Movin’ On Up

This week we moved Sam up in to the level five at Gymboree. Reese was very excited for him and begged for me to take pictures of Sam in his new class. In this class they use more imagination.

This week they talked about mail, mail trucks, and the mail man.

Sam enjoyed this week just as much as any of the other weeks…ha! He didn’t notice any difference.

He isn’t sure what to think about the parachute though. When Reese did gymnastics at this age she wasn’t sure about the parachute either. He isn’t a big fan of being under the parachute.

I love this special time that I have with Sam. I feel like I don’t get nearly the kind of one on one time with him as I did with Reese.

Silly boy

This week Sam and I have been fighting a pretty mean cold. Because of this we have not been going to the gym. Instead of the gym, Tuesday he and I ran some errands while Reese was in school. We were done a little early for carpool so we just sat in the school parking lot and I let Sam get out of his car seat. You would have thought he won the lottery by the way he was running around inside the car.

The windows were down so he was especially excited about that.

He would run all the way to the back of the car where one of the seats is laying all the way down for storage and the middle seats of the middle row is out. He had all kinds of space to exercise.

And then he would run back up to the front and climb in Reese’s seat.

He started hanging out of the window and yelling, “Hey everybody!”

It was too cute and he had so much fun!

Bored = Fun

Last Friday we had a follow-up visit at the ENT for Sam. Every six months they check his ears to see if the tubes are still in there and to make sure there are no problems. While we were waiting for the nurse to come in the kids started getting bored so I pulled out my camera. We have done this before where we will pick an emotion and take a picture of us all expressing this emotion. Both kids get a huge kick out of this game and giggle and giggle.

This was just a group shot.

Reese usually picks the emotion to call out and then we all go for it. Silly faces!

Sad faces. Sam obviously didn’t get the memo on this emotion.

Surprised!

Sad faces again…Sam got it right this time.

MAD!

Crazy!

This is such a fun game for the kids with instant gratification because they can see themselves on the screen of the camera. The giggles are enough to make me play this game over and over again.

Our week so far

We have had a busy week so far and I am surprised that it is already Wednesday night.

Monday I watched a friends two boys while they had some exciting things to take care of. Reese was at school for the morning so it was just the boys. Sam wasn’t quite sure how to handle this. On one hand he loved having the boys there to play boy things with. On the other hand he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to share his toys with them. On a few occasions he would cry that one of the boys had his trucks, etc. We all went to pick Reese up from school (thank you minivan), came home for lunch, and then Reese and Tucker ran off to play. After an hour or so of playing it was time for naps/rest time for everyone. Both little boys took great naps and Reese and Tucker had great rest times. I set up a cot in Reese’s room for Tucker and they just talked the whole time but were not too loud. Their conversations cracked me up when I went up to check on them.

Reese received a trophy at school on Monday. Over the next couple of months they are going to be working on knowing their birthday, phone number, and address. Once they know all three they get a trophy. Reese knew her phone number and birthday already so we had to work on her address. She knew the street name but we needed everything else so we practiced. She seriously picks things up so fast it surprises me. She was the second kid in her class to get her trophy. I am a proud mommy!

Tuesday Sam had his Gymboree class. He really enjoys this class. Starting next week he will be in the next level up where they start doing imaginative play. I am excited to see how he does in that class.

Each evening when I am making dinner I turn on Sesame Street for the kids. This sometimes gets me a few minutes to get things done. Tuesday night I looked over and Sam was sitting in Reese’s lap. Seriously, how cute are they?

Today after school Reese had a play date with her friend Sydney from class and the neighborhood. Sam stood at the screen and just watched them play for a little while and then finally decided he wanted to go out for a bit.

The girls were so good about taking turns driving the Jeep. What is funny is that neither one of them knows how to drive the Jeep straight. Both of them kept driving it in circles.

We also had small group and a new babysitter. We have had the toughest time with babysitters this school year. Our sitter from the last few years has a full time job so we have been on the hunt for a new one. I recently met a girl who shared her babysitters name with us to try. Taylor is AMAZING! When she left tonight I looked at Lance and said, “Is she for real?”. She is definitely an answer to our prayers and I am so grateful to have her with our kids.

Apple Picking

Saturday morning we headed to Ellijay’s Hillcrest Orchards. They seemed to have a lot of fun things to do as well as apples to pick so it looked like the perfect place to spend some family time. I was surprised at how much closer it was than I thought it would be. We let the kids do all the fun things first before we headed out to pick apples.

The first thing they did was to jump on the big jumping pillow. Reese loved doing this but it was a little too intimidating for Sam so he didn’t actually make his way up the pillow.

Then Reese wanted to ride on the little John Deere tricycles. She made it about 3/4 of the way around and then gave up and pulled it the rest of the way.

We then “toured” their Moonshine “Museum”. I say both of those in quotes because there wasn’t much of a museum to tour. It was more like a bunch of creepy mannequins and hand written descriptions on poster board. Lance actually took way too many pictures in there because it was just too funny.

Next we waited in a short line to milk this poor cow. She looked so unhappy and not interested in being on display. Reese did not want to milk her once we got to the front of the line so I sucked it up and milked her.

This is a picture of Sam who was so scared of the cow. He wanted nothing to do with her…even looking at her made him cry.

We then jumped on the wagon ride to go to the back side of the orchards. There were a few things towards the back that the kids were too young for. There was also another trail set up with creepy mannequins set up. I really don’t know what the point of it was.

We found a big slide that both kids loved going down.

They probably could have spent the whole day going down this slide.

After all of the playing we went in to the market to taste test the different apples they had there in the orchards. Once we tasted several different ones we went back out to fill up our bag. We went with the middle size bag.

The kids liked picking the apples off of the tree.

They were so well behaved and enjoyed being outside on such a beautiful fall day!

Unfortunately our family picture did not turn out well at all. Oh well, here we all are.

After filling up our bag we went back up to get some lunch. While we looked at the menu the kids played on this old John Deere tractor.

We decided that it would be better if we headed home and picked up some lunch in the car. So that is what we did.

We had a great family day. I love all of this time that we have been spending together lately! My goal for this fall is to do a lot of fun fall things and I think we are off to a great start!

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