Pirate Saturday

Last Saturday the weather was beautiful and I wanted all of us to go off and do something fun together.    A couple of months ago I had purchased a deal for the Pirate Museum down in St Augustine.  I thought it would be a lot of fun since both the boys are loving pirates right now.  I love to try and keep surprises from them and not tell them where we are going, but Brody hates surprises and the entire trip to St Augustine he begged to find out where we were going.

Once we arrived to the museum, they were SO EXCITED to see all of the pirate paraphernalia. Of course they wanted EVERYTHING in the store.  We held them off for a little while since it was time to go on the museum tour.

These pictures aren't great because no flash was allowed so I just used my phone camera.

Learning about the different pirates.

Trying to learn how to tie different type of knots.

This was the pirate sleeping quarters and this guy had one eye open and his chest was actually moving up and down like a real pirate.

Raising and lowering the sail

Captain Brody

There was a section where you go into a dark room and put on headphones to listen to one of Blackbeard's stories.  The boys did really great through it until Jason touched Brody's ear.  He wasn't trying to scare him, but Brody jumped and was done listening.

One heavy musket

Checking out the treasure

So, of course after the tour we were in the gift shop again.  They must have picked up everything.  Trevor ended up with a treasure box with a few "treasures" inside and Brody picked out a compass.  He was so excited about the compass and as we walked through St. Augustine he would tell us which direction we were going. 

Finding somewhere for us to eat in downtown St Augustine always seems to be a challenge.  We definitely have to have a restaurant that is kid friendly and it seems that most of the restaurants in the area aren't that especially for my "sweet" Trevor who doesn't like to eat and thinks he must always get up and play!!  Thankfully we found a pizza place that worked out great.

After a quick stop at the outlets we were on our way home.  It was a wonderful day with the family and the boys did great and is continuing to talk about the pirate museum.

A day at the zoo

Last week Trevor and I headed to the zoo.  He was so excited that it was just me and him for a day at the zoo.  All ready for a funfilled day.

This big guy was sitting right next to the fence and just in case you ever thought they weren't ugly - you are wrong!!!

This was the first time we had seen the new baby leopard cubs - so cute.

On the way to see the giraffes, Trevor says look there's a snake.  OK, remember I HATE snakes, so of course I jumped and hollered out "where" because I know this area has a tendency to have snakes.  However, Trevor was just talking about this snake.  Yeah, I felt pretty dumb.

Everytime we go to the zoo, I give the boys a choice of 2 extra things that cost money ie train, feed the giraffes, snowcone and merry go round.  Trevor chose feed the giraffes and ride the merry go round.

Check out that tongue.

Of course wherever Trevor goes there has to be snacks, so welcome to snack time - peanuts.

For Trevor a trip to the zoo is not complete without a ride on the merry go round.

There was hardly anyone at the zoo so it made it very easy to find him in the playarea.  Actually he was the only one in the play area for about 10 minutes and then another girl came up and they played together for awhile.

It was such a great day with my little boy and he continues to say "remember when it was just you and me and we went to the zoo?"

Dogs and swimming

Last Monday, Trevor and I took Allye, our dog, to a new doctor.  She has always gone to a place in Jacksonville about 30 minutes away.  I loved this vet but it wasn't the best use of our time or money since I couldn't run any errands when we took her to the doctor since we had her in the car.  So a new vet opened in our town and I had heard great things about them, so we tried them out.

I definitely love that it is only 5 minutes away.  Allye is such a good dog and doesn't bark or bite in these situations.  This was definitely a rough day for the office because we were in there for 2 hours - CRAZY!  They explained that it is not normally like this.  The doctor was very nice and thorough and Allye received a great health report.

This picture cracks me up - Allye looking at him like he is crazy!!

Thankfully Trevor did pretty good considering the length of time we were in there.

That afternoon, I had one pretty excited 5 year old.  It was his first day of swimming practice.  Brody loves to swim and for the past few weeks (I guess because of the Olympics) has started swimming the 4 different strokes.  I have been searching for somewhere for him to be able to swim and after discussing all of the options with my know everything about swimming friend, Clair, we decided on Kerry Wick swimming at Good Shepherd Church.  The main reason I went with her is that it is only 1 day a week and it's less than 30 minutes from us.  A lot of the other options were 2-3 times a week and further away.  I wasn't ready to make that kind of commitment.

He absolutely could not wait until practice started.  There are 7 kids ages 6-8 in his class.  Coach Kerry stands on the side and coaches them.  This is the first time I have ever seen Brody act like this but he walked right in and was ready to start - no reservations whatsoever.  We were definitely starting off good.

She had them practice/learn all of the strokes both with a kickboard and without.  There are 3 girls in his class who have been on summer swim teams so they are pretty good, but Brody is right with the other ones.

Yeah, he had to make sure we were watching.

After class, he could not stop talking about it, so I was very happy with our decision and I hope his excitement continues since the class goes through April.

1st Progress report

A month into school and Brody is loving most everything about it.  Of course his favorite is recess.  He loves Monday - Thursday's because they get to go somewhere for 30 minutes each day.  For example, Monday is PE, Tuesday is Music, Wednesday is library day, and Thursday is the computer lab.  He actually doesn't like Friday's AT ALL, because he says it is boring and no fun.

They do have a little homework, but of course to Brody it seems like a lot.  The good thing though is that isn't due until Friday or sometimes the next Monday.  We are trying to make sure to not get behind and stay on top of the homework.  They are to read for 15 minutes every night and write the name of the book down on their Reading Log.  At the end of the week they are to write the name of the book they liked the most and why and then draw a picture about it.

Brody loves to read and is reading Level 1 and most Level 2 books with no problem.  He even gets through most Level 3 books with only a few unknown words.  It is amazing to see the little sponge that he is.  We are also trying to get used to a little reader on our hands.  Everywhere we go he will say "that says ______"  Sometimes we are quite shocked that he knows certain words.  

Reading in his favorite spot.

Last week, Brody received his first progress report.  I quickly realized that Brody had no clue what grades were and what they mean, so I had to try to explain them to him as we reviewed his progress report.  I am happy to say he received all E's (which in Kindergarten lingo is an A) and 2 S's (which are B's).  Now the S's were in Handwriting and Writing.  Mrs. Proffit says she wasn't able to enter all of the grades in for this so the grades should improve.  As Jason and I talked, we knew that Brody didn't get good genes for handwriting - mind is terrible and Jason's isn't that great either.  He's also a boy and we all know that boys don't usually have the best handwriting.

Brody was so excited when he saw the 100% E's on the report and then realized that he had to do better and take his time (he gets this honestly as well) in a couple of the other areas.

He has been on his best behavior in the classroom so his marker hasn't been moved yet and has stayed on green - which is good.  He knows if the marker moves too far down things won't be good !!

I am so proud of my little kindergartner and that he loves school. 

Run/Walk Club

Brody's school has a Run/Walk club that is every Wednesday after school for about an hour.  I wasn't sure if Brody would want to participate in this or not, but I know he loves Ms. Bailey, the PE coach, and she heads it up.  He was pretty excited to join the club, so a couple of weeks ago was his first time. 

The purpose of the club is to help our kids get exercise.  During the hour they are to run or walk around the track and they get stamps for each time around.  There are also several races during the year they encourage the kids to participate in. 

I had thought about joining him the first day, but I assumed since it was so hot that he would be ready to leave as soon as I got there, so I thought it best for him to be on his own.  There are several of his friends from class as well as Baylie and Colleen who participates, so he had friends there.

Tracy showed up a little early and was able to snap this cute picture.

I hate to say it but I assumed with how hot it was that as soon as he got in the car he would not want to return the next week.  Not at all how it turned out - he couldn't wait to go back.  He ran 5 laps around the track and was so excited.

Look at this red face - but still all smiles.

A new one for me

With me being home now, I feel I need to cook more.  With only 4 of us and 1 of those doesn't eat there is no need for me to cook every night.  Thankfully Jason is just fine with leftovers.  Anyway, Jason has mentioned several times that he loves fried pork chops.  We actually had a conversation one evening with Randy and Julie about this and Randy LOVES fried pork chops as well with rice and gravy.  I said I don't know how to make gravy and have never made fried pork chops, so we had talked  about getting together and I would bring the rice because that is one thing I can make nice and fluffy.

Well, I had some pork chops in the freezer and I thought I would try my hand at frying some for Jason. I found Paula Dean's recipe - and I thought I can't go wrong with her stuff, right?  Well, I thought the pork chops turned out pretty good, but I also tried to make gravy.  I knew I was supposed to use the drippings from the pork chops, well, I wasn't sure how much.  Let's just say I used WAY to much of the drippings and the gravy was HORRIBLE!!  It didn't even make it to the dinner table or to the camera.

I also tried home made biscuits - these didn't turn out either.  They didn't rise like I thought they should have and ended up hard as bricks.

So 1 of the 3 things turned out decent for this dinner.  I guess I need to keep trying - it can't get much worse.

Well, I guess it could - here's what happens when I get side tracked while grilling Jason a turkey and cheese sandwich

Pottery Barn reading

I am absolutely loving being a stay at home mom (amazing how God has different plans for our lives).  My mom watches Trevor for about 15-20 min in the morning while I take Brody to school. Yes I still walk him in every morning because if not then he would go to the cafeteria to wait. Nothing good can come out of a lot of kindergarteners sitting together on the floor.

When I pick up Trevor from mom's he says "it's just you and me". It is so cute and I keep thinking these days will be gone soon and I know I will miss them.  I try to schedule all of my errands to one day a week and Trevor seems to enjoy going off - he is a little sponge - soaks up everything.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Pottery Barn Kids has story time on Tuesdays so last week we headed over there for a little story time.

He did so good and seemed to really enjoy it, so I'm sure we will make Tuesday's our errand day.  He may have really enjoyed that day because he received a Chick Fil L cookie afterwards.

While out and about with Trevor, I never really know what he is going to do.  One day while in Kohl's I am looking at some clothes and call out to him and here is what comes to me

 and then this

We usually make a trip to this place once a week and my little man was hiding :)  He loves to get his sticker and cookie - the trip isn't complete without them.

He is such a fun and full of life child and I am enjoying spending this time with him - (please remind me of this when he drives me absolutely crazy)!!

A princess party

One would think that going to bed so late the night before would make someone sleep pretty late the next day.  Oh no, not my boys.  Saturday morning they were up about 7:30AM, but thankfully they were very quiet and went straight to the playroom and started playing.  Didn't need us :)

We headed to Ava's party at 11:00.  Ava and some of her girlfriends were having pictures with Cinderella at 10:00.  Her "boy friends" showed up at 11:00 for the pool party.  We arrived a little after 11:00 and Cinderella was still there so Stephanie tried to get everyone in a group picture with her, but my boys weren't having anything to do with it.  I guess they have to warm up to the environment a little first.

Brody enjoyed swimming and Trevor and Bella bonded in the playroom the entire time.

The only pictures I got were of the pinata.  They were so cute swinging at it.

All broken and ready for the taking

We stayed around a little after most everyone left and Brody, Trevor, Ava and Stacey (Stephanie's sister) played with the balloons.  It was so cute and funny.  B, T & A would take turns trying to pop the balloons Stacey was holding. They had a blast.

The rest of the afternoon was spent resting and watching football!!