A Petting Zoo Birthday Party

Alex and Spencer were very brave at Liam’s petting zoo birthday party. I couldn’t believe they were willing and excited to hold so many different animals!!

Schiele Museum with Friends

Our Spring Breaks never line up, but since Alex was still in preschool, we were able to find a free day to meet with with Ms. Amanda, Cerys, and Ace at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia. After exploring the museum, we tried out a local park and had a picnic. It was such a fun day!

St. Patty’s Party

We went over to a friend’s house for a St. Patty’s Day treasure hunt and party. The kids followed clues that were written on shamrocks and discovered a pot of gold filled with candy and trinkets. What fun!

Nerf Gun Party

About two weeks ago, Alex attended his first Nerf Gun party for a school friend. Each guest was given a bullet pouch (made out of an old make-up bag and a ribbon … genius!) and sunglasses (for eye protection). Then they went across the street to the neighborhood park for a big “war”. They had so much fun hiding under the playground equipment and trying to shoot each other. After a while, the kids all turned on the 3 dads in attendance (Spencer wasn’t invited, so our Daddy was at home). Alex had a blast!

Alex’s 5th Birthday Party

Instead of the usual themed birthday party at the house, we decided to branch out and host Alex’s party in a different location this year. After a lot of looking around, we settled on a Lego party at Discovery Place Kids. It was great! Alex and his friends (basically his whole class!) met at DPK and played for an hour or so. Then we went up to the party room for snacks, Lego fun, cupcakes, and presents!! We ended the day with a dance party on the center stage. Of course, party day was after two days of family fun! Then … on Alex’s actual birthday, Spencer and I read snowman stories to Alex’s class and handed out snowman parachutes. We had so much fun playing with them on the playground! I’d say 4 days of birthday celebrations is pretty good for a 5-year-old!

In between family visits, we gave Alex his gift … an XBOX One and Lego Jurassic Park. He was SO EXCITED!

Kelsey helped with cake decorating this year! We went with Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon … Alex’s favorite movie.

Most of the party guests … getting ready to start building and crashing.

My sweet Alex … ready to blow out his candles!

Alex had a very excited crowd of friends around while he opened his presents.

Dance Party!

I’d say the party was a success!

Alex’s 4K Update

Alex is still having a blast in 4K! Ms. Sarah and Ms. Niki are wonderful and have already taught him so much! I think Alex most enjoys learning new games … Duck, Duck, Goose, Musical Chairs, and Red Light, Green Light are some of his favorites. He and his friends start impromptu games of Duck, Duck, Goose on the playground … I even played last week! Spencer and I went in to read books to the class last week. We both had a blast! Spencer had so much fun that he gets mad if I don’t get him out of the car when we get to school to get Alex. He thinks he should be playing on the playground too! Tomorrow, I start helping out during center time. Spencer will stay with our baby-sitter and I’ll spend 30 minutes at school on Tuesdays. I am so EXCITED!

Ms. Sarah and Ms. Niki try to take a lot of pictures during the school day. They share these pictures on their classroom blog at the end of the week. It has been wonderful! I love seeing Alex in action as a fly on the wall. Here are some of the pictures:

Another favorite activity - chasing Ryder (who always pushes the lawn mower).

I’m guessing this is an important boys only meeting?

Apple prints during “A” week. Alex had paint everywhere when I picked him up!

Alex and friends working on the light table.

Another “A” week activity … making an “A” into an apple.

Identifying numbers with his (gulp) “girl friend”. She runs fast like he does!

Practicing his name.

Alex won this musical “freeze” game. He was so proud!

Alex’s “B” week show and share … a Batman mask!

Our First Camping Trip

I’m so excited to share the pictures from our first camping trip! My family camped all the time when my sister and I were younger, so I’m happy to report Alex and Spencer enjoyed themselves! We can be a camping family now too! We went with our friends Liam, Donna, and Brian to Cascade Lake Recreation Area, which is near Brevard. The weather during the day was beautiful with low humidity. But … the temperature dropped like crazy Friday night … the middle 50’s were definitely not expected or planned for! I ended up covering the boys with towels on top of their sleeping bags. We could not believe how cold it got! Luckily, Tim saved the day with extra blankets, a topper for our sleeping bag, and a space heater. We were much cozier Saturday night!

We didn’t get any good pictures of our awesome tent set-up, but we do want to say thanks to Great-Aunt Cyndi for giving us the tent on our wedding registry! It’s been 7 years and we finally put it to good use!

Spencer, Liam, and Alex pretty much lived on their bikes while we were at our campsite.

We spent Saturday exploring waterfalls in Pisgah National Forest. This is Looking Glass Falls.

Alex and Liam loved walking around in the freezing cold water.

Spencer loved looking at all the rocks.

Alex and Spencer made their own “sliding rock”.

Cheese!

Spencer, Liam, and Alex posing in front of the flagpole. The date carved in the rock was 1963.

Spencer and Alex enjoying their freshly popped popcorn and their new blankets.

These boys were not excited about the light being turned on for a photo op.

Alex and Liam fishing on the boat ramp before heading home on Sunday.

Spencer thought the worms were “cute!”

Talk about two tired boys! A sign of a great weekend!

Lazy 5 Ranch … Again

Last Tuesday, we met Ethan and Miss Shelley at Lazy 5 Ranch for a wagon ride through the animal park. We last went to Lazy 5 Ranch in October. We fed the animals from my car … and made a mess … so I’ve been wanting to go back and try the wagon ride. I think it was actually more fun in our car. At least that way we weren’t rushed and could take our time feeding the animals. We can always visit the car wash! This visit was hot, but we had tons of fun!

The water buffalo had learned to hold their mouths open for food.

Spencer dropped a piece at a time … probably frustrating to the water buffalo!

Alex pretending the be scared by the buffalo following our wagon.

It was so neat to be so close to the giraffes!

My sweet boys had a blast on the wagon ride.

Alex, Ethan, and Spencer swinging in the shade after the wagon ride.

Feeding the sheep with our left over food. Spencer thought it was the best thing ever.

Spencer’s pirate smile on top of the pirate ship playground. Argh!