The Three Musketeers

I just love these kids! 

Weekly Review

It's been a pretty busy week around here with several new pictures to share.  I'm feeling a little tired this morning so I'm only going to hit on the high points and try to keep the descriptions short and sweet.  First up was a sleepover with Grammy and Papa last Tuesday while Greg and I went to see Journey in concert.  He had a great time (as did we!) and got to have his face painted with an astronaut while they were at Chic-Fil-A eating dinner.  The clown said she'd never been asked for an astronaut before but found a template in her little book and whipped out a pretty good one.  Next up was Aiden's 1st birthday party on Saturday where a real, live fire truck was on display.  The kids were climbing all over that thing like it was a jungle gym and we were snapping pictures like maniacs.  It was such a great idea to have it there and Nicholas has been playing fireman every since.  I think his favorite was the bunker gear, which he asked to try on about 5 different times.  It obviously swallowed him up but he loved it and I thought he was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen!  And last, but certainly not least, was our Day Out With Thomas on Sunday.  I had to laugh when I got home and looked at all the pictures I took because they were almost identical to the ones I took last year.  It was fun while it lasted but I think this might be our last Thomas adventure. 

Got a boo-boo on the knee. 

(He also may have been in time out at this moment, but I couldn't resist that face.)

Waiting for Thomas to come back to the station so we could get our picture taken with him.

And here he comes! 

 Hitchin' a ride...

Mommy's Birthday

Another birthday is officially in the history books for me and it was such a nice, relaxing day.  Just what I needed.  After work on Friday, Nicholas and I headed to the lake house with my parents for the weekend.  Greg had to work so he met us there later that night.  The weather was so mild and enjoyable that we spent just about every second outdoors.  The lake levels have been pretty low since the drought so we haven't been able to keep the boats on the dock.  But, Greg got one of them out of storage for us Saturday afternoon so we could take a cruise and show my parents the beauty of Lake Eufaula.  After we got home, my very old friend Kori brought her kids over to play with Nicholas and visit for awhile.  She and her husband also have a house at the lake, which is very handy for me.  Unfortunately, this was only the second time we've actually been able to coordinate a get together in all our time there so hopefully we'll be more consistent in the future.  She has four amazing kids that Nicholas absolutely adores so we better keep after it or he'll be very disappointed in us.

So, yes this was a wonderful birthday weekend.  It was so nice to be with my family and to receive all the sweet phone calls and messages from everyone on Friday.  It might not be all that fun to be another year older but it felt good to know how much I'm loved.  I'm lucky.  So, very, very lucky.

 Pointing out all the big boats at the marina to Grammy and Papa.  He was a superb tour guide.

My awesome hubs made me a delicious red velvet cake.  He definitely knows how to spoil me!

 Yes, we all enjoyed it!

Weekending

We kept Nicholas busy, busy this weekend with some pretty fun activities.  On Saturday morning, Greg had the great idea for us to all go to the 45th Infantry Museum.  For a young boy, and even his parents, this was an exceptionally interesting tour.  I was really surprised at all the historical artifacts they had on display, and I was especially intrigued by the large collection of Hitler relics.  Among some of the items were silverware, linens, stationary, and clothing.  It was definitely unnerving to be so close to items used by the most despicable human being to ever live.  But, the museum had a lot of less somber exhibits that we all enjoyed, including a vast accumulation of military vehicles and aircraft.  I was pleasantly surprised by everything they had to offer, all at no cost to the public.  Now, that's not something you come across very often.  I'm sure we'll be going back many times in the future.   

 Here are some of the Hitler items I was talking about.  These are all things taken directly from his Berlin bunker.  It's hard to see, but the linens hanging on the bar have his monogram on them. 

 This next one was probably the most chilling of them all.  This is a mirror that

was hanging in his personal bedroom inside the bunker.

Next up was Sunday afternoon at the Oklahoma State Fair! Neither Greg nor I had gone to the fair in well over 10 years but now that we have a child who's given us a renewed sense of fun we decided to give it a go. While it was ridiculously expensive, it was still quite a good time. Nicholas had a ball getting to ride some rides and play games with Daddy. I was very disappointed though that he wanted nothing to do with the ferris wheel. I figured he'd be all over that one but he couldn't have cared less. Bummer. This was our first time to be in a crowd of this size without putting Nicholas in a stroller so we had a very serious talk beforehand about the importance of holding our hands the entire time and to never, ever run off from us. Not once did he give us any trouble and kept a tight grip on me the whole time. However, I don't think the fair atmosphere suited him all that well. He's usually pretty well behaved when we're out and about at different functions, but this one didn't go so smoothly. I think he was a little overstimulated by all the sights and sounds and threw a few tantrums when he didn't get what he wanted. One of those tantrums came as we were leaving and we turned him down on a toy machine gun. Probably the worst public tantrum I've experienced to date. We just grabbed him by the hands and marched as fast as we could for the gate, heads down to avoid the stares and laughter around us. But hey, I'm sure that 90% of that crowd had experienced this little pitfall of parenthood at one time or another so I'm not letting it get me down. That's what you get from a tired, hot, overly excited three year old. Sometimes you got to just roll with the punches, eh?

 Watching the pig races from Daddy's shoulders. 

He desperately wanted to ride the race cars and got there just in time to hop on.  There were

plenty of open cars but for some reason he chose to ride shotgun with this little boy.  We tried

to convince him to move but he was happy as a clam right where he was. 

                                                   Fast, Mom?  Really?  Lighten up.

I enjoyed every minute of this weekend, just the three of us together being a family.  We've got several fun weekends on the horizon so we'll be back with more very soon!  Have a terrific week!!

Back to School

Wednesday was Nicholas' first day back for the new school year.  He's still attending St. Mark Preschool but he's now going to school three days a week instead of only two.  My plan was to increase a day each year until he starts kindergarten, which seemed a nice, gradual plan.  He's now in the 3 year old classroom which means a teacher and classroom change, which we hope will be an easy transition for him.  The room is much smaller than his other one but there are only 5 kids in his class, so it should be plenty of space for them.  They can have up to 8 kids in each room but I like the idea of more one-on-one interaction with the teacher so five students sounds like a really good number.   I was also pretty excited to hear that they've now added music and Spanish class to their curriculum each week.  Nicholas will love having all of that activity and stimulation.  He's just such an active little boy with a very inquisitive mind.  The more you throw at him, the better.  I didn't get to go for morning drop off but Greg said it went exceptionally well and Nicholas just ran off to play with all the toys.  I got there a little early in the afternoon for pick up and got to see him playing in the classroom through the window.  He was having such a great time and was totally content.  When I popped my head in to say hello he was so involved in his playing that he took little notice of me.  I finally had to tell him we had to go and I'm taking that as a very good sign of what's to come.  It feels fantastic to have him back in his routine and getting to do fun things outside of the house every day.  I know that preschool is so good for him.

After such a great start to the school year, we celebrated with a trip to the zoo with Grammy.  I bought a season pass for us awhile back but it's been so horribly hot all summer long and we just haven't had the desire to go since last Spring.  Well this week Mother Nature gave us quite a treat when she dropped the temps about 25 degrees so we've been soaking up all the outdoor time we can.  It was perfect weather for the zoo - cloudy, breezy, and even a little downpour.  Dare I say it?  It was almost chilly for a moment!  There also weren't very many people there so the afternoon turned out to be quite enjoyable.  Nicholas was starving when we left so we stopped at McDonald's to get him a Happy Meal for the ride home.  I guess a full belly was all he needed to send him over the edge of exhaustion because he fell sound asleep on the way to the house.  It was 5:30 in the evening and that's just not something that happens very often.  I think he had a good day.