Snow!!!

We woke up to about an inch of snow this morning!  It wasn't amazing for snowballs or snowmen but it was still great to play in!  Snow angels could be made!

The big boys threw snow at Brian and Grayson at the window.

It wasn't terribly cold (it reached the upper 40s this afternoon) so it was great to play in.

Whenever I tried to take their picture, Carter and Rylan threw snow at me!

Finally a good picture!

And more snow throwing at me!

 Charlotte had fun playing in the snow too!!!

Some of our neighbors came over to play and I remembered our sleds that have been sitting in the garage unused for 2 years.  We went across from our neighbors house and slid down a hill into a drainage area for the neighborhood.  It was a perfect hill!

Carter and Avery ...

A solo Carter ...

Carter with Sosi ...

Carter, Emory, and Avery ...

Rylan surprised me by actually going down the hill twice.  He got snow in his boot the second time and was done though.  I walked him back to the house and stayed with the other kids for another half hour of sledding.

I'm so glad we finally got a little snow.  And that it showed up on a Saturday so the kids could enjoy it!

100 Days

Carter's school celebrated 100 days of school today.  The kindergartens got to have fun and dress up as if they are 100 years old.  Carter was ridiculously excited about today.  It's all he talked about this week.

For Carter's transformation, we used a white shirt and khaki pants that Carter already had.  Then we added a bow tie (from Party City) and suspenders (from Walmart).  I got gray hair spray-on dye and a cane from Party City and reading glasses from the Dollar Store (I popped out the lenses).

I think Carter looked pretty awesome!

The work Carter brought home today all had to do with the number 100.

If Carter had $100, he'd buy ice cream and a car :)

Carter gave himself a grandpa name ... Mr. Papa.

I love when Carter gets to do some fun things like this at school!

Stones River National Battlefield

The second stop on our "adventure" on Sunday was Stones River National Battlefield.  After going to Fort Negley on Saturday, the boys were begging to see more cannons and where people fought.  They don't really understand the civil war yet, but I'm all for exposing them to more history!  Plus getting outside was a priority since we haven't had many warm days lately!

We went to the visitor center first.

They have a small museum explaining what happened at this site.  There was also another short film that the boys were super excited to watch.

While in the visitor center, we had to get Grayson's national parks passport book and his first stamps!

Next we went outside to see the cannons and wagons.

We did a short hike on the Pioneer Brigade Earthworks Trail where the big boys did their best shooting stances :)

We drive over to the Hazen Brigade Monument next and searched out a recently placed letterbox.

Inside the box was a First Finder prize as well as a hitchhiker we'll place in a box the next time we find one out of town.

The First Finder prize was just a certificate and we taped it into our log book.

Our last stop was our favorite, though it has a really morbid name - the Slaughter Pen.  As you'd probably guess, there were a lot of soldiers that died here.  However, the rocks here are really unique and so much fun for the boys to play in.

And since it's winter, I wasn't too worried about snakes, weird bugs, and poison ivy :)

I had so much fun with my boys on our weekend adventures.  I'm looking for more adventures to go on soon!

Glow Golf

On Sunday I took the boys on another "adventure" since Brian was working all day again.  This time we headed over to Murfreesboro.

Our first stop was Glow Golf.  Rylan asks all the time to go to Glow Galaxy where Carter had his 4th birthday party because he wants to play the indoor golf.  Last year we went to Glow Golf in Murfreesboro as a family on Carter's birthday but hadn't been back since.

I didn't tell the boys where we were going and they were super excited when we arrived.  The way the pricing works is that you get to play 3 rounds of the 18-hole course.  I gave up keeping score after one hole.  They tore through the course.  Usually the ball would still be moving when they took their next swings.  But there were only a couple of other groups golfing so we could move fast and they were having fun so who cares about doing it right!!!

Grayson wasn't a huge fan of all the weird lighting and I had to hold him the whole time so he didn't cry.  And he only spit up on me and the floor about 5 times :)

After finishing the 3 rounds, you get to hit your ball into the 19th hole and it keeps the ball.  Rylan's ball ended up in the special hole and he won a free game.  I guess we'll have to go back!

I'll share the second part of our "adventure" in my next post!

Phrase Lists

Carter got a note sent home the other day saying he'd completed all the sight word lists for kindergarten (including the challenge lists).  So now Carter is getting phrase lists that he has to practice at home and then get tested on at school.

He's doing great with these too and is already on list 4!

Fort Negley

Brian has to work all weekend but we are finally having some mild weather (low 50s) so I'm trying to get out of the house with the boys.  Yesterday we visited Fort Negley for the first time.  Fort Negley is located in downtown Nashville and was the largest inland stone fort built during the Civil War.

After Carter's basketball game and lunch, we headed down to the fort.  The visitors center opened in 2007, and while small, it's really nice.  We stopped there first and the big boys wanted to watch the 20 minute film about Nashville during the Civil War.  They watched it intently but I'm not sure how much they got.  Rylan asked if it was about a different world.  When I told him it was about our city 150 years ago he then asked if there were dinosaurs then.  I don't think Rylan has a great grasp of time yet :)

After the film, we went outside to walk around the fort (some of the stonework is in the distance behind the boys).  The boys were so excited to see everything.  I have no idea why they were so into the fort and information about the Civil War.  They also wanted to act out fighting.  Everything stick was a gun.

Carter took this picture of Grayson and me.  Not too bad :)

This is the one and only entrance into the fort.  And love this picture of the big boys :)

Inside of the fort are these wooden walkways that were constructed to keep visitors off the stonework.  They are actually pretty fun paths for the kids to follow.

The boys liked finding all the places they thought canons had been set up during the war.

Rylan took this one of Grayson and me.  I turned Grayson around in the Bjorn to face me after he started getting fussy and he passed out.

It was fun exploring the fort with the boys.  There really wasn't all that much too it but they loved it!  While at the fort, we search for and found 3 letterboxes (these are Grayson's first finds).

Inside the second letterbox we found was a cootie.  We got to take this stamp with us and we'll leave it in a letterbox when we find one out of town.

Such a fun local adventure with my boys!

Insanity

I am 2 weeks into the Insanity workout.  About 3 weeks after having Grayson, I stopped losing any weight.  And if I thought Rylan stretched out my stomach, this time is even worse.  So I really need a core workout instead of just running.

I have been crazy sore for the past two weeks but I've lost 5 pounds (without changing how I eat).  I still have 20 pounds to lose though.  Hopefully the next 7 weeks of Insanity workouts will get me through at least half of that.

Plus nothing keeps you honest like a 6 year old!  Two of Carter's comments so far ...

"When are you going to lose your belly?"

and

"You aren't going as fast as them." (Referring to the people doing the Insanity workout on my computer.)

I also signed up for the Music City Half Marathon on March 22nd.  I ran this race in October 2013 and it's where I have my half marathon PR (1:46:33).  I hope to finish in no more than 30 minutes over that time :)

Hansel and Gretel

Yesterday I took Rylan and Grayson to the Nashville Library for a puppet show.  This month they are performing "Hansel and Gretel", a play we hadn't seen before.  Rylan asked me what the story was about before we left the house and I started telling him.  When I mentioned the house made of candy, he finished the story for me.  When I asked him how he knew it, he answered that he'd seen it on "Curious George".

But then he also said he didn't want to go to the play because he was scared of the witch.

I made him go anyway.

We got there about 10 minutes early and I fed Grayson because he was fussy.  That made him wide awake and he actually sat on my lap and watched the entire 30+ minute play.  At one point my leg felt wet and I figured he'd thrown up on me.  But it was completely dark and I couldn't tell.  Grayson didn't feel wet anywhere so I deduced that he'd actually pooped on me.  Which he had.  Oh fun.

Rylan was scared until he finally saw the witch and then stopped covering his ears and/or eyes.  He still didn't like her until she got pushed in the oven by Gretel.  That was his favorite part of the play and part he told Brian and Carter about.

After the play, the librarians brought out a couple of puppets for the kids to see.  This was as close as I could get Rylan to stand by the witch so I could take his picture :)

Next month they are doing "Tall Tale Circus" which is my favorite of all the plays we've seen so far!