Fairy Hunt

A while back we started a chore chart with Reese. She could earn different rewards for doing her chores. Her chore list consists of making her bed, getting herself dressed, brushing her teeth, cleaning up downstairs before dinner, and helping set the table.

Reese recently received a book from some friends about a fairy hunt. This book gave us the idea to have a fairy hunt one night as a reward for doing her chores. We finally got around to doing the fairy hunt tonight.

I bought a pack of Disney fairies and while Lance was giving the kids a bath I hid them outside. Once Sam was in bed we took Reese outside with a flashlight and began our hunt. We found three fairies hiding in the backyard. Reese didn’t believe us that they were real…ha! Such a smart little girl. After finding the fairies and their stash of clothes and tools, we played around with the flashlight and looked at the stars.

We had a great, fun time hunting for fairies with our sweet little princess.

All About My Dad

This is one of my favorite things to do with Reese so I just LOVE that they did this at school. Today Reese came home with a questionnaire they did about their Dad since this week they have been discussing the letter ‘D’.

When we talked about the picture she drew, here are a couple of things she said:
*Daddy has a tail.
* She wrote our last name all by herself (the blurry spot at the top) which we have been working on. She is doing so great with this.
*Her teacher helped her spell monkey.

Here is the close up of the answers. The silliest part to me is that she said Daddy works at county parkway. I don’t even know what that means or where that is. The funniest this is that she said her Daddy is a great dad because he is awesome. Daddy always says that he is awesome so it is funny that she repeated it.

I just love this!

My Sunshine

I don’t know if it is the age, the testing of the limits, or her mom, but Reese has been giving us all sorts of attitude lately. We will go days with constant arguing, disobeying, and just plain out being mean. And then there will be a day where the clouds part, the sun comes out, and there are smiles all around.

Today was a day of sunshine. Don’t get me wrong, she still tested the limits but it was mostly a day of happy. Tonight after dinner she was sitting in Lance’s lap, playing and giggling. I just looked at her for a minute and felt so blessed. She is MINE…God entrusted her to me. I am responsible for teaching her, growing her, and LOVING her.

On our rough days I try to remember that she is sweet. She is so loving.  She is so precious to me. And remember that we will have these rough days but there is always sunshine ahead in the form of a sweet and spicy curly headed little girl!

Redneck Fun!

Tonight as I was cleaning up after dinner I looked out in the backyard to see Lance and the kids having a little bit of redneck fun.

Lance had taken the kids swing off the play set and was spinning Sam around in circles.

He also dragged the kids around and swung them back and forth. They giggled and giggled.

And so did I!

Wicked!

Saturday night Lance and I had a date night. On Friday I told Reese that Aunt Becky was going to come over and play with her so Mommy and Daddy could go on a date. She looked at me in all seriousness and said, “It’s not your anniversary!”.  Looks like Lance and I need more date nights.

Several months ago when we found out Wicked was going to be at the Fox Lance immediately bought tickets. We went to dinner at Vini Vidi Vici before hand. It was so yummy! I have driven past this restaurant for years and years but had never been and it did not disappoint. After dinner we headed to the Fox. Downtown Atlanta was packed! I couldn’t believe how many people were out and about. The show started at 8:00.  We were a little early but it was nice to get in and get settled. Slowly the theater filled up and it was a full house. At intermission we tried to go out to go to the restroom and there were so many people in the lobby we changed our minds.

The show was great. We have heard so many wonderful things about it and it also did not disappoint. Elphaba and Glinda were amazing together. I could have listened to them sing together all night. The best part of the show was the end of the first act when Elphaba sang “Defying Gravity”.

We had a wonderful date night. I am so thankful to get to spend one-on-one time with Lance.  We definitely need that time together…alone!

Technological Babysitter

It may be hard to see this picture but Reese is playing on the computer and Sam has Lance’s phone. They both love technology. On Saturday mornings they fight over who gets to play with Lance’s iPad. They definitely belong to their Daddy!

Walking In Your Shoes

Go Jackets!

Earlier this week I saw that the weather was going to be beautiful for the weekend. I immediately sent Lance a text to ask if there was a Georgia Tech game Saturday because the weather was going to be so nice. He said yes and then we both sent each other a text at the same time that said, “Wanna go?”. So that was a done deal.

Today we headed down to Georgia Tech to watch GT v. Kansas. The game was at 12:30 so we got down there a little early to check out all the fun going on before the game. We swung by the bookstore first and it was a mad house so we didn’t stay there long. We then headed down to the campus. Reese and Sam were both decked out in their Tech gear.

 

Reese wanted to get a a yellow jacket airbrushed on her face.

It was super cute and she was excited.

We then went over to be outside of the stadium where the cheerleaders, dance team, and band come to perform before the game. Reese leaned over and whispered to me that she could “see those girls belly buttons”. Once their performance is over they kind of lead the way in to the stadium.

We actually didn’t buy tickets before we went downtown because we wanted to see how everybody was holding up before we spent the money. As soon as the performance outside the stadium was over, we were all in the mood for some more excitement. We walked a little ways away from the stadium and found a man selling tickets and we bought them. We made it back in to the stadium in time to see the band, cheerleaders, and players come out on the field.

I think Reese was most excited about her frozen lemonade. It was much hotter in the sunny stadium than it had been walking around outside. Luckily everyone had layers on so we were able to cool off some.

Tech scored very early on and continued to play well the rest of the game. Sam cheered the whole time we were there and loved it!

Reese had her moments but this seems to sum up how she felt about the game while we were there.

We had a late night Friday night so we started melting down during the second quarter…right at nap time.

We waited a little too late (right before half time) to have our family picture taken and Sam just wasn’t interested. This was the best we could do and the lady taking the picture took six pictures. Ha!

We all got a little too much sun, had a little too much junk, but had a wonderful time. I am so glad we were able to enjoy this beautiful day together!

Terrible Twos

The terrible twos are raring it's ugly head around here. This particular picture was after I told him no in the grocery store when he wanted Oreos at the check out line. Yes, he cried during the entire check out, walk to the car, being buckled up, and as I was trying to leave. Oh my!!




- Posted from my iPhone

Wordless Wednesday

Gym Time!

I took Sam to his first Gymboree class today.  I never did this with Reese because we did gymnastics classes. There was a Groupon deal so I decided to give it a try.

Of course, the first thing Sam did was go straight to the balls. He played with the basketball a lot and had fun throwing it in to the hoop.

Once class started he did a great job following directions and trying things out.

He loved anything he could climb on and the slides.

He wasn’t too excited about the parachute.  I think it was something so new and different that he was a little intimidated by it. I think he will enjoy it more next week.

He loved the bubbles and banging on things when necessary.

I think I will see how the rest of this month goes and then decide if we will do it again.

I really like that there is someone else that Sam has to listen to besides me. I felt like that was good for Reese at this age and I hope it will be the same for Sam.

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago I was 21.

Ten years ago I was a college student.

Ten years ago I woke up to see a news feed on my computer telling me an airplane had crashed in to the World Trace Center in NYC.

Ten years ago I didn’t even know what those buildings were or meant.

Ten years ago that all changed.

I woke up right around 8:45 on September 11th, 2001. I turned on my computer to check my email and saw that a plane had crashed in to the WTC but it didn’t really mean anything to me. I think I was still half asleep and it didn’t register to me how bad that was. A few minutes later my phone rang and it was a college friend. She told me to turn on the TV because something bad was happening. I did so and the second tower had just been hit. I sat down on my couch and didn’t move the rest of the day. I was glued to the TV. I can’t remember if it was before or after the towers fell but my roommate came home because she left work once she heard the news. We sat there together all day in shock as we watched news break of the Pentagon and then the plane crash in PA. What a sad, sad day.

I will never forget the images we saw on TV, the sadness there was, and then the unity that was felt in the days following. I am so grateful to all emergency personnel and military that protect us every single day to preserve our freedom.

We remember…

The Elmo Show

At the last minute (as usual), Lance and I decided to take the kids to the Sesame Street Live show at Phillips Arena.  We had already reserved our free CFA breakfast for 8:30 this morning so we chose the 10:30 SSL show to go to.  We didn’t tell the kids we were doing anything special until last night and then we didn’t even tell them what that was. When Reese woke up this morning she asked us but we told her we would tell her later. Lance ended up whispering to Sam that we were going to the Elmo show. Reese asked him what we were doing and he said, “Melmo’s World”. She didn’t believe him.  I gave her a couple of options on clothes to wear and asked her if she wanted to wear her Abby Caddaby shirt we bought when we went to see Sesame Street Live two years ago.  She chose the Abby shirt.  When we finally got to CFA we told her that Sam was right and that we were headed to see the Elmo show so we needed to hurry and eat. She was super excited!

We arrived at Phillips with plenty of time to spare.  Walking in we saw the same Elmo poster Reese had taken her picture with the last time so we had to duplicate it.

We had to get the little man with Elmo too. He was so excited.

We walked to our seats and then I pulled out some glow-in-the-dark bracelets I bought at Target. I thought this would be a great way to avoid buying the expensive toys at the show. I gave Reese a bracelet and made her a necklace out of two of them. Sam wanted a bracelet too so I put one on his wrist.  A few minutes later he started screaming while sitting in Lance’s lap. Lance saw him pull the bracelet out of his mouth and immediately looked to make sure the clasp was still on it…it was. We then realized he had punctured the bracelet with his teeth.  After reading the label on the bag the bracelets came in we decided to call Poison Control.  Nothing like a little excitement to start the show. Turns out there is not enough of the liquid in the bracelet to poison kids but it apparently has a really horrible taste and that is what caused Sam’s screaming. Nothing a little water couldn’t help.

We got settled back in our seats and ready for the show.

The grandpa next to us took a family picture for us…I didn’t have the heart to ask him to do it again so this is the best we got.

Right at 10:30 the show started.

Sam got nervous when he saw the characters on stage. He eventually got comfortable and realized they were not going to come off of the stage.

Reese sang and danced with the show and had a great time.

They both were in awe and had a great time.  Sam said “Abby?” or “Elmo?” every time they were missing from the stage.

The kids played musical chairs through out the show and ended up sitting with each of us at different times.

Sam, obviously, was not allowed to have any more glow-in-the-dark bracelets but Reese enjoyed seeing hers glow through out the show.

After the show we went in to the CNN center and had Moe’s for lunch. Once we finished lunch we went out to Centennial Olympic Park to run and play.

It was a pretty far walk to get over to the playground but it was such a beautiful day we couldn’t pass it up.

The kids had a lot of fun playing on the slide.

Look at how excited Reese is to see Sam going down the rolling slide for the first time.

I tried to get a cute picture of them together but I just couldn’t get it to work out.

They both enjoyed the swings.

And then it was time to go home. They wanted so bad to stop at every body of water and get in and play. We were able to keep them away for the most part.

And because I want these memories to be as authentic as possible…

The whining is about to make me CA-RAY-ZEE! Sometimes it just takes the fun out of things.  I need to figure out a way to stop it or Reese might just spend the rest of her life in her room.