to these tough weeds!

 

cardboard boxes

Whenever a cardboard box enters my house, I have to race to get it into the garage, break it down, and hide it behind the trash can.  If Gage sees it, it ends up being converted into a race car covered in stickers and crayon. That's all fine and fun, but then he wants to keep it for weeks.  He cries when it's time to get rid of it. If Savannah sees it, she turns it into a cat fort.  She sews pillows for them, adds dangly toys, feathers, etc. Usually the cats ignore them, but this time, Lola loves it. It's been here for weeks. And there's more -- bigger ones -- that I've put in her room because I'm tired of them being in the way. 

 

iron man

After consulting with a bunch of friends with young kids who took their kids to see the new Iron Man movie, we decided that we could take the kids, despite it being PG13.  The verdict was that as long as they had seen the other super hero movies they would be fine - no language, nothing gory. Gage was a LITTLE excited...And yes, he went into theater dressed like this.

Welll......Savannah did fine, and we covered her eyes in a few spots that looked like they could be dicey.  It got too scary for Gage (and he was scared of parts that didn't seem that scary -- I think part of it is that it's SO loud in there that the noise scares him).  So, we were "those" parents that day, taking their kids to a movie they (at least Gage) probably should not have seen -- we should have waited until it was on DVD when we could fast forward through any scary parts. Sorry, buddy!

Holy jeep makeover

Yesterday the kids and I were in Adam's building - they were playing on the tractor, and we started talking about painting his old jeep. We started talking about painting it like a superhero. This morning they wanted to know if today was the day to paint the jeep. It's Sunday and we have nothing going on, so why not!?! They decide it should be a Batman jeep. We got the shop vac out to suck up the cobwebs, and went to town cleaning it up first. Then, we were off to Home Depot to buy the spray paint for plastic, but they don't carry it?!? Odd. Okay, off to Walmart. On the way out we see glow in the dark Batman duct tape. Gage goes crazy. We buy it.

Walmart is a nightmare - it's now 11:30 on Sunday and everyone is out shopping after church. Lines are ridiculous.  Outside, Savannah is whining because she's melting it's so hot (it is humid today and almost 90), and I remind her that this is not "hot" for Alabama - just wait a month, girlie.  As I'm loading the car up, Savannah tells me that the Batman duct tape rolled out of the car (Gage explains that she was balancing it on her head and it fell out the door). So, I look under the car, the car next to us, the car next to that. Nothing.I look in the next aisle over. A Dad and daughter ask if I lost something -- they join us in the hunt for the batman tape. Gone. Other people help - we have six people looking for batman tape. Nothing. Can't find it. Gage is sad. Wants to go back into Walmart to buy more. Sorry, buddy, no way I'm going back in there.  

Next step -- prep work - plastic and lots of painters tape. Savannah was key in helping and surprisingly handy with the tape! And the finished product....the BATMOBILE!

Gage loves it!

eye surgery

Today was Savannah's surgery to tighten up the muscle above her eye that had too much slack in it to control the vertical movement of her left eye.  She got to ride in the front seat today because she gets carsick, but could not take Dramamine before surgery! We made it to the hospital -- an hour away -- without throwing up. Phew. I was worried. 

We had an early start to get to Children's Hospital by 7am, and they got her into her room and prepped really fast.  The nurses were amazing and she was feeling good.

 And then, another nurse popped into her room with some presents -- a new candyland game, coloring book, and crayons. She was REALLY feeling good then...

 So, she was taken into surgery at about 9:15. I could walk her to the OR door but no further, so I went back to her room to wait.  About an hour later her surgeon came in and said everything went great, and that she was in recovery, still zonked out.  She said that the incision location was perfect, so they did not even have to put a stitch in the incision, which will help her eye be less irritated. 

When she was brought back in, she was awake but groggy and feeling a little weepy and "weird" (they gave her a narcotic).  But, she came out of it pretty quickly, had some apple juice, and starting coming around. The nurse promised to bring her a popsicle, which perked her up.  Her eye was a little swollen and dilated -- we were joking that she looked like Smidge when she gets "crazy eyes" (Smidge's pupils blow out when she's feeling playful). 

She gobbled up her popsicle, the nurse checked her vitals, and soon it was time to get dressed and head home.

 When we got home, she had a giant lunch of Subway and was ready to get started on her new set of Legos (which I thought would occupy her after surgery).  Being Ms. Taskmaster (like her Daddy, she CANNOT leave a task unfinished), she wanted to finish the whole thing.  After a while, her eye was getting sore (Motrin wearing off) and I had to pry her away to rest on the couch and watch Scooby Doo for a while.  But, another dose of Tylenol and she is doing great again. 

So, all in all, today went great.

art party

Savannah was invited to her friend Holly Beth's (yes, yet another "double" southern girl name!!!) birthday party at an art studio.  

First of all, she was distraught because the smocks were all "yucky"  because they had paint stains on them. After I convinced her that that's what painting smocks look like, she found the one smock with the LEAST amount of paint on it and decided that she could make it work. 

She was VERY focused on her painting...

...and she ended up with a cute turtle that we will hang up in her room. 

The fact that she ended up with an orange and purple turtle (Clemson!) when everyone else was painting crimson turtles -- one of which even had an Alabama "A" on it -- made me smile. Clemson definitely got under our skin while we lived there!

bye bye butterflies...

After watching these little beauties for the week, we decided today was the day to let them go. 

 Savannah took charge of the whole process.  Although last time we did this, the butterflies did not seem to want to leave Savannah's hand, this time they practically flew out of the habitat on their own.  We did have a few that stopped to pose with the kids, though :-)

 

Luckily, Savannah kept her knees closed for her picture. Apparently, she had no undies on during our butterfly release.  A few minutes after I took this picture Adam said "Savannah, you have a job to do", and she said "ok, hold on a minute, I need to get some underpants"

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 ;-)