state quarters

Savannah came tearing down the stairs last week yelling that I would never believe what she found. Well, it was a state quarter. We proceeded to go through all the coin jars in the house to see if we could find them all And...we had to look them up online to read about why the picture represented each state. And again...you can see how nicely Miss OCD has lined up her quarters ;-)

Fall leaves

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. Sweaters. Boots. Crisp air. Colored leaves. The sound and smell of walking through fallen leaves. Apple picking. Snappy tart giant macintosh apples. Fields of corn stalks. Cider. Real cider that is fresh cold pressed and not pasteurized so it turns into apple juice. The smell of burning leaves and fireplaces starting to appear. I miss it. I wish I could click my heels together like Dorothy and say there's no place like home and be transported to fall. In New England. The leaves may be starting to fall here, but try are brown, and it was 88 today. Fall? I think not.

Well, the other day I opened the mail and found an envelop full of fall leaves. Beautiful reddish orange maple leaves. They were not dry and crunchy yet, but over the last day they are starting to curl, and they are starting to smell like fall. My own tiny little fall. I won't lie - I have sniffed them about ten times today. 

So, thank you to Gram Rooney for thinking of us and sending us a little piece of fall. If you need me I'll be sniffing the leaves that are scattered on the kitchen counter and clicking my heels together. It doesn't hurt to try. 

Science center

Adam is off to Germany for Oktoberfest, so the kids and I headed up to Birmingham for a day of fun at the McWane Science Center. It is awesome!  We loved this psychedelic looking projection of their movements - this was a big hit.

 The also loved these seats -- of course...it was an example of a pulley system, so MOMMY had to pull the rope to get them to the top.

 Big bubbles are always fun. 

 

 Savannah was making this bubble wall, that she could blow giant bubbles through.

 This section was all about magnets, and she loved it. They had one table that had a container of shaved metal and controls to adjust the vibration and the poles of the magnets. The one she was playing with here was a glove filled with magnets that you could experiment with.

 Guess who this is. (Gage) This what we call "smoosh face". We push all the straws to one side to smooth it out, go around to the other side and smoosh our faces into it. We love this one.

 Savannah made this cool handprint piece today. She also did a lot of smoosh faces but this was different!

 The caption of this picture should be "little brother supporting big sister's OCD".  There was a wall of "light brights" behind Gage. He would bring each crystal over to her so she could line them up in rows of colors on the table. Ah yes...my little OCD girl. She's been lining things up like this since she was a baby!

 This cool thing was a metal pole that you could spin -- and watch go through a curved line cut out. Very cool. She got that thing going so fast I was afraid to go near it.

 Gage engaged in a staring contest...with a fish.  I reminded him the fish had no eyelids,but he was going for it anyway.

 Savannah loves seahorses, so it's always fun that we get to see them there. Along with Nemo for Gage :-)

 Yes...this is a bed of nails.  It starts out with you laying on a plastic surface with holes, and then someone (your evil little brother, perhaps) holds a button on the controller and the nails raise up. We all did this one - it feels very very weird! And it hurts if you have flip flops on, fyi.

 

 On the way out, the kids were just about to get into this wind tunnel, and some other kids busted in front of them and bullied their way in. So, we watched those rude kids and talked amongst ourselves about how unacceptable their behavior was.  Once those kids got out, mine piled in. Savannah was NOT really a fan -- I think her hair was whipping her face. The winds got up to hurricane force. Gage loved it though :-)

And that was a day. We stopped at Moe's for some tacos on the way home, and Savannah fell asleep in the car minutes after we left dinner. The science center take it out of you!

Paper boy

This morning it was 52 degrees. A little taste of fall. Love it! I went out to get the paper because paper boy was laying on the couch in a blanket. He found me reading the paper with a cup of coffee in bed and melted down. He laid in the floor and cried.  I WANTED TO GET THE PAPER. WAAAA. He wanted me to put the paper back outside so he could get it. seriously? I sent him in the other room to cry and continued reading.

He came in again when I was done and asked nicely. So, I put the paper back together and handed it to him. He put his shoes on and happily trotted out the door. I watched him walk all the way to the end of the driveway, put the paper on the ground, pick it back up and bring it back to the house. With a huge smile on his face. When he got to me on the front porch he announced "I am made for cold weather. Here's your paper mama"

 

Kids are crazy.

Art tile project

While we were at school doing some volunteer work, we stopped to find the tile savannah made as part If their art project last year. Her school is built around a courtyard and this tile mural us now on one of the walls. So, she has left her mark permanently! 

It took us a while to find because she could not remember what she painted. And, once we found it? She had no idea what she painted. I only remember that when she told me  what she painted when she did this last year, I thought it was an odd choice. 

We have no idea what it's supposed to be!!

Batman

Guys wear the football jerseys for their favorite teams when they watch games. Gage wears his fave superhero when he watches superhero cartoons. Somehow I see a connection here. Gage, wearing batman as he watches batman!

Pantry reading

Our girl has discovered Magic Treehouse books and loves them. Apparently, she can't put them down.  I can relate, I am constantly reading books on my kindle I strange places :-)

I can't believe she's reading chapter books. Junie B. and the magic tree house are her favorites now. 

Smarty pants savannah is doing great in school. She has spelling tests and reading comprehension tests each Friday now, and has scored 100 on every one. 

Way to go!!

A break in the heat

Finally! After temps in the 90-100 range for months, We finally have a beautiful day. Today we woke up to temps in the 50s and a high of only 84. Yippee! If course, it will head back into the 90s.

Gage went outside and calls me excitedly saying mom come quick, you won't believe it. When I walked out he said "do you feel how COOL it is? Stand in the sun. Stand in the shade. Can you believe it!?!" 

A comfortable day has everyone outside - finally! They are swinging and shooting water guns at targets. 

They are also hanging in the hot tub, which you can imagine is the last thing you want to do when it's 100 degrees outside!!

Fall is coming, I can feel it!!

CHOM

Usually we just stay home after savannah gets home from school. Today we decided to get out and do something so we headed to the childrens museum. Gage drove the old truck.

Savannah pretended to be an astronaut using these big gloves to put puzzles together.

Gage gassed up the truck.

And both of them went crazy in the flying ball booth!

We topped it all off with some frozen yogurt at sweet cece's. Dessert before dinner's not a bad thing now and then!!

pops

Early this summer, Steel City Pops opened in Tuscaloosa, and we finally made it there! It's a small business that started in Birmingham (a steel "town",hence the name) and makes gourmet popsicles.  They have traditional flavors (strawberry, lemon, etc.) and crazy flavors -- hibiscus flower, pineapple jalapeno, blood orange, etc.).  Savannah had hibiscus and it was really yummy.  She thought it was very neat that she was eating "flower juice":-) Gage had a creamy chocolate pop that was delish too. We decided we definitely need to go there more often!

We had just left my hairdresser (Miss Meagan), and Savannah's hair was looking great. It certainly never looks that good when I am the one doing her hair!!!! 

Gage & school

Gage is back to school also!  How is it possible that he is just 1 year away from Kindergarten?!

Savannah | 1st grade

Savannah starts first grade today!

New car

I've been talking about getting a bigger car for about a year. Apparently, the long trip in a small car did me in because within days of getting home, we bought this gmc Acadia! Love it :-)

summer | recap

As today is the first day of school here in Alabama, summer is officially over.  What a summer it has been. We hit 19 states this summer! Here's a recap...

beach trip to Gulf Shores

 fun month at home of playing, crafts, sprinklers, etc.

 AL natural history museum

 the Vulcan statue & museum in Birmingham

 camping out in the yeard

 discovering Lake Lurleen in AL

 Dino World in KY

 visiting Grandma & Grandpa Rapp & Uncle Eric's family in PA

catching Savannah's first firefly

catching a lot of toads

Savannah skipping her first stone at the grove in CT

 Adam's 20 year reunion in PA

 visiting to the Miller family in Pittsburgh

 visiting all the grandparents, cousins, and other family in CT

picking blueberries with Great Grandma Rooney

 riding the old steam train in Essex, CT

 riding the oldest carousel in the country in Watch Hill, RI

 visiting Mystic Seaport in CT, where Gage got to hoist the sail on an old ship

 visiting the Peabody Museum and Pepe's pizza in New Haven, CT

 a trip to the White Mountains in NH

 (multiple) children's museums

 feeding the baby cow (Oreo) at Grammy's

Quassy amusement park with the cousins

building stuffed animals with cousin Elizabeth

 Savannah riding the Wooden Warrior roller coaster!

 spending time at the lake and bowling with the cousins 

Gage turned 4 years old!

 Gage's birthday party in CT with the sturdiest pinata on the planet!

 cartoon museum

 Georgia aquarium

 Smithsonian museum of natural history

 Smithsonian museum of air & space

 National museum of Native Americans

the White House and the rest of the Washington DC monuments

Adam bought and sold about 20,000 comic books (literally)

a long ride home to AL with Aunt Karen

and finally..buying  a new car!

GA | aquarium

We had planned to drive from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC for our next leg of the trip back to AL. But, we got an early start and hit Charlotte at noon, so we decided to push on. Well, we ended up driving all the way to Atlanta, which was probably a little too far to go.  But, while we were there, we decided to go have a nice dinner at Legal Seafood, and stop by the Georgia Aquarium.

 

 

 

 

The next day, were were on the road early again, and made it home by morning!!

dc | wrap up

We wrapped up our trip to DC by walking on the Mall toward the Capital.  We stopped at the botanical gardens along the way.

 Gage's panda was happy to find some bamboo that he could snack on...

 

 we caught a great glimpse of the Capital's dome as we left the gardens

 And Savannah had to help hold up this big planter

 By this point, Gage was exhausted and refused to be in any pictures because he just wanted to head back to the hotel

 

 

On the way back to the hotel, we found a wall of past presidents and their famous quotes...Savannah was rattling off all kinds of presidential trivia, including that Teddy Roosevelt had a pony while he lived in the White House. 

dc | indian museum

Although we had not planned to visit the National Museum of the American Indian, we decided to pop in as we walked by. First of all, it's a beautiful building....

 As soon as we walked inside, we saw a great totem pole that had a rainbow shining on it

 We had to stand in the rainbow, of course!

 The big hit of the museum was the interactive kids' section. Here, Gage is trying out a kayak

 And here, he is testing his balancing skills, like indians who sat on flat canoes.  Up ahead of his was a display that showed how stable it was, and a timer showing how long he kept it stable. Both kids loved it and were surprisingly stable -- must be the little bit of indian blood they have ;-)

Aunt Karen desperately wanted to find a teepee and we finally found one!

Savannah trying out her balancing skills too -- very focused!

Whoa -- this rainbow is bright!

Savannah in a rainbow :-)