March marched on past....

So our household spent the majority of March sick.  That's it.  Every Friday night for three straight weeks one of the kids was sick and/or diagnosed with Strep - and then the fourth week one had to go on a stronger med because the Strep never let go.

But even in the midst of germs, we're doing life.

* Losing teeth and growing new ones
* Having a worm live in a pot on our kitchen table (lovely place for a worm, don't you think?)
* Mr. B starting swimming lessons and slowly overcoming his terror of the water thanks to Dad's creativity, suggesting he "dive" for coins at the bottom of the bathtub
* Living in our half-mini-updated kitchen (no wallpaper, no wall color, open switches and light figures, endless samples of backsplash tile bought and returned)
* Mommy being blessed with work - and the crazy business that it entails
* Visiting Fernbank and Chattanooga, lazing around the Bent Tree lake, seeing the bald eagle's nest at Berry College and learning about Winshape Camps
* Watching our grass turn from brown to green and our perennial tulips appear once again despite Mom's inattention
* Learning that bike seats need to be raised because we've grown!
* Many, many, many stick pictures of clone troopers in the driveway
* Way too many repetitions of "Let it Go" and "Do you want to build a snowman"  :-)

First tooth came out at dinner

 Dad and kiddos trying their hand as weather forecasters

 Some of Mr. B's first written words - including a flower for MOM

 Out riding with Daddy

Mom, it's like "White Christmas" outside!

Yes, it was like White Christmas this morning!  Gorgeous and a good, wet snow for making a quick snowman before it melted away.

Trying to sled - two weeks ago the sledding was much better!

 Our Snowman "Bristol"

 End of January snow - it was MUCH colder that time around!

And since I've not posted since Halloween, here are the kids on Christmas morning.  I wonder who got them guns and hunting hats??

 Our one family photo of the entire season - maybe the whole year?

Halloween Fun

Good Morning - good LATE morning around here!  We had a great time with friends and neighbors last night eating soup and chili - then trick-or-treating with 8ish very excited kiddos!  Daddy joined us "around the circle" this year as we went from house to house.  Enjoy!

Me & My Trophy Deer

 Little Miss "C" and some Friends

 The Fam

 The Morning Aftermath-picking out what to keep & what to give away.  Both kiddos did this without the first complaint....I'm so proud of them!

 Friends dropped some gifts by for the kids, including these way cool pumpkin glasses.

October

A few pics and video from the month:

Thank you, Sparkles Skating Rink, for the lovely goody-bag kazoos you gave us at our Cousin's birthday party!  This was my background music for 20+ minutes...

 Scarecrow Day at school this past week

 A preview of events later this week!

Disney

We finally took the plunge and, thanks to my awesome sister-in-law, we had a wonderful week in Orlando visiting Disney & Sea World.

Our Little Princess saved a LOT of $$ to visit the Bibbity-Bobbity-Boutique.  It was followed by dinner in Cinderella's castle with all of the princesses. This was the highlight of my week!

 Our 1st Morning at Magic Kingdom

 Getting Ready for "A Bug's Life" show at Animal Kingdom.  My little Man was crying to leave the theater once it actually began!  Can't remember Little Miss "C" liking it very much when she was younger either.

 Lego Store at Downtown Disney.  We ate at the new T-Rex Restaurant....and adventure of its own!

Our Magic Kingdom Crystal Palace lunch with all of the Pooh characters

 Winding down our evening at Magic Kingdom before the Electric Light Parade & Fireworks

 Riding a train in Animal Kingdom

 Putting on their rough "race-faces" for the Speedway at Magic Kingdom

 And the race is on....

Chattanooga--"The Cold Wars"--No Training Wheels!

Late in February Papa and Mommy took the kiddos on a special overnight trip to Chattanooga, TN.  We stayed at the Choo-Choo hotel in an old train car converted to a hotel room!  Papa slept in peace in his spacious car - Mommy and kiddos took an adjoining car and bunked up for the bitterly cold night!  (Chattanooga had snow the following night...).

The main reason for our trip was to visit the Children's Museum, which we did the next morning.  Everyone had a wonderful time exploring the museum and didn't want to leave at 2:30 for the drive home.  :-(

Digging for Dinosaur Bones

 Ben's Favorite - the Water!

 Busy Bees

Papa & Little Miss "C" in their bunny masks & ears.  Papa gets big points for this one!

Of course, like all good Americans we discussed George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in February, too.  Ben got in the car after school one day and said, "Mom...today we talked about the Log Man.  He had a black beard and a hat!"  So to "top" it off we made some Lincoln hats/beards at our house for a photo op.

 During our trip to Chattanooga "the cold" started.  The kids each had their own version of it, followed a few days later by Mom and about a week later by Dad.  Then Ben started all over again....so the beginning of our March has been less than exciting!

Little Miss "C" appeared on St. Patrick's Day fully outfitted for the occasion!  Love this girl...  Oh, and speaking of her - tonight she rode her bike for the 1st time without training wheels!!!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Busy Week!

We've had a fantastically full week around here!  Monday found us at the Georgia Aquarium with some friends...and awesome fish.  Ben had never been and was very excited to see everything - especially the "moving sidewalk" that went under the large ocean tank.  Little Miss "C" had been once before but was nevertheless awed by many things and asking lots of questions.

My daughter was happy to see a purple starfish

 Squid....eeewwww!

We followed the Aquarium with a visit to the Tearoom with Nana & Grandma.  We'd tried to go to tea in December, but the place we went to was closed.  :-(  Little Miss "C" was surprised by all of this and loved it!

 Heart shaped teacup

On Friday evening we headed down South to visit Pop & Gran for the weekend.  We squeezed a ton of fun in to Saturday:  baking Valentine's Day Cupcakes, seeing the huge goldfish in the neighbor's pond, feeding Gran's fish, playing with the dogs, seeing new baby chickens and one that had just hatched inside the incubator, seeing a worm bed and picking out some worms to feed the chickens, visiting a neat restored caboose and seeing other trains while there.  Thanks Pop & Gran!!!!

 Baby Chicks 

 Everyone on the caboose

 On the swings that Pop & Gran built for the Grandkiddos

 Quick catnap in the car

I Want to Be Your Cousin

Sooner or later every Mom will have her heart broken a bit by her Son.  Tonight mine did.  :-(  But I'll make myself feel better and justify it by remembering that he's 3 years old, for Pete's sake, and doesn't really know what he's talking about.  Here's the story:

My kiddos are going to stay with their cousins tomorrow for a few hours.  When my Son found out he was included (last time his Sister got to go by herself and have a spend-the-night with her cousins) he was elated! He told me that he wanted to spend "ten days" with his cousins and sleep and "have mornings" at their house...therefore he needed to take his sleeping bag.   I was OK with that and told him he'd have to ask his Aunt for permission.  Then about an hour later he announced that one day he wants to go LIVE at his cousins house and "be your cousin, Mom..and my name will be Jack.  I can visit you, but I will live there."  Heartbreak....

Maybe it was the paper mache project that did me in with him.  Earlier today Super Mom and Super Teacher decided that we needed to make paper mache models of the Earth and the Sun to go along with school.  My boy took one feel of the paper mache glue and wanted to have nothing further to do with it.  Little Miss "C" pressed on to get her Earth done, but guess who was left to finish the project alone?  Maybe I'm just getting in touch with my inner kid or something.  :-)

Here's some of what's been happening around here.

Drawing on the Easel

 Trying out the flapper look at bedtime (she slept in that sequined headband and had a few pink spots on her forehead the next AM that took days to disappear).

 Crayola Bath Crayons...awesome

 Hee...hee...look at me.  (one of the FEW pics my Son will allow me to take where HE is the subject).  Tonight we used a flashlight to watch the "hole at the bottom of the potty" while he peed and flushed - oh the imagination and curiosity God gave this kiddo!

 Little Miss "C" and her step-by-step tutorial on how to draw a smiley face heart

 Daddy took his Girl to Build-A-Bear this week!