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!

Five on Friday

{1}

 

The oldest and the youngest. Andrew has always been an awesome helper. He is such a great big brother!

{3}

 

Mommy Saturdays - 

This is our new thing and it is quite wonderful. Each Saturday morning, I take either Andrew or Alex with me while Jason stays home with the other 2. We go do our errands and such, like groceries or whatever, but our first stop is breakfast. We usually go to Dunkin Donuts. This is our time just me and just 1 of the 3. We talk and stuff. It is great! One time, Andrew brought along a book and we got all cozy in one of the "fancy" lounge chairs and read it together while enjoying our muffin/donuts. Good times. :)

{3}

FINALLY. I finally got some of Austin's wall art and such hung up!

{4}

Enjoyed the weather over the weekend while we could! Some one is getting big much too fast!

{5}

 

He really wants to run outside with them. When they do run past the window, he will move those little legs in that bouncer as fast as he can. So funny!

Zoo Day!

I wish that we could say that we are back to going to the zoo each week again. But, sadly, the weather just wants to be stinky.

Last Friday we were able to get out though. We all needed that break from being indoors. All of us. Here are some pictures for last week's adventures!

We had the whole reptile house to ourselves for a good while. Pretty nice. Especially, since we were fooled by the weather and it was a tad cooler than expected. Good thing we dressed in layers. It did warm up by the time we left.

Some tidbit: 

Austin's first time to the zoo! 

First time to the zoo with 3 kiddos...eek! ;)

Alex checking out the copperhead...ugh...I hate snakes. So gross. He does, too. The whole time he was telling the snake, "No! You are bad!" LOL

 The boys had to stop at every single one of these :put your head in the hole" things (Andrew is the top collage' Alex on the bottom).

 Weird dinosaur bird. 

 King Julius just chillin'

My little rhinos..

 If that road in the back weren't there, then it would almost be believable. They are amazing animal though. Love them!

 "Playing" with the tiger

This little guy had a great time!

Chocolate Cake, Obnoxious Song, and Cold Weather - Oh, My!!

Ah, the first week of May. Flowers are in bloom. Birds are singing happy tunes. Treat are being made and movies are being watched. The weather has that hint of frost bite in the air. UM, WHAT?! Yes, the first week of May (the later 1/2 anyway), we were wearing long sleeve shirts, pants, socks, and jackets. Listen, Groundhog... you are out of a job, buddy. I mean, really?! It. Is. May! MAY! Ugh... This is exactly why we ALL still have a cough. It's hot. It's cold. It's raining. It's hot. It's below freezing. No joke. We had a freeze warning. Not. Even. Kidding.

Ok, enough of that. It was a nice, sunny day for Andrew's Spring Program and we had so much fun the rest of the week that it all just evened out somehow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We made an easy peasy chocolate cake!! Now, that I know that I actually have all of these ingredients on hand (usually), we may have this special little treat more often. It was so moist and delish!

'Round and 'round we go!

 Andrew is clearly in chocolate heaven here ;)

 This is why I have double the dishes to do. Everyone has to have their own spoon. These really are their spoons, too. They picked them out at Publix a while back. Andy said they needed to be able to cook with me and have their own stuff. Fine. 

 Doesn't that look yummy? Well, it is :) 

 Another awesome train track! 

 Playing so sweet together

And then yelling...because the school bus is coming! LOL All the kids and the bus driver wave to them. They LOVE it! During the summer, while out on walks, the big kids we see will say, "Hey, you guys are from the window!" Too funny. 

 Friday's movie night!! Robin Hood - thanks to Julie for this suggestion! The boys loved it! Jason loved it, too. So much that the darn Rooster's Song got stuck in my head the whole weekend. Shoot...now it's back... Here. Let me share with you the Rooster's Song. Enjoy!

(Please note: If you are viewing this post via email, then you need to click through to the actual post to see the video. Thanks!)

We hope everyone had a great weekend (and stayed warm...)!

A Week in the Sun

LOVING this weather! THIS is why I live in the South. Granted, I'm still partially dying from the tree pollen. But, this month is finally coming to a close. Thank goodness! We have been outside everyday this week enjoying the season's first popsicles, sports entertainment, and afternoons at the playground. It has been wonderful! How is the weather where you are? I hope you and your family are enjoying the weather just as much as we are. Have a great weekend!

{MONDAY}

This day was all about basketball

 

 ...and popsicles! The first ones of the season!! Yay!! Alex liked his, but wanted to try Andy's, too. Good thing Andy was fine with sharing ;)

 I love my family.

{TUESDAY}

 And today was clearly about golf. Alex (top) looks more like a hockey player in my opinion with his little chunky, powerful self. And, Jason is pretty impressed with Andy's swing. He's getting him his first set of real clubs for his birthday - Shh!! Don't tell him! ;)

We also made a parking lot for dump trucks.

{WEDNESDAY}

 

This was the only day this week (maybe ever) I felt absolute hatred towards the trees. I ran out of Sudafed and suffered the consequences for it. I couldn't breath. Couldn't sleep. It was terrible. Stupid trees. Finish getting your leaves already! Luckily, I had my little men to make me feel better :)

 

 Andy made me a bracelet from his wacky track LOL! 

News flash! If you have train lovers in your family and get tired of tracks not getting in the right places and are also tired of hearing about why you need to buy more pieces...GET THESE TRACKS! They are awesome! Thomas and Friends Wacky Tracks - they move to fit where ever they are needed. Awesome. Best track pieces ever. Get them. I found these at Books-A-Million, but you can get them on Amazon, too.

 Making dinner from my grandmother's recipe found in her church's cookbook - WHICH!! This was my grand-daddy's church! He was an Episcopal priest and was one of the coolest people ever when I was little. Miss him and love him! I'll share the recipe in another post in just bit.

 While I was making dinner, I heard the boys "taking pictures" and giggling up a storm. So, I was lucky enough to snap a pic. Not a very good one, but still so cute! Andy is posing with Tusker (the blue elephant) and Roary (the lion) while Alex takes a picture with a Lego Duplo block that clicks. Too cute. Love them.

{THURSDAY}

 

After a great day at school and successful errand running, we headed to the park after pick-up time. 

 

 

From top left, going clockwise: Racing around the playground / Counting the fish / Climbing the rocky grass stadium seats / Alex taking it all in / Found a bug...and squishing it. Nice. 

 

 Alex running to bring me the coolest rock ever. 

All he needs is a skateboard, right?! Andy did this over and over again! Climb all the way up...jump all the way back down. Wore. Him. Out. 

See? Wore them both out! They are chilling while watching Wild Kratts. One of the coolest shows on PBS. I've learned a lot from it, too. Like, the groundhog is the world's (maybe just North America's) largest rodent... Again, never trust a rodent...even one that tells you the weather. Who came up with that groundhog 6 week weather business anyway? Lame. But, Spring is FINALLY here, so I'll stop now on that subject.

 {FRIDAY}

 

 More golfing! He may have perfected his swing by the end of the summer :)

 Getting some reading in - working on a few books a the same time. My mind may explode... 

 Tagging our fence. They realized that sidewalk chalk is also great on fences. 

 Our pizza-popcorn-movie night has turned into pizza-popsicles-sillypants night!

 See? Sillypants! Alex said, "Silly face!" and puffed out his cheeks and Andy is covered in a sticky wild berry popsicle mess!

 Two of the best brothers and friends on the planet. Love it!

 Looks like Max got a popsicle, too! At some point a game of tag broke out while eating popsicles and Alex lost his. No worries though...he thought it was hilarious that Max was eating it up. 

Well, that is it for our weekly adventures! Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are supposed to get some rain, but I hope not... Pepper Placehttp://www.pepperplacemarket.com/ opens tomorrow!! And, I really hope to get out there! Wish me luck :)