A Fun Weekend

We had a really full - but fun - weekend.

It started Saturday morning with Noah's soccer game. Nana and Pops joined us to watch Noah's team win yet another game. Noah even scored a goal! Perhaps even cooler than that though, was watching them work together as a team. Because he is on an 8 and under team this year, the boys are starting to be old enough to understand passing and looking for the open man. They had several plays where all four players on the field touched the ball on the way up the field for a goal. So cute to watch! Liam really enjoyed watching - well, mostly he just liked sitting in his chair and snacking.

Saturday evening Wes and I went on our long awaited date to see.... Wicked! He gave me the tickets as a Christmas present and I was so excited that the time was finally here. Our babysitter snapped a photo of us before we left,

Before the show we headed to eat at EVO in Park Circle. I had the Pistachio Pesto Pizza - as usual. Then we headed over to the North Charleston Preforming Arts Center, grabbed some wine and popcorn and headed in to find our seats. On the way in, I made Wes get a picture of me with the Wicked sign.

The show was just as awesome as I remembered! Actually, this was probably an even better experience because Wes had scored us fabulous seats right up front. We could see everything in such detail and it was all I could do not to sing along with the actors. (Wes was very glad I refrained from doing that by the way.) If you haven't seen this show, and you get the chance, go! You will love it.

Our Sunday plans came together at the last minute, but aren't those usually the best kinds of plans?! Our friends Lynn and Melissa were kind enough to get us some passes to the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival at the James Island County Park. Wes was excited to check out some of the Kayaks and Melissa, Lisa, and I got to try our hand on a stand up paddle board. I have been wanting to try a SUP for a long time, but as the three of us prepared to go out we were pretty convinced we would look like fools. We had to look for a vendor who had 3 free boards so we could all go out at the same time and "fall together".

Here we are getting some instructions. And no, we are not wearing fanny packs - those are emergency life jackets.

Wes, Lynn, and the kids cheered heckled us from the shore as we set out. We started on our knees to get a feel for it. Then I heard Lisa yell to "stand up ladies" and turned around to find that she was up. So up I went. And it was way easier than I thought! And so fun! It is a workout and a great way to just kind of relax and explore. I could have stayed out for a long time. (Now, if someone just has a spare thousand dollars they would like to throw my way so I can buy a board...). As we came back Noah and Hannah were yelling their disappointment that nobody had fallen. Apparently watching their Moms fall in the water would have been fabulous entertainment. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Afterwards the kids - and Wes - were dying to try a kayak, so Noah and Hannah took turns going out with Wes.

And, while Liam screamed his head off for "Daddy and Woah!", Connor honed his surf skills.

After that we were all starving so we said good bye to the boats and headed to a restaurant. For all you parents of a toddler who want a good tip on how to have a good restaurant experience? Make him so tired that he passes out cold in the booth.

And now, I may follow Liam's lead and pass out cold on my couch. I love fun weekends!

Happy Birthday Liam

Today Liam turned 2. (What?!)

It was pretty low key. He spent the day playing with trains and hanging out with two of his favorite people.

                                                                           Aunt J

                                              And, of course, his big brother "Woah".

                        Oh, and let's not forget the part where he made love to a piece of cake.

Oh yeah baby, that is how we roll! Happy Birthday to my most favorite 2 year old in the whole world. I love you Liam!

Our Spring Break: A Photo Essay

No, we did not go anywhere for spring break this year. But sometimes you can have just as much fun when you stay at home!

The park:

The grocery store:

A different park with friends:

Downtown, at the Aquarium and Cupcake with Daddy:

An afternoon at the beach:

And an evening concert complete with picnic dinner and a limbo bar:

I know it was just a "stay cation" but I am kind of sad it is almost over. So thankful for getting to make sweet memories with my family!

Noah's 3-D Dinosaur

As far as the homework load in kindergarten goes, well, we have gotten off pretty easy. Noah gets all his assignments at the beginning of the week and has until Friday to finish them. Some weeks we can finish it all in one day if we just power through - which is good, because our evenings have gotten pretty busy. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a sheet came home in his folder explaining about a geometry project that was due and my heart dropped. Here we go, I thought. Here come all the projects that are supposed to be for the kids but end up being work for the parents!

And I was kind of right. It was mostly a lot of work for me - do I really want my almost 6 year old operating a hot glue gun or a can of spray paint? - but I did my best to have Noah and his ideas be an integral part of the process so that he could legitimately claim the project as his own.

The assignment was to build an animal using three dimensional shapes. Basically with items you have around your house. (Boxes, paper towel rolls, etc.) Then you had to paint it and decorate it and bring it in to school and present it to the class.

Is anyone shocked that when I asked Noah what animal he was picking, he brought our his dinosaur book and pointed to the Ankylosaurus?

We spent the first afternoon building the frame of the dino. I used an oatmeal box for the body, toilet paper rolls for the legs, and those Styrofoam balls for the tail and head. Noah helped me pick out all the shapes and figure out how to arrange them, and then he documented our work while I anchored the body parts with paper clips, duct tape, and glue.

That evening, Wes took it out to the backyard and spray painted the whole thing brown. Then we let it dry overnight. The next afternoon, Noah sat down with Bebe and they started the process of decorating him with paint and shapes cut out of construction paper.

Noah did a great job of painting and helping us figure out how to position the dino's spikes and eyes. (Kudos to Wes for coming up with the idea of using cork board pins for the eyes. Would we expect any less from our resident optometrist?) Noah was very proud the next morning when he got to take the finished product to school.

And by golly, I think it really did end up looking like the picture of the Ankylosaurus!

Phew! We have survived our first school project!

Easter Morning

For Easter this year it was just the 4 of us. It was very relaxing and we had a good time as a family. The boys opened their Easter baskets and oohed and aahhed over their new Angry Birds tshirts and Liam declared his race car was "Coooolll!!!"

Church this year was really neat. We have recently started attending River Church and they hold their Easter services outside in a park every year in an effort to engage the community around them. Now, I will admit, I threw a minor hissy fit when I realized that I was going to have to stand in the middle of a baseball field while wearing my new white jeans, but once we got there I was okay. The sun was shining, the park was crowded, and even my boys sat still through the sermon. (An Easter miracle!)

Now if only we had sung my favorite song, it would have been perfect! So, I'll sing some of it here. This is what Easter means for me...

                          And as He stands in victory
                          Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
                          For I am His, and He is mine
                          Bought with the precious blood of Christ


Happy Easter!

Easter Weekend Happenings

Jeez, where do I start?!

Since I have gotten into the nasty habit of only blogging once a week I feel like there is so much to catch up on - I don't even know where to begin. I think I will stick to our Easter weekend for now and catch up some other stuff later.

Wes and I started the weekend by going on a date. (We had free baby sitting offered by my Mom, who was in town.) We ate at Triangle - so yummy, as always - and saw the movie Act of Valor. It is a fictional account of a group of Navy Seals and some of their maneuvers, however, the action is performed by real life Navy Seals. I kind of wanted to see it - and Wes really wanted to see it - so we went. And I loved it! It was so amazing to watch all the things that the men and women of our armed services do to protect our country. It was very moving and I would highly recommend seeing it.

I spent Saturday morning doing my long run for the week. Our 90+ degree days have disappeared and I started off my 9 miles in 48 degrees. I was not happy! But I had some good company to distract me and so it went by pretty fast. (Well, not fast. I don't run fast but you get what I mean.) Afterwards we grabbed the boys, joined our friends, and headed up to the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. There was a jump castle and snow cones - in addition to our playground and the egg hunt itself. It seemed like everyone was there and we all had such a fun time. Have a mentioned how great our neighborhood is?!

PS... Apparently Lisa shares my love for nautical stripes! ;)

And then yesterday evening - after 8 hours of non-stop work by our friend Mr. Doug - and Wes 'helping' - the boys looked out the window and saw this.

Now that we have our fence, Wes and I decided that we could finally get the boys a play set for the back yard. It is a joint gift for both of their birthdays from us and all the grandparents. They love it!

In just 24 hours Noah has taught himself how to pump on the swing (finally!) and jump out while it is moving and land on his feet. And Liam has spent his time going around the bottom and breaking up all the clods of dirt that got dug up during installation. Typical.

So much fun to have a weekend full of friends, family, good times, and Dad not working!

Why We Love Aunt J

One of the boys' favorite things to do is hang out with their Aunt J. (My sister, Jessie, for those of you who don't know.) She is all about being goofy and having fun and they love it!

Sunday was her birthday (yes, she is our April Fool), and so on Friday Liam and I spent the morning with her doing some fun stuff. First we made a stop to buy Liam a pair of Crocs. He has been wanting a pair like Noah's and I was finally able to find a pair in his size that was an acceptable color. He immediately wanted to wear them so J and I obliged, changing his shoes in the parking lot. Of course, he has a weird obsession with wearing socks - he hates to be barefoot - and so refused to wear his new crocs without his socks. I was adamantly opposed to him wearing socks with crocs, but Aunt J over ruled me and declared that if it kept him happy, she would allow him to keep his socks on. I told her she could pretend he was her child. So she did.

After that we headed to get frozen yogurt at the birthday girl's favorite place: Menchie's. Liam was very happy that it was Aunt J's birthday and he got to indulge in yogurt with candy on top.

And then later, during some more shopping, Liam was also very happy when he managed to con Aunt J into letting him ride on one the race car at the mall. I had lied and told him I had no quarters... So he turned on the charm and Aunt J was putty in his hands. She busted out her quarters, no questions asked.

It was a very fun morning and Liam was more than ready to sleep when nap time rolled around.

On Sunday, J and her boyfriend Brett, came over to celebrate with the whole family. We did lunch and then Liam helped her blow out the candles on her cake. (25, she is sooooo old.)

After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard. J and Brett entertained the boys for a long time playing tag, and kickball and racing.

That evening Liam was so tired, all we he could do was collapse in a chair and watch Thomas The Train on the iPad.

Can you tell why my boys love their Aunt so much?! I know they wish every weekend was Aunt J's birthday!