Touch-a-Truck

We took the boys to the Williamson County Parks and Rec Touch-a-Truck in Thompson Station on the Saturday of Fall Break.  We have taken the big boys there a few times before but this was Gray's first time.  We figured Carter and Rylan were getting a little old to enjoy it but they would love all the free crap that the vendors give away (you can never have enough chip clips or lip balm!).

Gray did really like the big construction trucks.

He wasn't such a big of kids honking some of the ridiculously loud horns when we were outside the trucks.  He was much more clingy after that.

The boys always love the party bus (they were all dancing so much in the black lit bus that I only got super blurry pictures).  Got to love them dancing around the pole!

It would have been much cooler if they raised up the bucket ... though probably not very safe :)

Gray liked watching the fireman come down the ladder.  They even waved to one another!

I didn't get any pictures but Jen and her kiddos met us at Touch-a-Truck for a bit before headed out.  We had to hit up the party bus again for another dance session with our friends :)

Gray's Gals

Suzy, Jen, and I are doing gymnastics for our little ones together right now.  Lofton isn't walking yet but she's still really enjoying the mommy and me class.

Here's Gray with his girl Jessie in the "baby foam pit hot tub" ...

Jen and I got together a couple of times last week to walk.  Lofton and Gray are becoming good walking buddies (Lofton is 8 months younger than Gray but sure does look taller than him in this picture!).

After walking on Wednesday, we took the kids to the Nolensville Library for their Halloween Storytime.  I attempted to get a simple costume on Gray.  He was not a fan!

Once I took the costume off, he really enjoyed the storytime.  I have a feeling Gray may be wearing his glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas instead of a costume this year!

After storytime the kids got to trick-or-treat at five stations around the library.  Gray was brave enough to take treats from a couple of people.

Rylan - First Lost Tooth!!!

Rylan FINALLY lost a tooth.  He has been wanting to lose one so bad since last school year when it seemed like kids in his class were losing teeth daily.

I looked up when Carter lost his first tooth (because everything is a competition in this house!!!), and Rylan actually lost his first tooth when he was 35 days younger than Carter when he lost his first tooth.

Rylan will occasionally eat an apple because he thought it'd help him get his tooth out.  Well, he was right!  I went to pick up Carter from Sharpie Art (a class he's taking after school through SACC at school) and Rylan stayed home with Brian and was about to eat an apple.  When I got back, Rylan had lost his tooth!

I had gotten Carter a tooth fairy pillow for his door and liked it so much, I ordered ones for the other boys right away.  Rylan was excited when I gave him his this afternoon to use tonight.

The other bottom middle tooth is pretty lose and I bet it won't be long before the tooth fairy visits again!

Fall Break

The boys had fall break the weekend before last.  They got off Friday and Monday.  We had planned on going camping but Brian was still playing catch up at work from having to take care of the boys when I was sick a few weeks back.  So we stayed in town and tried to do a lot of things we don't normally have time to do with school and sport-filled weekends.

On Friday we went to Lucky Ladd Farm (which I'm post separately).

On Saturday we went to the Thompson Station Touch-a-Truck (again, I'll do a separate post for that).  We spent the rest of the day watching two great football games - NCSU beat Notre Dame in the crazy hurricane rain and wind.  And UT almost pulled off another crazy win at the end of the game.

On Sunday we aerated and overseeded the yard (not as much fun).  But the boys got to play outside all day and are really starting to enjoy their playhouse (which I don't think I've posted any completed pictures of - I need to do that!).

On Monday I took the kids to the Adventure Science Center.  It's been awhile since the big boys have been there.  They had a lot of fun and Gray loved running around with them.  He even made it to the very top of the Adventure Tower (as did I - it's getting harder to crawl up there!).

After a short break at home, I took the boys to Smith Park to check on our letterboxes and plant two more.  We continued with our ACC series and planted ones with the Virginia Tech and Carolina logos.  Gray did awesome in the backpack and so did these boys hiking around!  Someone has already found the new boxes and the boys were super excited!

Gray

Sometimes the boys can all be super sweet!  Walking to school last week ...

Gray is pretty brave when it comes to slides (even the enclosed ones!) ...

Jen and I took the little ones to storytime at the Brentwood Library after walking last week and Gray was so in love with the owl he made (he named it Baby - the same thing he calls himself) ...

School Pictures

We never buy the school pictures, but here are the boys' proofs!

Colt Corral

The boys have Colt Corral at the end of the week at school.  This is when the entire school spends the first 20 minutes of school in the gym for announcements and sometimes some fun visitors.

On Thursday (the boys were on fall break Friday), the Play 60 program visited our school.  The father of a girl in Carter's class is the event game day producer for the Titans (I'm not sure what that means he does though!).  He was able to organize the visit and also have T-Rac (the Titans' mascot) make an appearance.

Carter's class got some special treatment and got to take this picture with T-Rac.

They also came home with a t-shirt, flag, and pencil.  Rylan was very jealous.

Field Trip

The second grade at Clovercroft went on a field trip to the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro last Friday.  Brian was able to watch Gray so I got to go on the field trip as a chaperone - yay!  And Mrs. Fitch grouped together the best little group for us - Carter, Charlie, Whit, Noah, and Jett.  The chaperones were me, Suzi, and Hillary for this group of boys.

It's probably been a couple of years since we'd been at the Discovery Center.  I've taken the older boys several times.  Carter said this was the best field trip he's been on yet!

Our class had free time in the museum first.

Carter & Charlie ...

Our group of five (Charlie, Noah, Jett, Carter, & Whit) ...

Our class ate an early lunch at 10:30 and then went outside for a bunch of fun activities.  First was getting to see several animals such as turtles and snakes.  Then the kids were given nets and got to hunt for snails and other small animals in the pond.  Carter caught several snails and some dragonfly nymphs.

Next the kids got to put on boots and wade into the spring to see if they could find anymore wildlife.

The last activity was to walk on the wetland boardwalks.  We saw a ton of beaver dams and this cool raccoon crawled out of his home and back in.

I'm so glad I got to go on this fun field trip with the kids!

Recent Pictures

I'm finally starting to feel better and need to get back to blogging!  Here are a few recent photos!

Gray is still doing mommy and me gymnastics at Let It Shine.  He really loved the swing they let the kids use the other day.  It's on a pulley system and he was swinging above my head!

It's amazing what a third kid will do to you!  Carter didn't have a french fry until he was 5 years old.  I gave Gray the rest of my fries the other day ...

One of Carter's friends had an art birthday party at his house the other day.  I'm thinking Carter is going to be doing something very similar next month!

I had bought a bunch of canvases on sale awhile ago and the boys were inspired to paint.

I watched Jen's little girl Lofton (who is 8 months younger than Gray) the other day.  They played really well together when Gray wasn't super possessive of his toys and trying to rip everything out of Lofton's hands!  Eeekk!  We're going to have to work on that!!!

Baby Guppies

I have been really sick since the beginning of last week.  I got the stomach bug (for the second time in three weeks) and I am still really struggling.  I've lost a lot of weight and still can't eat.  Yesterday I found our last fish belly up.  And I felt really bad because I figured it was my fault for not feeding it everyday while I've been so sick (the kids are lucky to be getting fed right now).

But I was also looking forward to not having fish to take care of anymore.

No such luck ...

Apparently the fish was able to have its babies before going to fish heaven.  There are at least six, though they are itty bitty and some have been hiding so there may be more.  Yay :)