Takin it easy

Well, we have completed our first week of school for the year and I have to say that it was a success.  Last year started out with screaming and being afraid to get out of the car...this year started with a "goodbye mom!!  See ya later!!".  Big improvement! 

I feel like we have had a busy summer of being on the go quite a bit, but this was our first week where we had to be somewhere at a specific time in the morning.  Because of this, I decided to take it easy and have a low key kind of morning.  Harrison loves getting out and doing things, but sometimes its nice to just mope around the house, playing toys, making projects and just hanging out.  This morning we made a project that I spotted in the Family Fun magazine early this summer and we just finally got around to it!  Its an elephant watering can...it turned out pretty cute, and now maybe Harrison will get back to helping me water plants!

(Don't you love the hair?  Needless to say, its time for a haircut!!)
Davis has just been wandering around, playing toys, cracking himself up and pretending everything is a phone.  I have been trying to teach him to say "Hi!", but so far he just picks up said-object-that-looks-like-a-phone-to-him and says "ahhhhh" and then starts laughing really hard.  I'm not sure if he laughs because he thinks he is so smart or if I laugh a lot on the phone...could be a mixture of both I guess!

His phone in this pic is a toy computer mouse...after looking at this picture, I know, I get mom of the year award for letting him play with a mouse connected to a long wire.  I guess that comes with the territory of having an older sibling.  What can I say, we like to live on the edge around here. heh.

First Day of School

Woohoo!  School is back in session at Summit Baptist Christian Academy, and we are all super excited about it!  Especially this little guy:

I woke him up this morning and he had a big smile on his face, which made for a great start to the day!  I told him today was his first day of school and here was our dialogue:
HJR:  "yeah!  But, I am going to the big kid playground now, not the little kid playground".
Me:    "Yes, that's right"
HJR:  "but, I don't know where the door to the big kid playground is!!".
Me:    "Don't worry, Ms. Sandy will show you where the door is, I promise!"
HJR:  "Ok, but I'm not going on that little kid playground!"
...its always so funny to me to hear the things that they worry about that we wouldn't have even thought about.
He had a great morning (and so did Davis and I!).  When I picked him up, he was excited.  I asked him if he saw any of his friends from his class last year, in his new class...his response, "Yes, Nathan and Bread"...I think we're going to have to work on our school friends' names!  ha ha.  He also said that he saw his friend Reese who is in the 4 yr classroom.  Reese is in our playgroup, so I think he was excited to get to be in the big kid building with her this year!
Harrison had such a great year last year, and he learned so much.  We love his  new teacher and I have a feeling we are going to make this another great year!

He is definitely not a "little kid" anymore...here is the picture from his first day last year...

Dodging the dog days of summer...

We are definitely in the dog days of summer and I feel like we have been in some sort of "rut" lately.  A working out rut for myself, an I'm-tired-of-my-toys rut for the kids, etc.  We have been to the pool so much this summer and after our beach trip last week, I felt like we just needed a little break from the water.  Its a lot of fun and Harrison & Davis both love swimming, but it is definitely a lot of work trying to keep track of the kids (both of whom have absolutely no fear of the water, which can be good and bad!) Because of this, I have been looking for some fun activities to do with the kids lately.  The big man at the north pole must have gotten word that we all needed a little treat, and he sent Mungojerrie (our Elf on the Shelf) to visit us last Thursday.  When Harrison woke up, Mungojerrie was sitting on the mantel on an little elf-size Christmas tree with a note for the boys.  He wanted to let them know how much he and Santa appreciated them being such great kids and to keep up the good work...here is what he brought...

With two boys in the house, coloring unfortunately is not an activity that holds their attention for more than two minutes, but Harrison has loved using the paints and creating masterpieces for me.  Even Davis was trying to figure it out.  He was so excited, he thought he was really coloring.

Unfortunately, it was only a matter of a day before Harrison decided to "decorate" his brother...

Fortunately it was a washable marker!!

I was planning on saving our new activity ideas for during the week, but on Saturday, Lance went golfing with a friend, so while Davis napped, Harrison and I had fun doing an ooey-gooey project...making glow in the dark slime!  He LOVED it!  The best part, was that I got a few bottles of glue at Office Depot last week for a penny each as a part of their back to school deals, so it was a super cheap project too!! It took a lot of mixing...

 

It was a project that I had to remind myself from the beginning that it was going to be messy...something you just have to chalk up to part of raising little boys!

I never could get the consistency right...it was supposed to look like this...

The lady that made this one used the clear school glue, which she said gave it a neat texture, so maybe I will try that next time.  Mine never got stiff enough to hold its shape. It was a lot of fun though and will still be a fun activity for Harrison throughout the week.

On Sunday, we had a nice sort-of family day.  I went to church with Harrison because it was my first time volunteering in the FUSE worship with the kids.  It was fun to see Harrison playing with the kids and learning some Bible lessons.  During the worship service, they have all the "big kids" (3-5 yr olds) in one room, where the sing, dance, color, learn Bible lessons, and hold a mini service, where they learn about how to act in church and what moms and dads do in church service.  I actually learned a few things too! ha ha!  At one point, the kids come into the church service for a children's sermon by the minister, so it was fun to help usher all the kids through church.  I'm excited to start volunteering and getting more involved in this area of the church, and I think Harrison will enjoy having me there occasionally too. 
I let Lance stay home with Davis so he could nap and then that afternoon we took the boys to play putt putt.  For the past few months, Harrison has gotten into a bad habit of coming into our room in the middle of the night, so we told him, that if he stayed in his room for 3 nights, we would take him on a fun outing.  We thought he would love putt putt, so we took them up to Mountasia on Sunday afternoon.  I thought it would be great if I just woke them up early from nap so we could leave here around 3:30 to get in a round of golf before dinner time.  I have no idea why I thought that was a good idea and why Lance didn't object!?!?!  It was HOOOTTTT!!!!  We motored through the golf and since there weren't too many people there, after we finished our course, we went and played a few extra fun holes on the other courses (there were 3 18-hole courses).  It was a fun adventure, but I think next time, we will save that for after the sun starts to set, or a cooler time of year!  Here are a few pictures from the family putt putt adventure...

Davis got excited whenever I would put him down so he could hit a few balls...

There were a ton of steps so we couldn't take the stroller with us and I left our baby bjorn at home.  I'm thinking it would have been a little easier if we picked a time where Davis could spend some quality time with Grandma and Granddaddy while we took Harrison putt-putting, because this is pretty much how I spent the day golfing...

Despite the heat, we had a great time and after we finished, we cooled off with some blue raspberry icees from Quick Trip!
Now, on to finding some more "projects" for the boys this week!!

Gulf Shores 2011

What a fun whirlwind of a weekend we just had!  Lance's parents planned a family beach trip to Gulf Shores so last Thursday we all loaded up the cars and headed south.  Lance's sister flew with her THREE girls and met us down there...yes I said three.  I'm still having a hard time thinking of how difficult it would be to travel with three kids!  Thankfully they all cooperated for her and we had plenty of wine waiting for her once she arrived! :)  We stayed in a three bedroom condo so it was a tight squeeze, but the kids did fantastic!
The first night was a little rough for Davis because he is such a light sleeper.  He was too interested in us being right next to him so he didn't get much sleep.  We all slept in the same room and Davis only slept about 2 -3 hours which made it rough for the rest of us.  At one point, I heard Harrison say, "Davis!  I'm trying to sleep!!!!".  Needless to say, by 6 am, I finally just got up with the kids and we headed down to the beach.  I was too tired to go for a run so I decided that if I was going to be awake, I would at least get to listen to the ocean!

Grandma and Granddaddy weren't too far behind us, so they came down and joined us...

I stayed in the condo with Davis during his morning nap on our first day so Lance could go play in the ocean with Harrison.  I told Lance to pick up some goggles on his way to the beach so Harrison would have a better time playing in the ocean and boy was that a great idea!  Apparently Harrison was all about diving through the waves!  They said for about 30 minutes, he would dive head first into the water and the waves as they came crashing in...he is so brave and loved every minute of it!  Unfortunately, I couldn't get him to do it for me, but at least Granddaddy was able to get a good video for me ( too big to post)!

Harrison's cousins Anna and Emily wanted in on the action too...

The kids played hard, but also needed a little rest time in the condo...

 

(Anna, Harrison, Emily, Davis)

Its funny to see the kids lined up like this because there is almost exactly one year between Harrison, Emily and Davis...amazing how much changes within a year!

Even baby Laurel enjoyed the trip...

It was so hot all weekend (upper 90's, very little breeze) so Laurel stayed in the condo for most of the trip.

Even Granddaddy got in on the fun, playing chauffeur for the ladies...

 

(p.s.- not sure who's raft this is??  ha ha)

The resort also had about 5 pools, so we took full advantage of those as well.  Davis loved swimming in the pools.  Now that he is mostly walking, he does not like to be confined by floats, which makes it a little more difficult for me to manage to 2 kids in the pool!  It was so nice to have extra hands with the kids on the trip!

On the second day, during the afternoon naps, Lance's parents let Lance and I take off for a little downtime on our own.  We hit up the pool bar for a pina colada and bushwacker, swam a little in the pool and then sat by the ocean for a few minutes.  It was so nice to get to enjoy a little kid-free time to relax!

We ate all of our meals at the condo which was nice because we didn't have to lose any beach time while we were there.  With 5 kids in tow, heading out to eat was just too big of a hassle!  After dinner, we took the kids down to the ocean for some more fun...

Davis loved it when we just let him crawl around the beach...

Lance had seen a few kids earlier in the day, digging a huge hole in the sand.  He took Harrison and Emily to see it and this is what it turned into. Picture my most redneck voice here, "Hey!  Watch 'is!!!"

...

...

Thankfully no children were hurt in this shenanagans!

When we came down to the beach, I work a sundress thinking I wouldn't be getting into the ocean...by the end of the night, I gave up and decided to jump on in for a picture...

After that, I took Davis in to go to bed but all the big kids stayed out and played in the pool for a while.

In she goes!!!  

Go Emily!!

The kiddies worked up an appetite each day!!

Jennifer and her sweet girls...

Grandma & Granddaddy with all the kiddies...

Like mother like daugher...

While waiting to take a few family pictures, the kids found a few little trees to climb...unfortunately, Harrison got a nasty scrape from falling in one of them, but thankfully, he was a brave little guy!

Grandma and Granddaddy (aka - the photographer!) with the boys...

We were determined to get a family picture, so here it is!  The humidity levels were off the charts so I wasn't even going to attempt to straighten my hair.  I guess thats part of the fun of the beach!

On our final day, we decided to take the "big kids" on a ride on the banana boat that was stationed out front of our resort.  Harrison and Anna had so much fun, and so did the rest of us!  It was really funny because the guy running the banana boat operation told the kids that we may get lucky and see a manatee, or what they like to call, a sea cow.  Their eyes got big as saucers  and I think they really thought that there was a cow in the ocean.  At one point, Jennifer, fell off the boat and they were convinced that a sea cow tipped her off.  Harrison is still talking about it.

One last goodbye from baby Laurel!  This was our first time to meet her, so it was an extra special visit!!

We had such a fantastic trip, thank you again to Grandma and Granddaddy Randolph!!