Splash Pad!

Yesterday we hit up the Splash Pad due to the temperatures that seem to be hovering around 100*. We didn't last very long (maybe an hour) for whatever reason, but we all had fun splashing and running around...especially Sam.

She's only 4 and she's already a bit of a beach girl. She likes to get in the water and then go lay out on the warm cement.

I was so glad I got this--he had no idea the water was coming down. Whoops!

With all of the jumping this kid does, it's not difficult to catch him in mid-air.

Sigh...I keep telling myself I'll give up on trying to get him to stop doing this. He sucks the water up and either drinks it (ew) or spits it on someone (double ew, thank you Brooklyn for showing him that...). He just KEEPS ON DOING IT. But, ew...I know what's in that water....blech.

He loves his window open, but apparently it was a bit noisy, lol.

I had no idea what she was doing, I just pointed the camera at her and when I looked at it I burst out laughing. Not what I was expecting, hehe.

A successful morning--happy kids, happy mama, tired kids, tired mama.

And for those still lingering through this post (I'm assuming it's mostly family, lol), here's what we've been doing a lot of lately. Yay! He even takes naps in his undies and poops in there and everything. The minor problems are that occasionally if he gets mad or something he'll pee on you. Fun. And that this kid is super independent--he HAS to dump his potty, wash his potty, then wash his hands all by himself. I'm glad he wants to learn to do it himself, but it makes quite the mess for Mommy...oh well. It's definitely time to move to the big potty though.

Playing Catchup.

Lots of random photos here...

Sam has a tough time with eating sometimes--even if it's something he knows he likes like PB&J he'll fling it across the room. Infuriating. One day Brooklyn sat next to him and was copying things I've tried a million times (the airplane into the mouth trick, reverse psychology, etc.) but this time IT WORKED. And they both loved it.

Ironically, over the past couple of weeks I've been transitioning to more raw and organic foods (lots of fruit, veggies, legumes, etc.) and although there's still frustration at the table, it surprisingly hasn't been as bad as I thought! I think a lot of it is that I'm trying to make it as kid friendly as I can.

This was my Mother's Day gift. Sort of. I had the perfect Mother's Day--we just hung out and did whatever. I've been wanting to make a few of these types of frame things for awhile and Russ helped me (okay, actually I helped him...as in, I held it) build it. It was supposed to be about half that size (in my head), but Russ believes bigger to be better, right? Hmmm. It now has 2 hanging baskets, lots of herbs growing on the bottom shelf and our shell collection on the top.

Sam drives me crazy. He cannot sit still. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad he's curious about so many things, but this kid really keeps me on my toes. While I'm getting ready he loves to come in the bathroom and flush the toilet 1,204 times, dig through the garbage, turn the shower on, empty the cupboards, dismantle the vacuum and pull the blinds up and down and up and down and up and....yeeeeeeah.

We like to go over to Jackson and Ashton's house to "ride bikes". This is what Brooklyn TELLS me she wants to do. However, whenever we do this, the bike doesn't get touched. She's too busy putting the pedal to the metal.

The kids were being extra good this day and we just had to go get some ice cream.

I love this picture. You'd never guess what they're watching. Sam is obsessed with rockets and LOVES to watch launches. They count down and scream BLASTOFF!!!!! Pretty cute.

I went to wake Brooklyn up from her nap and saw that she'd stolen my sunglasses and worn them to bed. Such a funny girl.

Frogs like our yard. We like frogs. Poor frogs.

Abby came for another visit while her parents were out of town. Sam had mixed feelings about her. When he wanted to play with her, she was expected to play. When he DIDN'T want her to play...oy. Heaven forbid she even look at him...he was crazy. But was so sweet--whenever Sam saw her laying down, he ran to his room to grab his special blankie and put it on her. She is such a good sport--it was roasting inside, but she kept the blanket on.

See what I mean about such a good sport? She's so good with these two crazies.

But loves her rough and tumble time too. The kids saw her like this and ran the other way, lol.

I keep buying new balls for Sam after every time Abby visits because they get destroyed, which is fine. Thank heavens for couponing!!

Gymnastics

Brooklyn started gymnastics in March. She LOVES it. One day she noticed the trophies sitting in the office and told me how badly she wanted one. I told her that if she works VERY hard and listens very well to her coaches, she would. Little did I know that they actually have an awards ceremony for the kids! I didn't tell her about it ahead of time (mostly because I didn't want to be asked a million times when she's going to get her trophy, lol) and I'm so bummed I didn't capture the look on her face when she heard about the trophies.

Anyways, Sam and I usually sit at the observation deck and watch the class. However, this time everyone got to come down on the floor and watch. I had mixed feelings about this--I loved being able to watch so closely and actually attempt to take some pictures, but Sam is a WILD MAN in there. So yeah, I only got a handful of photos and yeah, her hair is insane, but I had my hands full and I'm happy with what I got.

This is their warmups:

Stretching. Brooklyn is forever asking questions. "Excuse me, Coach Tina? I have a question..." Oy. So glad she's not afraid to ask or speak up though.

L-hang.

Doing the balance beams. She loves doing this move (she calls it an aribess, but I have no idea what the correct word/spelling is since I couldn't find it on Google, anybody know?).

Thank heavens they had this set up so after the gymnastics kids used it and moved on, I could let Sam free. I had to sit outside before this, he wanted to go out w/ the big kids so bad.

Trophy time!! Coach Tina is on the left. She is so good with the kids.

She is SO proud of this trophy. She has only let me touch it twice, and only for approximately 5 seconds each time. It sits in her windowsill where "the sun makes it shine." Funny girl.

I was so beat by the end of the hour that I had checkbook in hand, ready to pay for BOTH kids to do gymnastics this Summer, but the only time they had both classes together was at an awful time for us. Dang.

Brooklyn is doing so well in gymnastics though. She's the only kid in her class that can do a cartwheel, at the end of the trampoline jump she does a flip onto the fluffy pad, and is getting pretty good at doing a handstand.

A Day Trip.

First off, I must note that this is my 301st post. I just realized that I've been at this blog for 2 1/2 years already!! INSANE!

Anyways...I told the Bubba earlier today that I'd get some blogging done and completely forgot. So I must get one up.

A few weeks ago Russ kept telling me, "We're going to the NC Air Show this weekend." I didn't know if he was serious or not, particularly because it was a 2 1/2 hour drive to get there. Driving and a non-sleeping child (Sam) do not go well together. So the morning came and Russ said, "Are we going?" I looked into hotels, thinking that that would be an easier option, but everything was booked. Then I told him that he and Brooklyn should go alone...but out of pure selfishness I wanted to go too.

So we packed everything up in case we did decide to stay the night somewhere and headed out. Let's just say that the first hour was utter hell. Sam was completely miserable and he made it so for the rest of us as well. He finally conked out for a little bit and woke up just as we were getting to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium.

We had a blast there. It was definitely bigger and had more to see than our Aquarium.

Sam loves "ribbets."

Russ was explaining the journey a baby sea turtle makes.

This photo cracks me up. Mostly because as I was taking it, a woman walked in front of me and about had a heart attack because she didn't expect to see a human face there, lol.

Dinkin' around outside the aquarium. I was trying to get a cute shot of the 3 of them, and this was the best I could get....

Then we piled back into the car for another half hour drive. Sam conked out again and we stopped for food. Hello Blue Angels!!

During the show, Sam got up and wandered away to go look at all of the other cool planes. Brooklyn followed him. Russ followed them both. I sat alone in silence in the warm sun--it was bliss. However, I kept getting odd looks from passersby (we weren't in the normal viewing area...more like on the way to the viewing area, lol) and I didn't realize until quite later what sunglasses I had on...yes they are neon green heart-shaped $2 kid glasses. Jealous?

The show was actually a 2 day deal and had a ton of different shows, but we didn't think the kids would do so well with a full-day thing, although they seemed to absolutely love it. So, maybe next year we'll try and get there for more.

Next came what was my favorite part of the entire trip (which is why there are more pictures here than the rest of the trip combined. :P). When we came in to park, it was a loooooong narrow parking lot (we were parked on a runway) with only one exit. There were THOUSANDS of cars at this thing. So we did the logical thing and sat.

I was so glad we had camping chairs and a cooler full of snacks and drinks (and ice, our saving grace).

The kids were in and out like every 30 seconds grabbing ice and smashing it. In the photo below, see that car in the background? They didn't move more than 10 feet for about an hour. And what was insane was everybody left their cars running! I know it is warm, but geez.

We were probably a good 3/4 down the runway...and this is looking at the 1/4 of the runway that was ahead of us. Crazy.

I think it was about 3 hours from the end of the Blue Angels show until we got in the car and were able to drive out the exit without another car in front of us. Next year we're thinking it'd be fun to have a camper and another family with us and just stay the night if they'd let us!