Sam's Lego Shirt

Sam is really into Legos right now, and when Magan found him a Lego shirt at Kid’s Market, he fell in love. I think he wore it every day for a week before we could get it off of him to wash.

With his love of the Lego shirt in mind, and Sam’s stubbornness, I relate the following…Sam and Davis continually make extreme messes taking baths together, usually with water ending up all over the floor. I am pretty sure I have already blogged about other incidents involving bathroom messes. In this occasion after getting them out and getting their pajamas on, I went back in the bathroom and noticed the water all of the floor that I had not noticed earlier.

I called both of the boys back in and began scolding them for their mess, then trying a new approach for little Sam, again wearing his Lego shirt, I told Sam next time I would use his Lego shirt to wipe up the mess. He looked up at me in horror but then with no hesitation said “I would still wear it”. I told him that he would not, and that we would have to wash it. He then told me that he would take it and hide it from me.

Now Sam and I did have a little better discussion about his role and my role, but I have to admit, when that guy is passionate about something, he is not one to back down.

A Day out with Thomas

We have now been to Calera for this event 4 years in a row. This is always a blast for the boys and a fairly cheap day of entertainment for us. Davis and Sam both had big smiles as I lifted them up from the parking lot to see Thomas.

We first went to the petting zoo, where Sam and Davis pet the goats, bunnies, and ducks. I also let Sam and Davis wonder all over the trains they have on display. They were pretty happy to be driving this big engine.

We then got tattoos for the boys. Anabelle wanted one, but we said that she had to wait till she was 20 to get one like her mothers…just kidding. The tattoos were quickly gone while Sam and Davis played in the blow up bounce area and slide, those guys could have spent the rest of the day in here. Magan has a video of Davis screaming coming down the slide, and this he did EVERY time he came down the slide.

After the blow up fun, the boys both played putt putt, then we took a rest and rode the smaller version (and much cheaper) train.

We then let the boys go to the story time passenger train while Magan went to the Thomas Store with Anabelle. Sam was very shy about sitting up front to listen to the Thomas story, but little Dave helped give them both the confidence to go up front and sit all by themselves. After that, they played in the large sand boxes and then with the bubbles. Magan and I just sat back in the shade and watched them play and play and play.

One last trip to the Thomas Train tent…where all the kids were playing with the train tables they had set up. They also had a large table where you could color pictures, but only one kid stayed at this table the whole time…yep Sam. He loved that they had so many stamps and coloring pages.

It was a beautiful day, and so much fun. On the island of Sodor this day there were no unhappy engines.

Noccolula Falls

Our trip to Noccolula was a beautiful day, but quite windy giving us a little chill. Luckily Magan had brought long sleeves for everyone except me. This is a great place for the kids and I was looking forward to our first day trip in awhile.

We began in the pioneer village where they also have a deer park. You can get very close to the deer and pet them through the fence. You can see that Davis had no problems sticking his whole arm threw the fence to pet the deer, this changed when one bit his finger. :)

We then went to see their lion, and other fun animals, before proceeding to the covered bridge and rock formations.

This is what I was looking forward to because I knew how much the boys would like climbing on the rocks. They loved it, we made our way through the rocks and climbed up one of the big walls of rocks. Magan got our picture on top. Later as Davis and I joined back up with Magan, I noticed that Sam had gone back down into the formations, and then I saw him climbing out by himself. He is a pretty brave little guy.

Sam and Davis then went with me down to the bottom of the falls while Magan took care of Anabelle up top. I did get one picture of the boys at the bottom before the camera battery died.

We played at the park, threw sticks in the water and watched them go over the falls, and then got on the train for a short ride back to the front of the park. Oh, and the only annoying part of this day is that my window on the explorer is broke, and Magan and I had to continually push it back up all day.

All the kids to myself…

KidsMarket night, and here I am alone at the house with the kids. All asleep right now, and the house is so quiet. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that Anabelle will remain asleep for another 3 hours till Magan gets home in the morning. I have the bottle and milk ready, I think I am prepared if she wakes up.

So this is I think my first night out with all the kids and so far…so good. Magan brought the kids to me at work around 3 this afternoon (right after feeding Belle), and after taking Davis to the bathroom (not so easy with 3), then picking up the bulletins, We went to the McWane center!

Sam and Davis had a blast, and we basically had the place to ourselves from 4pm till closing at 5pm. They had a new naturescape exhibit showing a lot of the birds of Alabama. Here they also had a tarantula, hissing cockroach, and large scorpion (I really don’t know how this worked with the birds of AL, but the kids liked it). Until I held Davis up and he saw the spider…He screamed and jumped back.

We then went down to pet the sharks and sting rays. Davis gets up and ready, but when I tried to help him touch the shark…He screamed and jumped back. Sam “pet” the shark TWO TIMES, but the sting ray would not get close enough. We then walked through the aquarium section and the exit has a large picture of a shark. I heard Davis playing and running around the corner and wouldn’t you know it…He saw that picture and screamed and jumped back just like it was a real shark. Me and Sam both laughed at him this time.

I then took the kids to Lakeshore where I was to meet Magan (Apparently you just leave your pile of clothes on the floor with your name on it if you need a shopping break) for Belle’s last feeding. But I wanted to push this as far out as possible as long as Anabelle was not fussing. So we wondered around Walmart, then ate at O’Charleys.

Then met up with Magan, fed Anabelle, came home, kids in bed, writing this blog. Took the boys to the bathroom 2 times at McWane, and 1 at O’Charleys…that is a large task with 3.

And I don’t know if Magan will blog about taking Davis to meet the Easter Bunny at the Brookwood Mall, so here is a picture of him.

That’s all for now.

A Sweet Little Smile

She doesn’t fight with her brothers…she rarely cries hard…she doesn’t do much right now besides eat, sleep, and poop. But she smiles each time she sees you, and goos when she knows she has your attention. You can’t help but smile at her.

She has Sam wrapped around her finger already, and Davis “likes her”. That’s all for now…I am sure she will get her share of blogs once we start getting to all of her “firsts”.

I have just realized as I looked for a picture to post with this blog that Magan takes ALOT of pictures of Belle. But she is doing a great job, and www.lilywhitephotography.com is doing well also. It is really neat to see all the fun pictures hanging on the walls that she took. Pretty Amazing.

Sam Stories

Magan had the boys at Walmart the other day, and Davis got to pick out a new monster truck for his birthday. Sam was saddened that he did not get a toy and began some pouting and fussing. Magan explained to him that it was not his birthday, and his birthday was coming up next. Then as she was getting some things for her on the crafts aisle, she also picked up some construction paper, glue sticks, and scissors for Sam to work on things at the house. She showed him these things almost jokingly that these were just as good as a monster truck. Then when Sam saw them…His eyes got big and his smile widened as he shouted with excitement “You’re Getting Me Art Supplies! Thank You Mom”.

Since we have brought the “art supplies” back to the house, Sam has been a card making fanatic. He is constantly making pictures and getting us to help him spell people’s names so he can write them a card. He has also started using his scissors to cut out shapes that apparently he clearly sees what they are. We have no idea what these little pieces of paper are, but to him they are a boat, a knife, a diamond. Last week he made an assortment of these little pieces of paper and put them in a Ziploc bag to take to church. With a very serious face he passed out the cards to all the “little kids” that he made one for, and he then passed out the scraps of paper to all the “big kids”. I saw several people thank him…but then did not know what to do with this little piece of paper he had just given them.

Sam came up to me the other day, and asked me about what things I liked, because he was making me a card. The picture below basically shows all the things I like and I think he did a good job with my card…

Dad and the Boys at Zoo

Magan did her all night sleepover in a parking lot at Lakeshore a couple of weeks back. She does this twice a year for the Kids Market extravaganza. Because she arrived home at about 8 in the morning, and the boys would probably be fighting all day, I decided to let her rest and take the boys to the zoo.

It was a beautiful day, and I basically just followed the boys to whatever they wanted to do. They had a blast playing in the kids area, then digging for dinosaurs on the Alabama Wilds trail, and of course on the Carousel. The B’ham zoo is in somewhat of a mess right now as they get ready for Trails of Africa next year. They have pictures of what it will look like and it will be very exciting. Some new animals as well.