Saturday, August 16, 2008

First "Date"

Last weekend Hallie went on her first "date". She and her friend Mason, have been boyfriend and girlfriend for about 3 years. They have "fallen in love" and their wedding is already planned. She has decided who her bridesmaids are going to be; her cousin Emma, her cousin Brita and her friend Brantley.


A couple of weeks ago Mason's mom emailed me and asked if we could take the kids to the movies. Hallie was estatic. She said she and Mason have always talked about their first date and had decided it would be going to the movies. She also mentioned that she and Mason would kiss in the movies on the first date. Chad and I were adamant that there would be no kissing on this date. Mason also had decided that I would drop Hallie off and Mason's mom would drop him off and that they would go alone. We reminded them both that they were only 5 and this was just two friends going to the movies, not a date.


Hallie wanted to wear her Easter dress to the movies, and she told us Mason was going to wear his best suit. We convinced her that a school dress would be fine and she did not need to wear a fancy dress. The day of the date, she was so excited, she woke up early and asked all day when it would be time. We finally left and she was over the moon.


They had the best time. Lots of hugs, but no kisses. They loved the movie and they loved going together. Here are some pictures from the date. We have decided these have to be shown at the rehersal dinner!!










Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Aquarium

A couple of weekends ago, before school started, we wanted to take a little trip with the kids. We decided to go to Chattanooga to the Tennessee Aquarium. We also thought it would be fun to stay the night in a hotel and let the kids swim. Now that I think of it, this would actually be our first family vacation with all 6 of us going on our own.

We got our tickets to the Aquarium and headed inside. For those of you who haven't been there, the Aquarium has two buildings, Ocean Journey and River Journey. We headed to the Ocean Journey building first and the kids loved it. The favorite thing was them getting to touch the sting rays and sharks. When Jaime and I first seen the tank and all of the people reaching in to touch the fish, we just knew that we would be the parents of the kid that fell in the water. Blake slipped and came close, but he managed to stay dry. We did see a kid fall in, but thankfully he was not one of ours.


Also in the Ocean Journey, the kids loved the penguins. They were always moving, jumping, and swimming.

We headed to the River Journey next, which is a much larger building. The kids loved this one too and this time they got to touch sturgeon. They managed to surprise us by not falling into this tank either. In the giant tanks, there were a couple of divers feeding the fish and cleaning the tank. The kids loved playing with the divers. The divers would come up to the glass and interact with everyone.

After that building, we went and ate pizza at the Mellow Mushroom and then went back to the Aquarium so the kids could play in the water outside the entrance.


We eventually made it to the hotel and they got to swim. We followed that up with a few hours or more of iCarly episodes on Nickelodeon before going to bed.

Blake said that his favorite thing was seeing the turtles. Hallie's favorite thing was playing with the divers. Andrew's favorite thing was looking at the alligators. Daniel's favorite thing was touching the fish. We had a great time.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

1st day of school 2008

It's been a crazy morning, both kids up before 6, they are so excited! Here are some pictures from this morning.


Hallie's 1st day of Kindergarten


Blake's 1st day of 3rd Grade




Both of my school kids...





As I dropped them off, Hallie was so excited. All she said was "Bye Mom, See you tonight." She hopped out of the car and never looked back. As they walked into school, Blake had his hand on her shoulder guiding her in. I can't wait until tonight and hear how it went!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Wipeout!!!

Jaime and I stumbled onto a new tv show a couple of weeks back. It is called Wipeout. For those of you who haven't seen it, it is basically an obstacle course made up of giant oversized inflatable objects. They start with 24 contestants and cut the field in half after each round until there is 4 contestants left. Then the fastest one through the final course wins. In actuality, the show is a competitive version of America's Funniest Home Videos. The contestants slip, crash, and fall throughout the whole show. We laughed and laughed the first time that we seen it and thought that the kids would enjoy the show.

Last week, we all sat down together to watch it. The kids didn't know what to think at first, but as they seen person after person slip and fall into the water and get punched by the punching wall into the mud pit, they thought it was hilarious.

As the game went on, Andrew and Daniel began to act out the games on the show. Every time someone attempted to jump over or across something, Andrew and Daniel would jump off of the couch. They also ran into the couch and pretended to splash in the water. Of course, they would laugh as hard as they could after attempting their own obstacles and expected us to laugh too, which we did. The only thing funnier than watching unknown people fall off of objects into water is watching your own kids act out falling off of objects into water.

Later in the game, I started yelling, "SPLASH!!!!" every time that someone fell in the water. After a couple times of this, all six of us were yelling, "SPLASH!!!!!" and laughing as hard as we could at the poor saps that just couldn't make the jump. It was probably the most fun of television that I have seen and the main event was in my living room. After all, you know what they say. The family that laughs at people slipping on giant inflatable red balls and falling into water. . . , well, they really don't say that. (But they should.)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The House of Flying Pancakes

This past Monday, Blake and Hallie spent the night with their Uncle Brian and Aunt Dawn and Jaime had gone to bible study. That left me with the twins for the evening.

On the way home from school, I had asked Andrew and Daniel what they wanted to eat. Daniel said spaghetti, which was immediately shot down since we ate that recently and also since we had pizza a couple nights previous. Andrew asked for strawberry pancakes. Since we didn't have any strawberries at home and since I don't have any idea how to make strawberry pancakes, we opted for the original version of pancakes. You know, Bisquick.

When it was time to start cooking, the boys wanted to help. They sat on the counter and helped me count out the ingredients. Using a 1/4 cup, we counted out the amount of Bisquick and milk. When I went to get the two eggs, I found that the eggs were stuck in the carton. I stood in the middle of the kitchen, pulling and squeezing the eggs to get them out of the carton until I finally squeezed too hard and SPLAT!!!!! Egg all over my face, glasses, clothes, floor, etc. For that second that I stood in disbelief at what had just happened, I hear two boys laughing as loud as they could. I look up at them, with egg all over my face, and start laughing. Then Daniel says, "Again Daddy. Do it again." Eventually, I stopped laughing long enough to get everything cleaned up so we can get back to making our pancakes. Not wanting to repeat the egg explosion, I end up cutting the next two eggs out of the carton and adding them into the batter. Then, we cook up the pancakes.

When the first batch was ready to come out of the skillet, I took the first pancake, flipped it up in the air, and caught it on a plate. The boys cheered and said, "Again." Immediately recognizing that I had a captive audience, I flip the next pancake, catch it, and they cheer again. Then I went into Japanese steakhouse chef mode. The more they cheered, the better my tricks got. I started flipping them higher and higher. I even done a couple of no look catches. Next thing I knew, I was in a stance, exactly like a baseball player who is about to steal second base. I flip a pancake as high as I can across the whole kitchen and chase it with the plate. I caught several like this and Andrew and Daniel loved it. Although, I performed these feats with skill that few have ever seen, I did drop a couple onto the floor. When that happened, they laughed like I had smashed an egg on my face or something. It was awesome and hilarious. The only thing that stopped me from doing this all night was I eventually ran out of pancake batter. After that, we sat down to eat.

While we were eating, Andrew began to get a piece of pancake on his fork, go through the flipping motion, and act like he was catching it in his mouth. Me and Daniel would laugh so he kept doing it. Like father like son, right?

The next morning, Daniel was talking to Jaime about eating pancakes the night before and I heard him say, "Daddy pitched them in the sky". I think I may have started a trend. I may have to work costumes into my show for the next time.

Monday, July 14, 2008

A Great Weekend

It started with yet another birthday party for Blake. He wanted to have 4 friends over to spend the night Friday night. They ate pizza, ice cream, cake, cookies, and played more Fusion Frenzy than I thought any 5 kids (and 2 adults sometimes) could play. Sallie kept Hallie at her house, with the girls, otherwise she would have driven Blake crazy!!! Thank you Sallie. They slept really well, and didn't wake up until after 7:30. I was really impressed. Thank you boys for helping Blake have a great birthday.

Andrew and Daniel got to spend Saturday afternoon at Grandma and Grandpas while I went to a baby shower and the rest of the family recovered from the sleep overs. They had a great time as always and Saturday night was early to bed.

Sunday, after church, the kids played with water balloons, washed the cars with Chad and had a great time playing outside. Then, we got everyone dressed and went to the $1 movies to see Horton Hears A Hoo. We had lots of fun. Andrew and Daniel did really well, this was their first movie. We were able to get 1 large popcorn and 3 drinks and everyone was happy. We refilled the popcorn once and the kids ate and ate and ate. I had some cookies in my purse, so for $16 we had dinner and a movie. (If you consider Sprite, popcorn and cookies dinner!!) It was a really good weekend.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!

Happy Birthday Blake. It is hard to believe you are turning 9 today. Time has gone by so fast. It seems like you should still be a baby. I remember your first birthday party. We had it at Poppa and Bidee's house, we had just moved back to Birmingham from Atlanta and we were living in an apartment. We had a Sesame Street Elmo party for you. Mommy worked really hard on your cake, Bidee had to help and show me how to do it. You were unsure about getting your hands dirty in the cake, but you finally started eating it. There were so many people there that day. Uncle Jeremy made you a banner to hang in front of the house, so everyone knew it was your birthday.

You opened presents for about 30 minutes and had so much fun. It was a great day.

Daddy and I are so proud of you. We are proud of the boy you are becoming. You have grown so much this year. You do a great job helping us, you help with the boys, you clean up all the time and you love to help in the kitchen. I love that you still love Veggie Tales. I love that you have grown up and love Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I love that you love to read.
Daddy and I love you so much and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!
Mommy and Blake at 9 months.
Blake at 1 year