Fast and the Furious: SCBG

This whole post was inspired by the following:



Mark was sick this past weekend and I was looking for something to get the kids out of the house until dinner time. I loaded up some bikes and trikes and headed to this big parking lot in the back of the botanical gardens. There is nobody in this parking lot. Ever. Until this past Saturday. I guess there was a wedding, a plant sale, and then this caravan of Hondas (pictured above) that constantly ran in and out of this parking lot. At any rate, the kids had a great time! Apparently this big flat parking lot had just enough of a hill to be slightly dangerous. The boys would joyfully push their riding toy up the hill:



Then they would wait for John to count them off. "Uno for the money, duo for the show..."



Then they would ride down to the other side of the parking lot.



They seriously did this over and over for an hour, then cried when it was time to go. I bet if we tried this again, they would hate it...

Gymnastics - James

James's preschool class starts about 15 minutes after Andy's class ends. During this time we go potty and try to keep everyone from melting. James's class is more structured than Andy's. When it is time to start the kids WALK from the waiting area to a yellow dot for stretching. Here is James doing a butterfly:


Now, at this time, most of the other parents just sit there and watch class. Not me, I have Andy and I am fairly certain he would destroy the whole gym if we had to do that. I usually take him on a walk on the Health and Heritage walking trail:


Here is a nice old house:


And here is the cemetary where Thomas Green Clemson is buried:


When we get back from our walk, we usually still have 30 minutes of class left.*sigh

I am always impressed with the level of disapline in James's class. They line up and walk from station to station, and wait patiently for their turn.





James gets in trouble a lot.

I am always impressed by how they teach these three year olds to do things. They are telling them to put their hands the right way and their feet in the right place. I am just trying to give James something to do, but they are really teaching gymnastics!



Here is James with Ms. Kipp. James LOVES Ms. Kipp, even more than Ms. Jenny I think!



At the end class, they form a circle and sing a song. It is a little wierd:


Then they put their hands on their heads to get their stamps.

Andy - gymnastics

This is the first in a two part series on gymnastics class. This winter, I signed the boys up for gymnastics at upstate gymnastics because it was something that both kids could do. Andy is in the mom and tot class and James is in the preschool class. Andy's class is first.

The mom and tot class is very informal. It starts with a warm up and some stretching.


Being tots, sometimes they don't take their strecthing serious. (to be honest, neither do I!)

After strecthing, the tots are free to roam anywhere in the gym as long as the parents go with them. There are different stations set up to play on. Here is Andy in the "quiet corner" with little toys to sit and play with:


Here is the ring station. I am so impressed he can do these!


Other climbing/juming stations:




Here is Andy on the trampoline:


Andy likes to run full speed up and down the trampoline and crash into the ends:



Since Andy's class is first, James has to sit in the waiting area for us. This has gone better than I expected, although he usually annoying the other kids:


At the end of class, James is allowed to join us for "music time":


Then all the kids line up to get their hand stamped, another good day at gymnastics!

Open for the season

Introducing, Dinner on the Screened-In Porch.



Call now for reservations.

There they go again

Five Under Five

Guess which kids are mine, and which ones are sick. (hint - they might be the same ones!)

Spring break brings us on our annual trip to Houston to "Charlie's house". James was very excited and had been counting the "sleeps" for three weeks.


James is wearing my mom's sunglasses. I remember her getting these WHEN WE LIVED IN SAN ANTONIO (pre-1990). Maybe it is time for a new pair?

Andy, as always, is slow to adapt, took a little longer to warm up to traveling.


That thing under is nose is just a stratch that he got from falling on our driveway. How he managed to get it just in that spot, we will never know. Andy, God Bless Him, was in one of his moods the whole trip.

At any rate, Gramma was nice enough to drive us to the airport and drop us off. From there is was just Team JAM. (James, Andy, and Mommy). We used the stroller method.


The boys were super excited to see all the planes!


The flight there was fine, could have been better, could have been worse. It wore out the kiddos and within 5 minutes of being in Aunt Turah's car, they both zonked out. This is unheard of for my children.


Turns out, they both were getting sick, but after a dose of motrin, it was playtime.

The best part of visiting family, is doing the everyday stuff that they do. James and Andy had a really great time. We spent a lot of time playing outside in the backyard. Here is Baby AC, who is just so content:


AM and Andy on the swings:


Everyone in/on the caddy. Um, Andy LOVES this car. Are you listening grandparents? He would just get in. Get out. Get in. Get out.


Granny had gotten these punching balloons. They were a big hit. I think I got all the kids in this shot.


James enjoyed dressing up while we were there. More on that later, I'm sure.


When you have this many kids, transportation can be an issue. Here is seating for all 5:


(it takes 2 shots)


Another arraingement with only 4 kids:


And of course we had music time with Uncle B.


Some of the big stuff we did: chuck e cheese, the park, the zoo. It turns out it is hard keeping track of 5 kids so I didn't take pictures of any of those.

The trip home was pretty quiet because both kids were sick. By sick, I mean I had to dose James up with the motrin so they would let us on the flight and Andy threw up all over me after take off. Other than that, it was uneventful.

Ok, this might have been the worse trip ever, but it was still fun, right? Thanks to K and B for everything!

21 months, 5 days

I just thought this was a cute picture:



I have a wierd way of thinking about milestones for my kids. Well, really it is just what is Andy like when something big was happening with James? When James was 21 months, 5 days old, Andy was born. Wow. That is a big one.

When James was 21 months, 5 days that was the beginning of my favorite time with him. I really do love this terrible two age. They can walk, they talk so cute, and they really think everything is GREAT! I mean, there are tough times as well, but good outweighs the bad. I am looking forward to the next stage with Andy until he is 2 and a half. Then they apparently reach that "devil's spawn" age.