Plant a Pizza

Tuesday's gardening class was titled "Plant a Pizza".  So the kids got to plant several ingredients typically used to make pizza - tomatoes, green bell & banana peppers, and lots of herbs.  At the beginning of class, we talked about herbs and passed around some leaves to smell.

I'm pretty sure the boys were just copying some of the other kids but they acting as if everything smelled horrible!

There was basil, rosemary, and several kinds of mint.

Next we went into the garden.  Before planting we checked on the progress of some of the things that had been planted at the previous classes.

The potatoes are starting to come up!  Can you see the green leaves in this box?

Evie, Rylan, and Carter with the pepper plants.  Carter and Evie have bell peppers and Rylan has a banana pepper plant.

Ms. Lisa made a circular garden and split it into four "pieces".  Two sections were for peppers and two were for herbs.  The tomato plants went into the center.

Carter with his pepper plant ...

And Rylan with his pepper plant ...

Before we were done, the kids all got to plant a few itty-bitty cucumber plants.  They had just sprouted from their seeds so you can barely see them in front of Carter.

Bicentennial Park Fountains

Missy and I took the kids downtown today to the Nashville Library storytime.  It's not like downtown is super far for us, but I like to combine storytime down there with another activity.  So I decided to try out the fountains at Bicentennial Mall State Park.  The state park is adjacent to the Capital Building.  At one end they have fountains that represent each of the rivers in Tennessee.  The fountains were closed for a fews years after the major Nashville flood in May of 2010 so we hadn't been to them yet.

Missy was up for trying out a new activity and we were all super happy we did.  The kids had a blast.  And there was the perfect amount of shade for baby Ellie under the elevated railroad tracks (which almost constantly had a train on them which the boys all loved!).

Bidet, anyone?

The kids just loved trying to block the water!

There is also a giant map of Tennessee at the park.  We took a break to warm up and located Nashville!

Behind the fountains is a two-inch deep area that represents the Mississippi River.  I think this was Rylan and Luke's favorite part!

Rylan doing his best swimsuit model pose ...

He must have learned it from Luke in his class at school.  The teachers told me Luke actually does swimsuit modeling for catalogues!!!

It was a little cool when we got to the park at 10:30 but after an hour it was nice and warm.  The kids didn't want to leave but we had a 2-hour parking limit and had to head out.

We love Nashville!

Last Day of School

Yesterday was the boys' last day of school!

And Carter's last day of preschool!  I'm not sad at all that he's done with this era, and I'm so excited for him to go to kindergarten.  He is so ready!  The only thing I will miss is his teacher.  I absolutely love Ms. Denise.

And here is Rylan with Ms. Cynthia (left) and Ms. Linda.  He's going to be in regular preschool next year instead of PDO.  I know his two options for teachers next year and think both will be great for him.  I'm ready for him to learn a little more next year!

I have a lot more pictures to post from yesterday, including the water day we organized for Carter's class.  It was a great last day!

Skipping

Rylan is changing so much!  First he moves to a big boy bed (which he successfully did not fall out of last night on his first night in it).  And now today I learned that he can skip!  The boys told me the Carter taught Rylan how to do it.  It took Carter a few weeks of hip hop dance last fall to master skipping.

Here's a short video I got of Rylan on the way into school this morning ...

Recent Pictures

I have a million posts to catch up on (Mother's Day, the end of soccer and baseball, even Disney!), but here are some of our random recent pictures!

I can't even really explain this one.  I guess this is what happens when our soccer games aren't until midday and we have some time to kill in the morning ...

We tried fishing a few weekends ago on a Sunday.  We started off on the Little Harpeth River in Edwin Warner Park and eventually tried a pond in Percy Warner Park.  We didn't have any luck but we also didn't have any live bait - they were out at Dick's that day.  The only thing we did catch was a tick on Carter on his privates - poor kid!  However, Brian took the boys to the pond in Westhaven on Thursday evening while I hosted Girls Night and they caught over 30 fish.

This boy knows how to watch a movie :)

Building and painting a flowerpot at The Home Depot at the beginning of the month.

Will and Luke had a combined birthday party at Let It Shine a few weeks ago.  Rylan was saying he wants his party here after seeing the birthday boys flying around on this contraption!

I'm almost done with redoing Carter's room.  Here are a few sneak peeks ...

Rylan's class has been doing lots of ocean themed art this month.  This was by far the coolest thing they made.

These guys really need to stop waking up so early!  We picked Brian up on our way to Carter's 5:30 pm baseball game and they were both passed out on the way to his office.

Carter's last three show-and tells ...

Zebras for "Z" Week:

Baseball for "A-M" Review Week:

Skeleton for "N-Z" Review Week:

Missy and I took the kids to the zoo on Friday and I got this cute picture of my boys and Luke.

Suzy's family had a super fun Reveal Party on Saturday afternoon/evening.  She rented a bounce house and had tons and food and drinks.  To reveal the sex of baby #4 (this is the first time they've found out the sex before the birth), they had black balloons filled with either blue or pink confetti which they then popped.

And it's a girl!!!

On Sunday afternoon we went to a Sounds game since the weather was perfect with a high only in the low 70s!  Rylan's favorite part ... eating popcorn, of course!

However, the boys are much more into the game this year now that Carter has played and they've both done a few sessions of Lil Sluggers.

Big Boy Bed

Look where Rylan is sleeping tonight ...

His big boy bed got delivered today!  I still have a long way to go with finishing Rylan's room (I have a lot of the decoration but I need to find a headboard and dresser) but this is a start!  Hopefully he doesn't fall out!  We don't have bed rails, but Missy told me a trick today of putting foam pool noodles under the sheets on the sides so we are trying that!

Touch-A-Truck

The city of Franklin had their annual Touch-a-Truck at Pinkerton Park on Friday afternoon.  The boys and I met Missy and Heather and their kiddos there.  There were probably 25 different kinds of trucks the kids could sit in and learn about.

Rylan looks pretty good hanging out the window of a school bus!

Police motorcycles are always a highlight!

The city also had a truck there that the kids could paint with washable paint!  We were there early enough that there was still a lot of white space to work on!

The fire truck ...

Four easily fit in a gator ...

Listening to an EMS worker telling them about the ambulance ...

Running up and down the tow truck's bed was super fun (and luckily no one fell!).

Besides all the trucks, the kids loved watching a magician and then playing a huge game of complicated tag involving frogs and alligators.  They would have done that for hours.  Always love a free event - especially on a very cool May afternoon!