Sprout Spot: May 2013

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Their last day

School is over for the year! Their last day was Thursday, and although they came home saying they were officially 1st and 3rd graders, I refuse to admit that until school starts next fall. Second grade and Kindergarten were too fun to forget them already.

After school I told them I needed just 5 minutes for a photo and then they could relax and play. Noah wasn't too happy and Anna was being kind of squirrely, and mama was a tad frustrated. But I stopped trying to get a perfectly posed picture and ended up with some pretty cute shots anyway.

They discovered a roly poly in the flower pot.

Their last checkups showed that Noah has finally passed Anna in weight (by 1.6 pounds) but she's still got an inch and a half of height on him. Probably not for long!

Have I mentioned that I am over the moon in love with these goofballs?

Here's the closest comparison shot I could get to their first day last Fall. I can definitely see how they've grown!

September 2012

May 2013

I'm trying to finish up our plans for summer fun and mommy school now. There's so much to do and we have over three full months to do it all, yahoo!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

At the candy shop

Still playing catch up with old pictures from my phone! This was a day we spent with my mom, sister and aunt on their side of the river. We had lunch and did a few other things, and ended the day with a trip to this little candy shop/ factory. It's over 100 years old and still run by the same family. One side is a shop and on the other side they do a little candy making demonstration. In the back is a candy museum with all of the old equipment and packages. It was a fun little outing, and of course the kids loved it because it was all about candy!

A forced cousin love photo at lunch.

Love these three.

Yes, I made them do it again. A bit less room than last time.

Sam is going on 10, so I guess it's okay if he doesn't want to sit on the chocolate pig. I guess.

Watching the show. The husband and wife who do this are so cute.

Woo, giant gummy bears!

Looking forward to many more cousin fun days this summer. Today is the last day of school!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Lego Kids' Fest

Honestly, I don't even remember when we went to this! But we have on long sleeves so it must have been at least a month ago. It was pretty much exactly like the first time we went, but this one was much closer to home. Also Ben is a year older so he got to come along. As we were walking in there was a barricade that you couldn't see through. He had no idea what we were about to do, but that didn't stop Ben from repeating, "I love Lego Kids' Fest!" over and over as we walked down the hall to go in.

And of course he was excited to see his favorite Queen. As I was typing this he ran over and said, "Oh! There's my Queen!".

Hug the Wookie.

They had to build and test out their race cars. Ben's mouth is in the "vroom!" mode.

Anna remembered making this rainbow last year, so we searched through all of the Lego bins to find the right colors for her.

This Hobbit house was pretty impressive. Mmm, giant pretzel....

Anna and her grandma had fun in the Lego Friends area. I believe another pony ranch was constructed.

It was a fun day, and because it was close to home we ran into friends old and new.

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Last Day

Ate breakfast in the park and saw fireworks

Rode Small World again

Loaned my sunglasses during the parade

Saw Paula Deen! Just kidding, but the fairy godmother totally looks like her.

Rode the train with a sleepy boy

Played in the Dumbo Playland

Rode Dumbo without daddy. Mommy may have been a nervous wreck that big kids were alone in their own seat. Arms inside the elephant!

Traumatized Ben by making him ride Pirates of the Caribbean again. Not his favorite.

Rode teacups with my favorite girl

Took one last picture of the very blue sky and drove home!

Friday, May 03, 2013

Animal Kingdom

Finally! A day warm and sunny enough for shorts and sunglasses!

Since the bus was mostly empty, we let the big two sit in the very back by themselves. They thought they were super cool. Sometimes Anna will tell me that a certain experience made her feel like a teen (hee), but when I asked if this was one of them I got the heavy sigh. Mooooommmm....

There were lots of animals to see of course. Anna tried multiple times to communicate with this one.

If you think this is too many pictures of these cut outs, you'll be happy to know there are plenty more I'm not sharing.

After some fun games and more animals, we headed to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe inside of the park. We had reservations, but we still had to wait a bit. Not good for hungry boys.

After lunch we kind of felt like these guys, but we went on the little safari jeep ride anyway. I had never ridden since I've always been pregnant or holding a small baby, so it was fun to finally go this time!

Some of the animals got really close to us.

Anna pretty much tried to jump out of the jeep and go and live with these cheetahs.

After the safari was a parade, and the kids played drums while we waited for it to start.

They had been asking all day, so after the parade we caved and let them get face paintings. I think we loved them as much as they did!

We were about to leave when we spotted Pocahontas. Anna just about burst with joy when Pocahontas leaned down to her and said, "Ooo I can see you are a friend to the animals".

Notice cheetah girl turned her pants into shorts, hee hee. After this Nathan rode the Expedition Everest roller coaster by himself a few times since there was no line, while the kids and I watched ducks and rested. I can't even remember what we did for dinner that night, but it was a good day!

Thursday, May 02, 2013

They're really for me

Yeah, more Disney photos. I know, I know. They're never ending. But you must understand that this blog is my brain. Seriously, if it's not recorded here there is very little chance I'll remember the details, so I have to get it up here while it's still in my head!

Just like we did with Anna and Noah when they were his age, we took Ben to the Disney Junior stage show in Hollywood Studios. We knew he would love it, and the other two are still young enough that they liked it too. I always get all emotional watching kids get so happy over this kind of stuff, and I just about lost it listening to all the tiny voices around me singing along. Then I laughed when I saw all the young dads getting really excited over Sophia the First, and I cracked up when the little guy next to me screamed at Captain Hook, "You old cod fish!".

Noah's favorite part was Star Wars, of course.

And they all loved the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. Wasn't it switched to the Bugs' Life playground at one point?

But this was the main attraction - Life size Lightning McQueen and Mater. Here you can see Ben holding Lightning (or as he calls him, Queen) in a loving embrace. So funny.

We ended the day with a late dinner at Chef Mickey's. Late, as in, almost 9pm. We were all pretty exhausted, and if I had known Mickey was at our last character meal I wouldn't have scheduled this one. But they loved it just the same.

Anna and I were in the buffet line for this one, oink oink. ;)

All snuggled in to Donald.

Here you can see Ben was starting hit the wall.

And then he could take no more. What you can't see is how hard he was pushing against my hands to try and escape yet another character photo. Enough with the giant animals already!

But they made up in the end. ;)

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