McWane Science Center {In Pictures}

Sharing photos in the middle of packing...why not? Take a break from packing for the holiday, too, and enjoy the pictures!

The trains are back in town!

So we rode one (sorry for the sad attempt at getting a pic of all of us crammed in the tiny engine)

 

Ice fishing...for sharks. And, whales. You can't really do that, right? I'm Southern. I don't do ice... Unless it is in my coke...as in Coca-Cola or my sweet tea, of course

 

Said he was skateboarding...oh, dear. LOL

Time for another fort!

Then off to find some bugs. By the way, the scorpion was visible this time (behind the glass). Ew. He looked like he'd been stepped on (not by me).

Moon Jellies are awesome

Finding Nemo...we could only find Dory, Gill and the "Bubbles!!" fish

Catfish are way cooler than Moon Jellies

Declaring that he has found the lost catfish and he needs a fishing pole right now!

7 Quick Takes: Book and cakes, and dirt - oh, my!

 1. A slight change to my mornings...

The little stinker. He calls for me around 6:30-ish some mornings. I get him his drink (which...as of 2 days ago, we have now gotten rid of the bottles!! WOOT!) while he yanks a book out of his basket. We snuggle on the sofa, for what seems like just moments, before the boys come out after waving goodbye to the school bus.

After everyone has breakfast and their clothes on for the day, they get their reading time out of the way. And, I swear... Andrew could point at Woof's Tail all day long... I will never be able to find it again. Those Waldo books are HARD. But he finds EVERYTHING. Every character, every missing item, every note to get to the next page. I have no idea how he does it... It's amazing.

 2. McWane Center

We have once again entered this crazy place...as members. But, it is so much fun now that Austin can play with the boys. And, super fun since we have some pretty awesome friends we talked into becoming members, as well!

3. Presents

Austin (and the bigger ones) got 2 surprise boxes in the mail the other day from Nana and Papa! Austin now has his own Batman/Gotham City and a Knight! Which meant, that Mama got a BUNCH of stuff done that day. I didn't care how messy the living room got... We had the castles, Pizza Planet, and Batman stuff all over the place, along with every person and accessory thrown all over the floor by the end of the day. Good times! 
 

4. Oh, the weather outside is frightful (and sometimes delightful)!

This may have been our coldest day of the week - around the 38-degree mark, I think.

 While this day - just a few days later - was much nicer at around the 65 zone.

5. Silly weather...and boys!

They just love rolling down this hill! I can't wait to watch Austin do it one day!

 

 

This guy thinks he's one of the big boys now... I refuse to believe such nonsense. Dat's my baby boy... Sigh... 

 

 6. The Art Museum is awesome - if you ONLY stay in the kids zone. I don't have money to pay for a gazillion antique chair they just place out in the open because preschoolers would never touch such a thing... 

 7.  My Cake is the "coolest" cake around! 

So, I made this one last week for a friend's daughter's Frozen-themed birthday! How awesome, right?! I wish I had gotten a picture of the inside!! It had 2 layers - one purple and the other a brighter blue than the frosting. Fun!!

 So much fun! What another great week!

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Last Week

I'm catching up! I'm almost there! Just a few more photos...

Last week was CRAZY busy! But it was fun, for sure!

We did a little bit of painting with Duplo blocks and Q-Tips. 

We did a little end-of-the Halloween candy snacking.

 

We did a little playing outside no matter how cold it is... We have these things call jackets and hats and extra layers! (Hey, it was 40-something one day. Another day, I think, it was only 30...). By the way, I have no idea what they are talking about. But they were laughing up a storm about something hilarious! After a while they went off to play some soccer. Love those guys!



We did a little hot chocolate drinking to warm up those little tummies. Also, sprinkles make everything better.

We made some crayons. That's all the rage on Pinterest anyway. Maybe that was last year.... Well, we did it last week anyway!

And while all that was going on, Mama baked some cakes! A 6-layer chocolate and red velvet Cat in the Hat cake. Complete with Thing 1 & 2 "smash cakes" for our sweet little twin friends! It was so much fun baking and decorating those cakes. I'll have another cake to share soon. It gets delivered today! Woot!

 

Thanks Lori for the photo!!

We even did a little fox trotting! Ha! Don't you love that hat?!  

It was a great week at the House! Now, off to take an awesome cake to a little princess!!

Veteran's Day Parade {in pictures}

Veteran's Day in Downtown Birmingham.

Where it all began back in 1945...

Prayer for Veterans and those still serving our country

Current Happenings

Welcome back, y'all! It's been a while, huh?

Where have we been? What have we been up to? What will we do next?!

To catch you up a tad, here are some photos since Austin's 1st birthday:

The Halloween stuff was packed up and the Thanksgiving stuff all came out. And this is how it shall be until Advent (November 30th), people. Because, why? Thanksgiving is in fact a holiday... These stores, radio stations, ans TV things are trying to fool you. Thanksgiving still exists. Advent is when the Christmas stuff will begin to come out. #oneholidayatatime

Andrew is READING!!!! He did his first word search a few weeks ago!! YAY!! So proud of him! He will definitely be ready for Kindergarten next fall (GASP!!!). Alex isn't too far behind either. He is starting to sound out things he see and - almost - getting the words right. Great job, boys!!

Enjoying the last few days of warmth... Apparently Jack Frost wanted to mess it all up. Grr... I mean, brrr!!

Getting some reading done myself this month.

Just finished The Flight of Gemma Hardy. AWESOME book. It was killing me that I had to put it down to sleep... So, so good. If you loved Jane Eyre, you will love this one. Next in line: The 5 Love Languages of Children, No Longer a Slum Dog, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, and Still Alice.

Lots of brotherly love in the house has been going on these days, too!

Cuteness and an awesome dump truck!

I can have ice cream once again!!! Look!!! Dairy-free and soy-free...made with coconut milk. LOVE LOVE LOVE (Found at Target. Thanks Andrea for telling me about this!!)

Alex found the next number and is QUITE thrilled about it!

Andrew is working on a color by number sheet using addition skills. Sweet. Also, he says these are his favorite pages because it's a "mystery answer and color" - love it!

Planning, planning....

And more planning! I think I have all of Advent covered now (Thanks Pat and Terri for this awesome book, again! They sent it to us a few Christmases ago. We love it!)

Gorgeous fall colors from my neighbor's tree. WHO!!!!! Who by the way...is HOME!!! My sweet elderly neighbors were in a terrible car accident back in MARCH - St. Patrick's Day. Well, Mrs. M came home back in June, I believe. She is doing great now. I even saw her driving again the other day! Yay! And, Mr. J...he finally came back home on Halloween! We are so very happy to see them again. I'm sure they are thrilled as well to be back together again and getting better and better each day. Our whole street has missed them so much (that is the thing we will miss when we move - the hospitality and generosity of our street is just amazing).

Next up: Veteran's Day Parade in the city who started it all!