We threw a Labor Day weekend block party with our neighbors yesterday afternoon.. a water slide, some lots of bikes and tricycles in the cul-de-sac and lots and lots and LOTS of good food.. all a combination for a great time with good friends..
The kids were full of pizza and got their popcorn and were all ready to see Clone Wars, the new Star Wars movie!
As a sidenote: our grownup review of the movie-- pretty good! In fact, we're impressed that the computer animated groupings of pixels on the screen were able to make us care more about those characters than the actual flesh and blood actors (namely Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portman) in the prequels..
Watching Attack of the Clones with the boys this morning, in preparation for tonight's Clone Wars movie (they'll be going as part of friend Jake's Birthday party), when Aidan and I had the following conversation:
Me: See, Anakin and Amidala are falling in love.
Aidan: Why?
Me: That's a really good question.
1) we're always out of something in the fridge or pantry
2) there's always a potty that needs unclogging
3) Jango Fett is always missing one of his guns (and sometimes his head)...
I know I've got lots of updating to do from all the fun an frolic of the summer, but I just wanted to get a few of these pictures up from today, the first day of school.. Aidan starts 2nd grade and Bryce kicks off his career with the first day of Pre-K.
For the record, Aidan's an old pro at this First Day thing by now, and Bryce was a trooper. He went right into his classroom, met all his classmates, and had a great day. When it was time for pick-up-- they had just a brief half-day today-- he really didnt' want to leave.
So I think we'll be alright on the school front.
Here are a selection of the pictures.
For a limited time, you can get the full photo-set here
Aidan turned 7 this week, and the parties seemed to be never ending.. it was more a birthday festival than a singular event. We had a little gathering on the 31st to commemorate his actual birthday.. but the real celebration didn't kick off until the weekend.. first with a visit to Chuck E. Cheese with his good friend Jake and Uncle Ross on Friday..
Playing some skee-ball..
Playing the Firefighter videogame...
Then the big Superman Pool Party bash with all the neighbor and school friends on Saturday..
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.
