Today

today he is five! And it started out in the 5 o'clock hour! but that's old news, right? I left a card on his pillow and thankfully he didn't figure out the button to make it play music (I like to move it, move it!). We had muffins with birthday candles for breakfast and he got his first gift: a new (to him) iPod loaded with his tunes, and a radio base to play it on. He has had a CD player and Audrey makes a mess of the CDs. So she'll get the old player and CDs in her room to play. Thankfully I ripped all of the CDs before they started getting too scratched.

Then daddy took him to school.  Audrey and I stopped in a little later with sprinkle doughnuts for snacktime! Whoo hoo! I'm sure the teachers were thanking me for that one, but at least they had playground time after snacks.  There will be more partying tonight too.  I made Oreo grasshopper pie! yum. 

5 years ago

Happy 5th Birthday Miles!

1st day in new classes!

happy birthday, Millie!

What's the rule?

Under promise, over deliver? Guess I better deliver on my promise of more pictures!

August was hot, hot, HOT.  So we did a lot more swimming, or at least splashing in the back yard.  I discovered that if I had Audrey's hair in 2 pigtails when she got wet, they would corkscrew into the cutest little spirals.  Hard to resist this little grin.

And together they are quite the team. They have so much fun together, until, of course, they don't. But most of the time it's giggles and mischief. She loves playing his games, pretending to be on a a train, chasing a monster (which is actually chasing poor Chelsea around the house), and camping underground (under his bed). We'll have to start working on his influence over her, as he knows he can get her in trouble by suggesting she do things, or acting in a way he knows she'll copy. But when he is sweet, oh my, they are so cute.

This day at the pool was great. They both would jump in and paddle down to the deep end, then climb out and head back to the shallow end to do it again. Over and over and over. Mommy got to relax and watch them wear themselves out!

Miles will be turning 5 in a couple of weeks. Hard to believe we've been parents for 5 years now! He'll do Pre-K this year and start kindergarten next fall. It works out that he'll go 4 days and Audrey will go 3, and I'll have 2 days with just her at home and 1 day with just him. I'm looking forward to my days with him. We've already started planning adventures that only big kids and their mommies can do (no baby sisters allowed). So far our list is the zoo, botanical gardens, Ijams nature center, the Fair, Market Square, the science museum and lots more. Any other suggestions I'm forgetting?

One special one we'll do the week of his birthday. He has really gotten into the Titanic after reading the Magic Tree House book where Jack and Annie go to it. (n.b. don't even get him started talking about Magic Tree House. He can go on and on about all the cool stuff the kids get to do!) So I think we'll try to head to Pigeon Forge to the new Titanic Museum for a surprise.

oh, and I am done with the first two classes of my MIS degree! They were very time intensive, but I enjoyed them both and learned a lot. We have orientation this week and I'll be taking just 1 class in the fall. And no, I don't get football tickets, I didn't pay the activities fee! That's one benefit of being a "distance" student (no fees, not the no tickets part).

Here's my little student checking out our leaf-bug.  

Where were we?

Oh yeah, Busy-town. Sorry we've been a bit absent this summer, but we've been going going going. I'll rewind to where we left off and do a quick recap.

Jen and Davey came over for the 4th weekend and we shot fireworks for the boys again.

I went to Alpha Chi Omega National Convention in D.C. Here I am with Emily, Meredith, & Mel on our one break to look around. I texted miles some pictures of the dinosaurs in the Smithsonian and now he can't wait to go!

Then there was a whole bunch of swimming and splashing. It was HOT! Some days it was even too hot to drive to the pool, so we hooked up the sprinkler and dragged out the kiddie pool.

Later in July we headed to Nashville to celebrate Evan's 8th (!) birthday. Can't believe he's EIGHT!! The cousins had the best time together.  Evan's party was on Sunday night and we couldn't stay for that, so the older cousins went bowling to celebrate together.  There was this awesome bowling alley that had kids' lanes that were about half length and lighter, smaller balls. It was so cool, I rolled 3 strikes!

There was a lot more sprinkler time. "B" is such a great sport!

Evan teaching Miles some Avatar The Last Airbender karate-chop moves.

more to come, this weekend I promise!

having an apres swim picnic at the Garvey's. fun!