A Day out With Animal Planet

Max started the day making a strong attempt at looking mischevious with a marker moustache ... waterproof thankfully.
Then we headed out to Shelby Farms for the Animal Planet Expo. The place was filled with parents and pets kids and kitties ... and lots of LONG LINES! The event was free ... so every moonbounce, inflatable slide and exhibit was met with an uber wait. Totally worth it! Great time had by all...

Two hours of waiting later...

After seeing kid after kid with really cool face paintings ... the boys decided they too had to have them. So we stood in line, chatted it up with all sorts of friends from Bartlett Child Care who passed by and Jennifer and Mary Beth from WREG ... and we stood in line some more, caught two showings of the exotic animal show and the frisbee dog show. And we kept waiting for our free face painting. And after TWO HOURS ... yes I know I'm a little looney ... we made it up to the tent and here's what happened next : )

Max in the hot seat.
Porter watches

And Max the Tiger likes what he sees.

MEOW!
Porter takes his turn.
Puuurrfectly Pleased : )
Tiger Brothers... ROAR!!!!

We are big kids now!

I can't even believe I'm writing this blog. 5 years have slipped through my fingers. Photographs and memories are my only witness that the last 62 months actually happened. We went from bibs and binkies to lunchbags and backpacks in the blink of an eye. So here we are on the first day of kindergarten, sweetly dubbed, "big kid school" at Cordova Elementary. Every step of the way, there was another mom consoling a teary eyed little one not ready to leave mom's side just yet. Another Kindergartener filled the hallway with painful screams as his mommy walked out the door ... head in hands. (He quieted down as soon as she was out of ear shot ... God I know that routine sooo well!) These encounters reminded me of the first few days of day care. BRUTAL! So you might imagine my sheer disbelief at the complete opposite reaction to this first day routine. While I was shuddering at the thought of the fit that Porter would inevitably have upon separation ... he must have been planning the quickest escape from mom and dads tight grip. And Max ... heck ... he barely noticed we walked him through the doors! They were absolute troopers for their first day. Me on the other hand ... Joel did his best to keep me smiling. I was completely flooded with more emotions than I could keep up with. Sad, proud, excited, scared, there was so much to take in. But all in all I LOVED this day ... and I adored the looks on their faces as they sat at their desks and waved goodbye. I liked it even better when we got to pick them up at the end of the day and hear how much fun they had ... Life is good, and it just keepd getting better : )

Flower Power

We have this great patch of sunflowers near our house it's part of an educational agriculture field. The boys had a blast running through the rows and mingling with the butterflies and bees.

Pre-Easter Excitement and Graduation Jitters...

Every day for the last week, at least twice a day ... Max has asked one of two questions, "Is it Easter yet?" or "Is it time to got to North Carolina?" Now, I guarantee you the little man is not interested in the 12 hour car ride we'll be taking on Wednesday ... but the prospect of meeting the infamous Train Buddy has him dying to hit the road. My mom (working in NC for a few months) has made fast friends with a guy who sells trains and Max cannot wait to meet him! So we are geared up to drive to NC ... Joel will fly out and meet us there and drive home with us ... we hope to visit Joel's good friend Peter along the way. We hope you all will be enjoying the holiday with family as well : )

With Easter just around the corner I'm reminded that the end of the school year isn't that far off. A few weeks ago, we toured the boys new "Big Kid" school which means we'll be saying good by to our day care days. In fact we were just notified that there will be a full on graduation ceremony with cas and gowns ... the whole deal. I really don't know if I'm ready for all of that.

What's under YOUR bed? And... the naughty babies excuse.

Ok, the house is starting to look nice thanks to a ton of spring cleaning ... Porter has terrible allergies so I have been rubbing elbow grease all over this house in an effort to rid this home of any and all things associated with wheezing, sneezing, sniffling or coughing. This type of cleaning inevitabley leads me ... under the beds. Who knew this area would prove to be such a treasure trove of missing loot! In the span of only and afternoon and evening, I was reunited with my electronic Sudoku game, 7 hair clips, a book light and a dust bunny the size of a ... bunny. Just in time for Easter! Our king size sleeper also hid beneath the bedskirt ... a winter hat and a handful of mismatch socks... and all this time I’d been blaming the dryer! But it was across the house, down the hall and around the corner, where a trip below a set of twin beds revealed the source of all happiness! This is where a month of whining came to an end. The begging for a beloved pair of favored trains finally came to an end. The dynamic duo of Special Annie and Clarabel (Thomas the Tank Engines Passenger cars) was at last returned to their distaught train engineer, Max. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard, "Mommy, where’s my Special Annie and Clarabel..." I’ve been hearing this phrase in my sleep! And beneathe the other bed ... another sad story came to a satisfactory end ... the tiny Go Diego Go! doll recently purchased at the Children’s Museum, the same Diego Porter had been yearning for from that gift shop nearly as long as Diego has been part of the kid TV scene was taken off the missing persons registry (if there is such a thing for dolls). Ahhh... peace in the valley.

BEWARE!!!

NAUGHTY BABIES

OK... now I must warn you, if you haven’t yet, please be wary of messes made that have no explanation. If you have such a problem, your culprit could be ... naughty babies. Apparently as I’ve learned from our very creative little men these naughty babies are responsible for all of the bad stuff that happens in our house that neither of the boys are willing to admit to. When scolding them for their messy playroom, they told us that neither of them made the mess. In fact ... they said ... naughty babies did it. They came in during the night ... they have red eyes and they come from another planet. So beware of these mischevious naughty babies, we’ve been unsuccessful in finding an exterminator that can take care of these messmakers.

Kids say the darndest things:
PORTER TO MOMMY: "Mommy, you’re a good mommy ... but daddy’s the BOSS!"

Porter and his pet dolphin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Porter getting some Lolly love.

The boys learning about calculators with Grandpa Dick : )

Let it snow!

We finally got a little (6 or so inches) snow in Memphis. We got out of work early, I rushed home to get the boys and let them play in the fluffy white stuff. The whole way home it went like this, "wow... Mommy that house is all covered in snow," said Porter. Then Max says, "Aaaww man, that playground has snow all over it..." So you see the pattern, they’re excited! So we get home and the first thing they do is make snow angels. We go inside and they’re ready to head to the backyard for more snow play. Considering we are now ill prepared for snow events, all of their stuff is too small ... they didn’t have the proper equipment to really get crazy so as soon as Max’s adult sized cotton gloves got filled with snow, he’d run in screaming like he’d been mauled by a rabid squirrel. No sooner does he warm up and change clothes than he’s back out in it again.




OK, so that’s snow day 1 when the snow is fluffy and not exactly snowman material. So day 2, we go thru the screaming thing once and by the time Max goes back out the sun has melted most of it and now we have the slushiest muddiest mess... we went thru at least 4 changes of clothes on Saturday. Then comes Sunday.




After a bout outside in the barely there white stuff and puddles of chilly water, Max decides he’s ready to change clothes. INTO SWIM TRUNKS! And he declares he’d like to play in the sprinkler. I admonish him for such a foolish idea and threaten him with pneumonia, etc. moments later as I clean the kitchen Porter starts bugging me about wanting to go outside with Max, to which I say, "Max isn’t outside..."




Just then I catch a glimpse of movement on the porch through the window and sure enough, my tough guy is standing outside in nothing but swim trunks and some ankle boots...EATING SNOW! So I’m not as bad a mom as it seems, I didn’t force him into the cold, he chose to be there : )

Other than that life is still pretty exciting, Joel had some major surgery on his nose/sinuses. He has recovered very well though and we hope this will help his sleeping. The boys had surgery too... ear tubes and adnoids. With any luck after Joel fully recovers, only the cat will snore!! Aaahhh... quiet nights.