Taking It Cheesy ... Crazy Tales of Alex & Spencer
We took advantage of the recent warm weather to visit Reedy Creek Park. It’s a fun park and nature preserve with walking paths we’ll have to return to once the leaves are on the trees. For now, the small nature center and tree house inspired playground was a blast!
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 I want a tree painted like this in our house! And I want the rock pillows. |
The boys and I went out in a light rain Friday afternoon for a little walk down the street. The boys were super excited to wear their boots and rain jackets and to eat a popsicle in the rain (even thought it was pretty chilly). I had to make them pose for a quick photo. It doesn’t get any cuter!!
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Last Wednesday, the 3rd, was our last unplanned day of the summer (Thursday was orientation at school and the long weekend was spent in the mountains). When I asked Alex what he wanted to do, he said he wanted to see the big buildings. So, we drove into Charlotte to check out two parks nestled in the heart of uptown. Our first stop, 4th Ward Park, was pretty. It had several flower gardens and a few fountains. Unfortunately, the playground was super small and the boys quickly lost interest. So, after a quick walk-about and a few photos, we drove a few minutes down the road to Romare Bearden Park. We watched July 4th fireworks in this park, but it was dark and crowded. The boys were impressed by the skyline (office towers and condos line three sides, with the baseball stadium on the 4th) and all the construction surrounding us. Then, they noticed the fountain. They had a blast getting soaking wet. After a quick change, we shared a picnic while watching the cranes. We finished our adventure with fro-yo and headed back home in time for Spencer to nap. It was a fun day!
 Butterfly garden in 4th Ward Park |
 Fountain in 4th Ward Park |
 Running in the fountain at Romare Bearden Park. |
 They loved it! |
 One of Alex’s photos of the construction site. |
 Another one of Alex’s photos of a dump truck. |
 We finished off our adventure with a cool treat. |
*This is another flash back from April.*
We decided it was time for the big box to leave the playroom. The boys had tons of fun playing inside, coloring, applying stickers, performing puppet shows, and being all kinds of crazy, but it was time for it to go. It started as a submarine, then morphed into a rocket ship, a house, and a puppet stage. In the end, we couldn’t throw it all away, so I cut out some of our favorite graffiti to frame. I hope we can find another huge box next winter!
 The front |
 The back |
 The inside |
 The Alex |
Most kids have K’NEX and Erector Sets. Not my boys … they have PVC pipes and fittings to build huge towers. These pipes are actually Tim’s solution for Alex always begging us to build him a tent. Tim’s thought was that we could easily fit a few pipes together, throw some sheets over it, and bam … a tent. Who knew the boys would actually enjoy building with the pipes as well?
 The original purpose for the PVC pipes. |
 Turns out building with the pipes is fun too! |
 The pipes are also great for our Hot Wheels track. |
Just a hodge-podge of photos to show how crazy life can be with these two fun-loving, super creative, adventurous, never-sitting-still boys!
 Rockin’ out on the fire truck. |
 A favorite game these days – dump out the laundry (dirty or clean) and wear the basket. |
 These baskets are also great hug snatchers! |
 Water cannons can’t get you wet with a bucket on your head. |
 This happened while I was folding clothes in my room. Guess there are worse things they could have been up to… |
 Alex was supposed to be in time-out. Spencer thinks time-outs are the best things ever, so he joined in. |
 Hugs! |
 Not a very productive afternoon on the see-saw. |
We’ve been taking advantage of the sunshine and warmer weather by playing in the yard and visiting our favorite playgrounds. Alex is so excited that Spencer can run around the parks and go down the slides with him and Spencer is thrilled to not be stuck in a carrier or the stroller. Mommy has to work very hard now! I’ve set the bar high – two playgrounds in 3 days!
 Peek-a-boo! |
 Just hanging out |
 Crash! |
 Feeding the ducks |
 Having so much fun on the slide! |
| I experimented with the slow motion feature on my phone. Here’s a fun mash-up of the videos. I muted the videos since they sound very devilish in slow-mo! The video will play in the emails. Click here instead. |
 These two disasters made such a mess of their cheese and salsa at lunch that I stripped them down before buckling them in their seats. They found it hysterical! |
The monkey hat first appeared in 2011 when my parents gave it to Alex for Christmas. This winter, we’ve passed it down to Spencer! I knew when I took this picture of Spencer last week after gym class that I had a similar picture of Alex. I’m so glad I was able to find it (and that I keep my photos so organized)!
 Alex, 12 months old |  Spencer, 19 months old |
We’ve been trying to take advantage of our backyard whenever we have the chance. Alex and Spencer love playing together outside and luckily the end of January and beginning of February have been mostly dry. Here’s a fun video of the boys being boys. First you’ll see Alex trying out his balance bike outside for the first time, then Alex attempting to “tow” the Power Wheel with his digger, then Spencer driving the Power Wheel (since the video, he can actually drive across the yard without stopping), and a dump truck rescue mission. We can’t wait for spring and summer!
| This video will not show in the email. You’ll need to click here instead. |
One of Alex’s birthday gifts is a woodworking set. He picked out the train for our first project, so last weekend during Spencer’s nap, Tim, Alex, and I painted and built a train. We had lots of fun! Thanks, Grandpa Art and Grandma Karen! I’m thinking the racecar is next!
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Since it was cold and wet and gross outside today, the boys and I went to the mall to ride the train and buy a new Christmas book. While we were getting our tickets, I found out they had a new frequent rider card … for exactly the amount of birthday money Alex and Spencer had just gotten from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Strunck! So, thank you for the next 15 train rides!! The boys love this train!
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 Here is a photo, borrowed from the Loco-Motives website, so you can see a full view of the train. |
One of Alex’s new favorite games is “share ice cream with Spencer”. Alex gives Spencer a bite, then he runs to me and eats a bite. Alex and Spencer both think it’s great!
If you can’t view the video, click here to watch it on YouTube. |
If that wasn’t cute enough … here is an even cuter video of Alex and Daddy pushing Spencer in the dump truck while I finish cooking dinner.
If you can’t view the video, click here to watch it on YouTube. |
On Wednesday, I decided I needed to take my boys on an adventure. The weather was just too perfect to run errands or hang around the house. So, we packed up the cooler and jumped in the car for 40 minutes to Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury. I’ve been wanting to try out this park since we moved here. They have a small train and carousel, which I knew would be closed during the week in the fall, but I thought the petting zoo, barn, and aquarium would still be open. Turns out, I was wrong! I was so bummed! Thank goodness for technology and smart phones – I looked up another park I had been wanting to try and pulled up the map. I had to bribe Alex with a milkshake, then we were on our way.
We ended up going to Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. Oh my gosh, what an adventure it was! I knew they had an animal safari, but I thought we’d be able to take their wagon ride. Of course, that has to be done with a reservation. So … we rode through the animal park in my Altima with Alex in the front passenger seat and Spencer in my lap (after about 15 minutes and realizing he’d be quite safe going 5 miles an hour) and fed all kinds of animals. We made quite the mess of my car, but it was SO MUCH FUN! We definitely had to drive through the car wash and vacuum out my car when we got home to get rid of the animal slobber and feed.
 Alex loved feeding the sheep and goats in the petting zoo area before our safari. |
 Spencer started pretending to throw food, so I gave him some feed. He loved it, too! |
 My sweet boys posing together! |
 The boys also had fun playing on the hay bales (shaped like a giant tractor). |
 Alex, King of the Mountain! |
 Then, the real fun began! We fed zebras, llamas, deer, pigs, emus, ostriches … so many animals! |
 Can you believe I had a zebra head inside of my Altima? |
 We would have been able to feed the giraffes through the sunroof, but the wagon ride was in the way. |
 Spencer was entranced by the buffalo … and waved “hi” to the emus and ostriches. |
 Alex took this picture from the sunroof. |
 Alex’s favorite spot was hanging out of the sunroof. Only problem was Spencer kept hitting the wiper fluid and spraying Alex. |
 Alex also loved the playground (it was a pirate ship!) |
We can’t wait to take Daddy and ride the wagon!
