Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Touring the grounds..

This past weekend, Aunt Laura took the boys on a trip to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, where they're having a display called "Once Upon a Garden", with outdoor installations based on 10 classic children's stories...

Happy Birthday, Aidan!

Well, as you can imagine, Aidan woke up this morning in an exceptionally good mood!

He came running into our room at about 6:50 this morning with a beaming smile and saying "I'm six!" over and over again.

Other activities of the morning:
1) snuggle with Mama, still beaming and saying "I'm six!"
2) run back into his room, where his giraffe tape-measure wall hanging is, "to see how tall I am now." Unofficial results: 45 inches.
3) "Since it's my birthday, can I pick what I want for breakfast?" Result: the standard Waffles and blueberries.
4) "Since it's my birthday, can I pick what Bryce has for breakfast?"

On the Birthday Boy's docket for the rest of the day:
1) visit with friends Jake and Zoe
2) three words: Chuck E. Cheese
3) probably an evening by the pool or else play in the cul-de-sac with our neighbor friends

Sunday, July 22, 2007

More of the beach bums!

More pictures and a couple of little video clips from today's trip to the beach...








Sunday Morning Beach Bums

We just got back from a day at the Beach!

We packed a few picnic snacks and drinks in the cooler, grabbed a few pool floaties and beach toys and met one of our neighbors at a beach on Percy Priest Lake.

We got there nice and early this morning (around 9:00), so we more or less had the place to ourselves for most of the morning.

It took the boys a few minutes to get accustomed to the moving water. The Park Service has put buoys and ropes marking off the swimming area-- the big orange marker in the picture is at about 4 feet deep in the water, so our boys knew to stay on the near side of that. There's a fair bit of boat and ski-doo traffic beyond the far outer buoys-- and that makes for some good waves... and once the boys got used to seeing and feeling the water move like that, they were right into it! Bryce was practically body surfing in his little blue circle float!

Once the boys had gotten wet, we set down to the business of building a sand castle.. which turned into a small castle compound. Other highlights included burying Mama in the sand, taking a break for lunch, swimming some more, playing in the sand some more... well, you kind of get the idea!

If you can believe it.. during the ride home this afternoon, Aidan asked "When we get home, can we go to the pool?"

Monday, July 16, 2007

Aidan's Amazing Adventure!

You'll never believe all the things Aidan has gotten up to lately!


(Thanks, Gramma, for putting this together!)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Batman

Bryce Wayne tries on his new Batman costume (after a quick repast of blueberries and waffles):

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

YMCA Art & Archeology

Bryce brought home a "Fossil" from school today...

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

July Fourth, Part 2

Phase 2 of our Independence Day celebration involved going into town to watch the Nashville downtown fireworks display with Aunt Laura, Aunt Frances, and Uncle Wyatt..

The downtown skyline before sunset..
Aidan's not sure if he's gonna stick it out in the outdoor viewing spot..
..with Frances and Wyatt..
Aidan's uncertainty about staying outside for the fireworks was confirmed about an hour before the display started when two F-16s roared past, flying right over our spot. The roar of those jet engines, I'm sorry to report, turned both our boys into puddles on the mulch.. and they quickly decided to take up viewing positions inside the office building nearby where they could watch the display from a third-floor window.

And then...







Happy Fourth of July!

Fourth of July Part 1

Our Fourth of July this year came in two phases.
Phase I: an afternoon picnic (once it got cool enough for anyone to set foot outside), complete with slip-n-slide, with the neighbors..
Nothing says July 4 like a Nathan's Hot Dog!

Blaine and Aidan on the slip-n-slide..
Aidan gets ready for another run on the slip-n-slide..
Big splash!
Blaine..
Maddie..
The babies (Blaine's brother, Drake and Maddie's sister, Riley)on the lawn..
Have a popsicle and a smile..

Happy Fourth of July!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

More Firefighter Bryce

Some more of Bryce fighting fires.. he found that the vacuum cleaner hose works really well for putting out big fires.



Monday, July 02, 2007

Parting gifts

Before Jimmy and Judy headed home this morning, Bryce colored a picture for Jimmy.
Bryce's favorite color these days is yellow, so the picture of the (you guessed it) firefighter doesn't have as much red in it as it probably should, but I don't think Jimmy minded..

Family Photos

A few quick pics of the family (Mama refused to get in any of them)..
Aidan took this one:
and Bryce took this one:

Firefighter Bryce (and other notes from Jimmy and Judy's visit)

With Jimmy's visit this weekend, Bryce has decided he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up!



We were all so glad to get a chance to visit with Jimmy and Judy for a few days and the boys had a ball playing with their new-found playmates!
Jimmy and Bryce worked a puzzle together...
Brave (and generous) souls that they are, Jimmy and Judy took the boys to the toy store to pick out their own birthday gifts...
Aidan plays with his new weed-eater:
Jimmy and I work to unpackage a couple of new Tonka trucks. Aidan picked out a Garbage truck with a working forklift and Bryce picked out (big surprise) a firetruck with a working ladder:
With Jimmy's counsel, Fire Chief Bryce deploys firemen to fight this highrise blaze!

Aidan takes a turn with the ladder truck: