Grandad's birthday

My dad's birthday was April 6th. We celebrated the following evening at our house. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive and Heath to finish the burgers, we let the boys practice their egg-hunting skills in the backyard. I'm thinking it was chilly last Easter and Baylen didn't hunt many eggs, so really, this was his first year. I wanted to give him some time to practice before all the egg-hunting at Gran-Granny's house.

Here's Cash showing him how it's done. Mom and I hid some in real obvious places at first.

Baylen began to catch on, but somehow he didn't get the message about putting them in the basket after he found them. So here he is holding his basket in one hand and two eggs in the other.

I showed him how to put the eggs in the basket, and after that, he really took off. From novice to proficient egg-hunter in just a few minutes!

As you can tell, Cash was doing very well at finding the eggs.

He did help Baylen out quite a bit. I thought it was cute how Cash would show Baylen where they were, just like we used to do when Cash was younger. What a good big brother!

This was great - Mom would tell the boys to go inside and hide their eyes while she hid them again. B took her seriously.

After supper, we had yummy, yummy banana cake for dessert. It's my dad's favorite, and he asks for it every year. My mom uses my grandma's recipe (dad's mother) that she used when dad was growing up. It's so good, right down to the frosting.

Three grandboys cheesing with the birthday boy

Of course, my two would feel the need to help Grandad blow out the candles.

The cake was devoured by all, and then the boys got down to play some more before it was time for the party to wrap up. I didn't get any pictures of the opening presents part of the party, but just know it was a fun time of family celebrating the life of a very special dad and Grandad!

Taking to the skies

Cash had been asking my dad to go flying for awhile. He kept say, "Mommy, we didn't go flying for the letter F week." I promised him that I would mention it to Grandad, and I did. So the next time that Grandad went flying (that wasn't during naptime or early in the morning), he flew down to Bowling Green to pick us up.

We got there early so we could see Grandad land, but it ended up being a little too early. We waited in the FBO for what seemed like forever before we heard his voice calling in to the airport.

He was happy guy, too. This was going to be Baylen's first flight with Grandad! Cash went up with my dad for the first time when he was about 10 months old. 

Grandad landed and he had some passengers! Derek and Kennick had flown down with him and hung out in the FBO while we took a short flight around Bowling Green.

The take-off went great. Cash was sitting in the seat next to me, and Baylen was in my lap, all of us belted in, of course. We circled around the city and then flew out to Moats Lane so we could see the river and our house. Cash pointed out the Corvette Museum form the air.

This was how B was about five minutes into the flight. He was holding on to his headphones and Cash's airplane, fast asleep in my lap. He slept for the rest of the trip.

What a big boy! He sat in his seat for most of the trip. Every little bit he would get up on his knees to look out the windows. 

Here's Grandad with the three boys back at the airport. What a great day for flying!

I tried to get a good picture of dad and Baylen after his first flight, but he was still sleepy and the sun was in his eyes. Oh, well!

Thanks, Grandad, for a fun flight around the city!

April 7, 2012

Time to meet the dinosaurs!

Here's the boys at the entrance to the dinosaur exhibit at the zoo.

Interestingly enough, Cash told someone earlier that day that he was going to the zoo to see the dinosaurs. The guy just laughed and told him that there were no dinosaurs at the zoo because they were extinct. Let me tell you, based on Cash's reaction to these animated, very life-like roaring dinosaurs, they could have just as well been considered alive!

It was great because you could get up-close and personal with these dinosaurs. As you can see here, B didn't mind, but Cash was pressed back into the stroller hating every minute. This one was moving it's head from side to side, blinking its eyes and growling.

This was the most impressionable sight to Cash from the entire day. It's the first thing he told Heath about when we got home. "We saw a dinosaur eating another dinosaur." Very realistic, or is it?

Can you see the boys' hands here? Cash held onto B's thumb the entire trip through.

Even though he loves "three-horns," he did not like this one. B was cheesing for the picture while Cash was scared to death. Hilarious!

In all honesty though, I'm not a huge fan of animated dinosaurs either. I had a horrible experience on a ride at Epcot in Disney World when I was young and it's stuck with me. I thought I was pretty brave throughout the entire D is for dinosaur week. Maybe I'm cured! :)

Kennick is pointing to some cute (can they be?), baby dinosaurs hatching from eggs. It was the only part of the exhibit where Cash got out of the stroller to get a closer look.

Here's the mommy dinosaur. She was close-by making some scary (defensive) noises.

B wasn't scared of anything, especially these babies. At one point I thought he was going to crawl in there with them.

Yes, happy here, but not completely loving the dinosaurs. I do think he inherited my fear of animated dinosaurs. Poor kid.

Last, but not least, was the Tyrannosaurus Rex. There was a rope bridge that we had to walk across. Under the bridge was a long neck in the creek. This T-Rex was swaying back and forth, eyeing anyone walking across the bridge and making some ferocious sounds. Cash did not like it at all. But to get across the bridge, you had to go towards the scary dinosaur. 

Kennick felt the same way. He wanted to go the other way, but Karalee pushed the stroller up the hill with him trying to climb to get past the T-Rex as fast as he could. All we could do was laugh. As moms, we get to laugh at our kids every once in awhile. This was one of those times.

Yes, indeed. He was a pretty scary dinosaur.

After we left the exhibit, we found this dinosaur that we could climb on. Cash was still unsure of him, so he stayed in the stroller for awhile.

Finally, he decided to climb on it, too, starting with the safe end - the tail.

Cheese! We survived the dinosaurs!

Now he was getting more comfortable with the idea and climbed to the top. Since then, Cash has fallen in love with all dinosaurs. He can name just about any that he sees and wants to read book after book about dinosaurs.

As you can tell, he wants to learn as much as he can about them!

Zoo fun!

During the second weekend in April, Karalee brought Kennick down, we loaded all three boys' carseats in the back of my car (along with the boys) and headed to Nashville. We decided to leave right after lunch time when bellies were full and they were ready for naps. It worked! For the most part, they slept until we got close to the zoo, and when they woke up, they were all ready for some fun.

The main reason that we took them was to see the new dinosaur exhibit, but, of course, we had to see some of the other animals, too.

Here's the boys and I waiting our turn to climb under the meerkat habitat. 

 


Yay! Can you see us? It's fun to be totally surrounded by the cute little guys and all their holes.

When we got out, Kennick wanted me to take him so he could see, too!

We made our way to the petting zoo. This is usually Heath's favorite part (the goats), but since he wasn't with us, the boys did a great job brushing and rubbing the goats for him.

This goat in particular seemed to like the boys, and as you can tell, I think the feelings were mutual.

It took awhile for Kennick to warm up to it, but after he did, he gave the goat a good scratch behind the ears.

I was super excited that they could come with us. Karalee and I don't get to spend too much time together. 

Does anyone else think this is crazy? Most of the flamingos were sleeping - which meant they were standing on one foot with their heads resting on their backs. Looks comfortable to me...

We definitely had to ride on the carousel. It was getting a little chilly, especially in the shade, so we put on jackets.

It doesn't look like it here, but I think Kennick really enjoyed the time at the zoo with his cousins. :)

Cash chose not to put on his jacket before riding the carousel. Looking at this picture, I think he regretted the decision.

Right before we left, we let the little guys spend about twenty minutes playing on the zoo's huge jungle gym. It was crazy! There were so many kids there, but we kept up with them pretty easily.

Happy guy! What a picture perfect smile (and a picture perfect afternoon!)

Weekend at Gran-Granny's

During the first weekend of April (actually March 31st and April 1st), Heath and I decided to take the boys to my Granny's (Gran-Granny) for the afternoon. While we were there, Heath was going to pressure wash her concrete drive, and then he had plans to come back the next morning to seal it. 

Going back to explain, Heath poured this concrete drive for her back in 2009. For some reason, it never got sealed, and it has always bothered Heath that it's not protected. It's hard to find the right weekend to do it since he'd have to pressure wash one day and then seal the next day. Well, we found the perfect weekend with the perfect weather and now it's done.

Here he is Saturday afternoon. What he thought might take no more than two hours, took him until supper time to complete. It looked completely different when he was done though.

The boys had made sure to bring plenty of machines to play with outside while daddy was working.

Yes, they shed their shirts, just like daddy, and went to work, at first playing in the water.

Then they started having fun running from the water when Heath squirted it their way.

They eventually made their way to the garden. Since it was all tilled up, but hadn't been planted yet, it was the perfect spot to play. Notice the boots - not on the feet. :)

He was a very hard worker. He loves this bobcat cause it's "just like Mike Jackson's."

The grass was so green and the barn was so red, I had to take a picture. Karalee painted this barn quilt for my Granny a few years back. 

Such hard worker guys.

They worked until it was time for supper (salmon patties), and then we went in to eat.

Interesting enough, the boys and I ended up spending the night with my Granny that night. It was a first, and even though I had some interrupted sleep, I loved it. The boys and I camped out in the floor on lots of old quilts and comforters and my Granny slept on the couch next to us. What fun memories! (Since then we have been to Granny's for supper and, no surprise, they wanted to spend the night again.)

Heath came the next morning ready to seal the concrete. It looks so nice, and now it's protected for years to come.

Here's my little B playing with more machines in Granny's rocks out front. These boys are so blessed to be able to grow up knowing their Gran-Granny and having her in their lives.