Happy Monday!

Finally! The weather here has started to turn and we're getting some nice, warm, sunny weather -- without being too hot! Now all we need is the pollen count to decrease and it will be perfect. We spent the weekend enjoying the nice weather.

We had a massive storm here on Thursday night -- with hail the size of large grapes. It was incredible. Apparently, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport reported over an inch of rain in an hour! Both the boys got up and came down stairs because they were scared (of course the storm hit just about kid's bedtime).

All that rain - coming so quickly - made for a nice muddy baseball field for practice on Friday night. I could not believe how muddy the two boys got. Sam slipped and fell... and... oh you can just imagine! All the little brothers that were watching the practice discovered a huge mud puddle and it beckoned them. But, you know what they say, "a dirty kid is a happy kid!" And these kids were pretty happy, let me tell you!

Despite nearly two days of sunny weather, it was still muddy (and full of debris) for Saturday's game. The game was shifted into the outfield where it was slightly less damp (and the red clay was covered by grass) so they were still able to play. Once again, Josh had a brilliant game. He had two hits, scored two runs and made several really great fielding plays (and even managed to get some kids out).

Sunday was the day to work in the garden. I went out and got the kids a sprinkler so they could run through it.



Josh was a bit more daring than Sam.



Sam was excited about the sprinkler, but didn't really want to "get wet."



After they were done in the sprinkler, Sam tried to get the broom to fly...



And since Josh is "really into Harry Potter right now" he had to show Sam how it's done.



The funniest thing is, the other day I actually caught Josh with the broom saying, "Up! Up! UP!" to get the broom to fly! What a nut!

And after, we had our first barbecue of the season... well the boys had hot dogs and corn on the cob and ate outside. Rich and I had a barbecue later after the kids were in bed.

Wordless Wednesday: Muffins with Mommy

Today was Muffins with Mommy at Sam's school.


He was excited, despite the look on his face! And you can't see it yet, but last night we banged heads and he got me on the eye. I've got a black eye coming up - luckily it's covered with make up and not too dark yet

He colored me pictures and made me a card.


We ate muffins (you can see the picture he drew for me in this picture)


And they sang us songs... well, everyone else did, Sam just swung his legs around and tried to get the other kids to do the Can-Can!



It was fun!

This issue is not quite "Wordless" - more Wordless Wednesday entries on the WWHQ!

Grandmother & Grampa's Visit

My parents came to visit us this weekend and we managed to keep ourselves busy!

They arrived Friday night just as I was trying to round up the boys for bed. We'd had baseball practice and just after we got home, I was trying to round up the boys and in walks Daddy. I'd just about managed to settle them down when in walked Grandmother & Grampa!

But that's okay - they did manage to settle eventually! There was lots to tell -- Josh took a few Accelerated Reader tests on Friday and managed to push his point total up over 50. This is big. At his school, once you get 50 points, you get your name painted on the AR wall. What's amazing is he was not interested AT ALL until after the Christmas break. After the break he started taking the tests because we told him he had to. Then he discovered Harry Potter and LOVES them! The books were out of his reading level so he couldn't take the tests on them (an they are upwards 13 points each - most books seem to be between .5 and 5 points). So he bothered his teacher so much she let him take the STAR Test which determines reading level and thus the AR Level.

He tested above 5.0 - which is 5th grade - so he could take the Harry Potter books. We are not all about Harry Potter! Which makes me excited!

Anyway -- off track -- Josh had to tell Grandmother and Grampa all about his AR tests and Harry Potter...
Saturday was quite busy. We got up and went to the Big Shanty Festival parade. This year it was really good. It's amazing how many good events the city of Kennesaw puts on for families. And they do a good job too!

Here's everyone waiting for the parade to start. Sam was being grumpy.



After the parade, Josh had a baseball game. He did really well yet again! Grandmother and Grampa really enjoyed watching him play too!

I had to post this picture... notice him "licking" his shirt? He chews or sucks on his shirt when he's concentrating. It's so funny -- at the games I'll yell out, "Don't chew on your shirt!" and he'll spit it out and immediately put it back in again! I guess he can't help it!


I guess whatever he needs to do to get a hit is okay!!


Then in the afternoon we went to the Big Shanty Festival. It's a bit arts and crafts fair with booths, food, entertainment and lots of Civil War Reenactment demonstrations.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my Dad is a Civil War Historian, and an Artillery man. He taught Military History, preRevolution to Civil War at West Point when we lived there -- and he was in the Artillery when he was in the Army. Here he is making friends with the guys who fire the big cannons.

It's fun to do this stuff with my dad because he'll talk to the guys, then explain stuff to you, and tell you all about what ever you want to know -- or whatever you don't want to know. I think the boys were a bit young yet to appreciate his wealth of knowledge (yeah, I'm buttering him up...) but hopefully they have many more years to pick his brain!

And as tired as we were, Saturday night Rich and I still got to go on a date! Yay!

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. We did head back up to the Tellus Museum for a few hours, but that was pretty much the whole day.

Monday, yesterday, was my Dad's birthday so the boys helped him eat his birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to him.

And then they left this morning! One thing about my parents, they never stay long enough to over stay their welcome! We were all sad to see them go, but now they're retired they have more commitments than they did when they were working!

I'm just thankful they took some time to come see us!

Pictures from Tellus

As promised, here is a short video slide show of our trip to the Tellus Museum yesterday.

It's only about 5 minutes and it's just pictures. Mainly put here for family, but all are welcome to view!