Buddies!!

Today my friend Janie drove over 3 hours for a play date at our house! We have missed getting together, so she braved the drive with two little ones so that we could all get together. It was wonderful to see her, and I've missed talking face to face with her SO MUCH. Nathan and Will played together just like old times and Luke and Lauren played as much as a 20 month old and a 15 month old can play together. We can't wait to see them again VERY SOON! Nathan and Will
Lauren and Luke

Our Weekend

On Friday night Uncle Jared and Aunt Len came to Lexington! They got to my house late at night, so I didn't see them until Saturday morning. On Saturday morning we all went to my school to watch my class do the Mexican Hat Dance. I was so excited that I had a big cheering section. It was fun to dance for everyone. On Sunday we went over to Papa John and Diddy's house for a big lunch and to eat cake. It was a lot of fun to see everyone. I enjoyed having my Uncle Jared and Aunt Len here. Here are a couple of pictures. Nonnie, Aunt Len, Uncle Jared, Lauren, and Daddy waiting for the show to begin! Daddy reading books to Lauren and me at Papa John and Diddy's house.
I got to blow the candles out on the cake. It's not my birthday, but it was fun.

Will's Mexican Hat Dance

Will had his first school performance today. Their school did a program called, "Children Around the World." Will's class was from Mexico and they did the Mexican Hat Dance. This was Will's first time on a stage and he did great!!!

Welcome Matthew and Zachary

Today my brother's family welcomed Matthew and Zachary into this world. Paul's wife, Kristy, has been on bed rest for five long months and their new twin boys were born today at 36 weeks. Big brother Bradley should be excited about his two new playmates! We're all so very excited about these new little guys and I'm very excited to be an aunt three times over!
Matthew and Zachary (in that order)

Children's Museum

We all took off early Saturday morning for the Cincinnati Children's Museum. We had a great time. Will is just the right age for all of the exhibits and he completely wore himself out! Lauren enjoyed all of the areas except the tree house playground area. She's still a little young to go up there by herself. Will loved the tree house play area, though. He went up there all by himself and he would show up every couple of minutes on a bridge or at the bottom of a slide. We weren't able to get pictures of him in that area because he wouldn't stand still. Oh well, you can just use your imagination.

Will loved the construction site. They had a large dump truck with some fake rocks. They had a backhoe type of thing that you could use to load the rocks into the dump truck. Will spent a lot of his time here.Here Will is building what looks like a car. He had his own tool box with nails, a hammer, and other tools. He was very focused here.More building area.Lauren loved the ball area. It's an area that you use balls to discover energy, but she just liked the balls.Will was using a pulley system to raise balls into a large container.The sand table in the toddler area. Lauren LOVED this area. She stayed here while Will went exploring with Daddy.

Will fishing with Daddy in the toddler area. He actually caught some fish!Lauren getting into bed with her baby and reading her a story (after a snack of bread). They love these bead movers!!! She moved every one (one at a time) to the other side. Very focused!The giant water play area.... enough said.Joe took this picture of Will - just as a kid splashed. In this area you use a series of pulleys and buckets to fill up a large bucket so it spills water on people. Tons of fun.Lauren playing in the water.
What a trip!

Art time

On Thursday Will wanted to paint.... so Will and Lauren did a little finger painting. Will did great (obviously, he's done it before), but Lauren decided that she should eat the paint. I guess finger paint doesn't taste very good because she only did that once. Here's Lauren finger painting. I didn't get a picture of Will. Here's Will painting with a paint brush. He enjoys that more than finger painting. Instead of using a paintbrush, Lauren decided to color with markers. She did her fair share of eating the markers, but she actually ended up with a cute picture.
After dinner we went outside to play. Here's Joe with Lauren, Will, and Mollie. We're still enjoying our fenced yard.

Piggies

I've waited a long time to do this..... I bribed her with M&M's to get it done. Amazingly, she seems to like them and she hasn't pulled them out. It really makes her look like a little girl!

Brevard Zoo Part 2

This morning (Monday) we went to the zoo so we could catch the giraffes and the rhinos. When we went last week, the giraffes and rhinos were nowhere to be seen. We usually get there early in the morning when they are hungry, so we left right after breakfast to feed the giraffes. Lauren is feeding a giraffe for the first time. She was a little timid, but she didn't cry. We even got to pet the giraffe and she loved that! Will loved feeding the giraffes and here he is feeding Melvin, the baby giraffe. Melvin is now tall enough to eat the crackers and he was so excited to feed him. We remember when he would come around with his mommy and he is getting so tall! I love this picture of Grandma with the two kids. They were feeding this giraffe and then some other people began feeding it. I got some great pictures of the giraffe right next to them as he was reaching for the food. Will actually reached out and pet the giraffe right below it's eye.


We rode the little train around the zoo. We saw a lot of the animals this time and it was so much fun. You could reach out and pet an ostrich (if you were brave enough....) and we got to see the giraffes and rhinos again. Both of the kids enjoyed the train ride.
Will and Lauren after the train ride. Lauren is getting so big!!!

Florida!

This past week was Spring Break for Will.... Joe had drill Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so I took the kids to Florida to visit my parents. We lucked out because my grandma was down in Florida, too!!! The kids have had a great time here in Florida and they have enjoyed spending time with Grandpa, Grandma, and Gmama (their Great-Grandma). Enjoy the entries about our trip!

Sea World

On Saturday we took the kids to Sea World. This was our big trip of this vacation. Will has been so excited to see Shamu and that was the first thing we did when we arrived at Sea World. The show, Believe, was amazing and the whales are just so beautiful. Will was mesmerized through the entire show and he didn't take his eyes off of the whales. Lauren really enjoyed the show, too, though some of it was a little loud and scary. I loved watching her follow the whales. After the show, we headed to see the beluga whales (Baby Beluga...Raffi!), walrus, and polar bears. Then it was time for lunch. We headed over to see the Clydesdale horses and the pet show after lunch. The kids really enjoyed the pet show - they even had a trained skunk and pig! Then we went to the children's area to play and ride the roller coaster (see next post). We got "stuck" in the children's area for an extra hour because a HUGE thunderstorm came through. Will and I were up in the rope climbing area when we were told to get down because thunder was in the area. Well, they were right and we all got pretty wet! After the storm, we headed over to the dolphins, turtles, and sting rays. We did a little shopping and then we left for the day. We didn't see the whole park, but we'll go back soon!

Will sitting on Grandpa's lap watching the Shamu Show. Gmama was sitting right next to him! This was the highlight of his Sea World trip!!
Watching the whales jump - they were so beautiful.
Lauren watching Shamu. She really liked watching the whales!
Shamu!
Lauren switched laps.... watching the show with Grandma.

Will enjoying a shamu ice cream. His shirt was a total mess - we ended up changing after he dropped half of the ice cream bar on his shirt and shorts.Will got up close and personal with the walrus!Lauren having a water break.Dolphin! Lauren LOVED the dolphins. I think they were her favorite animal. She kept laughing at them!We went out to eat at Uno after Sea World. Will got to make his own pizza!

Roller Coaster

While we were at Sea World, Will wanted to ride the roller coaster! I could not believe how determined he was to ride it! So, I took him on - he barely made the height requirement. Off we go....
Up, up, up we go!Down we go! We're the third car from the front.

Just hanging out at home!

I took a vacation myself. While Lauren was down for a nap, I headed to do a little shopping at the mall. It was wonderful to shop by myself and the adults had a great time with the kids. Will really enjoys his time with Dad. He looks forward to when his Grandpa comes home from work to play with him. The first night, Grandpa and Will played swords and went swimming. On this day, Grandpa and Will played a little golf. Will loves to play golf with his Daddy and he had a great time playing with Grandpa. Preparing for golf
Putting the flag into the flag holder. The flag is his favorite part of golf!

Hitting a ball! Go Will!We all went to the mall that afternoon for a smoothie. The kids really liked the metal alligator there. It was too hot for them to sit on it, but they enjoyed looking at the mouth. We've spotted a couple of alligators (or the same one a couple of times) in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard.

The Beach

We had a great time at the beach. We went to Rotary Park before we went to the actual beach. Rotary park is on the river and there is a little park right next to it where the kids could play. There aren't any big waves and the kids enjoyed the water - well, Will enjoyed the water. This is Lauren's first trip to the beach and she enjoyed the sand, but not the water.

Lauren putting her toes in the river.
Everyone playing in the sand.
Gmama relaxing under the palm trees.
Will really enjoyed the water this time. He was using his shovel to pick up water (or sand) and move it around.
Lauren enjoyed the swings!They are adding sand to the beach. We thought a beach trip would be so exciting for the kids - and the giant sand piles and dump trucks added to the excitement. Will had a great time climbing the 8 foot piles of sand and sliding down them!
Where are Will's legs?