Bed Head

Sunday morning, bright and early at 5 am (again), we piled the kids in the car, and I set off for home. Again, it worked out pretty well. The kids slept for the first few hours, and I was in NC by the time we stopped. Unfortunately, the past 2 nights I hadn't slept well, so regardless of whether the kids needed to stop, I had to get out and walk for a bit. I also had my first experience with a 5 hour energy. May I just say that they taste gross.... I felt slightly jittery, but I was definitely more awake. However, I don't know whether that was because of the energy drink, or because I had walked around... Anywho, we had stopped, so we ate breakfast. I had packed the kids clothes in a little bag in the front, so they all got dressed before we walked inside. I would also like to state for the record that it is very nice that all three of my children can split one Ultimate breakfast at Micky Dee's. As they bopped around to the music, and enjoyed their pancakes, eggs, sausage and hash browns, the tired groggy-ness started to lift from my eyes, and I started to examine each of them. In my muzzy state of mind, I had neglected to do their hair after they got dressed. The resulting photos I couldn't resist taking :) Meet

Cowlick

Fuzzy Do And Rats Nest.

What mom? Was da matter?

Ah. Home Sweet Home.

Virginia Living Museum

The Saturday before we left, we drove a little bit to meet my Sister in Law, Brother in law, their daughter, Karley, and my Sister in Law in law. . . . :) *Hi Meg! :)* We met semi in the middle at the Virginia Living Museum. We had originally planned on spending an hour or two there, then heading out for lunch, and playing at a park or something. Surprise! We ended up being there for about 5 hours (including lunch on the patio at the Wild Side Cafe). It was interesting for the adults, and the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves. Win/win!!! We got there just in time for story time. It was a story about the wide mouthed frog, and when it was done, our lovely story teller brought out a bullfrog.

While they couldn't touch it, they got right up close and personal. Then we went out side to see all the outside animals. Otters, raccoons, possums, birds, deer, etc. It wasn't exactly a zoo, but there were lots of animals to look at.

The little ones needed a better view ;)

And then, we got to the aquariums. Man oh man did Dylan love these things!

And, the fish were huge! :)

He could have stayed there for a long time . . . :)

Karley: What does a fish say?

Ashley, in one of the rocks.

Kari playing "deer in the headlights" while Dylan is just playing :)

Kaitlyn in on the action too.

Taylor also decided to play "deer in the headlights".

I think he is a bit more convincing than Kari.

They also had an exhibit on bats.

And wouldn't you know it, two of them looked mighty familiar.

Right before we left, we stopped by the "petting zoo" area. Our guide was very patient, and knowledgeable. Everyone had lots of fun touching except Kaitlyn. I guess she was kinda grossed out.

The food was good at lunch, and we probably could have stayed a little longer, but it was nap time (for the adults as well as the kids) and we had a decent drive ahead of us. But, it never hurts to learn new things :)

What else we did...

Kari has been growing out her hair for 2 years now. It grows so fast, that we figured maybe we would see if she could hang on long enough to donate it. She latched onto the idea of helping someone else, and has been very patient. But, in the last few weeks she has started mentioning cutting it, and I figured before summer was a great time. So, consider this the before picture :

I found a place online called Wigs for Kids. They only had to have 8 inches (instead of some of the other standard 10 inches). And, even though she probably could have cut off 10 inches, we wanted to leave a little bit more length, so we cut off about 9. This is the before picture in the barbershop in VA.

Miss Katie finishing her do :) The back.

The front. :)

Dylan also needed a haircut. This is his first non-mommy do, and he actually did really well with the clippers, and pretty well sitting still. He looks pretty unsure in the picture, but he did great!

. . .Until afterwards. His hair cut looks great, but he was unhappy with me when it was time to leave... I told you, it was a hard week for the kid.

This is Kari's "first day back from spring break/post haircut" outfit. We were late, and I couldn't wait for her to stop brushing her teeth to get the picture, but between the hair cut, the outfit, and the boots, I thought it was worth taking a picture. :)

What to do? What to do?

When I first birthed the idea of going up to VA for Kari's spring break, I had no other plans once we got up there other than to "hang out". I knew the girls wanted to see their cousins, and I didn't have anything pressing keeping me here. So, the week was pretty much open for anything. Thankfully, it was filled with lots of fun things. Such as:

Riding Pop's motorcycle (in the garage)

Reading bedtime stories. Hanging out with cousins. (This is a group hug gone awry. Yes, there are 3 girls in that dog pile)

Painting our toe nails for St. Patrick's Day. (Yes, we painted Dylan's big toe nail too... You try not to include someone when everyone else is doing it!)

And going to the grocery store.

I wish going to the store always made them this happy.

Alas, my grocery store isn't that cool.

Needless to say, a good time was had by all :)

Dylan

While our Spring Break trip up to VA was kinda last minute planning,

it was very conveniently scheduled.

I had somehow, miraculously scheduled everything I needed to do for the week before we left.

On of those being Dylan's 2 year pictures.

I rarely have such a good performance for pictures. Let alone from this kid.

He tends to be shy and on the difficult side.

However, on this particular day, he walked right in, sat right down, and smiled. And smiled some more. And smiled some more.

It was wonderful! And made my life more difficult, because I had lots more great pictures to choose from. And, I am not really fond of choices.

Maybe it was because I drugged him. He just had his vaccinations the day before, and it looked like he was teething, so I dosed him with some infant ibuprofen. He was happy, without being drowsy. It was pretty fantastic.

Not that I am advocating drugging your children. I'm just sayin'.

His 2 year check up was the day before the pictures. In which, besides his vaccines, he also got a prescription for pink eye... A week later, he got one for strep throat. Did I mention he is teething? And has cold? So, really, these pictures are somewhat of a miracle :)

2 year Stats

Height: 34 3/4 in (75%)

Weight: 29 lb 6 oz (75%)

Head: I don't remember the number, but he was in the 90%

And that's my little baby.... They grow up so fast! (Sniff)

Presents

What do you get a two year old that has everything? Between Kari and Kaitlyn, there are very few things that he needs. But ranking very high up on his list were more cars to hold. These are the cars straight off the cake. No rinsing allowed.

If you look closely, you can see the gap where one of the 4 teeth he is currently cutting is coming in. Yeah. It was that kind of week.... :p
Cute escape artist. No pictures for you mom!

He already had started lining them up.

I also thought this would be a good year to get him a bop bag. That is not what I remember them being called growing up, but that was the title that brought me the most luck searching on Amazon. I was a bit concerned he would be scared. Or not know what to do with it. Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong.

We have named him Big Red.

And he is a great sparring partner.

He also got a new movie (Igor, which I haven't seen yet) and a new pair of shoes. But, lets be honest, who needs those when you have cars and something to punch?

Happy Birthday Little Man!

While we were up in VA, Dylan had an eventful week. He started out by getting strep. I took him to the Patient First the first day we were there to confirm it, but I was pretty sure since Kari had had it before. However, I will never understand how my kids pass things because Kari had it a whole month ago.... He also had an unrelated cough/cold that kept him up all night and was working on getting all 4 of his canines in at the same time. The kid was miserable. We had already decided to wait a few days until his daddy drove over to spend the weekend with us from TN, but we hoped it would give him a day or two to feel better.

By Friday he felt good enough to have a birthday celebration for his whole 2 years of existance :) I got the idea for this cake from my friend Kelli. As you can see, mine was not nearly so exact. I free handed everything, and used chocolate frosting instead of modeling chocolate. I started trying to do grass, but got frustrated and bored quickly, so I ended up just smoothing the green out. And, the yellow was one of those frosting in a can things, and although it wasn't the easiest thing to use, it was good enough for a 2 yr old's birthday cake :)

He couldn't have cared less about the cake. All he wanted was the cars. Here, his daddy is physically restraining him from grabbing them so we can sing to him.

Sorry it is sideways. I forget you can't flip videos.

And blowing the candle out? Forgeddaboudit.

Now onto the good stuff. Sticky with frosting and all.

However, once we got around to it, he was pretty excited to eat it :)

Yum!

What a goof ball....

Such a yummy cake!