We drove out to Valley Home Farm in Wartrace, TN this afternoon to go strawberry picking with friends! We enjoyed picking strawberries (Xander was excited to find a strawberry with a heart shape cut out in it), hanging out, and sharing scoops of homemade strawberry ice cream.
Jonas and I went on a special trip, just the two of us, to Atlanta this week!!! We spent an afternoon at the Atlanta Zoo, a day at the Georgia Aquarium, and two nights in a comfy hotel.
At the zoo that afternoon…
Jonas had a blast climbing up and sliding down the canopy climber and checking out the komodo dragon. I enjoyed watching the panda bear chew bamboo, the baby orangutan swing, and the sun bears spar.
That night…
We explored the beautiful Centennial Olympic Park and Jonas discovered his new favorite restaurant, where we had dinner two nights in a row…The Waffle House. Ha!
At the aquarium the next day…
Our favorites were: the penguin waddle, the dolphin show, the sea lion show, the touch pools, the aquanaut adventure, and the movie screen size aquarium in the ocean voyager exhibit.
Mostly, we just enjoyed spending special time together. What a blessing!
Click on the “Atlanta Trip with Jonas 2016” page to the right for more pictures.
We spent Easter hanging out at home, eating lunch and spending time with Pops and Maw and Uncle Kerry, doing a little egg hunt in the backyard, and going to Easter mass. Here are a few pictures from the hunt…
We took our first family camping trip this week during spring break!!! A dear friend of Tom’s from the fire department let us borrow his land for the weekend. We had so much fun exploring the woods and the creek and the field, gathering rocks and wood for a campfire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows for s’mores, and camping out in a little tin-roof cabin.
Click on the “Family Camping Trip 2016” page to the right for more pictures…
I took Jonas to his climbing class tonight…he didn’t end up having class due to spring break (woops)…but we stayed anyway so he could do some climbing. It’s so fun to watch him…he’s a natural!!!
We had a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt at the park with our moms’ group this morning!!! Especially exciting for Xander and I were rescue animals brought out by a local farmer for the children to pet…including a calf, a pot belly pig, a pygmy goat, a hen, and a rabbit.
A fellow first grade mom tipped me off to a fun place to take the boys over spring break, so we tried it out today with some good friends and loved it. It was a zero entry indoor pool that went up to 2 feet, with a play structure set down in the middle of it…and the water was warm. Win, win win!!! Roman enjoyed going down the slide, Xander was all about diving for rings and turning flips in the water, and Jonas liked testing the limits of every single boundary he could. 🙂 All told, we had such a good time and will definitely be going back.
Jonas and Xander enjoyed their spring parties this afternoon, and I was so grateful to get to be there with them.
Jonas created a windsock, played spring bingo with jelly beans, and noshed on a chocolate sprinkle donut and fruit.
Xander suctioned skittles through a straw into a cup, stacked marshmallow cereal with clothespins, made a paper plate wreath with ovals cut out of paint chip cards, created his very own spinner, and snacked on rabbit bait (pretzels, teddy grahams, marshmallows, popcorn, and chocolate chips).
What a fun way for the kids to kick off Spring Break!!!
Roman had his first soccer game of the spring season today. He got right in there and played his little heart out, and we loved cheering him on. Go, Ro Ro!!!
Jonas and Xander and I had fun at Mommy/Son Game Night at school.
We took silly pictures, played relay tic tac toe (I totally busted mid-run on a Gatorade spill), had rubber band shooting and post-it note sticking races, stacked party cups into pyramids, threw footballs into the hallway (I stayed away from that one…with all of those boys throwing, it was getting crazy), played dodgeball (kindergarten + moms against 1st grade + moms), and filled up on fun snacks.
Here are a few pictures…
I can’t believe it…but my baby, Roman, turned 4 this week!!! He had fun celebrating his birthday with this brothers and his best friends at the bowling alley.
Jonas, as one of two first graders in the county, had the high honor of having his artwork chosen to hang in the Frist Museum as part of the Williamson County Schools Superintendent’s Art Show!!!
His artwork is the pink and green piece that you’ll see in the photos…painted and woven for an African Kente Cloth inspired project at school.
Here he is celebrating with Daddy, Mommy, Aunt Jeanne, his fabulous art teacher Katie Boothe, MeMe and PaPa and Aunt Jean, his godmother Julie Lee, and Maw.
Mommy (upon losing her keys from the house to the car): “Where is Mommy’s brain sometimes?”
Jonas: “Hiding with your keys?”
Xander (to Mommy who was staring off into space while playing Uno): “What are you looking at?”
Mommy: “Nothing.”
Xander: “Nothing is something. You’re looking at molecules.”
Roman (wondering about gummy vitamins): “Do these have Vitamin C in them?”
Mommy: “Yes.”
Roman: “So, I have the power to fight germs.”
We had another snow day today and were thankful to be able to make it out of the house for a trip to Goofballs. The boys enjoyed playing games, jumping on the inflatable, driving bumper cars, shooting each other with air guns/foam balls, and trading in their tickets for little treats.
It snowed last night and most of the day today. We got bundled up and hung out in it this morning and then made some snow cream…yummy!
Snow Cream Recipe:
8 cups of freshly fallen snow
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Mix and serve.
Daddy helped us build a huge snowman in our backyard, affectionately dubbed “The Beast” by Xander.
We’ve had a marathon of snow and snow days here…lots of hanging out and sledding.
Jonas was pretty excited to find out that he was sharing his name with a winter storm…Winter Storm Jonas.
We had our first snow day today!!! Tom even stayed home…we played in the snow, drank hot chocolate, switched up Xander and Roman’s rooms, and played loads of board games and cards.
The boys were SUPER excited to go rock climbing with Daddy on Martin Luther King Day…
