Listening Walk

Carter had more homework this weekend.  He was supposed to go on a listening walk and then draw the things he heard.  So after nap today we took a walk in our neighborhood.  We started off walking on the newly paved path that was just completed.

Then we walked up the hiking trail in the neighborhood that leads to a water tower.  This trail goes STRAIGHT UP.  But both boys walked the whole way up and down.

I LOVE this picture!

When we got back home, Carter drew pictures of a train, the water fountain in the lake, birds, bugs, cars, and an airplane (at first Carter was frustrated that he didn't know how to draw anything but I drew each thing on a separated piece of paper first and then he tried to copy them).

I think today was the first and last time we'll be hiking on our neighborhood hiking trail.  When I was getting the boys dressed for bed, I found tons of little dots on them in their underwear and diaper.  They were dozens of ticks!  The boys were covered in them (especially in that area).  Luckily Brian had gotten home about an hour earlier so he was able to help.  We spent the next hour removing about 50 ticks from each boy.  A few of them were still running around but most had already attached (Carter had a lot attached to his private parts too - poor boy!).  There was a lot of crying.

We've found several on me too but Brian still needs to help me check myself (these guys are super small and hard to distinguish from moles).  I'll be checking the boys in the morning again because there's a good chance we missed a few (especially in their hair).  Here are the ones we pulled off the boys and put in a cup of soapy water.

We did a little research and think we got tick bombed.  These ticks were so small that we think they were still in the larvae stage.  They can stay in groups of up to thousands at this stage and attach to the first host they find.  Thank goodness Brian wasn't with us because he's a tick magnet when we go hiking and it would have been even harder to find and get all the ticks off of him with having more hair on his body!  I'm off to search for more on me now before I go to bed!

Soccer and Dinner

Saturday was our fourth soccer game (out of 8 in the season).  We had 9 boys play.  Missy's kids dominated their game and the other team dominated our game.  It was something like 100 to 3 (100 is a bit of an exaggeration).  The boys I had weren't off picking flowers but they often seemed to forget that they were playing a soccer game.  Two of them would just start talking to each other and playing and not even acknowledge a ball rolling by them.  However, they had a lot of fun (and so did the other team because they scored a lot).  Carter scored our first goal and he was SO EXCITED.  We kept kicking off since the other team kept scoring and I switched up who kicked off each time.  I told our boys to just dribble the ball to the goal and try to score.  Carter and Carson both succeeded (and a kid from the other team put one in for us too).

After the game I took the boys for a run in the jogging stroller on the greenway that starts at the soccer fields and then we went home.  Carter decided to not take a nap for the second day in a row and was a bit cranky that night.

Brian was out of town for a conference all weekend so I had Kelly and Charlie over for dinner on Saturday night.  We hadn't seen them since Rylan's birthday party three months ago!

We had a lot of fun catching up, eating, and watching our boys play.

The evening ended abruptly though when Charlie suddenly started walking leaning to his left like he was super dizzy.  And he wouldn't focus on anything - his eyes were just kept wandering all over.  He did this for less than a minute and then started acting normal again.  He freaked us out a little and Kelly decided to take him to the emergency room.  They didn't find anything wrong with him (though they didn't do any major tests like a CT scan) but said he possibly could of had an absent seizure.  Kelly is following up with their pediatrician tomorrow.  He's been fine today so hopefully it was just a freak, random thing!

TACA

On Friday I took the boys up to Centennial Park because TACA (Tennessee Associate of Craft Artists) was having their Fall Craft Fair.  There were about 200 vendors with the usual things (pottery, photography, jewelry, etc).  I only bought one thing (a Christmas present) but we still had fun browsing.  There was also a children's tent with free activities.  There were 4 stations set up and we visited 2 of them.  The first one was sponsored by Cheekwood and the boys got to decorate pumpkins. 

Then we went to an empty station without realizing it was for the Nashville Ballet.  Which was fine but the activity was decorating old pointe shoes.  The boys didn't mind though and had a blast coloring on the shoes and putting stickers on them.

Here are the boys finished products ...

Rylan's:

Carter's:

After exploring the Craft Fair, we played on the playground for a bit.

And then we headed over to see the old train and plane.  I've driven by these before but we had never checked them out.

We were planning to check out the Parthenon next (which we've only seen from a distance as well) but it was obvious it was about to rain so we headed to the car.  We barely made it - the boys stayed dry but I got pretty wet emptying the stroller out and loading it into the car. 

Halloween Decorations

I didn't get to decorate for the holidays last year since we were in the apartment and so I couldn't wait to start this year.  We've never decorated for Halloween before (other than pumpkins), but now that the kids are getting older and excited about the holiday, I wanted to do more.  After Halloween the last couple of years, I've bought clearance decorations at Target and a couple of local stores.  The boys and I couldn't wait any longer and put up most of what we have today.

These guys all light up at night:

We have ghost lights on the porch railing:

And pumpkins to light up the sidewalk:

We also have some decorations inside.  These pumpkins have lightbulbs and batteries in them:

I told Carter that they are decorations, not toys.  So now he calls them "decorators" instead of pumpkins.

This pumpkin has chalkboard paint on it so we get to change the drawings and writing on it all the time:

I stole this craft from Sarah.  When we visited her and her family last fall, she had one of these up that Mary Grace had done.  These are ones we made when we got back home last year:

The boys were so excited for it to get dark tonight so they could see all the outdoor decorations lit up.  We weren't disappointed - it looks really cute!

Raleigh Trip - Day 3

It's been over a month since we went to Raleigh, but I'm finally getting around to posting about our last full day there.  On Sunday (August 19th) we woke up to it pouring.  Luckily we had planned to go to Marbles, the awesome children's museum in downtown Raleigh.  We had hoped to meet up with Johnny and Anakah and their kids but they were sick and stayed home.  We did get to see our friends Cass and Jeremy though and their son Liam (who was 17 months at the time).  And Brian's parents came along too so it was lots of fun!

I think this area is called "Toddlers Hollow".  It's a really cute room painted and decorated like a forest with lots of stuffed animals and areas to explore.  Carter found this "hidden" room in a tree and loved hiding out in it.

I guess this was supposed to be a weeping willow - luckily Carter didn't pull down any of the "branches" (though he tried).

Fireman Carter:

Dinosaurs - AWESOME!!!

Rylan found the train table, of course.  The boys rarely play with their train table at home but as soon as they see one at a public place, it's hard to pull them away!

Rylan and Liam tried out the "Lighthouse" area - luckily neither got too wet.

I think this is cheating ...

Brian and Carter built a cool house with two rooms.

Rylan is more into building towers.

Liam with his own unique construction!

Though it's neat, I will never get over the "Work Bench" exhibit and the fact they have real saws and stuff that the kids can easily get to.  Carter had fun though using a hand drill to put a hole through this wood.

Rylan enjoying the "Power2Play" sports area ...

We stayed at Marbles for a couple of hours and then went out to lunch with Brian's parents at a restaurant in North Hills.  Raleigh was beginning an exhibit that weekend where the placed decorated cows throughout town.  They were placing a few while we were at North Hills and Carter wanted his picture with them.

After lunch we went back to Brian's parents' house for naps for the kids.  After a nap Carter went outside with Cinda to pick some vegetables from her garden for dinner.  Though he wouldn't eat any of the peppers or tomatoes, he loved picking them.  I'm hoping we can figure out a place for a garden in our yard for next year (we have plenty of room, but we want it to look nice too).

We left the next morning and drove ALL DAY back to Nashville.  It was a long, long drive.  The boys are always better on the drive to a place than they are on the way home.  They weren't terrible but we were all just ready to be out of the car (plus there were way too many potty stops - I even put a diaper on Carter after awhile and then that leaked).  But it was worth it to see Brian's parents and a bunch of our friends!