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!