We had a little party for him-- the bigger parties will be this weekend-- but wanted to squeeze in this shot of Aidan with his HUGE new basketball hoop!
Yeah, Daddy will be working on setting that one up for a few hours tomorrow!
Dispatch from SleepyMama:
Overheard conversation between Bryce and his buddy Zoe, age 5, as they were acting out The Little Mermaid with dolls:
Zoe (in her Ursula voice): "You have THREE DAYS to kiss your true love. Got that? THREE DAYS."
Bryce: "What happens then?"
Zoe: "If you don't kiss in three days, then Ariel comes back to being a mermaid and Ursula catches her."
::slight pause::
Bryce: "Why don't we just blow up Ursula?"
This morning, as I was getting ready for work, Aidan said he wants to come to work with me sometime this week. And he mentioned that he wanted to wear a tie when he goes.
Bryce: "Why do you want to wear a tie?"
Aidan: "Because I like to be a handsome guy, Bryce."
My good friend Bob invited us up to his wife's family farm for the day yesterday. Garnett Farm is in Kentucky, only about 2 hours from Nashville. Bob and his wife Rebecca are living in Virginia these days but they make annual pilgrimages to the family ground during the summer.
So we drove up with the boys and got to spend the day wandering around the farm, seeing and doing lots of cool stuff like riding on the Gator, playing chase with Gus the German Shepherd, picking beans, throwing "Cow Candy" (overripe squash) to the cows, and even feeding some calves.
The boys had a blast! Thanks to Bob, Rebecca and all the family up there for giving us a great day!
You may remember that earlier in the spring, we mentioned how Bryce has discovered Indiana Jones... well, here's a little photographic evidence.. (notice the bullwhip coiled in his belt)..
We celebrated the 4th on the 5th, actually, with our friends John and Christie and their kids. The evening was capped off with sparklers and firecrackers in the driveway. The kids were nervous about the loud bangs and sparks at first, so they hid out in the back of John's car.
We spent a lot of the quality time in that long weekend relaxing around the cabin and doing a lot of catching up.. but we got out and did a few things in the area as well.
We took the kids to Splash Country one day, and then Dollywood the next. Another day, a group of us went into nearby Gatlinburg and visited the local aquarium-- Aidan and Bryce got a real kick out of that! Meanwhile, another group of us did some hiking up in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Word is there was a bear siting along the path. You'll have to contact my cousin Robert to verify that.
[Just one note-- Dollywood and Splash Country are both, we think, really great theme parks. We had a group of kids ranging in age from 12 to 4 and the parks were each organized in such a way that we were able to split off and do some fun things for each of the kids and then meet back in a central place without too much difficulty. We werent' sure what to expect before we got there, but we were really impressed with both parks.]
setting up for dinner in the cabin
the kids immediately found the hottub!
generations
the boys at Dollywood with the Veggie Tales
touring around Dollywood
Bryce and Megan on the carousel
Once Bryce was sure that the giant scarecrow wouldn't eat him, he gave him a big hug!
Jennifer took the younger kids on the mini Roller Coaster
Dad and Eileen at the Aquarium
Amanda and the kids @ the aquarium
watching the Manta Rays
And we thought the signs at the Zoo were pretty funny too.
We headed out on the road today for a week-long vacation in East Tennessee. First stop-- Knoxville, to visit with some old Vanderbilt friends and their little boy, James. Then, on Thursday, we'll be heading to a cabin in the mountains to meetup with some family and have a little weekend reunion out in the Great Smokies. And of course, we can't miss Dollywood. :)
We wound up spending last night at our friend Jack's house-- but we only spent about 15 minutes in the tent we'd setup out in the backyard.. we had a great time.. but it wasn't what you'd call "camping out"..
add a little sugar and the kids become a blur...
Courtesy of Aunt Laura's employer, we got a few tickets to a Sounds game for Friday night, so we loaded up the boys and went out for an early summer evening at the ballpark. The Nashville Sounds are the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers and have always been a pretty good team to go and watch.
The boys have started watching Star Wars this summer... and that has led to the inevitable games of "Hey, I'll be Luke; you be Han"... and other variations..
Here's Bryce now in the role of Darth Vader.. teamed up with his friend, Maddie as "Spider Girl"..
Let's wear ties!
Originally uploaded by sleepydad
Aidan used an Out of Uniform pass at school today so he could wear his spiffy new shirt and tie. Don't ask me. I have no idea what brought this on.
So, in the last couple of weeks, Aidan and Bryce have been introduced to Indiana Jones and the whole swashbuckling archaeologist meme that comes with the release of the new Indy film later this month.
I mean, come on, between the Dr. Pepper cans, the Indy Lego commercials... and the fact that Aunt Laura popped the DVD in the player and showed them a few scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark the other night while she was babysitting.. I mean, apart from that, we've been doing our level best to protect them from these kinds of pop culture influences. We promise.
Okay, so say what you will, but Bryce, the newly minted 4-year old, has gone totally Indiana Jones crazy.
He's stalking around the house in his new Pre-K khakis, a button-down shirt buttoned half-way up, and a costume cowboy hat, with a coil of rope tethered to his belt loop.. we haven't captured this on camera yet, but it will only be a matter of time.
But even that's not the best part of this story.
So Bryce and his friend Maddie are in the kitchen-- Bryce in his Indy garb-- doing something when Maddie, who is completely fascinated with all things creepy-crawly notices that a small trail of ants have made it into the house near our back door. Bryce pushes his hat back on his head a bit as he looks down on the marching line of ants, then puts one hand on his hip and mutters... and I'm not making this up...
"Bugs... why'd it have to be bugs."
Next up: Star Wars. Oh yes. Star Wars.
1) has it really been 4 years since he arrived, that bundled little mass of squawking, chirping, squinting little (dark haired!) baby?
2) is he really only 4? sometimes he seems so much like he's older.. picking up from his older brother, no doubt.
So today's the day, anyway. So I took off early from work and picked up Aidan from school a little early (it's that time of year at school where, after lunch they're pretty much done for the day anyway) and we met Mom and Bryce at a nearby Chuck E. Cheese. This has become like a little family tradition the last year or two. And let me tell you, there's no time like mid-day on a Thursday for going to Chuck E. Cheese.. normally, on weekend afternoons, the place is a mosh-pit of whack-a-mole-crazed toddlers. But on Thursdays at 1pm.. not too bad.
From us.. a Webkinz Tiger Snake..
And from Aidan.....
oh, this is going to be good...
Iron Man!
Mask and Repulsor Gauntlet..
The kids always know the good toys...
