A Full Day of Fun!

We started the day with a GLECPTA event at Peter Piper Pizza where we got to tour the kitchen and see how pizza is made. We watched the dough being rolled out by a machine. It was amazing how large one little ball of dough can get when it is rolled out. Each child was given their own little piece of the dough to touch and feel. It was a lot like Play-Doh. Next we went into the walk-in refrigerator. Ooh, it was chilly in there! We got to see the giant tub of pizza sauce. Wow, that was a lot of sauce. Then we watched the dough being punched with holes to let the air bubbles out. Next was the pizza sauce and cheese then each child got to add their own pepperoni to the pizza. What fun!

We enjoyed lunch at the salad and pizza buffet. After lunch, the kiddos were off to play games!



Nicholas seems to have finally caught on that the tickets he wins from games can be used to buy things so he was playing a lot of games that gave tickets. He's pretty serious about this one. Look at the concentration...



Nicholas kept wanting to play this "claw game" where you try to scoop up candy. Not only are these always harder than they look but this silly claw didn't even work right! It would go down into the candy but usually it wouldn't try to grab something until it had already come back up from the pile. What a waste of time and tokens. Nicholas kept trying no matter how many different ways I tried to explain that it wasn't working right. He did eventually get two pieces of candy. High Five!



We had fun and we were one of the last in our group to finally leave. I had a coupon for Barnes and Noble so of course I had to go find something to buy that I didn't know I needed. Among the things I bought was a new Brain Quest game for Nicholas. He just loves these! They are a set of cards with questions on them. Then you flip to the next card to see if you got the answer correct. He already has the three year old version but it is really too easy for him so I bought the one for 4-5 year olds. We sat on a bench outside the store, soaking up the sun, enjoying the beautiful weather, and playing with the new Brain Quest cards. Nicholas still goes through these cards easily without much hesitation but he really loves them. He was even trying to read the questions aloud himself.



Next we decided that we were both thirsty and, oh surprise, there just happens to be a Starbucks in Barnes and Noble! How convenient :) Nicholas loves their non-coffee creme drinks and he tried the vanilla one. He spilled about half of it on the sidewalk outside (sorry Starbucks!). Isn't always so sad to see a little kid spill a special treat like that? I thought he was going to cry but I showed him that only a little spilled out and everything was fine once again. Yum!



The day was just too beautiful to go back home. We went over to a nearby park and flew a kite, walked around the pond, and played on the playground.

On the way home, Nicholas pointed to a stop sign and shouted, "Look Mommy! That sign is an octagon!". Yes, I had to quickly count the sides myself to be sure he was right...and he was. I asked him how many sides an octagon has and he smiled and said, "It has eight sides!"

Proud Mama!

An Interesting Little Adventure

We were getting out of the car at home after picking Nicholas up from school. I had both of our doors open and all of our stuff loaded down in my arms. I reached over to lock the door and planned to close it but then I realized that I wanted to take a picture of Nicholas with his little giraffe which he had brought to school with him and was now clinging tightly to. I throw the pile of coats, lunch box, purse, etc down on the front seat and grab my camera. I step away from the car to fiddle with the camera before getting my shot and as I looked up Nicholas was closing the doors to the car. It was one of those slow motion moments...."Noooooooooooo!" Too late. My purse (AND KEYS!) were now safely locked away in the car. Of course, this all occurred before I had bothered to unlock the house - you gotta get those photo opportunities as soon as the moment arises, right?

So here it is 2:30 in the afternoon and I'm locked outside on a cool, windy day with a three year old, a camera, and a giraffe. Stuart is at work 45 minutes away. I should call him to come home. I dial his phone but it goes to voice mail. Oh yeah, he is in a seminar from 1:00 - 5:00 today. I could keep calling him and eventually he would realize it was important and answer the silly phone. But it isn't really an emergency. Surely I can find someway to entertain the little guy outside for a few hours. We love being outside. However, the wind is cold and Nicholas now has to go potty. After teaching him to pee by a tree (why do guys go by trees anyway?)we escaped to his fort to try to get out of the wind. That was fun for a while but it isn't as much fun when you are just staying hunkered down to stay warm. Plan B, get moving! We took a walk to a park down the street. That is always fun. And, of course, I had my camera in tow and got a few cute pics. Here's Nicholas proudly hanging from the monkey bars himself. Granted he never made it past the first two bars but still it is more than he usually does on them....




Well, we passed an hour playing at the park. But it is still cold and as I calculate the time that Stuart will actually get out of his seminar and make it through traffic to our house, I realize that it will be dark and we will be really cold by then. I've got to come up with Plan C. Mind is too cold and tired to think. Wait! I have my debit card in my pocket. Why is it in my pocket? Who cares! I now have a three year old, a camera, a giraffe, and MONEY! Ha! And Stuart grumbles that I never put things neatly back into my wallet where they belong!

I decide that we can make a hike to McDonald's and find comfort in a warm building with bathrooms and food and of course, Nicholas will be content to play endlessly in the indoor playground until Stuart can come pick us up. I'm so proud of myself for my delightful solution. We are close to three McDonald's but which one should we go to? No, not walking down 3040. No, not crossing 2499. Hmm, that just leaves the third McDonalds. It's a straight shot down a nearby street. Enough traffic to feel safe but not too much to worry about getting run over. I tell Nicholas our plan and he is ready. We start on our journey. This won't be bad. It's really not that far. We'll be there in no time....No time, that is, by my walking standards but not by the standards of a three year old. Within the first block of our hike, we stopped several times to pick up those prickly little balls that fall from trees, a stick or two, an acorn, and we had to discuss the rules that Nicholas just made up that state that it is ok to walk on the sidewalk cracks that have grass growing in them but not ones that don't. Whatever! Let's just get going, little buddy!

Whew, we made it out of the neighborhood and past the middle school. Now it's a straight walk up this street. I can even see the traffic light where the McDonald's is from here. We'll be there soon. Nope. Nicholas now has to use his stick to poke into the branches of each bush that we pass to "check the pressure". I'm sure this is some guy thing he has picked up from Stuart in the garage. Oh my goodness! Can we move a little faster? I decide to carry him a little way to try to get there faster. Boy, that didn't last long. When did he get so heavy!

Still walking. Oops, he poked an ant hill with the stick and didn't realize it. Drop the stick! Drop the stick! I have no way to dress a hundred ant bites out here in the middle of the street in this blustering wind! Oh look, we're crossing a bridge. "Pick me up so I can see. Pick me up! What is that down there? Where has all the water gone? What is that trash doing down there? Why is this rail on the bridge?" Normally I would have loved to have answered those questions with thoughtful responses and even ventured down under the bridge to explore. However, again, it is cold and windy, I need a bathroom, and it's getting late. And that McDonald's which seemed to be "just down the street" now seems to be just as far away as it was when we began. My, this is much farther than I thought.

I resort to more bursts of carrying him to rush things along although we still ended up with more sticks and a couple more rocks that he picked up when I let him walk so my arms could just get a break. We finally made it to the Golden Arches. Man, I've never been so excited to go in those doors. One kids meal please. We collapse at a table and Nicholas chows down on his food. I know I gave that little guy quite a work out. He really did great. No complaining or whining. He seemed to have fun the whole time. He is such an adventurer. After his dinner, he ran off to play with some boys on the indoor playground while I finished off those last few fries he left (which, of course, he came back looking for a few minutes later! Oopsie!).

I called Stuart again shortly after 5:00. He had not yet checked his voice mail and was upset that he didn't know what had happened. I reassured him that everything was fine and it wasn't the kind of emergency that he had needed to rush home for. Although I may not have had the best plan, the boy and I were safe and entertained the whole time. He came to pick us up at the McDonald's (because I wasn't making that walk again!). He said it was about 2 miles from the house to this McDonald's. Hmm, not quite the short little walk I had thought it was. Looking back, it really wasn't all that bad. We were cold but other than that we did stop to check things out all along our walk. It was an interesting little adventure.

Spot Light

Nicholas came into our bedroom when he woke up this morning. As usual, he was carrying an armful of stuffed animals. He plopped them on our bed and left the room. Soon he returned with another armful of "friends" and announced that he had brought us all of his friends. He then climbed up on the bed and snuggled for a few minutes. As we were lying on the bed, he picked up a little giraffe that had once belonged to me. I had been given the little giraffe at a hospital tour that we took before we were even pregnant with him. At the time, I was all dreamy about getting pregnant and I kept the sweet giraffe at my desk at work as a little reminder of what lay ahead in our future. A friend of mine named him George and another friend started calling him the "fertility giraffe".

Once Nicholas was born, the giraffe stayed in his room and he is now one of the many "friends" that sleep in bed with Nicholas at night. This morning as he held the giraffe I told him the story behind him and that his name was George. Nicholas smiled at the giraffe and said "Hi, George the giraffe". But as he continued to look at the giraffe he changed his mind. He said, "No, his name is Spot!". Well, that makes perfect sense since he does have brown spots all over him. Cute idea. Then Nicholas wowed me as he said, with a cute little grin, "And his last name is Light!". He smiled really big and said, "Like the spot lights at church." How clever he is! He went on to explain, in case I didn't get it the first time, "Daddy used to work upstairs on the spot lights but now he works downstairs on the cameras." He ran in the bathroom to tell Daddy about Spot Light. And so, my little George is now Spot Light and my little guy has brightened my day, yet again, with his sweet charm and wit.

Way to Go, LSU Tigers! National Champs!

Nicholas was up for part of the game tonight. And although he does have some purple and gold in his blood, his three year old attention span got the best of him and he got bored and just wanted to play and make noise. So he did get put to bed before the end of the game so that Daddy and I could hoot and holler uninterrupted. It was a great game but LSU made it look too easy.

Final score: LSU 38, Ohio 24!

I've got a great music file with the LSU Fight Song on it. I've searched online trying to find a way to post a music clip to a blog but I just can't figure it out. Sorry. I guess I could hum the music for you instead.

Dun...Dun.Dun..Dun
Dun...Dun.Dun..Dun

Ok, never mind. Geaux Tigers!

A fun day at the duck pond

A local radio station was giving away tickets today for a sneak peek showing of a new children's movie by Veggie Tales. Nicholas and I picked up tickets for all three of us to go tomorrow night. Nicholas loves Veggie Tales and so do we because they are a wholesome cartoon that teaches about having good values and doing what is right. We're all looking forward to going to the movie but I'm also hoping to get some good "movie theater" popcorn.

Afterwards we picked up some Chick-Fil-A for lunch and headed to the duck pond to meet up with some friends. It was a windy day but the temperature was great - almost like spring. There were lots of ducks and birds out and as always Nicholas had fun feeding bread to them. The birds were really cool because they would hover over our heads and let us throw the bread straight up to them. Nicholas loved to watch them catch the bread in mid-air. Nicholas also made some new friends as he played on the playground. I love it that he is so outgoing and bold, so unlike me!







By the way, LSU is playing in the BCS national championship tonight in the New Orleans Superdome. They play against Ohio State University and they have a good shot at winning. In honor of our Louisiana friends, we're having a cajun-style dinner tonight of jambalaya then we'll settle on the couch with some chips and dip to watch the Ohio Buckeyes turn into Tiger Bait! Geaux Tigers!

I have two LSU car flags that I fly on my car whenever there is an LSU football game. Today we were leaving Kroger and walking out to our car when Nicholas saw the car flags again and started talking to me about LSU. He told two ladies parked next to us all about the game tonight. Then he told them that Granddad Owen had given us the LSU car flags a while back. Then he proceeded to tell them all about his family in Louisiana. That boy can talk your ear off if you get him started!

Thought for the Day

"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap." ~ Barbara Jordan

So have you had your cookies and nap today?

All Aboard! - Learning about trains

Today our educational playgroup learned all about trains at Bradley and Mrs. Macey's house. Mrs. Macey always has great ideas. She covered her kitchen table with plain butcher paper and drew a train track all around it. She talked to the children about how train tracks are made and then she talked about the different kinds of cars that make up a train. She let the children pick out printed pictures of train cars, train stations, railroad crossing signs, etc. The children colored their pictures and glued their train and station onto the track. What a cute idea!





Mrs. Macey read train stories to everyone while they enjoyed their snack. Then we listened to a train song as we all marched around the kitchen and through a tunnel as we pretended to be a train.

Next, Mrs. Macey put together a little train and let everyone have a turn riding. Nicholas enjoyed being the engineer.