Our final round of Spring Break visitors came on Saturday evening when Nana and Papa stopped by to spend the night on their way home from Florida. After spending a week in Florida with beautiful weather filled with sunshine and 80 degree temps, they were welcomed to Tennessee with pouring rain and highs in the 50s! BOO! They arrived just in time for the Butler game (Yes, I feel I have the right to jump on their bandwagon because it's an Indiana team AND we got married on their campus!), and what a game it was!! After the game, Grace got a spring pedicure just in case sandal weather ever comes around again. She even picked out pajamas that matched her new, red toenails!
Grace and Nana invented a new game that I've dubbed "squish your guts out".....because that's exactly what they do. She drug out her play-doh table and every kind of play food under the sun. Papa even got to play a few rounds of Barbie!
After the girls were all settled down, Mom and I stayed stayed up way too late catching up while the boys cuddled up on the couch to catch a few ZZZZZZZs (see pic). :)
Unfortunately, they had to leave the next morning to go back to that thing people call WORK! BLAH! Their visit was WAY too short but we'll be back in Indiana in a few weeks for Easter! YAY!
Poor Nana!
Awww! Papa and Daddy snuggled up on the couch!! HAHA!
Playing Barbies with Papa!
I guess all good things have to come to an end and that includes Spring Break! We had a great couple of weeks filled beautiful weather, days where we didn't have any particular place to be, and visits from family!! Come back soon!!
Part two of our Spring Break came last Tuesday when the Townsend's stopped by for a visit and some basketball. To say that Jack is slightly obsessed with basketball might be the understatement of the year! :) So Matt thought he might need a "fix" during their vacation and asked if he wanted to come play with the old men. Ummmm yes! Talk about doing something to make yourself feel better!! Oh, I'm just messin' with ya' there lover!
Anywho after some pizza (great food to chow on right before you run yourself ragged!), the boys headed off for a few basketball games and Aunt "Wala" (Laura) stayed with the girls and I for a little playtime. We hadn't seen them since their BIG announcement and I couldn't wait to discuss all things "baby" with her!! She also found herself caught in the same room with a SAHM (stay-at-home-mommy) who was in desperate need of some adult conversation and didn't stop running her mouth the entire time! Sorry about that again! Apparently, I need to get out more! HAHA!!
The boys came home looking like they had just run two, full marathons, completely covered in sweat and completely exhausted! HYSTERICAL!! Let's just say that I'm pretty certain the three of them slept just fine that night!
The girls and I met up with them again on Wednesday at the same go cart fun center (for a lack of better term) that we went to last year during their Spring Break. The weather forecast didn't look promising for the day and my fingers were crossed that we wouldn't get caught in the thunderstorm while Grace was riding the ferris wheel!
Grace couldn't wait and started screaming as soon as she saw the merry-go-round! She and Jack spent the day running from one ride to the next AND Jack even discovered a new love for the go carts this year!! Anna was so patient and sat in the stroller most of the time while the big kids got to ride the rides. Bless her little heart! She just goes with the flow while I drag her from place to place often skipping her naptime and adjusting her feeding schedule to accommodate whatever we are doing that day. Poor baby! It's no wonder second babies are usually laid back. They don't have any other choice!
We had a quick lunch and went back for round 2 with the rides. The weather held off and we were able to enjoy a fun day in Pigeon Forge! It was great seeing the Townsend's and we're already looking forward to their next visit!
Happy Birthday, Daddy!
Wednesday was also Matt's 33rd birthday! OLD MAN!!! It's a good thing I'm around to keep him young! We had a little family party that evening and this is one gift that he opened (proudly taken by KG Photography). We're into photography these days and we don't have any of our pictures on canvas. He was pretty excited AND I got a GREAT deal on it thanks to www.groupon.com!!!
We were fired up for Spring Break around our house for several reasons. First, the week that Grace was on break, we had BEAUTIFUL weather and spent most of our time outside playing or at the park having a picnic. We have become quite the picnic-ing family this spring. Why not when it's warm and we have an extra hour of daylight in the evening! YAY!
Second, we had LOTS of visitors coming to Tennessee!! We hadn't seen family since Grace's birthday and we were anxious for their arrival! First up was Grandma. She came at the tail end of Grace's Spring Break. Believe me when I say the ENTIRE town of Knoxville knew she was coming because Grace told EVERYONE we saw! We went to Walmart the day that she arrived and Grace honestly told at least a half a dozen people that "Grandma is coming today!" HAHA! We stayed around the house on Friday and Grandma got to play, play, and play some more. On Saturday, we headed to Grace's tee ball practice which can bring anyone to tears from laughing so hard! She got to witness the little Red Sox in action and Grace even gave us a couple waves when she was supposed to be paying attention to her coaches! WAHAHA! Saturday night Grandma did something for Matt and I and we cannot say thank you enough...........we got to go on a DATE!!!! WHO HOO!! We were so excited we could hardly stand it!! We got to enjoy a hot meal, take as long as we wanted to eat, have a FULL conversation, and even watch Butler win a fantastic game!! Yes, we still like to enjoy some sports while we're out. It's March Madness baby!!
Sunday we decided to visit the Oak Ridge Children's Museum. They were having free admission during Spring Break and we had never been there before.......so why not! It may not have been close to the Indianapolis Children's Museum BUT it had a pretty fun train exhibit and a life-size dollhouse AND it was FREE!! After Grace's nap, it was still warm outside so we loaded up and grabbed some ice cream! Oh Sonic, how we love your orange creamslush treats!!! YUM!!
Grandma headed back to Indiana on Monday morning and, while we were sad to see her go, we were already planning her next visit! Come back and visit us again soon!
The good thing about living in Knoxville during the month of March is that we usually having a constant revolving door of visitors! This tends to make goodbyes a little easier for us. Next up, we were getting excited for our round two of visitors........the Townsend's!!!
Matt and I were SOOOO excited when we learned about a local organization that allowed 3 year olds to play tee ball!!! I've always been told that the kids have to be 4 in order to play so when our neighbor gave me the info for Farragut Baseball, we signed her up immediately!!
Taking a little time out to socialize!
We got an email shortly after signing up informing us that Grace would a part of the Red Sox team! WHAT!! The first thing we did was call Papa with the bad news since he is a die hard Yankees fan!
Coach Jimmy told us we would need to purchase a glove and a pair of baseball pants. The official uniform (t-shirt) would be provided later and the rest of the equipment was optional. The morning of her first practice we were SO pumped and I sent Matt and Grace out to get her pants and glove. I guess Matt was a little more excited than I thought because they came home with the pants and glove that are required AND a helmet (pink of course!), cleats, a bat, and a bat bag to hold all of this new equipment! My, oh my!!
It was raining that morning and we were hoping to get a break in the rain to squeeze our practice in BUT it wasn't meant to be. We got the official call: CANCELLED! BOO!!
The following Saturday was beautiful and we were geared up for practice: GAME ON!! Our practices are on Saturdays from 1-2pm which is during Grace's usual naptime so we had our fingers crossed that she wouldn't end up in meltdown central in the middle of practice. Not to mention she was up at 5:30am the morning of her first practice.......Lord help us! After arriving, Coach Jimmy gathered all the kids in a huddle and asked if anyone knew what their team name is. A couple kids quietly said, "Red Sox." And then Grace yells out, "I'm on a baseball team!" WAHAHAHA!!
The first "drill" the players did was run the bases. They took off and Grace was.......ummmm just a TAD behind everyone else! HYSTERICAL!! Grace looked tiny compared to the other kids and appeared to be much younger. Some of them were downright fast! I started talking to the other moms and found out that most of the other kids are 4 - 4.5 with at least 4 of them turning 5 this summer!! No wonder!!
The coach had 3 different stations set up which was brilliant thinking for the attention spans of 3 and 4 year olds! Hmmmm, maybe he's done this before! :) At the first station, Grace got to hit the ball off of the tee. She got a couple hits in, but was quickly at the fence socializing. At the second station, the "assistant coach" was tossing the ball so they could try to catch it using their glove. As it turned out, Grace was more interested in playing in the dirt than catching the ball! WAHAHA! And finally at the last station, another dad was tossing the ball so they could get in more hitting practice. Grace got a couple hits and was once again playing in the dirt. All the players got one more chance to run the bases at the end of practice to which Grace responded with a big WHO HOO!! Believe me if you want a good laugh, you'll have to come out to a game! It is absolutely HYSTERICAL!!! The Red Sox play 8 games this season starting on April 9th and ending May 28th! Come on down and help cheer on our little Red Sox!!!
Grace decided she didn't need a nap this past Tuesday when she got home from school. This video was taken right before I put her to bed and is evidence that she DOES, in fact, still need a nap!! Cuckoo, cuckoo!! :) And, as usual, Anna thinks she is hysterical!
Today has been "just one of those days!" You know, one where you wish you can push the reset button and start the day all over again. I had a MOMS Club meeting this morning so we HAD to be out of the house by a certain time. The day started ok and, as usual, Grace was up at 6:15am. She got in our bed, I got her some Cheerios, and got in the shower. She ate a good breakfast WITHOUT me telling her to KEEP EATING. And then, it all started to go downhill. Grace and I went upstairs to get Anna after she woke up, and we were greeted with a green fog that could gag even the strongest of stomachs! The poor thing was laying in her bed with poop all over her sheet and all the way up to her neck! Awesome! By the time I went through almost an entire package of wipes and got her cleaned up, we had about 15 minutes to nurse Anna and feed her her cereal before we should be on the road. Ummmmm, not good! Fast forward 20 minutes.....I had Anna packed up in her carseat and ready to go when Grace yells, "MOMMY I HAVE TO POOP!!" Good thing she's a fast pooper! We arrived to the meeting about 10 minutes late, sat down (while the speaker was already speaking.....sweet!), and Anna pooped again! WHAT!! It smelled like I just took a nose dive directly into the sewer so I took her out for an immediate diaper change! After the meeting, I went down to the nursery to get Grace and arrived just in time to hear her having a minor meltdown over a toy she didn't want to share. Love it (please note the sarcasm in my voice)! We got home at lunchtime and EVERYONE (including myself) was STARVING as if we hadn't been fed in days! I quickly let Pete outside so he could do his thing since the rain had finally stopped. He spotted another dog, and went running after him RIGHT THROUGH our electric fence! SWEET!! He has only had a week to get used to the fence, but after a quick S*@* that really hurt moment, he went right through it! So, I got the girls to put them in the car and realized (after yet another green fog smacked me in the face) that Anna had pooped once again. REALLY?!? This was not a blow-out situation so I had no choice but to load them up in the car and get Pete. He was actually fighting with another dog and knew I had to get him NOW!! He was right down the road and, luckily, I was able to get him quickly. After getting everyone back home again, I took Anna upstairs to take care of the poop situation. I came back downstairs to Grace looking at me saying, "I didn't do anything." This can only mean my head is about to pop off due to whatever she "didn't do." I discover that she decided (RIGHT AFTER I asked her if she had to go!) to potty ALL OVER the barstool! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?! Note to all guests: DO NOT sit in the barstool next to the sink. I'm sure it's still soggy from the amount of urine that came out of her! At this point, I'm pinching myself to make sure this is all actually happening (BEFORE NOON) and I'm not living in a nightmare! Nope, it's actually happening. And, yes, my head had completely popped off by this point and was spinning on the ground spitting out green vomit Linda Blair style!
Then came NAPTIME, and I had a chance to sit down and take a few deep breaths. This song popped in my head and the lyrics could not have been more perfect for what happened today! One day, I'm going to miss all these little things that send me for a loop. It's so easy to get caught up in the messes, tantrums, and unexpected delays that occur every day. I know it won't be like this for long and before I know it, the girls will be grown and I'll be begging to have these days back. But for now, I'll just take a few deep breaths and enjoy my girls in THIS moment!!
Last weekend, the girls and I had plans to head north to Indiana to celebrate my niece, Sophie's, birthday. The week before Grace was sick with an ear infection and a viral infection. Anna got the funk a few days later and was coughing so bad, she actually threw up a couple times. So needless to say, we decided to stay home.
I decided to go ahead and get us tickets to the circus banking that the girls would feel better and get some much needed time OUT OF THE HOUSE!!
We arrived at the pre-show an hour before the circus started with high expectations of seeing some animals, clowns, etc. We didn't see any animals, but we did see a clown and meet a couple members of the cast. Grace got a "stircus stamp" on her hand and a clown nose to take home. We took her back upstairs so she could pick out a souvenir and she decided on a container with several little animals to play with. No surprises there! Matt and I knew those were the winner as soon as we stepped up to the counter.
We found our seats, got some popcorn, and were ready for the show to start! We got to see some elephants, dogs and cats doing tricks, trapeze artists, magic tricks, and two ladies hanging from the air from only their hair........OUCH!!!!
Grace and Anna started getting a little antsy right as an intermission was announced so we decided to hit the road. I wanted to make sure the girls got their naps in since they were both getting over the funk.
We had a good time, but it sure didn't keep our attention like Princesses on Ice! But then again, who can compete with ALL of the Disney princesses plus Mickey and Minnie under one roof!
Anna continues to crack up at EVERYTHING Grace does! Here is a video of her busting a gut at Grace in the bathtub a few nights ago. You might see several of these videos so I'm going to apologize in advance. I never get tired of hearing the two of them giggle!!
Anna got her first taste of baby food a couple weeks ago! I went with carrots as her first food and she had quite the interesting reaction. She was fine with the first couple of bites.........and then it all started to go downhill! By the time she got to bite #4 or 5, she was in full gag mode! WHAT!! This is NOT a good start to a whole new world of tastes! HAHA! The second day she tried carrots, she actually threw up she was gagging so bad! Oh lord!
And the spitting and gagging commence!
The good news is I'm pretty sure all this gagging was related to her cold because she was also gagging on her cereal (which she loves). AND there has been very minimal gagging the last two days!! Here's to hoping the next veggie I introduce goes much more smoothly!!
