Crazy Busy Weekend!

I'm still playing catch-up from our crazy busy weekend!!

 

Saturday morning, I took the kids to Easter Fest at a local park. We've been to this event for 3 years now, and the kids love it more each time. Me, on the other hand......

 

Well, let's just say that since it's a FREE event, complete with an egg hunt, bounce houses, games & prizes, plus food & drinks, so it's a zoo bit crowded!!

 

I decided to try a new strategy this year. We got there right at 10 am when it started, and the lines for the bounce houses & petting zoo weren't too crowded yet.

 

 

 

Abby is always a fan of the petting zoo; Nate, not so much. This year, they had 4 day old ducklings!

Then, at 10:15, people started walking over to the adjacent field for the egg hunt. (Which kept the lines for the games/bounce houses/rock wall pretty short.)

 

The egg hunt - WITH 25,000 EGGS - started at 10:30, and I told the kids ahead of time that we were going to skip it. That way, we had about 30 minutes of super short lines!! Nate scaled the rock wall 3x in a row (which is a miracle, since the line is usually 50+ people deep), while Abby literally went up & down the biggest slide/bounce house 11x in a row. I even went down with her once since there was no line!!!

 

So fun.

 

I was super proud of Nate for reaching the top of the rock wall for the first time. This has been 3 years in the making, and this year was HIS year! He did it without any problems, and it was so cute to see our neighbor Jack cheering him on.

 

 While Nate & Jack were on the rock wall, we met up with one of Jack's little sisters, Caroline. She & Abby had fun on some of the bounce houses together. Our nickname for the two of them: Double Trouble!!

Saturday afternoon, it was off to birthday party #1. Greg took both Abby & Caroline, and the party was at a gymnastics place in town. It was for one of our other neighbors, Kennedy, but she's not in any pictures. (Good job, Greg!!)

 While party #1 was going on, I took Nate to party #2 at one of his classmate's house. Anthony turned 7 and was having a "Harry Potter" themed party. Nate had been looking forward to it for WEEKS! (He is completely obsessed with HP right now....he is on the fifth book, and we have been planning his HP birthday party - which is in AUGUST - for months now! Ha! He even created a spell book in a leather journal and has literally written every spell - in order - from the first 5 books. Yes he is mine! :)

Anthony's mom did an awesome job at the party.....she made butter beer & wands for all the kids, had them play quidditch/kickball, & put on an Easter egg hunt (look at the concentration on Nate's face)!

I love this picture - Nate & Chandler are both casting spells
on Anthony before he blows out his candles! Ha!

 

Happy Birthday, Mom!

If you've met my mom, you know she's the best!

 

She's been my hero since I was a little kid, and still to this day, she amazes me with her strength, patience, ability to love, and kindness.

 

Well, today is her birthday and she's doing what she does best....taking care of others. She's watching my nephew this week (while my sister is on her babymoon in St. John's; jealous!) and I know she wouldn't want to spend her birthday any other way.

 

I have such fond memories of growing up....all the fun trips we took - the big ones, and the little ones. Mom was always the first one to jump in & try a new activity, even if us girls were hesitant. She's always been an "active" mom, and now it's so fun to see her as an "active" Nanny with her grandkids. We've done some crazy stuff....

Disney

White-water rafting

Myrtle Beach Half Marathon relay

Skiing in Michigan with her Mom (!)



Dancing at mine & Greg's engagement party



Cooper River Bridge Run



Opryland Hotel



Ober Gatlinburg

2008

2010

2014



Christmas 2014 - Not many 62 year olds will roller-skate, go to a trampoline park, and
play on playgrounds with their grandkids!!

Thank you, Mom, for all your do for our family! I love you and hope you have a great birthday!!

Spring Break

 

I forgot to write about our Spring Break last week.....maybe that's because I'm still recovering?! :) We had awesome weather the first 3 days and really took advantage of it....

 

Bike rides, bouncy house, swing set fun, tag, popsicles, reading in trees (you can guess who that was!), playdates with friends, and picnic lunches.

We started off St. Patrick's Day with a few errands, and then hurried home to have green donuts & green water with our neighbors. And play outside for the.next.6.hours!

 

More fun included dance parties, haircuts (yes, kids think those are fun), a trip to the library, working on "inventions," reading a LOT, watching movies, building forts, coloring, meeting Daddy for lunch, playing dress-up, finally opening some toys from Christmas, and McDonald's.

 

Nate

 Abby

Perhaps the highlight of Spring Break for each kid was their special "Daddy Date." Nate was up first, and went to an Alabama vs. Illinois basketball game. It was the first round of the NIT, and clearly not well attended, because Greg was able to buy 4th row tickets the day of the game! Nate's goal was to get on the "Dance Cam," (the JumboTron), and he did!

Abby's special date was going to see Cinderella at the movies. I am STILL in shock that Greg agreed to do this. He usually falls asleep during kid movies! But he promised me that he stayed awake the whole time; I'm betting the coke & candy helped :)

 

 

Happy Birthday, Greg!

Greg never gets in on the #TBT action, so I thought his birthday was the perfect time for some embarrassing childhood pictures! :)

{1 year old / 11 years old}

Greg's real birthday is today, but we had a cookout with our next door neighbors (on both sides) on Saturday. One of the husbands has a birthday this week too, so we surprised both of them with the most delicious peanut butter chocolate cake from Edgar's Bakery!!

{Happy early birthday, Greg & D.C! And Abby, LOL}

Then, tonight, Daddy had a late meeting so the kids were able to decorate the dining room. Clearly, they got a little carried away :) Abby also insisted on using the "pretty plates" (china) and wearing a pretty dress (though she just threw it on over her leotard after Gymnastics, ha)!

 

I fixed Greg's favorite dinner: oven-baked tacos, Spanish rice, and black beans. (He is easy to please!) And then we had leftover cake, so I stuck a candle in his piece :) Wife of the year, I know.

 He got lots of cards from family near & far, and the kids made him elaborate cards as usual. I got him coffee & a coffee mug from our favorite breakfast place. Not very exciting to me, but he was thrilled! :)

{Nice photo bomb, Nate!}

 Greg, I hope you had a wonderful birthday, and felt very loved & appreciated. Because you are, and we do! :)

First Egg Hunt of the Season!

It sounds a bit crazy, but the kids went to their first Egg Hunt of the season last weekend. (Even though Easter is a month away!!) I'm part of a Mom's Group here called TuscMoms, and they host this egg hunt every year. There were a lot of conflicts in later March/early April, so they just decided to do it super early. The kids didn't care what month it was in....they just heard the words "egg hunt" and were ready to go! :)

 

Added bonus - the egg hunt was held at Airport Park, so we got to
watch a few planes take off & land!

She was only searching for "pink, shiny, or pretty (patterned) eggs."
I cannot make this stuff up!

 

He didn't discriminate :)

Checking out their goodies

They both knew it was a "real man" inside, but humored
me and took a picture :)

 

After some healthy snacks - Little Debbies & chips - and playground time with friends,

we headed home. First egg hunt in the books!

"Snow" Day

Last Wednesday, it was predicted that we would have 2-4" of snow. So of course, on Tuesday night, they cancelled school for Wednesday. Well, what a bust!! It rained all.day.long and not until 7 pm did a few snowflakes start to fall!!

 

We had just finished dinner, so we rushed to put our Winter gear on & went outside.

 There wasn't much to do....so we walked around, caught snowflakes on our tongues, made snowballs off the hood of the car, and talked to a few neighbors. We decided to go inside and wait a little longer for it to start sticking. And it did!!

The next door neighbors came over and the kids had a ball in our backyard!!

 We had a few parent vs. kids snowball fights, and then moved to the front yard after awhile. By this time, the snow had stopped coming down.



Our pitiful little snowman!

All in all, the kids stayed outside about an hour. We came inside to the news of a 2 hour delay the next morning! (Thank goodness, because it was close to 9:30 by the time they got to bed!)

 

Both kids were still talking about the "best night ever" when they woke up Thursday morning. Clearly, it doesn't take much to impress them! :) So while I'm sad we didn't get the snow they were predicting, we got enough to make the kids happy and I guess that's all that matters.....

 

 

 

NC Visitors

My parents (Nanny & Poppy) came into town last Thursday afternoon, and the kids were so excited! Abby went straight for the bag of clothes; she knows that Nanny always stops at the outlets on her way to AL :)

 

 Both N&P got roped into lots of games, fort-building, coloring, tea parties, and picnics....and that was just before dinnertime! :)

Entertaining us with a game of Twister after dinner. They were both SO BAD!!

 Friday, the kids went to school of course and Poppy took both cars in to be serviced & get some work done. What would we do without him!? We picked Greg up from work to have a lunch date at Edgars, and then surprised the kids after school with mini cupcakes from

Gigi's for Nate's 7 1/2 birthday!

 

 Finally, that night, Greg and I got to have a very belated Valentine's Day date at Chuck's Fish. There was a 1.5 hour wait, but wine from the bar made that go by quickly. And I was so proud of Greg....he has his first bite of sushi! (And he loved it!!)

Saturday, we were hoping for good weather but it was wiiiiiiiindy and we spent most of the day inside....

 

Forts in Abby's room

Singing karoke....

We did step out for a bit and went to a nearby park.....

 That night, we went to Holy Spirit's annual Talent Show. We reserved a table with another family, and Nate had fun sitting with some of his buddies there. Some of the acts were great, and some were.....well, not that great :) We enjoyed it though!

 

 Sunday, Greg and I were in charge of teaching Children's Liturgy at 9 am mass, so we went to church & then our beloved Krispy Kreme afterwards.

 

She never stops entertaining us!

Again, it was a bad weather day, so N&P bravely took the kids to the Alabama Museum of Natural History on campus. (I stayed home & enjoyed some quiet time!)

Nanny is not the best photographer, but the kids had fun making shell necklaces,
building legos, & looking at exhibits.

 Sunday night is where things got interesting. Mom & I settled in the bonus room with our glasses of wine at 5 pm, ready to watch the Red Carpet coverage of the Oscars. The kids were playing in there, and all of sudden, Nate's arm accidentally flew into Abby & she started sobbing. Now, my girl is one.tough.cookie, so when the crying hadn't stopped after 10 minutes, I knew something was wrong. I figured Nate's fingernail had grazed her eye, because she couldn't open it. I was googling "scratched cornea," and texting with my BFF who is a nurse & whose hubbie is a doctor. They urged me to go the ER to get it looked at. So, I did!

 Greg & I were at the ER with Abby for about 2.5 hours, and it was a looooong 2.5 hours. Poor Abby was in a LOT of pain and of course it even hurt to pry her eye open for all the testing. Lo & behold, she did have a very large scratch on her cornea, and once they numbing drops kicked in, she was able to finally stop crying. Bless her heart, she was so exhausted. They gave us ointment to put in her eye 3x/day, put a patch on for the night, and told us to go see an opthamalogist in the morning.

 We got home around 9:30 pm and of course Nate was still up because he was so worried (& felt so bad!) about Abby. Poor guy!!

 

So, it was an eventful end to Nanny & Poppy's visit, but we were so glad they visited and had such a great time with the kids all weekend. (I'm especially glad they were here Sunday night so they could distract/keep Nate happy while both Greg & I were at the ER with Abby!)

 

Until next time....