One Fish, Two Fish, Clayton Fish, Drew Fish

My sweet niece, Makinley, turns 9 years old this week. It doesn't seem like she should be that old, but I guess that she is. :) Yesterday she had her birthday party at the natatorium, and we had a great time celebrating Miss Mak. An indoor heated pool was a great break from the cold, dreary, rainy weekend.

We brought Drew's suit, but I wasn't sure how he would do if he got in the pool. I'm proud to say that he LOVED it! Seeing him loving the water made me so excited about this summer. I envision us clocking LOTS of pool hours. Yay!

For the first few minutes he was hesitant. He hung onto his Daddy for dear life!

Then he decided that he liked it.
(He is cutting his bottom molars, so his hands are in his mouth all. the. time.)

Wade blew in his face...

then dunked him underwater. He came up smiling. :)

Then he splashed, and splashed, and splashed some more.

He did some back floating...

and by the end of the party, he was jumping off of the side.



The birthday girl was sweet to take time away from
her other party guests and play with her little cousin.
(Can you see the family resemblance???)


Of course, our eldest was in his element, too!
I barely got him to stand still for one picture.

You throw a great party, Mak! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!

Guy Day...

This was our conversation on Thursday evening over dinner:

Wade (to Clayton): Hey, Buddy, do you want to go fishing at the pond tomorrow after I finish with work?
Clayton: You mean, like, have a guy day?
Wade: Um, yeah, I guess you could call it that.
Clayton: Good, 'cause I am soo into being a man.

Wade & I are both trying to contain our laughter, at this point.

Wade: Well, that's a good thing. I'm glad that you want to be a man.
Clayton: Yeah, 'cause if I was a woman, I'd have to wear a dress and I couldn't hang upside down on the monkey bars. (Apparently, he figured out that concept from a Fancy Nancy book that one of the little girls in his class brought to preschool???)

Yep, he's all boy. No doubt about that one.

The next day, they had "guy day." Clayton caught a pretty decent sized bass, and out fished his Daddy. He was pretty proud of his catch. ;)

Spring is in the Air

It's Springtime - Yay! We've been enjoying this beautiful sunshine and the warmer temperatures.

We've been:

* Riding Bikes - Actually, let me rephrase that... the boys have been riding bikes. (Me, notsomuch. Bikes and I don't get along so well. ;) ) Wade bought a trailer for his bike for Drew to ride in.

As you can see, he likes it. :)

* Wearing Shorts - After just one week of wearing shorts, there are 4 skinned knees among my offspring. Good gracious! What are their little knees going to look like by the end of the summer?!?! Boys...

* Raising Butterflies - A while back I bought a butterfly habitat at Target (HERE, apparently it is available online only now) for Clayton. He has been begging me to order the caterpillars. I finally broke down at the beginning of March and ordered them. They arrived on March 19th as teeny tiny itty bitty caterpillars. The company guarantees that you will end up with at least 3 painted lady butterflies. Lucky for us, all 5 of our caterpillars became butterflies. It was so fun to watch them change grow, change into chrysalises, and then emerge as butterflies. Clayton really enjoyed watching the whole process. He would check on them as soon as he got up each morning and several times throughout the day. I would highly recommend it for little ones (it would be a fun birthday gift to give, too).

Yesterday we had a butterfly release in the backyard. Good times...

* Making a Bird Feeder - Today we used the instructions from Family Fun (HERE) to make a bird feeder. It was easy to make and cheap - an old orange juice container, 2 wooden spoons, and some bird seed.

Clayton is pretty excited about his feeder. I hope that he gets to see some birds tomorrow. :)

I hope that y'all are enjoying the beginning of Spring, too. Summer's just around the corner.... Yipee!!!!

Easter 2010

We had a wonderful Easter this year! It was filled with sweet candy, sweet family, sweet friends, and (best of all) sweet celebration of our Risen Savior!

The boys woke up to Easter baskets filled with goodies and eggs hidden around the living room. They both LOVED searching for the eggs. Drew got some big eggs that were filled with Sesame Street figurines. They were a BIG hit! He kept lining them up and then saying, "Mel-Mo! Mel-Mo!" What is it about that little red furry monster that toddlers find so fascinating?!?!

I'm so envious of those of you who have gorgeous family pictures from Easter morning standing in front of blooming bushes outside. None of my boys were feeling the picture love (surprise, surprise!). I managed to capture a couple of descent ones, though...

Our pastor delivered a really wonderful sermon. I caught myself with tears in my eyes several times just thinking about the miracle of Jesus' resurrection. He rose & conquered the grave! What joy that brings my soul...

After church and naps, we went to Wade's Mamaw's house to have dinner and another egg hunt. The kids had a ball with their cousins! We sure did miss Kaylee, Colin, Luke, Cameron, and Hailey, though. There are 12 cousins on that side - and they all have a ball when they all get together. :)

The Kid Table

Colby & Clayton
Clayton adores Colby, and Colby is always so sweet to play with him. He's such a good example to our boys!

My Gorgeous Nieces - Aren't they beautiful!?!?


Drew really got the hang of picking up eggs and putting them into his basket. :)

Cousin Pic

C and our sweet Mamaw

There was some Ladderball playing, too.

When we got home from Mamaw's, Clayton was thrilled to see that there were more eggs to search for. These were glow in the dark - right up his alley!

Wow - that was a lot of celebrating for one day! We have GOBS of candy at our house. Way more than there should be under one roof, for sure! I guess that's a good problem to have... ;)

Preschool Easter Party

Has anyone else noticed that almost every post from this month has revolved around my firstborn? Man, I'm feeling some Mommy guilt over that one... I promise that I will have an entire post devoted to my littlest boy very soon. :)

Today was Clayton's Easter party at preschool. They had a fun lunch, a craft, and an egg hunt. He made a cross with "He is Risen" written on it. It really is so pretty - I'll treasure it always! He was so excited to show it to me, and couldn't wait to display it in a prominent place at home. ;)

Class Photo before the Egg Hunt

His chapel teachers made a point of starting the egg hunt by saying, "What is Easter really all about?" The kids all shouted (in unison and with hand motions), "It's about a cross and an empty tomb!" The teachers stressed that the egg hunt was fun, but there was a much, much BIGGER reason to celebrate. Amen to that!

And, he's off!

I think that he was the first one to reach his 12 egg quota. :)

Checking out his loot...

This is one of his sweet school friends.
(Doesn't she have the prettiest hair???)

Another of Clayton's little pals...

He was most excited about his golden egg.
He said that it "must have cost a lot of money." Ha ha!

I know that I say this all of the time, but I really do love his little preschool! It hit me today that this would be his last holiday party at preschool. I am so sad about that. :( I'm thrilled about next year, though. I know that kindergarten is going to be GREAT!