Family Night Out

Last week Thursday was the last Family Night Out of the summer at Cheekwood.  That night's performance was finally outside again after the last two weeks had been forced inside by afternoon storms that blew threw.

The Nashville Public Library Puppet Truck was at Cheekwood that night and doing a performance of "Anansi the Spider".  The boys and I saw this play during the winter at the library but they still sat up front by themselves and watched the entire performance.

Missy had brought Will and Luke that evening and the boys had a blast running around after the performance.  It was a really beautiful night.  It has been a pretty mild summer (so far) which has made spending time outside this summer bearable.

Rolling down the giant hill is so much fun!

Luckily no one got hurt :)

Rylan, Will, and Carter were sitting together at the top of the hill so I quickly grabbed Luke and my camera and got some great group shots of the boys with the gorgeous sunset lighting them up.

All our fun summer activities are coming to an end.  But the boys still have another month before school starts (they start the Tuesday after Labor Day).  Davidson County (Nashville) already started back to school yesterday and Williamson County (Franklin/Brentwood) starts next Friday so most of the summer activities (such as the library programs) ended this week.  I'm sure we will still find plenty to keep us busy the next few weeks but I am looking forward to having a little free time again to get things done (like shopping, cleaning, and getting started on my long list of house projects/decorating I've been wanting to do).

"Garden Heroes"

The boys' gardening class on Thursday was all about bugs that are useful in the garden.  There were a couple of farmers there as guest speakers that were fun to listen to (we've had lots of interesting characters visit the class so far!).

The coolest bug we saw was a horned caterpillar taken off the tomato plants.

Carter almost got to hold it but Ms. Lisa got distracted and stood back up to answer a question before handing it to Carter.  He's still talking about not getting to hold the caterpillar!

This time the boys got to pick and take home some tomatoes and more blackberries!

It was super cool (for July) on Thursday so we stuck around after the class and had a picnic lunch at the farm.

I love this look on Rylan's face - it is so him (instead of the usual coaxed smiles I get for pictures).

Mountain Biking

I finally went mountain biking today for the first time since getting pregnant with Rylan.  I only went once after Carter was born too so it's been a long time since I've gone regularly.

There are several sets of trails around here but most are 45-60 minutes away and we just hadn't found the time to get to them.  But Brian tried out some trails at Cane Ridge Park when the boys and I were in Wilmington that are only about 25 minutes from our house.  The trails opened less than a year ago and they only have 2 miles out there so far (there are several more miles planned already)

Since my mom is still here, Brian and I were able to try out the trails together today.  They are beginner trails but still technical enough to be fun.

Since I'm training for a marathon and Brian will have to watch the boys during my long weekend runs, I'm going to trade time with him and watch the boys on the weekend when he rides.  Bonus for me though ... I now remember how much fun mountain biking is and am going to start riding when the boys are in preschool.  Unfortunately I have to wait until September!

Recent Pictures

On Wednesday my mom and I took the boys to the zoo.  As usual we started off the morning at the playground.  Carter finally loves the huge cargo nets.

We usually don't go to the shows but we went to "Meet the Locals" while the boys had snacks.

Even though this skunk is de-scented, the boys held their noses the whole time it was out "just in case".

On the carousel with my mom ...

On Thursday we went to another summer program at the Brentwood Library.  This time it was Mr. Bond, the Science Guy (Carter got to see him at preschool last year but that show was geared more toward younger kids).  Again, Cooper (from Carter's preschool class) was there and the boys were super excited to see each other.

Mr. Bond used a lot of liquid nitrogen during his show and made a huge "cloud" at the end of the show.

We've been having issues with rabbits eating our plants (they've eaten our hawthorns, the sunflower seedlings, a plant still in it's pot that I haven't gotten around to planting, and the althea).  I thought a deer was eating the althea (below) but this morning saw a rabbit standing on it's back legs chewing on it.

We stopped by Tractor Supply the other day to ask about deer and rabbit repellent.  They only carried one product and recommended against it because of how awful it smells.  They suggested trying out moth balls or urine.  Carter heard this and has since peed all over the althea twice when I wasn't around.  Nice :)  Unfortunately neither the urine or moth balls have helped!

This morning was another Toy Story-themed Build and Grow at Lowe's.  The boys each built RC (the remote control car that saves Buzz and Woody at the end of the first movie).

Next we headed to downtown Franklin because they were having Bluegrass along the Harpeth Fiddlers Jamboree.  While my mom and I did a little shopping on Main Street, Brian walked the boys around for a bit.  They got some kettle corn which the boys did not like at first but by the end of the day, Carter couldn't get enough of.

There really wasn't much to the little festival so we picked up some food and went over to Jim Warren Park to have lunch and play for a bit.  There are some really cool huge rocks to climb on over there!

Next we went over to Westhaven to do a little fishing in their extremely well stocked pond.

Carter caught 25 fish!  We were not there very long either.

Some were pretty big!

Rylan fell asleep on our drive over so I sat with him in the car for awhile so he could get a much-needed nap.

When Rylan finally woke up, I took him down to the pond so he could catch a quick fish before we headed home.  Rylan had terrible luck though and his fish kept jumping off the hooks before he got them more than a foot out of the water.  It took about 6 fish before one finally stayed on!  He was so frustrated (especially since he'd just woken up and was still moody).

The one that Rylan finally caught though was pretty big.  I tried getting a picture of him with it but it started flipping around and Rylan dove away!

Brian and I had a date night tonight.  We went to Yazoo's taproom for a few drinks when we got to The Gulch (in downtown Nashville).  Yazoo is probably the largest craft brewery in Nashville with a distribution stretching to southern Mississippi now.

Yazoo's Hefeweizen is probably Brian's favorite beer (I'm not a big fan of the banana aroma).

Then we headed over to Ru San's for sushi.  It was SO GOOD.

Our favorite of the night ... "Rising Sun Maki" (Tuna, smoked salmon, cream cheese, and avocado rolled and crusted with shredded wonton skin with a side of spicy aioli sauce)

Developmental Screening

I got Rylan's developmental screening report in the mail this week.  As I was told at the meeting, they are recommending for him to get an evaluation from a speech pathologist to see if he qualifies for speech therapy.  I am supposed to be contacted next month to schedule an appointment.  Rylan was "normal" in all other areas of the evaluation.

I'm not sure if they used the same standardized tests for both boys, but below are their scores from their evaluations.  They were both tested at 36 months old.

Rylan:

Carter:

I'm not really sure what "Adaptive Behavior" is for a 3 year old or why their percentiles are both so low, but apparently they aren't low enough to qualify for assistance.  I still don't think Rylan will end up qualifying for speech, but I really hope he somehow does so he can be better understood by others.

Best Buddies

Rylan, Will, Carter, and Luke at Cheekwood tonight ...

Tuesday's Pictures

Yesterday morning we started off with a brief rain shower so we got Rylan's hair cut and then went to the library to get new books.  When we were there I found out you could get a library card once you are 4 years old so Carter got one - he was so excited!!!

It had stopped raining so my mom and I took the boys over to the Cheek Park area and found two letter boxes.  The boys did great on the first one but were getting lazy tired and complained a lot about walking for the second one.

I always LOVE sticking my hand into trees to grab the letterboxes.

Then we went over to Culver's for lunch where we got ice cream after our meal.  Rylan got a little on the tip of his nose.  He didn't want me to wipe it off because he wanted Brian to see it when he got home from work.  I took a picture of it instead.

Next we headed over to the Brentwood Library for one of their summer program shows.  Yesterday's program was with Rodney Kelley, a magician.  One of Carter's classmates (Cooper) was there and the boys sat together.  Cooper was in Carter's class the last two years - Carter gave him a huge hug and they were excited to hang out together.

The magician was pretty good and made a big impression on Carter - he put on magic shows all afternoon once we got home.

Last night Brian and I went out for dinner and then stopped by Dick's to see if they had gotten any small shinguards in - and they had, finally!  Rylan is ready for the fall season (he'll wear Carter's old shoes and Carter got new bigger ones as part of the soccer package from Dick's).

And a random picture from Monday ...

It rained most of the day.  I ran errands on my own in the morning and then we did some crafts in the afternoon.  Carter and I made lots of pipe cleaner bugs and lizards and snakes!