hunting

who ever came up with the idea of hiding eggs?  they should be given an award of some sort.  every year after they attend the first egg hunt of the year, my kids become obsessed with hiding and finding them.  they've each had hunts at their school, and they have taken turns hiding them in the backyard for each other.  and inside for me.  and they recruited all of our neighbors for hunts.  so kudos to you, mr. easter egg hunt inventor!

reed was first up at his school yesterday.

it's a right of passage to for my kids to get those bunny ears.  and not wear them correctly!!

there was rain in the forecast at the beginning of the week, so wes' party was scheduled to be at jump.  it ended up not raining, but it was a great place for an easter party.  they hid eggs inside all the jumpy things, and they had a blast.  i couldn't get him to be still for a picture until it was time to eat.

i missed william's class hunt, but they had an egg toss at swim practice yesterday.  he and jack only made it to the second round!  neither of them wanted egg on them!

and now if you'll excuse me, i have exactly 25 eggs to find in our backyard before the rain gets here!!  happy hunting!

spring break

while the rest of the world headed to the beach last week, we packed up and headed to the awesome spring break destination of....wait for it....atlanta.  what?  you didn't know atlanta was the new place to be.  yeah well....give my kids a hotel, and they are happy.  come to think of it, maybe we should have just gone down the street and stayed at a hotel!!  oh well.  too late now!

we made it halfway before we stopped at a cracker barrel for a checkers break.  and candy.  and sweet tea.  who says i'm not a fun mom???  :)

then after we got back on the road, we got off at the very next exit so reed could go to the bathroom.  yes, you read that right.  

anyway, we made it to atlanta around 7, and we wanted some serious culinary perfection for supper because we were all starving.  so we went to the varsity.  hot dogs all around.  

for those that have never been, it is just a big grease pit.  but we went for the experience.  and i hope my kids remember it because i don't really ever have to go again!  ha!  but their orange shake special dessert thing was pretty tasty!!  :)  

the little people checked out every nook and cranny of the hotel when we arrived.  after we assured wes  that the valet parking people were in fact not taking our car away forever, he was happy to get on with the night!  

after breakfast the next morning, we played in centennial park for a little while before we went into the aquarium because it was supposed to rain later that day.  

then we went through security and made our way into the aquarium with these nuts.  

let me just say that i was not expecting the georgia aquarium to be that awesome.  it was great!  except for the one playground area that reed was not tall enough to play on, we had a fabulous time.  they especially liked the stingrays.

i liked the lion fish and the otters!

the dolphin show was great, and it was a nice break to sit down and watch it for 30 minutes!  but as soon as it was over, we went to the ocean section because wes was not going to be happy unless he saw the sharks!  so going through the tunnel and watching the whale shark swim over him was the highlight of the day!

after we watched the 3D movie, we had pretty much seen everything there was to see.

it was a great thing to do for kiddos.  it took us most of the day to go through the entire place.  we left for lunch and came back in to finish it up.  and then we walked back to the hotel and everybody looked something like this....

the next morning, we went to try out the legoland discovery center.  if you think a box of legos is expensive, go buy 5 tickets to this place plus 3 stamp pad thingies to collect stamps in each room.  daddy was happy, happy, happy!!!!  :)  it would have been a really neat place for our 3.  they were the perfect ages.  if they were any older, i don't think they would have liked it so much.  but....it was so stinking crowded with field trippers that it just wasn't that much fun...for me!  they liked it!!  

before i had a panic attack from all the snotty noses around me, we left to meet aunt holly and alexandra for lunch.  we went to this crazy place that has all these birds in cages outside.  and before i know it, william has a bird on his head.  

have i ever mentioned my hatred of birds?  ok.  hate might be a strong word.  i don't mind birds that are flying around OVER THERE.  just stay the heck away from me.  those creepy claws and beaks.  and dirty feathers.  stay in your cage, bird!  well...the next thing i know, wes has a bird on his head.  followed by reed who refuses to move an inch with that crazy thing on his head.

and i don't really know what happened next because one minute i was looking at the menu, and the next that freaky bird was on my shoulder flapping his wings into the side of head.  y'all.  it's a wonder i'm still alive.  it's really a wonder that bird is still alive.  for the love.  i didn't want to go all psycho in front of my kids and my niece and kill the bird, so i managed to just bury my head in my arms and try not to hyperventilate until they got that durn bird off of me!  thankfully, i recovered, and the food was really good!!  much better than a hot dog!  

so while all of y'all got some sun at the beach, our spring break is filled with memories of sharks and legos.  and we are just going to pretend that birds played no part in it!!  

field trippin'

wes and william both got a little field trip time in before spring break.  wes' class visited the fire station, the airport and burger king.  i don't think burger king can actually be considered a part of the field trip, but they did enjoy that playground!!

his favorite part was the airport.  we have a company here in town that demolishes out-of-comission airplanes.  they got to get on one of the gigantic ones and hear about how they take them apart.  it was pretty interesting even if it was about 40 below zero!!

and yes...reed thought he was actually in kindergarten, too!  :)

the next day, i went with william's class to the children's museum of memphis.  maybe i have an engineer of some sort on my hands.  he spent the majority of his time building and shooting paper airplanes and controlling a dam on the model mississippi river to flood the low lying areas.

or maybe i just have a monkey!

what a great way to begin spring break!

thank goodness for ramen noodles

imagine this....

i go to kroger on a saturday and stock up on everything from turkey to toothpaste.  they are out of milk.  how is a grocery store ever out of milk?  it's beyond me, but we can't function without several gallons of milk at all times because, hello?  cereal doesn't work without milk.  chocolate milk doesn't work without milk.  oreos don't work without milk.  my children don't work without milk.  so....i go back to kroger on sunday to get some milk.  and then i remember that wes has to take snack on monday.  so i get snacks while i am there, too.  so, the snack and milk problem is solved.  

on monday morning, the dear, sweet husband tells me that he needs some evaporated milk and mouthwash and deodorant.  because apparently he didn't notice that i went to the store the last TWO days, and he felt that i needed to make an appearance yet again.  in case you don't remember, i hate wal mart, so if i can get it at kroger...i will.  plus, they double coupons.  anyway, monday morning after i get some stress out at the gym, i walk back in kroger to the amazement of the sushi guy standing there who sees me more than his own family because yeah...i live at kroger.  i get the needed items, and yes i do consider mouthwash and deodorant necessities for the husband.  i could do without evaporated milk, but i'm not sure i'd want to live with a husband who didn't get his coffee like he wanted it in the mornings.  that would be like telling me to drink my chocolate milk without the chocolate.  while i'm there, i notice the easter M&Ms are on display.  you can't just walk by the easter M&Ms.  the holiday M&Ms are the absolute best.  i don't know why they taste better than the regular ones, but they so do.  and one of my friends and i decided that the easter pastel ones are the best.  so i had to grab a few bags of those as well.  yay for easter M&Ms!  so after i get a quick shower, i head to pick up reed at school.  as he climbs in the car singing the all-time classic "twinkle, twinkle traffic light," i notice a note stapled to his bag.  said note is informing me that reed is in charge of snack for wednesday.  cuss word!  

so here it is tuesday, and i am about to go to kroger for the 4th time in 4 days!  i gave you all of that background to explain why we will be living in a tent in the near future.  aside from the fact that i go to the grocery store every day of my life....it seems that the cost of everything in that grocery store goes up from one day to the next!  it is so stinking expensive to feed my people.  people who are starving 1 hour after they eat a meal.  people who eat pb and j sandwiches in the middle of the day to hold them over.  people who eat bowls of cereal after supper so they don't starve while sleeping.  it makes me wonder...what's more important...college or supper???  kidding.  kind of.  

however, there is a bright spot in the midst of all the hunger over here.  reed has a favorite meal.  and without hesitation, he will tell you every time that he is hungry that he wants "noodles."  ramen noodles. without a doubt the cheapest thing in all of kroger.  and then he pulls up a chair and stares longingly at the microwave while he waits.  he's a little obsessed.  

if i could talk everybody else into eating ramen noodles once a day, maybe everybody will still be able to go college.  or maybe kroger will just let us pitch our tent in their parking lot.  

happy teeth

i guess february is teeth month at every school everywhere.  william and wes both came home with new toothbrushes and toothpaste.  reed came home with all sorts of tooth projects, and he will be sure to tell you that you need to brush your teeth "two times a day for two hours so they won't be sad and brown."  i think something got lost in translation somewhere, but nonetheless he is happy to brush his teeth.  for now.

they capped off teeth month by going on a field trip to the dentist.  they watched a bear get his teeth cleaned and then watched a monkey get some x-rays.

this was not the dentist that we go to, and he didn't understand why there was no movie on the ceiling for the bear to watch.  i think we've been spoiled by our dentist!!

this picture has nothing to do with teeth, but this is reed's favorite girl in his class.  her name is sadie, and they were deep in 3 year old conversation when i snapped this pic.  i love it because she looks a lot like my high school bff's little girl, mary laine.

this is mary laine.  see??  it's kind of weird, right?

what can i say?  he has good taste in the ladies.  as a bonus, he likes to vacuum.

and let's not forget.  he likes to brush his teeth, too.  for two hours.  twice a day.  some girl will be lucky to catch him one day!!

his first lead out

y'all remember having lead out before the big dance in high school.  everybody is all fancified (is that a word?), parents are all crowded around with cameras, and each couple walks out to an introduction.  i'm having an anxiety attack just thinking about it.  i've played in tennis matches and basketball games with tons of spectators....that's different.  please don't ever put me up in front of a group of people and make their eyes look at me.  stress me out!!!  today for valentine's day, the first graders got to experience that!!

it seemed to me that all the girls really loved it.  all the boys, however, weren't loving it so much!!  :)  but they did look cute!

william and ella

william, ella, and will

knox and william ("please....is this over yet?")

a seriously cute rehearsal dinner picture for at least one of these boys!  jack, knox, william, and noah

i can say that i'm very proud of the fact that i'm now just one of those parents with a camera!!  happy valentine's day!