A Day at the Museum

Matt was able to take a half day from work to spend the day at the museum with us. We met him in the parking garage, the kids had no idea he was going to show up, so that made it even more fun...they didn't even know where we were going until I drove past the dinosaurs coming out of the building. They have a new animation exhibit and a comic book area, so Car really wanted Matt to see the Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and any other kind of man you can think of pictures! We had a ton of fun!! Delaney had a great time drawing and coloring in the comic book area and Carson loved to play memory in the dinosaur area. He does not like to go in where the dinosaurs are (they are too loud for him), so we sat out at the play table where there is a computer with dinosaur memory on it. By the 5th game he was doing an excellent job...and just as an fyi, the cards were not in the same place every time!!

Wonderful IN summer weather

One day last week we woke up to a wonderful summer day. So, we decided to take advantage of it. Before breakfast we filled up the little plastic pool (you know, so it could warm up while we ate...HA). The kids had SO much fun outside! They played in the water, squirted me with water guns, and ran all over the backyard. I did not require the water wings that Carson is wearing, he loved them and refused to take them off...hilarious tan lines, but he's 3, he doesn't care! He also learned to jump like a frog from standing outside the pool to inside the pool. It was very interesting to watch him try and try and finally master it. Probably not the safest idea, but he was so determined I couldn't burst his little bubble. Plus, Delaney couldn't figure out how to do it, so that made it an even more wonderful experience for him.

Carson's big day

Lucky for us, the PBS Kids Park (as Carson referred to it) happened to fall right on his birthday! So, as the announcer on the TV told him, he could go see all of his favorite friends in the park. Per the birthday boys request, we headed downtown to see all of his friends! It was a hot day and there were so many people it was crazy! Luckily our kids didn't want to have their pictures taken with the characters, they just wanted to take pictures of all of the characters...yeah!!! No 45 minute lines to stand with the character for 30 seconds and be scooted away so the next child had their turn. We took lots of pictures from the side of the tents that the characters were in. They also had a bounce house and other blow up things that Delaney thoroughly enjoyed....Carson isn't as adventurous yet when it comes to unfamiliar territory.

For dinner we headed to Chick-fil-a so he could play at the playland...and, yes Shannon, he came down all on his own (with the promise of cake when we got home).

He's 3 now....my baby is 3...doesn't seem possible.

From the eyes of Delaney

I mentioned in my last post that the kids received digital cameras for their birthdays. Delaney is really into hers and getting pretty good at it. We went for a walk yesterday and she had to take her camera with her. Here are some of the images she captured.

It was a PARTY!

Some people think I'm crazy, but if you are someone that has to attend the birthday parties, you think I'm sane. I don't do single parties for the kids. They get treated like royalty on their actual birthday, so their party is always combined the weekend between their actual birthdays. For the past 2 years they have "agreed" on a theme...or maybe Carson just didn't have an opinion until this year :-) We had a Cars movie/Princess (focusing on Snow White) party. I chose to go with "color" as my theme! The party was supposed to be at 10am, but because our garage sale was rained out the weekend before, our neighborhood decided to reschedule it for this past weekend. If any of you have been to one of those crazy neighborhood garage sales where the street becomes a one lane road of CRAZY drivers, that is what ours turns in to, so we decided trying to park 10 extra cars out there wasn't going to happen. However, I'd already planned a brunch menu, so we moved the party to 4:30 and had breakfast for dinner. (Bonus: We opened up our garage sale again and made a pretty penny!!)

This was what was occuring in my house at 3:45...the party was supposed to start at 4:30. Delaney had a cold and had pretty much passed out in her floor...she NEVER naps in the afternoon, so I was frightened as to what kind of attitude we might find when she did wake up. Carson was very into whatever Matt had been watching on TV and refused to go change his clothes...of course, through all of this I'm running around like a mad woman trying to prepare food, make sure I have everything out, and looking to see if there are any last minute messes to be cleaned up.

Obviously from the looks of this picture, everyone got dressed and cheered up. The party was fun and the kids received lots of fun toys (the yellow balloon being one of them). They have new dress up clothes (a pirate, princess, butterfly wings, and Snow White), lots of outside toys (balls, bubbles, bug catchers), digital cameras, clothes galore, and some coloring and activity books.

This is the butterfly version of Snow White the morning after the party...the cold symptoms were back in full force, so we lazied around the house in the morning before going to lunch with my family to celebrate the 3 awesome dads we are blessed to have in our family!

Delaney's birthday

Delaney asked to go to the zoo for her birthday, so that is what we did. We had a ton of fun going at our own pace and seeing exactly what the princess wanted to see. We stopped at one of those machines where you insert 2 quarters and a penny and it "presses" it into an animal picture...she thought she was hot stuff.

For dinner, she wanted quesadillas, so we headed to Don Pablo's. The meal and birthday dessert was so good there that we didn't break into her cake until Thursday evening.







Matt and I bought her a Leapster (wonderful educational game system). She was SO excited to open it! Her and Matt have had lots of fun playing with it.

Recital

I can't think of a clever name for this post....so it is pretty obvious! Enjoy these pictures from the big recital. She did an AWESOME job!! I, unfortunately, had to be backstage with her, so I didn't get to see any of it, but there are pictures of her dancing...YEAH!!! I was so proud of her (but we still haven't signed her up for next year).

Monkey Delaney

After the show, my mom bought her a rose. She thought she was something special...well, she is, isn't she?!?

My BIG kids!

This past weekend was a big weekend for both Delaney and Carson. We'll start with Car b/c he so often gets to be second! He has been working very hard on potty training and his chart was a SLOW success....seriously, you can look back through this blog and see that we started a (what we thought would be) 30 day chart in February and he just finished it last week!!! WOW!!! But, I can now say that he is my big "unders" wearing boy! He wore them to church yesterday, which is a big deal b/c we haven't been going to this church very long, so I don't know how much they pay attention to requests/instructions, but he came out in the same pants we dropped him off in, so they must have asked him a few times or he must have gone on his own. All of that to say ~ the last reward on his chart was a big boy bed (the same bed Matt slept in when he was 3). It was delivered last week and Matt put it up Friday. We left the crib in the room so he could go back to it if he wanted to, but Matt took it down yesterday b/c Carson claims he is a big boy and doesn't need that baby bed anymore.

On to Delaney....this weekend was her rehearsal for her recital (which is Saturday at Franklin Central HS at 1pm). She did a good job, but 2 hours is a LONG time for an almost 4 year old that really isn't that interested in dancing! She was a mess by 2:40 (I so badly wanted to leave, but knew I needed to prove to her that we had to stick it out till the end). I think she will just stand there and look cute on Saturday, but I don't care. It's been a good experience for all of us....I learned I am just not one of those dance moms and she learned she doesn't so much care for ballet...she needs a little more activity....maybe we'll try gymnastics!