just swinging

the weather has been beautiful lately, perfect for swinging, both with clothes and without ;-)

"the spot" for hide & seek lately

It's never hard to find them == mainly because they giggle like crazy as soon as you say "ready or not, here I come", but this is the kids' favorite spot for hiding lately. They will hide in there for a half hour, as long as I keep closing the door and saying "hmm...i wonder where they are" and then opening the door and acting surprised.  They are easy to amuse...sometimes :-)

Kicking it in the hot tub!

The kids loved having grapefruit & pomegranate juice in "fancy glasses"  by the hottub!

Savannah and the beanstalk

We planted a garden last week, so Mommy thought it would be a good idea to watch some seeds grow so the kids could see what is going on in the garden under the soil. We "planted" some bean seeds in a jar with wet papertowels and have watched the seedlings emerge.  Savannah has been VERY excited to watch their progress.  And...very excited that some of our seeds are sprouting in our garden!!

Our very own hot tub time machine

After wanting a hot tub for years, Adam bought a used one and we built a deck around it. Adam stepped up his game on the deck and built benches around 2 sides. Very nice! Still a few details to work on, but the deck is largely done!!  Why are we so crazy about adding deck space to our houses?!?!

Meet Gage's new buddy...Harry :-)

At school, the kids spent a week learning about farming and crops.  On Friday, Gage came home with a cup full of dirt with a face painted on it and "harry" on the back.  We watered Harry and left him in a sunny spot, and look....Harry grew into his name!  Gage is very excited (he even gave Harry a snuggle while I was taking picture) about planting Harry and getting to watch him grow :-)

Spring break adventure...a day at the zoo

The kids are off for spring break, so our big adventure for the week was to the zoo with Savannah's friend and her  mom.  We had a great time, and our favorite part of the day was feeding the beautiful lorikeets.  Everyone had birds land on their heads and sit on their shoulder/arms to drink nectar from little cups.  The birds get a little excited (understatement!!) and bit both kids, but the fun of feeding them outweighed the nips. We were also excited to see five lion cubs!  A little bummed out that the zoo was out of food for the flamingos (Gage was excited to try and feed them this time as he chickened out last time), but that will give us something to look forward to next time.

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!