pajama party at Gram Rooney's

One night we met Kristine & Elizabeth at Gram Rooney's house.  They played house and legos, dollhouse, made crafts, etc. When it was getting late, we put their jammies on, and they got silly when we said they were having a pajama party.   These are officially the FIRST and I'm sure LAST kids to jump off Gram's couch. I don't think she was very happy with me egging the kids on to do this! It's a miracle we haven't had to take Gage to the ER yet. THis is standard for him!

 

Grammy's house

We spent a day (oh -- who am I kidding, it was part of a day!) hanging out at Grammys house.  They stayed in their pjs for a while and snuggled in Grandpa's old chair...

 and we took a walk out to the cows.  Gage, of course, ate the bread that we brought to the cows

 They filled up the cow water.  Rosie is drinking there - that is the kids' favorite cow.

 They played on the "giant marshmallows" (round hay bales)

 And perhaps against my better judgment, I let them go under the half-stacked bale.!

They said hi to Al, who graces my parents' foyer.

 And we were excited to find pussy willows growing by the little pond.

 

Easter Bunny Fun

All in one day, we went to a breakfast with the Easter Bunny AND to a egg hunt!  First up was the breakfast with Gram Rooney and Grammy. While we waited for our pancakes, we got to meet EB! They also had their faces painted, entered some raffles,  and colored pictures.

 Next we were off to meet Elizabeth and Kristine for an egg hunt.  This was the kids running toward each other to give each other big hugs when they saw each other :-) 

 We got them all to stand together,but getting them all to look at the camera is near impossible!

 Elizabeth & Gage are ready for the hunt!

 Savannah and Gram Rooney are hiding behind a big pillar at the church trying to stay warm!

 They held the hunt for little kids inside the church where it was warmer. So...inside..it was an egg hunting frenzy. It lasted 5 minutes, but they had fun and gathered big baskets of goodie-filled eggs.

Sugar Shack

While in CT, we noticed all of the buckets hanging from the maple trees and decided to see if they sugar shack was cooking syrup. So, we drove to Ragland Sugar Shack in Southbury.  As you turn into their driveway, they have a sign out front that says "sugar shack - house not on fire"!  Gage fell asleep, so he stayed in the car with Grammy.  We got to go check out the shack, see how they cook the syrup, taste some fresh warm syrup, AND the owner took us to a tree to taste the sap (which is actually mostly water, that just tastes sweet) straight from a bucket on a tapped tree!

 

We - of course - bought some syrup to take home with us!

Heading to CT

Our flight was delayed a few times, but we finally ended up at the airport, where we were excited to find this play area in the renovated terminal!

 And...we met Grammy and Gram Rooney at the airport, where we took a picture with Flat Stanley who is the little paper guy that our cousins in WI sent to Gram Rooney for a school project.

Savannah's field trip

Before spring break, Savannah had a field trip to the Barnyard. I was able to go with her class.  We found this beautiful peacock showing off for his girlfriend,!

 Took a picture of Savannah's whole class :-)

She had a great time with her classmates

 She was able to hold, pet, and feed a lot of animals - chicks...

 shaggy miniature horses..

 baby ducks and bunnies

 she got to check for eggs, and found a bunch of eggs...and chicken poop!

And then we were surprised that her teacher let everyone sign out early, so we went to the nail salon! Her first time, but she loved it!

crazy storm

Today we had a severe thunderstorm warning, but it looked like it would hold off enough to get Savannah at the bus. So, as Gage and I stood at the bus stop watching the clouds in the distance, everything changed in an instant and suddenly we were running home and hiding in the hideaway and I peeked out the door for Savannah's bus.  Turns out, school kept them until 4:15 because the weather was terrible, but they did not text me until 3:05 (30 minutes after school lets out!!). So, Gage and I hunkered down and watched the mayham outside.  Her teacher called me after the automated school messages to let me know that they were all safe & happy in the classroom.

We had some serious straightline winds come through. Check out the cloud of red dirt that was blowing across the road!  You can click on the picture to make it bigger. I think I saw the wicked witch and some ruby slippers blow by with some leaves/debris/ shutters, etc!!!The picture does not do justice to the crazy wind that was going on today.

Gage hid in the hideaway, I watched the radar and listened to the weather radio -- fully expecting a tornado, which thankfully did not occur.   Turns out, we lost a tree (sadness).

Unfortunately, the tree took out the main line for our sprinkler system and water was spraying everywhere.  I called in my landscaper neighbor to help me turn the main water line off.  So, we are without water for the entire house until we get that hooked back up tomorrow. You can see the water line ran right through the tree roots.

Our swingset blew over...

shutters and screens blew off our house

our patio funiture was blown into a pile, and our table was blown OFF the deck! I found our umbrella in the yard, and our gas grill was blown into the middle of the deck!!

and...now I have a lot of cleanup to manage before we leave for CT. Adam is in Greece, and he's Skyping me every few minutes to check on us -- I think it's killing him to be so far away when all this happens.  

 

I think we have some friends lined up to help cut the tree up and clear it so it doesn't sit for 2 weeks before Adam gets home!

little of this superhero, little of that

Gage wanted to be a crazy mixed up superhero the other day, and this is how he turned out. Thor helmet, green lantern mask, iron man laser, captain america suit, hulk fist and cap shield. Oh...and there were spiderman gloves in the mix too.  Savannah declared that he looked AWESOME!

playtime and a picnic

We stopped taking gymnastics for a few reasons (tired girl after school, and their schedule changed to something we don't care for). But, they have a preschool playtime every week, and Gage and I stopped by for it this week. He had a blast swinging, balancing, bouncing, and playing.  And, he got four leaf clover stamps on his hands and feet at the end, so he was all jazzed to have such good luck :-)

 

 

After playtime, we went to Subway and then had a picnic lunch in the "Courtyard of Wonders".  Downtown Northport is a very cute (and very small) old-feeling "downtown" right near his school.  It's actually my favorite part of the area - it has an old-fashioned hardware store, a few cafes, antique stores (one of them that buys all of their stuff from the flea markets in Paris - I love to browse in there), and random shops. They have an art center next to this little courtyard, with a working blacksmith artist shop set in the back. The courtyard is full of random art (mosaic walls, bottle trees, rusty giant metal bugs, etc.).  Our favorite is this giant red dog that's on the top of the art gallery.  He may be my favorite thing in Tuscaloosa, actually.

 

 

green eggs & ham

A few weeks ago, Savannah's school had a green eggs & ham breakfast to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, but I forgot to post pictures...and I realized that all of the pictures I took of Savannah were on video mode (duh!), so all I have is Gage!  

 

 They served green eggs, ham (that looked disgusting), grits and biscuits with gravy (that thick white southern gravy).  Gage LOVED the gravy (he called it "dip) and happily dipped half of his biscuit in the gravy, while slathering jam on the other half.  Savannah actually ate the green eggs and the disgusting looking ham, although she won't eat eggs at home (maybe I should color my eggs green at home?), and I ate all of the grits because well, I love grits and they were slathered in butter.  

We left school just ask the principal was doing morning announcements, and reading a Dr. Seuss book over the PA.  As I listened to her Alabama accent, I was reminded again of how Savannah is surrounded by that accent all day at school, which is giving her a bit of a southern twang. Five = Faaahhhhhhhve, there = thayyyyyer.  I try to correct her and she says that she HEARS the "alabama talk" but it goes in her brain and gets stuck there,and when she goes to speak, alabama talk comes out sometimes, even though she doesn't mean it.  Silly girl. Even Gage will imitate Alabama talk for you if you ask him to. 

The "new" truck

For months, Adam was driving by this old 73 Ford pickup truck wanting to buy it. Why, you ask? He thought it looked like a fun old truck, and figured he could use a truck. He parked it in the garage, and when he went to start it up to show me how well it runs, it wouldn't start ;-)  Well, it's up and running again, but it's just been sitting in the garage for a month because Adam is ridiculously busy lately. Savannah is thrilled because our garage now smells like an old truck, and we KNOW she loves how garages smell for some reason. Gage has been saying "If I ask Daddy politely, do you think he will take me for a ride in his new truck". 

 

So, Saturday was the day.  We dragged sicky Savannah out of bed (she had a stomach bug) to go ride around the neighborhood.