The Forced Sick Day

Because of the closure of Jack's school due to too many sick kids, that meant that I had two kids on my hands on Thursday. I watched Allison and decided to take the kids to the Discovery Center. They ran around like crazy children and had a blast I think. In fact, Jack passed out on the couch just before 5:00 and slept the night through, over 12 hours. Here are a few pictures from the fun day.

A Perfect Fall Day of Soccer and The Farm

We started our morning out bright and early again with Jack's 8 am soccer game. Not to brag or anything, but I just have to say that Jack's team is awesome! Actually it is a little bit embarassing just how good they are. The other team scored only one goal today and our team scored about 20 or so. Seriously, it got so we were not even cheering after like the 15th goal or so. Just a weak Yay go team. I felt bad for the other team. But Jack's team is really that good and I am really impressed at how well Jack is playing. It is worth getting up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, I guess.

After the soccer game, we headed over to Alabama to the corn maze. This place was really amazing and we plan to make it our fall tradition to go here every year. And since it decided to finally cool off to the 70's today, it was a perfect day to spend outside going through big corn fields.

Jack trying to milk the fake cow. He actually looked like he knew what he was doing. Go figure.

Going down the bumpy slide. You can only do that when you are young. All I could think about was my aching back when I saw that.

Feeding the baby piggies.

I tried to capture one of the hundreds of butterflies flying around the wild flowers.

Jack and Daddy on the "cow train" pulled by a John Deere of course.

My little corn stalk.

Jack inside the corn maze showing off the corn. Actually the corn maze was pretty neat and Jack thought it was really fun when we were letting him make the decisions of which path to go down. It took us about 10 or 15 minutes to get through only the first part of the maze. It was quite elaborate and pretty fun.

Family Project Day

The other day we had family art project day. Jim got the idea of buying bird houses to put on the fence posts out back. So we went to Michael's and bought four different birdie houses to paint together. Each of us painted a bird house, even Jack (with some help of course).

Mine

Laura's

Jack's (he called it his bird barn)

Daddy's

We enjoyed doing these so much, that I went back and bought two more. And because I video everything these days, here is a very short video of Jack and Laura doing the other "bird barn". Quite cute.

Fun in the Sun

Today I wanted to make it up to Jack for yesterday's lack of activity due to waiting for the floor installers all day long. By the way, they did show up only to move my refrigerator and stove back into place and tell me they will be back Monday morning "first thing". We'll see what "first thing" means to them.

But anyway, I decided to take Jack to the waterpark today after church. Jim was sleeping all day because he had to work late this morning on some complicated police matter. Something about some girls and purse snatching and runaway vehicles at the IHOP parking lot. I didn't get it, but it made him get home about two hours late. So the poor guy needed his sleep badly. So off to the waterpark we went.

We had a blast. I realized that this will probably one of the very few times, if not the only time, that it will just be me and Jack at the waterpark this summer. Laura will be here in about two weeks for the entire summer and she will be with us, not that I don't love having her, it was just nice that it was just Jack and I for once. This time, the boy loved the wave pool. He loved it so much that when it was time for the waves to start back up, he would go into a fit of giggles anticipating them. And then he would continue giggling all the while riding the waves like a pro. He also loved getting in the inner tube and bouncing up and down on the waves in that thing. Yep, the wave pool was a big hit.

I also laughed my butt off at him today. First of all, he is such a cool looking kid. How I got such a good looking child, I will never know. Let's just say he looks just like his Dad. But these days he has been sporting a pretty serious tan and you put that little tanned body in swim trunks and put him in a wave pool with music blaring, well he just oozes movie star charm. Not that I am biased or anything. So there we were, in the wave pool riding the waves, and laughing, when the waves stopped and the song "The Slide" comes on. You know the one where you stomp to the left and to the right. It is so cool. Well before I know it, my cool child is stomping and clamping and jumping and getting his groove on! It was hilarious and I was really wishing I had my camera to video the whole thing. The kid has rhythm! Who knew?

Good Mood Jack

Jack was in a really good mood today. I have no idea what prompted this goodness in my child, but I have to admit that he was fun today. He did however, wake up at 4:30 calling me "Mama! Mama Do You Hear Me?" Yeah I heard him, I just wanted to roll over on my bed for a few more minutes/hours. But no, he was up and raring to go. Unlike most mornings, he was actually in a good mood and funny (he does NOT wake up well). He had me laughing when he told me that there "were fleas all over his room". I told him that you can't see fleas very well because they were so small and besides, I don't think we have any more (knock on wood). To this, he replied "The Dogs had them!" He was just a fun little Jack today from the start.

We went to the Discovery Center toddler program today. This usually starts out very bad for us because we have to pass by the BIGGEST train table ever to get to the toddler room. And as you can imagine, it promptly creates a whining, screaming fit because I won't let him play with the trains as soon as we get there, but instead make him go to the toddler program. Today there was NO fit! I was absolutely dumbfounded.

I wish I had my camera with me today because he was absolutely laugh-out-loud funny today. During this program, they have a lot of singing and dancing and story telling. Well today during the Freeze Dance (where you have to freeze when the music is shut off), he was shaking his little booty for all his worth. It was hilarious and I have to say, I was not the only one laughing my butt off at him. And when it came time to "freeze", he would yell "FREEZE" so loud, I would think they heard him in the parking lot. It was hilarious and I wish I had a video of him dancing.

And now with the early morning wake-up call and all the dancing the boy did, he is now granting me the luxury of taking a nap! Ahhhhh! Love days like these.

A Perfect Day

First of all, I just want to say to those who are in the cold part of the world, please don't hate me after you see where Jack and I went today:

It was perfect 72 degrees and sunny today. So after church today, Jack and I drove to the beach to enjoy some of this perfection. He and I had so much fun today. We kicked our shoes off and just enjoyed the feel of the sand in the toes. He had fun dumping sand all over me and thought it was really funny when he dumped handfuls in my hair. I think I will be picking sand out of my hair for days. But it was worth it. Too bad Daddy couldn't come with us, but he was home sleeping because he has just about worked the last 36 out of 48 hours. So he needed his sleep.

When it was time to leave, I literally had to carry Jack off the beach kicking and screaming. I tried to tell him that we now live only 10 minutes away and can come back anytime, but it didn't help with the current situation of kicking and screaming.

Oh and don't be too jealous of us because according to the forecast, we are supposed to be in the 40's by Tuesday.

Hurricane Katrina is still very much alive down here as you can see from the damaged building that is across the street from the beach. It just breaks my heart everytime I drive on this road.

I met some college students on the beach today who were down here from Albion College in Michigan, near where I grew up. They were here on their winter break to help out in the rebuilding efforts. Of course, they were also soaking up the Gulf Coast sun and playing volleyball on the beach today. It is not all work and no play for them.

And this is what happened while I was cooking dinner. I think I figured a way to exhaust a boy.

Doodle Bopping

Today was the big Doodlebop concert day for Jack and I. Here he is posing in front of the ridiculously-priced merchandise ($25 for one of those stupid DeeDee, Rooney, or Moe hats in the background and no he did not get one) booth. It was SOOOOOO cold (yes it was in the 20s) this morning and I think he is still a frozen Jackaroo here.


And here he is with his "mom-approved" Doodlebop merchandise that I bought for him - a $4 kazoo and $12 binoculars. He was happy until he saw the $20 twirling lights that he just HAD to have, but the mean Mom that I am said no.


We saw a TON of little girls with pink hair dressed just like DeeDee, right down to the piano dress and boots.

Bus Driver Bob was there to warm up the crowd - sorta. He basically just introduced commercials for other shows on Playhouse Disney. Pretty lame if you ask me.

And of course there were the Doodlebops themselves. They did a lot of songs that I had never heard of so I was a bit disappointed there. I was trying to figure out if they were lip synching and I honestly couldn't tell. If they were, they were doing a good job. And DeeDee sure was breathing hard after dancing all around a few times. Good workout. I was quite disappointed in the 25-minute intermission. I mean really people, do you really think that trying to keep a packed house full of toddlers occupied for 25 minutes is fun??

I am not sure Jack enjoyed it to be honest. About 15 minutes into the show, he asked me if we could go bye bye now. So I guess that is a good indicator of what he thought. I think he was getting into it at the end when they were doing some of their regular songs. And the finale was Moe pulling the rope and a bunch of confetti dropped from the ceiling. Kinda cool. The mother next to me with her two-year-old was having a hard time of it because her toddler did NOT want to be there at all. He practically screamed all the way through it and they ended up leaving early.

The concert was in Baton Rouge so we drove over last night and stayed in a hotel nearby. Since Jim had today off, he went with us and stayed in the room while Jack and I went to the concert. Afterward, we walked along the Mississippi River a bit (very short since it was only about 30 degrees!). We went to see the USS Kidd museum. I can tell you that Jim and Jack enjoyed themselves A LOT more than I did on the ship. I truthfully did not care, but Jim was in heaven walking around it.

All in all a good day was had by all. We stopped at a mall near New Orleans on the way home and walked around a bit. We did not go to the Mall of Louisiana simply because it seemed too much work at the time. We can do that another non-holiday time!

Mommy and Me Day

Today was Mommy and Me Day at Jack's preschool. It was a day where all the mothers went from classroom to classroom and made christmas crafts with their little ones. It was all so organized too. We had exactly 20 minutes in each classroom to make the specified craft and then it was onto the next.


See what we (ME) made today. We (ME) also made a christmas tree out of painting our hands green and putting them on the paper with red glitter. That was kept at school to show off at the Christmas program next week.

And speaking of Christmas program, how is it that my child is old enough to be in a Christmas program? Rbelle asked the same question on her blog too and I just can not fathom where the time has gone. I was talking to the school director today and she told me that actually the two-year-olds are just going to be on stage for 3 songs and then they will get to come sit with their families. This is to not distract from the older kids, since we all know how well two-year-olds can sit still, especially on a stage in front of a hundred people.

We also had an "incident" today at school. While us mothers were doing the kid's crafts, the kids were playing with the various toys in all the classrooms. Well during the making of the sheep (cotton ball) ornament, Jack got into a fight with another little boy and ended up biting him on the thumb! At first, I could not believe it when the other mother told me (not so nice) that my son bit her son. I mean Jack has never ever ever done anything like that before. But she stuck her son's thumb in my face to prove it and sure enough there was a thumb with Jack teeth marks on it. By this time, Jack is screaming and I go to him quite mad that he would do such a thing and about ready to lay into him about it. But another mother whispered in my ear that the other boy provoked Jack by hitting Jack really hard with a toy and I guess Jack got fed up and reached down and bit. So here I am with this mother very obviously angry with ME about her son's thumb and not knowing how to handle my son biting her son simply because he was defending himself. So I kind of just told Jack that it wasn't nice and made him say sorry to the little boy, but inside I wanted to yell at the other mother that HER son should say sorry to Jack and ME for that matter for her very rude and uncalled for behavior!

I tell ya preschool can get very tense these days!

School Time

Well we did it. Jim and I signed Jack up for a private school today. He will start their Pre-K program in August of 2008. I know that sounds like a long time from now, but when I thought about it, it is only a year and a half away!

This school is awesome. It is a small school where they limit the class size to 16 and in each class they have a teacher with a teacher's aide. The curriculum includes math, social studies, spanish, music, and they even learn latin! They also have band, swimming team, and other sports. All the kids wear uniforms with the school crest on the shirts, which are so cute. I tell ya, I was so impressed with this school, I almost wished that Jack was 4 already so he could go. But then I realized, that I really only have less than 2 years left with him at home until he is off to school in his own world and that got me a little bit sad. The time goes by way too fast. But I feel really good knowing that he will be going to the top-rated school in the state and one of the best in the country.

I was having quite the quandry knowing that the school district we are in is not very good. In fact, it is one of the worst in the city and in the state of Mississippi. It is way too overcrowded, because this is where all the population has moved since the hurricane and they have had nothing but problems. Every time I talked to somebody, they kept telling me that they would not put their kid in that school disctrict. We couldn't really move because Jim has to be in a certain area for his job as a police officer and after that last move, I am not going to do that again anytime soon. So this was our other option. Of course, by the time we get him through 8th grade, we will have paid for the equivalent of a college education at Harvard, but I feel it is worth the sacrifice. He is worth it.