School Easter Parties

Today was a busy morning...TWO school Easter parties! Thank goodness the kids go to same school so I could attend both!

Bennett's party was first, starting off with an Easter egg hunt, followed by lunch back in the classroom. She has been looking forward to it all week! She did well gathering eggs, but was much more excited about the contents. In fact, when we got home, that is all she wanted to do...open every egg and hope for candy. When they got back in the classroom, the kids sang the cutest little prayer before eating.

Next up was master P and his party. In typical fashion, he boycotted most of the party food...sandwiches and fruit, and only eating the cake (surprise!). The teachers had to supplement his lunch with one of his staples, crackers. He was happy at the party, when I looked into his room, but as soon as I walked in...he started fussing and wanted to be held (can we say rotten?).

After lunch, they went out to hunt for eggs. It is so funny the way they "hide" the eggs, so obvious and just out there for the kiddos to pick up. I was worried that Preston wouldn't know what to do, but he did just fine. He picked up several, but after squeezing one that wasn't put together tightly, he realized there was stuff inside and the game was over.

Mommy & Daddy's Getaway!

Steve and I just returned from a long weekend of skiing (without our children) in Park City, Utah. We left last Thursday and returned last night well rested, but a little sore. My aunt and uncle were so kind to let us stay at their beautiful condo at Deer Valley, which happens to be a ski in-ski out location. Since we are getting "older," this worked out wonderfully for us!

Day one we got out on the slopes early and warmed up with a few easier runs in the morning since neither of us had been on skis in years. Sadly it had been about 8 years for me and over 15 years for Steve! After warming up, we eased into the blue runs and were feeling pretty good. We stopped for lunch after 3 hours of skiing, which ended up being a huge mistake for us. We were so tight after taking an hour off, that we were sloppy skiers in the afternoon. We learned our lesson though and did things differently for the rest of our trip.

The following mornings we cooked a nice breakfast at home, drank our coffee, pumped ourselves full of water then hit the slopes at 10:00am. We skied hard for 4-4.5 hours, averaged 18-20 runs a day, and only took a break once to use the restroom while we were out. We brought power bars with us, and this was enough to restore our energy for the day. After, we would come home, enjoy a cocktail or two while sitting in the hot tub, and then we would shower and grab dinner. We consistently went to bed early, and slept in til 8am each day (what a treat)! After dealing with Pres and his flu for 3 days before we left, I was sleep deprived and desperately in need of a vacation!

I was surprised how good I felt while on the slopes. Everything came back to me quickly and I was really enjoying myself, until I decided to push myself. You see 8 years ago when I was last on skis, I did black runs, moguls and anything else you put in front of me. But after injuring my knee, and having two kids, I decided I needed to be cautious for my own good. But then I heard a black run was groomed, and started thinking "it can't be that difficult, right??" So I went down it. It started off fine, but when I made a quick stop, but big toe got jammed inside of my performance fitted boot causing me some pain. Unfortunately, the pain only got worse over the next couple of days. In fact, my toenail is black and my big toe is now swollen and red....ouch!

Steve fell several times over the 4 days on the slopes, but that was to be expected since I was pushing him to ski more difficult hills than he was ready for early in the trip. I was feeling real good about not falling once as I entered the second half of our last day. I guess the cockiness bit me in the rear, because I was cruising down a hill avoiding all of the slow people who really shouldn't be on it, until I incorrectly guessed the direction of a snow-plower in front of me and I took her out! She lost both skis and I lost one after I slammed into her. I felt really bad, and apologized profusely, but it was technically my fault so I really messed up. And boy am I paying for it! I feel like Steve punched me as hard as he could in my left shoulder (what evidently I used to push her down with) because I can barely lift my arm above my head. Steve didn't leave the trip unmarked though. He has huge bruises on his thighs and one knee. I guess as we rapidly approach our 40s, we just can't recover like we used to in our 20s.

I guess we'll be better prepared next time, and there will be a next time. We both enjoyed our trip so much, and want to make it an annual thing. In fact, we have already talked about taking the kids with us in two years (yes, I am a type A planner)! Since we have our annual trip to the beach, we now just need to add our annual trip to the beautiful mountains! I can't wait!

18 Months Young

I can NOT believe that Preston is 18 months today! He is growing like a weed and talking more and more as the days pass. He has 8 teeth and has 3 molars coming in right now! He is still the WORST eater, only eating a variety of breakfast foods, mac-n-cheese, chicken nuggets, fries/tator tots and crackers. I still feed him at least one jar of baby food a day for his fruits and veggies.

But this boy brings so much energy and love to this household! He and Bennett have a true love-hate relationship, and can carry on conversations. She seems to understand what he is saying as much as I can, so that helps ease his frustration. He is learning to stack things better, and can identify some body parts, and is as defiant as ever....so staying on track with his milestones.

Unfortunately he has had the flu the past couple of days, but that hasn't stopped my little man from enjoying his 1.5 year old birthday. He is still as wild and happy as ever! We love you Pres!

Our Energizer Bunny

Today I reunited with many of my sisters of the Alabama Emmaus Walk #363 to sing our hearts out for a CD of our favorite songs of the weekend in January. It was a great time reconnecting with everyone, but I was gone most of the day.

Since I was away, Steve watched the children. While he was feeding Preston breakfast (a waffle), he was shocked to see Pres use a fork all by himself. He called me as I was driving up there and asked why I hadn't told him that Preston had learned that skill, but I was as shocked as he was. Thankfully he recorded his first meal feeding himself. I guess he just learned by watching us and Bennett because he did very well on his own.

After playing all morning, and then enjoying a hot shower our little guy got a little relaxed because right after he finished his lunch he passed out in his booster seat. Since Steve had the recorder nearby, he got that too. Having missed all of this, I though it was pretty cute, so I thought I would share them both.

All Dressed Up

Saturday night we attended the "Heart Ball" which benefits the American Heart Association. We joined some of Steve's co-workers at a table, and got all dressed up for the black tie affair. They had a silent auction, followed by dinner, a live auction and then more drinking. Basically it was an excuse for us to get all dressed up and enjoy a "fancy" night without our children. It was fun, but getting home so late made us extra tired for Sunday.

Here...Kitty Kitty

Today we went to the zoo. We needed to get out of the house and run off some energy, and it was finally sunny. I figured some of the animals would not be on display, but what I didn't know was how many.

You see our zoo is under major construction while we add the "Trails to Africa" exhibit. The Birmingham Zoo is going to be a national leader in the care and conservation of threatened elephants. This new area will be a mixed-species exhibit featuring elephant, red river hogs, giraffes, rhinos, wildebeest, impala, kudu, zebras and ostriches (many of the animals that Steve and I saw on our African safari 5 years ago). I really enjoy visiting the zoo with my children, and can't wait for it to be completed! Since they are just in the land clearing stage right now, I assume it will unfortunately be another year before it is finished.

Until then, we will continue to visit the sea lions, primates and large cats. As you can see from these photos, they do NOT scare my kids. In fact, they like to get up real close to the glass and "scare" the tigers. Both of them were laughing so hard every time the tiger came to the window. And truth be told, I think the tiger liked the attention because the window was covered in slobber due to him licking it.