An Afternoon at the Park

This past weekend started off so wrong for Jack; we were supposed to go to Cousin B's 3rd birthday party but Will was sick and the weather was horrible so we had to cancel our plans. Jack burst into tears when I broke the news to him Friday afternoon. For the rest of the afternoon, literally every 15 minutes, Jack would ask Will, "Will, do you feel better now? Can we go to B's party?"

I felt so sorry for Jack that I promised him that we would do something fun over weekend. I had no idea what special activity we would do, but surely I could come up with something fun. Luckily, my friend Nina called on Sunday to see if Jack would like to go play at the park with her son P. YES! He would LOVE to! And as Nina is so good about doing, she shared pictures of the fun.

Doing what boys do best--Climbing!

The modern day version of the see saw. The kids these days are so spoiled...where is the fun in not having your rear end slam into the ground?!?!

And who doesn't like to watch a train pass by?

Look at these two cuties...I could just eat them up!

After the park, the boys went back to P's house for lunch and more playing. P has a Wii and it was Jack's first introduction to the gaming system. How long do you think it will be before we "need" a Wii?

Six hours later, Jack returned home one happy boy! Thanks Nina and P for a fun afternoon =).

Out of the mouth of Will...

From the backseat of the car:
Mommy! I need to call Honey and Happy to take me to the Bayou!

Tonight at bedtime:
Mommy! Kiss me on the lips and turn me into a Prince!

Sounds like someone has been watching too much of The Princess and the Frog... =)


Totally unrelated P.S.:
Does anyone else cry while watching The Biggest Loser?!?! I cry EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. Please tell me I am not alone!

I'll have some CHEESE with those HAMS

Proof that all you need for a good time is a big straw hat and a camera....

EuroBungy Pictures

I update the post More Fun in the Sun and Stars to include pictures of Jack and Will on the EuroBungy.

Hope you are having a good weekend. We went to the Braves game tonight and had a great time. It was neat to witness a no hitter, even if it was by a Colorado Rockies pitcher! Jack is at the age where he is really into the game and interested in learning about the rules, players, stats, and strategy. Will enjoyed the game atmosphere, the snacks, and especially the fireworks that went off every time the Braves struck out a Rockies player. I was pleased that everyone stayed in their seat the entire game!

We all had such a good time that we are planning to go to more games this summer!

Making a Joyful Noise

Tomorrow is Grandparent's Day at Jack's school. The teachers and children have been preparing a special time for all of the grandparents, including a musical program. Because over 450 grandparents are expected to attend tomorrow, parents are not allowed to come. But we were invited to attend the practice for the musical program this afternoon, and I just had to go and see what I was going to miss.

I thought they would start off the rehearsal with the kindergarteners and then work their way up the grades, so Will and I could listen to Jack's class sing and then sneak out. It didn't happen that way...it looked to me like classes came in no particular order, so we got to hear a good bit of the program for tomorrow. The first grade was adorable singing "I Don't Wanna Grow Up". The kindergarteners sang "You Are My Sunshine" and most of them knew most of the words, and mumbled through the ones they didn't know.

And we also heard a couple of the bands play...the beginning band (5th graders) and (I assume) an upper level band (7th grade). Y'all. Have you ever heard a children's band play?!?! Gives you quite the appreciation for the university marching bands. We listened to (suffered through) "We Will Rock You" to which I must give credit to the drummer, who did really well pounding out the beat, and "Another One Bites the Dust", which was current when I was in 5th grade! The 7th grade band 'played' "All-Star" by Smash Mouth from the movie Shriek. If I hadn't been told that, I would have been hard pressed to guess.

So as I am sitting there politely listening to the bands, I look over to see this....

Will plugging his ears!!!!

I nearly fell out on the floor laughing hysterically because that is exactly what I wanted to do!

More Pictures Than You Ever Wanted to See

Another fun day on vacay, although we wore the boys out yesterday so we had two grumpy Guses on our hands this morning. The weather was overcast and a bit chilly so not much boogie boarding today.

Our family of sea turtles must have swam off to sea during the night, so Brent and Jack worked on building a whale, a BIG whale. We were not going to be outdone by the GIANT lobster from yesterday.

Will mustered up enough energy to add to his sea shell collection, and then was just exhausted.

After lunch, we just hung out at the house. I played Sudoku, Jack watched cartoons, Will napped (!), and Brent watched the Masters while enjoying an afternoon refreshment.

Then it was off to The Track for some go-kart racing. And you should have heard the trash talking taking place all the way there. Our family is nothing if not competitive, even down to the baby! The go-kart track was really fun. We raced up and down spiral ramps and it was a blast to take the turns at full speed.

Mommy and Will after the race. To say that Will loved the go-karts is an understatement. His love of speed is a bit worrisome. He kept telling me to go faster so we could catch Daddy and Jack.


The winner....he was so excited! And much work needs to be done in the good sportsmanship department.


We rode the bumper cars. I really don't like bumper cars, seriously, where is the fun driving around in circles while getting whiplash?!?! But there was a boy dressed in Florida Gator paraphernalia that was Jack's and my primary target.


The boys rode a few rides in the Kid's Country area. The Traim was Will's pick and Jack was nice enough to join him for the ride.


The boys agreed that the Ferris Wheel was the best ride because they went up high and it was pretty fast. Will said they were in little cages.


And we fed the huge koi fish. Didn't look like they have missed too many meals.

Peace Out!

After one more race around the go-kart track, we headed to a dinner of hamburgers, chili cheese fries, and milkshakes. Or better known as a heart attack on a plate!

More Fun in the Sun and Stars

Beautiful weather today, perfect for shell pickin', water surfin', sand sculptin', and star soarin'! So that is just what we did =).

Will loves to hunt for shells! Here he is showing off one of the "tiger teeth" that he found. At this age, every shell is beautiful and even the broken shells are exotic tiger shark teeth. He can't wait to take his new shell collection to school for show & tell.

The boy is a natural! Duuuuude, that's some gnarly surf!


Will gives the boogie board a go.
Immediately after I took this picture, he did a face plant in the water, and that was the end of his surfing.


Jack and I trying our hand at sand sculpture. Can you guess what we are making?


A family of sea turtles!
We were so proud of ourselves! And then we took a walk down the beach and saw a man building a GIANT lobster. Kinda put the ol' turtle family to shame. Although Jack said the sea turtles would whoop that lobster in a contest.

Tonight we went to The Village of Baytowne Wharf at Sandestin Resort to have dinner with friends. The Village is beautiful, reminded me of a small scale downtown Disney. The original plan had been that we would have dinner and then go to The Track for go cart racing. But we were having such a good time at dinner and all of the boys were having a blast playing at the incredible playground next to the restaurant that we decided to stay at the Village for the evening. So we walked around looking at the stores, restaurants and outdoor entertainment, and just "happened" to end up at the candy store. Each little boy got to fill up a bag with all of the candy he wanted; Will thought he had absolutely died and gone to Heaven! We left the store with 3 happy boys and Nina and I were laughing about how much cheaper a bag of candy was compared to a night at The Track!

Then we came upon the Eurobungy. I'm sure you have seen them before...you are strapped into a waist harness that is attached to bungy cords and then jump on a trampoline as you are propelled into the air. Jack did it once before at his school's Fall Festival and Will was dying to do it then. So last night Will saw the Eurobungy and begged to do it. Brent waited in line with them while Nina and I went to buy tickets. By the time we got back, Nina's son had completely changed his mind (it was late and he was exhausted, so his sister stepped into his place) and Will was now saying that he was scared. Well, mama had just spent the electric bill on tickets, so he was gonna jump! We waited for-ev-ah, during which time Will decided that he would jump, just not too high, but that he was not doing any flips. Fair enough!

Our turn finally arrived, Jack went first and jumped really high! It was so fun to watch him soar high above, and Jack had a blast.


Will was next and he looked so big strapped into the harness...adorable! He immediately started jumping on the trampoline as they were tightening up the bungy cords. He wasn't quite heavy enough to jump hard enough to propel himself up, so the assistant stood by him to help. The first time the assistant shot him into the air, I thought Will would start screaming and that would be the end of his turn. But he LOVED it! We were all cheering for him and he was just smiling! He kept saying,"I am really good at this! I am using my super powers to jump so high! Look at me, I'm in outer space!"


We got back to our place after 10:00 pm with two exhausted little ones who were begging to go to bed =). I bet they have good dreams tonight!

Spring Break

We are enjoying some time at the beach for Spring Break. Everyone has been so excited about a little vacation together; Will has asked every day for the last week if today was the day we were leaving for the beach. We usually vacation at Hilton Head Island, but this week we have rented a house in Sandestin. The boys were surprised to see sugar white sand on the beach instead of the hard packed sand to which we are accustomed. The house is neat...kind of a 50s modern style. Plenty of windows and more bedrooms than we know what to do with! The boys have found the bunk beds room wonderful; Jack on top and Will on the bottom! The beach is about a block away in our front yard and there is a lake right in our back yard. The only catch is the lake has gators, so needless to say there will be NO swimming in the lake, and I am hoping that we come home with all of our appendages!

The weather today was a bit overcast and the water is definitely COLD (the boys would disagree), but that didn't stop us from having some fun in the sun, sand, & surf.

Playing in the surf...they insisted the water wasn't cold. Yea, right!!

He loves the water, always has.

My favorite Beach Boys


Great waves today...Jack was perfecting his boogie board skills!


Will was so excited to be at the beach that he was literally jumping with joy!
I was so excited to get a picture of him in mid-air =).

I had the best time today sitting in my beach chair and watching Jack and Will have fun and more importantly, having fun together. I want to remember every detail, every smile, and every laugh. Sooner than I would like, they will be men with little boys of their own. And I hope to never forget the joy on their faces and the sound of their laughter as they jumped in the waves and ran from the incoming surf. It is these moments that make life so sweet.

We drove the car down to the beach this afternoon; lazy, yes, since the walk is short and easy but I really didn't want to carry all of the paraphenalia. Jack decided that he wanted to walk back home, so he and Brent walked while Will and I drove. Jack got a head start on his walk and when he saw us coming in the car, he decided that he would race the car home. Surprisingly, Jack won the race! And the fact that he ran faster than a car will probably be one of the highlights of his trip! He has mentioned it to me more than once already =).

Tonight we had dinner at a local oyster bar. Oyster Mania was from 5-6 pm....a dozen raw oysters for $1.99. I had 2 dozen and they were GOOD! Went especially well with the margarita. At dinner, Will was saying, "Someone is really tired. Oh, it is ME!" Poor thing, we wore the baby out. He came home and crashed!

The fun continues tomorrow.....

Happy Easter

We have had a fun Easter weekend. This is the first Easter since we have had children that we haven't been with extended family. This week is Spring Break for us and we are headed to the beach, so I decided to give myself a break and not travel for Easter. And although we missed dyeing eggs with Gramma & Granddaddy and hunting eggs with our cousins, we did enjoy a weekend of fun with just the four of us.

Saturday morning started off at our neighborhood's Easter Egg Hunt. On our way to the hunt, Jack told us that he was going to get all of the eggs. I tried to explain that might not be the best plan because it would make the other children cry. And then I would make him share the eggs anyway. So he decided he would just settle for 2 dozen eggs! Will has loved the Easter Egg Hunts this year (this was his second hunt, his class had a hunt on Wednesday). After the hunts, we have to come home, open up all of the eggs, lay out all of the candy on the floor, count every single piece of candy, and then cheer for all of the "candies"! Yay for the sugar!



I didn't get many good pictures of the boys hunting eggs this year because they were so fast. Gone are the toddler years when the hunting was slow and the picture-taking was easy.




The boys were thrilled to wake up this morning and discover that the Easter Bunny did stop by and leave a few surprises. The big hit was new watches. Jack is learning to tell time at school so the Easter Bunny brought him a real watch. Will was thrilled with his Diego digital watch! All day long, Brent and I got minute-by-minute time updates. Jack: It is twelve thirty six! Will: It is twelve three six!

{For some reason, Will is fascinated with time and clocks. The boys went to a birthday party a couple of weeks ago and had their faces painted. Will requested his face to be painted with a clock. The guy looked a little puzzled (whuuut?? you don't get this request often?!?!) and Brent told him that Will is fascinated with time. So the face painter asked Will what time he wanted to be! 4:30 for those who are curious! Brent is now calling Will "Flava-Flav" from Public Enemy!}

The good news is that we made it to Mass on time and actually got a seat....the bad news is that we were about 5 minutes too late and had to sit on the front row, and the nursery was closed so Will was with us! The good news is that both boys behaved beautifully! I think sitting on the front row actually worked in our favor because they were able to see what was going on and enjoyed all the incense and the trumpet player. The highlight for me was singing Jesus Christ is Risen Today with the trumpet! I LOVE that song, gives me chills every time! During the service, Monsignor was speaking about keeping your perspective on eternal life and not on earthly things, at which point Will blurts out "JESUS!" Preach on, little man! Amen!

Here are our attempts at the family Easter picture. Unfortunately, we didn't get one picture that was good of everybody. I am posting the top 3 so that my mom can select her favorite for the scrapbook. I am nothing if not thoughtful! Ha ha!!





This afternoon Brent and I washed the cars (my car was in jeopardy of being condemned by the health dept--no joke!) and I got in a run. The boys had a blast playing outside all afternoon and were the muddiest little things!

We had the best Easter dinner: Herb & Garlic Lamb Loin Chops, Dill & Parsley New Potatoes, and Prosciutto-wrapped Asparagus. The Loin Chops were out of this world good! Brent marinated them overnight and then grilled them this afternoon. I'll post the recipe soon.

~~~ Jesus Christ is Risen today! Alleluia! ~~~