Taking It Cheesy ... Crazy Tales of Alex & Spencer
We took Grandma and Papa to the Charlotte Nature Museum the other day when they came for a quick visit. I wish I had taken picture of the butterflies - they were super active this time! At least we did get a few cute “bug” pictures! Thanks for the visit and the pizza! We had fun!
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 And thanks for our new super hero capes!! (Not a bug picture, but we had to say thanks!) |
Amanda, Cerys, and Ace recently drove up to play at Discovery Place Kids with us. We had a blast … and I think it’s actually the longest we’ve ever stayed at DPK! After a few hours of crazy fun, they came back to our house for pizza and more fun. Based on the fact that Cerys tried to stay the night, I’d say the visit was a success! Hopefully we’ll see them one more time before the craziness of school and football season!
 Alex trying out the mini climbing wall. Spencer wasn’t so sure about it (surprisingly!) |
 Fireman Spencer, to the rescue! |
 Farmers Alex and Spencer working together to harvest the apples. |
 Cerys and Alex dressing up and contemplating a show on the stage. |
 All 4 munchkins on a cow! Moo! |
Our Charleston neighbors drove up for a quick weekend visit and a trip to Zootastic, a fun little animal park up the road from us. It was fun to see our kids play together … and they got along really well! The last time Alex had seen them was when we sold them our boat when we lived in Wilmington. Marcus was just a baby and Spencer wasn’t yet a twinkle in our eye! Hopefully we’ll make it down to Charleston sometime soon and let the kiddos play again.
 The whole reason we went to Zootastic was because the Gramajos had purchased special tickets to meet a baby tiger and a baby kangaroo. |
 Spencer loved feeding all the animals on the safari ride. |
 My twins! |
 Watusi … Tim’s favorite! |
 Petting the tortoise. |
 Crazy kids … delirious after Zootastic and Mexican food. |
Grandma Lisa and Papa Bob brought Zoe up to meet Alex and Spencer last week. The boys (and Kovu too!) had a blast playing with her! I think Alex really wanted to keep her at our house!. Zoe, come play again soon (and bring Grandma and Papa along with you)!
 We played lots of blocks and “talking” |
 Kovu and Zoe were fast friends. |
 I think Alex was trying to steal Zoe away. |
Grandma Lisa and Aunt Kelsey visited recently. I think Alex and Spencer wore them out!! We played, played, played, slept, played, went to the Raptor Center and lunch, then played some more before they had to drive back home.
 Spencer pulling Aunt Kelsey closer to the eagles. |
 Alex and Grandma putting on a puppet show. |
 I’m not sure why, but Alex was howling. |
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My sweet hubby took my birthday off so we could day trip to the zoo with my parents. It was a beautiful day and such a fun visit to the zoo. Many of the animals were quite active … and we got to see a few dinosaurs, too! Are you confused? The zoo was prepping for their spring/summer dinosaur exhibit while we were there. The animatronic dinosaurs were bring trucked in to the middle of the zoo and lowered into place with a crane. We watched one on the crane and later saw another on a flatbed truck driving through the African plains.
 Crazy Spencer serenading us on the way to the zoo. |
 Family photo op on the way to the zoo (we were riding in Papa’s Durango, so we weren’t driving!) |
 Ready to go on safari to find some elephants! |
 I just love watching the giraffes! |
Aunt Brie, Uncle Jared, and his brother Patrick went with us to the Carolina Renaissance Festival two weekends ago. What a neat event! The festival is right up the road from us on 20 acres – it’s basically a 16th century theme park that is only open weekends in October and November. I thought it’d be really cheesy, but it was actually pretty amazing! We all had fun seeing the costumes, circus acts, animals, and lots of food! One thing that really struck Tim (and me too, once he pointed it out), is that in order to look authentically 16th century, everything is people-powered. The rides were pushed/pulled/turned by people, food and drinks were handed through small holes from a hidden kitchens, and even the porta-pottys were hidden from view and called “privvies”. We will definitely be going every year!
 When we walked into the park, we were greeted by people on stilts who invited us to their acobatic/comedy show. It was enjoyed by all ages! There was a lot of hidden adult humor … I can’t even imagine what their late show is like (we’ve heard it’s not kid appropriate!) |
 Alex was a little worried when the acrobats started juggling knives! |
 Good boy Spencer had so much fun seeing all the sights and people. |
 Alex and Aunt Brie rode a camel! |
 Alex and I rode the giant rocking horse. |
 We also rode boat swings. You can see one of the guys in the middle who had to run in a circle to get the ride going. They were dressed as pirates and would “fight” us as we went by. Alex LOVED it. |
I wish I had taken pictures of some of the costumes people had on. There are actually several booths in the front of the park where you can rent period costumes. A lot of people definitely had fun dressing up!
Who’s going with us next year?
A few weekends ago, Papa Art and Grandma Karen came to visit and go with us to the NC Transportation Museum. Our trip was a special one – it was a reward for Alex for completing a sticker chart for completing the rest of his potty training. Alex has been diaper free (except for sleeping) for over a month! Hooray!
It was a very nice day for a train ride! We all had a blast riding around the train yard, taking a spin on the turn table in front of one of the largest round houses ever constructed, and watching a train engine push another engine into the round house right next to us!
Click here to see pictures from our visit in May, 2013 (before Spencer!)
 Alex was very excited for his second train ride! |
 Spencer was a little worried when the train started moving … |
 …but then he was entranced by the view. |
 Riding on the turn table. |
 One of the docents let us know the engine would be on the turn table, so as soon as we heard the train whistle, we ran to the front of the round house to watch. |
 Turns out we had a great spot! The engine was pushing another into the bay right beside us! |
We had such a fun holiday weekend! My high school/college friend, Amanda, and her family spent the night with us, so we had our other college friend, Katherine, over for a cook-out. It was a lot of fun getting together with friends and watching our kiddos play. After a busy evening, we were up early the next morning to head to the NC ZOO. Alex spent all 7 hours at the zoo telling us his favorite animal was the dolphin and was convinced we would see one (there are NO dolphins at the NC Zoo). Finally, at the end of our visit, he decided they must be in their cages with the polar bears (it was too hot for them). Guess we need to find this boy a dolphin show!
 Alex: 3 yrs, 7 months & Spencer: 1 year … Cerys: 3 yrs, 11 months & Ace: 1 year, 2 months |
 LOVE this pic of Amanda and me! |
 Alex and Cerys had so much fun at the zoo. |
 Family picture with some bears. |
 As usual, Spencer was such a good sport about being stuck in the stroller all day. |
 I wish I could remember what they were talking about. They had some pretty hysterical conversations that day. |
Grandma Lisa and Aunt Brie came as reinforcements last week while Tim was in Dallas for a work conference. Thank goodness they were able to stay a night – I lost my voice due to the remnants of the boys’ cold mixed in with allergies (and a week later, I’m still raspy and hoarse)! It was so nice to have some extra hands to love on my boys and keep them entertained.
Since our guests are animal lovers, we decided to visit Darby Acre Farms, which Alex and I visited last May. They now have a different format, so our visit was different and really more “up close and personal”. We were able to go into several pens and even held baby goats and baby sheep! The downside is that they are much more expensive and won’t be a regular stop of ours this spring/summer. Oh well, at least we had fun and got some great pictures!
 Alex really loved the pigs this year. |
 Grandma and Spencer watching Alex and the pigs. |
 Alex was thrilled/intimidated to hold the baby goat. |
 This brown goat was his favorite. |
 Of course Aunt Brie held the 1 week-old goat! |
 This is Alex’s “this is so sweet” face. He got to pick out which bunny to pet. |
 Grandma and Spencer sharing a laugh. |
