As an only child, I am constantly learning the ins and outs of siblings. This is the first summer that no one has gone to mother's day out or camp or basically anywhere but under my roof for the hot, sweltering entertainment extravaganza we call summer. I have one very opinionated baby and two non-babies fighting for toys, food, and who gets to open the door first on a constant basis. During the day, I am part-time referee, transportation engineer, and official band-aide distributer whether there is an actual or invisible boo-boo that needs to be covered. I am not sure I remember my own name at this point let alone a separate identity from my spawn. My spare time has been preparing for Harrison's First Birthday party which has come and gone before I have set down to write about his brother's almost two month's prior. Here is my effort to catch up on our family story since my tedious detailed monthly personal journals to each boy has become a distant memory and in no way a realistic reality. This is as good as I can do boys if you continue to also demand three meals a day and clean clothing, so here we go.
We started off our month of June with the big 5th birthday party. Alden chose the zoo because given the choice, he will chose the zoo on any day of the week. The added bonus is that the zoo is now home to a special exhibit of life-size dinosaurs. Joey is on the junior board of the zoo, so we had a special dinner with the head of the zoo back at Christmas where he let it slip that this event was coming up in the Spring. When I called to schedule his party in February, they were astounded that I was in on the big secret and really pushed me to tell them where I had found out this information. They could neither confirm or deny that dinosaurs were coming but would schedule my birthday party just in case my information from the head veterinarian was correct...tongue and cheek.
Zoo Birthday Party #2 in Alden's five years of life was off! Dinosaur mania had begun.
I was given instructions on what to make, what to order, and who to invite. Considering how often Alden has been to the zoo, he could have planned the party all by himself if only we trusted him with our American Express card.
Baby Harry shows his support by dressing appropriately for the day. It would not be a birthday party of mine if all the boys did not have matching outfits. I am such a cheese ball.
Still can't believe there are five candles on that cake!
Alden wanted to take his own photos at the party. He brought his Fisher-Price camera all on his own. In fact, I didn't even know he had it until we arrived at the party. These photos are probably a huge improvement over the other photos on his memory card. He spends most of his time taking photos of characters on the television.
Spencer did put the train shirts aside for the day for a supportive and thematic dinosaur shirt without tears and even a bit of excitement. The promise of cake and ice cream was more important. (Side story off topic: I left them with a sitter recently to have a "me" day and went to get a pedicure. I put the little ones to bed before I left and did the switch with the favorite sitter, Julie, before Spencer woke up. She called me, which in three years she has never done, and said that Spencer was crying for me and hiding behind the chair in my bedroom and wouldn't come out and she didn't know what to do. I told her to get him a cookie. Problem solved. He was out in a snap)
Harrison, on the other hand, was not too sure about his first taste of the cold, creamy wonder.
The dinosaur tails. Months ago, on a neighborhood walk Alden and I discussed his future birthday party and I made an off the cuff comment that it would be cute if everyone had dinosaur tails. "You can make them, Mommy." As it got closer, I thought I had talked him into safari adventurers with hats and shovels and magnifying glasses hunting for dinosaurs. I was in luck that the Dollar Tree was all about Safari adventures this summer and loaded it up adding flashlights and binoculars for our junior Paleontologists. Two weeks before the party I overhear Alden bragging with all kinds of gusto about his super mom and how she is going to make dinosaur tails for all of his friends to wear. Uh-Oh.
To the sewing machine I go! Our safari paleontologist/dinosaurs were born.
Turns out, Alden really could work at the zoo as a party leader. The real party planner even decided to hand over the microphone to him so that he could lead the way because she said he knew more about the dinosaur exhibit that she did. I was a little nervous about Alden carrying around expensive zoo audio equipment, but it was only dropped once and appeared to keep working properly. We haven't received the bill yet anyway.
The exhibit it pretty awesome. My favorite was the dinosaur that ate the fish and spit water. It was a toss up between the T-Rex and the burping Brachiosaurus for the boys.
My two little dinos.
And my baby dino.
A view of our special friends on our Dinosaur tour. It goes pretty quickly when you are with people that don't really care about the names or reading the information on the signs. Excitement and awe are enough for those fast moving little feet. They dug for bones in the sand, held dinosaur teeth, and visited a dinosaur puppet. A few hats and tails discarded along the way.
And a few more creative inventions.
So, we may not have seen any real, breathing animals on our zoo adventure, but we had all the fun nonetheless. Our own personal carousel ride is always a hit. Alden chose a spot right between his two best friends, Ben and Colt, and his favorite animal, the rhino.
Never fear, there is always a train ride wherever we go! The whole gang waiting at the train stop for their ride.
ALL ABOARD!
Even the dino man loves to ring the bell after a train ride. What is it about kids and making the most noise possible? None of them can resist. They even fight over it.
Too much fun for this little soldier.
It just isn't a birthday until you can celebrate with all of your friends. Our little man is so blessed to be surrounded by people he loves and love him in return. There is just no excitement like a birthday boy living his dream day with his pals. It is the kind of love that melts your heart enough to make your wallet bleed and spend ridiculous hours making 18 dinosaur tails in the middle of the night.
As if Alden needed any more confirmation that he ruled the world. He at least has the zoo wrapped around his little finger.
There is one thing we have never done at the zoo and that is the bubble pit. After all of our friends had sweated and played long enough, we bought the tickets (of course) to let the boys bubble the afternoon away.
And the Splash Pad! Knocking two more things off of the summer bucket list.
Splash pads bring out all kind of silly in Spencer.
And then he was pooped.
I ain't gonna lie. I would love to say that my son was completely satisfied with the joy of his friends and family celebrating his birthday at his favorite place, however, the boy loves himself a present.
I wonder where in the world he gets that from.
The whole family loved the giant life-sized ball. It would not even fit through the front door. The grandmother of the friends that brought it to the party said that people were honking at her as she brought it to the party in her convertible all the way from her store. It was awesome for five minutes. And then it started to deflate. Let's be honest, we are all deflating a little bit in 97 degree heat. We borrowed an air pump from pops and Daddy put in the pin but lost interest in blowing it up all the way pretty quickly. Poor Alden wanted his ball to be completely inflated so much that he decided to do it himself. This is where we collectively chant "Bless his little heart." Alden learned that there is a hole already manufactured in the ball where the pin goes to blow up air. He could not understand why when he just stuck the pin from the air pump randomly into the ball the air came out instead of in and why I could not fix that.
All kidding aside, this little five year old is amazing. He has a temper that could stand your head on end, but turns around with the biggest heart you can find to balance it all out. I hear "You are the best Mommy in the world!" more times than I can count and he will still get in a fight with his brother over who's bed I lay in at night for cuddle time. He still asks everyday if we can have a real dog that is orange and white and will sleep in his bed with him at night and be named Robert Redford Captain America. He can play
Twinkle Twinkle on his tiny violin almost from memory and read more and more fluidly every day. He can tear up a hot dog and a bag of chips and sits amazingly still throughout an entire baseball game. He loves Legos, soccer, baseball, Ninja Turtles (even though he has never seen the cartoon), superheros,
Backyardigans, and just to balance it out, the TV show
Sophia the First. He tries to act braver than he really wants to be and is not afraid to admit that he still wants to hold tight to Mommy and Woofie Dog Dog in times of uncertainty. He is so proud when he rides his bike. He listens and absorbs literally everything around him and is pretty good on calling us out on the things we need to be called out on. He is a man of routine, sleeps the latest in the house, and always wears pajamas. He is our little boy who wants a lullaby to fall asleep and thinks monsters live in the closet. For all of that and much more, we are in love May 29th because it is the day he came into this world.
If you can dig yourself out of that sap, we have to move on to the ninja. Alden learned about this ninja concept from, well heck, let's just name him, Colt from his class at school. There are many things Alden learned from Colt. I am not really sure that he knows much about ninjas other than Lego makes some and they "play ninja" somehow on the playground. I am assuming that either Uncle Tommy remembers Alden talking about ninjas or Uncle Tommy remembers being five years old and learning about ninjas from a Colt-like boy on the playground. Either way, Alden got ninja boy in the mail for his birthday from Aunt Nicole and Uncle Tommy and music started playing and fireworks started going off in the background. He immediately takes ninja man, complete with sword, outside to the end of our front walk and sits him there and comes back inside. He is obsessed with burglars and making sure that we set our alarm and lock the doors all the time to keep the bad people out. He informs me that we no longer need to worry because Ninja man is on the curb waiting for the bad guys. Apparently, according to our five year old, we not only live in the hood, but need martial arts protection.
He thought that ninja man might get lonely, so he kept him company for a while.
When the discussions with ninja man were not quite stimulating enough, Spencer joined the gangster squad at the end of the drive way. He stayed there all day until a beautiful, young mother (wink, wink) came and relieved him of his duties offering him warm shelter for the night and replacing him with our trusty pals at ADT. But we were quite thankful for his service.
Since Ninja man was keeping watch over the dark and dangerous neighborhood, this left us feeling safe and cozy enough to think about launching rockets in the front yard.
After some skilled practice, we started to gain some height.
Spencer used his favorite word, "Whoa!"
We even shared the experience with our brother which made it all the more exciting. Peaceful rocket launching. Now, if my two boys can do it Presidents and Dictators, I believe you can too!
The every vigilant, Harrison, watched all the rocket and ninja business from the sidelines in his convertible ready for a quick get-away because typically all of these types of things end up heading in his direction.
We then dug a while in our little corner by the bushes. They dig here for hours. It makes them happy and they don't ever fight over digging in the corner by the bushes. One day, Daddy came home and they were digging in the corner by the bushes. He went all berserk about the hole in the yard and said he thought there were wires there from the lighting (side note: the lights don't work). We all looked at each other and said we had never seen any wires, just a bit of concrete we dug up and a few rocks. He said something we all chose to ignore and we added digging holes in dirt by the bushes to the list of "things we do when Dad is not home and don't tell him about."
Oh, the excitement! The UPS man! My kids and the UPS man are best friends. One day, I opened the door to get the package and he told me he was sad it was me and could I get the boys! Spencer wants to be a UPS train man for Community Helper Day at school. This does not look well for me since it means I purchase a lot of things that have to be delivered to our house so much that we are personal friends with our UPS man, but it is sweet nonetheless. Notice that ninja man is still hanging out watching the UPS man drive by.
Alden loves his bike. Bless him, he just has to ride up and down this little walk way because we have a hill for a driveway, a busy hill of a street, and are too lazy to take him anywhere else to ride. We have promised that is changing now that they built a track up the street, but he loves riding it up and down the sidewalk anyway. He told me he is always sneaking out of the house to ride (yes, this is a big battle we have) because he is using his big muscles and getting exercise. Humm.
Somebody else in our house is developing his own personality. Harrison, who is very quickly becoming Harry amongst the fan, is on the move. We are standing, we are cruising, and we are taking more and more steps each day.
This fun-loving little guy goes around looking for trouble. If all other brothers are accounted for, and therefore not slowly torturing and endangering him, there is a pretty sure chance that cries for help are hands stuck in toilet lids, hands stuck in trash can lids, or hands stuck in our shower door. Mr. Curiosity is dead set on running to sneak out of the door before we close it and to get to the choke hazard before we do. As a result, if the running store up the street sponsored a 5K crawl, I would be buying him knee pads and planning his victory party.
We have started mumbling words only a Mom and Dad could interpret but are there. "Thank you" is the absolute cutest followed by "Uh-oh." He finds reasons to practice his new words. He will give you items so he can take them back and say thank you, and everyone knows the old trick of dropping something on the floor simply to say Uh-oh. But don't let the cuteness fool you. This one is starting to speak up when things aren't going his way. The nurses in the hospital told me he was feisty and feisty he is. There are certain times when we need to work on tampering this habit such as his little fits over having the remote control taken from him and certain times when that feistiness comes in handy as when his brothers pick him up and move him all over the house. Spencer has finally gone to time out enough times that he has stopped literally bringing him to me, not that much smaller than he and dangling by his poor little arms, and saying, "Here. Take him away." There is no punishment for Alden that will stop the Harry Transport system from continuing. Usually, I get the excuse, "I forgot." Although Harrison tolerates Alden slightly more than Spencer, he wisely trusts neither one of them.
All in all, this is an easy going guy. He is way too busy being happy and checking out life to let much get him down. The only time I hear much from him is when he has run out of watermelon or strawberries on his high chair tray. Joey is currently investing in the Clorox company on my behalf for his clothing.
Gotta say, anyone that thinks this house needs a baby girl has obviously never been the princess amongst the princes. Now that this sweet little almost one year old is calling out "Mama" and leaping from anyone else's arms when I walk into a room, the Queen Bee is more than enjoying this time of my life. I haven't ever been one to have men fight over me, and even though I actually had to create them to make that happen, it is a pretty swell ego boost. Even Baby Harry will throw a few punches when another boy crawls into my lap. Love, love, love these guys! (By the way, this photo was taken by Alden)
I admit that after the disasters of the May arts and crafts learning extraordinare Pinterest disasters, I did not venture into too many creative moments with the boys in June. I basically tried to keep them out of the house as much as possible really. But, one day, I decided that we would make Flubber or Oobleck or whatever you call it. We had a blast and a rule that it didn't leave you little aluminum pan or the kitchen. Like most of my rules, this worked for a while, an hour really, and then I put it in the tupperware and called it a day. Pretty soon, my speech about the fact that neither glue or green food coloring would come out of their clothing did not seem to matter as Spencer appeared with the entire batch of flubber pasted on his shirt. Down one shirt. Later, after going back in the tupperware and one more lecture, it appeared inside some Legos presumably an experiment by a different participant. Down a few Legos. Lastly, after doing something as daring as trying to use the bathroom alone, I emerged to find it woven into my Siesel rug. Down one batch of Flubber. That would be the end of that for a while.
Since we can't literally ALWAYS be in the minivan on an excursion, I decided to go out and buy an inflatable pool for the back yard. This seemed like an awesome idea for a bit of outside time without having to tackle the whole public pool mess of dragging three kids and enough gear to keep us alive in the dessert for a month there and back. And, it would keep them where outside where little boys love to be best. Well, we blew it up and started to fill it up. Our best friends from across the street came over and jumped in for all of about a minute and a half before Spencer peed right in that inflatable pool. Now, you know you have been the mother of little boys way, way too long already when I sort of just didn't think it that big of a deal. However, the girls did think it was a big deal and were done with that for, well, forever. It took one more excursion out to the backyard before one or both boys decided to drag buckets of sand into the pool to make a beach with the added bonus of a bile of bark chips that had stuck to their feet in the process. After a deluge of rain and a couple of weekends out of town and procrastinating cleaning out the mound of sand (what it the world was I going to do with it) there was also the added bonus of a layer of mold. To the street you go inflatable pool. Grand idea #101 down the tubes. We are now a member of TWO gyms with pools.
Good news is that apparently half of the world is born in the summer, including two of my three spawn, so we had plenty of birthday parties to pass our time now that there was no flubber or inflatable pools. Our friends, Phoebe and Margot, had a birthday party at the petting zoo. Although in retrospect it was not a good idea to take the stroller with me to the open field of roaming goats and fowl, the party was super, duper fun. The boys came home with a bag of candy, new hats, and watermelon dripping from their shirts. The other thing they came home with was knowledge of a piñata. Spencer called it a "peeanna" and everywhere we went for the rest of the month, he kept telling me to buy candy for the "peeanna" we would have at Harrison's birthday. He spent a lot of time getting very upset with me that I did not buy the candy right then because he was so worried that they would not have that particular candy when the time for the party actually arrived. Now, we all know that I had no intention of having a "peeanna" at Harrison's party and this was a stall tactic to get Spencer out of any store where candy exists, which I am now acutely aware is every store on the face of the planet! My worst time to convince him was at FedEx Office where he told the Fed Ex man he wanted to be him for Halloween and the man told him to stay in school and not ever, under any circumstances, get a job delivering packages for FedEx. Spencer ignored this advice because he was too busy telling him about the candy in the "peeanna." This repeated itself at the grocery store, Hobby Lobby, the bank, the pharmacy until finally we went out of town and distracted him with something else.
Who knew that you could just call up the fire department and take them cookies and they would drive to your house on your child's birthday? So cool! Our fire department didn't have much going on that day and even showed up with two firetrucks to our friend, William's, party. The boys loved this of course because what kid wouldn't love to sit in a fire truck.
Oh, and Spencer loved the cupcakes.
And the ice cream.
And more ice cream.
Harrison slept through the party as usual. Since Harrison still has not slept an entire night since the day he was born, I opt that we just start throwing all night Frat parties at our house so that he will get some sleep.
Sometimes it is the simplest things you forget about that kids love the most. The firetruck party included some time running through the automatic sprinklers. Sure beat the inflatable pool of urine, sand, and bark. They had a blast, but not without some antics. First, was the fact that they kept adjusting the sprinkler heads so that I am sure my sweet neighbors have been watering the house and street instead of the grass ever since. Next, they were determined to take the balloons off the mailbox to run into the water. And lastly, the grand finale, Spencer had to go to the bathroom and chose the driveway. Yep, the driveway. Why did my husband have to teach them that boys could go outside!! This is the second party that one of my kids has peed in the middle of not to mention running off the neighbors! As luck would have it, all of the above things were also done by the birthday boy himself as well as several other young cherubs so we were not alone in our tomfoolery. However, the next week, when Spencer whipped it out in the middle of the pool deck at the gym pool and I panically ran to him before anything actually began to happen, we had to have a major talk about privacy.
Wait! There is more! Birthday party number 3 was a Chuck E. Cheese party. Now, since I am really not going to take them to this child wonderland on my own accord, they were thrilled! I have to admit that Joey and I got a little competitive playing the games ourselves and sort of had a few spats with the kids because we all wanted to be the one to put the won tickets into the ticket counter machine. That, and the fact that the pizza was actually really good, made for a swell party. I do miss the fact that when I was little Chuck and the gang actually sang live on stage. It is now a video. The good ole days.
Next stop, was the food truck festival. I was so looking forward to this, but not as much as Joey. He was like a kid in the candy store I tell you. He was determined to taste and sample from every truck there and that we did. I sort of felt like we were at the fair.
Alden tried his hand at hula hooping. He believed he was the master.
He also became Batman.
Spencer was just fine watching these shenanigans from the sidelines.
But then the face paint lady told him she could draw a train.
Even though we all were caught in the rain, it was super fun and the boys got away with eating chips, lemonade, and root beer for lunch before going to a birthday party #4 where, presumably, there would be cake and ice cream. Yet still, we had a seriously angry five year old for not letting them visit the Italian Ice Truck.
After the food truck event, we went to our friend, Sara's, house for her first birthday. I was too bloated from food truck fair food and too distracted with trying to keep Harrison from choking on goldfish and pushing various little ones in swings to get out a camera. Then time for the fifth birthday party of June! Yes, 5th! At Jill's birthday, they had the same inflatable pool my boys destroyed where a bunch of little girls sat and poured water out of little watering cans for hours. My boys were very well behave but very boy. There was no gentle water pouring as all the boys preferred to throw themselves down the soapy slip and slide over and over again. A sleepy Spencer was beside himself when anyone else had the blue slip and slide cushion even when another color was available. When I pulled out my sob story about how when I was little we didn't have cushions and just had to hit the rocks and sticks on your stomach on the way down, he didn't seem to care much.
You know you have found a true friend when you find someone else who makes a cheesy bucket list for the summer and you help each other mark of boxes. Bowling with Thomas and Ada might have to be everyone's favorite event all summer. Alden thinks that he is a bowler extraordinaire because Ada told him so and he believes that he won the game. We will just let him believe that. I am a tremendously great bowler. Yes, that might be because I also had the benefit of the bumpers and ball dinosaur at 33 years old but that is just a minor detail. Peanut, Super A, and Wonder Woman (bowling names respectively) had a great day with Awesome Ada and Terrific Thomas. Well, maybe not Harrison who was stuck in his stroller and got really sick of me sticking crackers on his snack tray to keep him happy. I had to ignore him because I had to take care of a crying Spencer. He did not understand that you got to go two times when it was your turn. He was just adamant that after he bowled once, it was Alden's turn. The unfairness of it all that I was constantly trying to give him another turn and rip Alden of his turn, in Spencer's mind, was overwhelming and he spent a large amount of time face down on the floor in his little bowling shoes crying and saying, "No! It's Aldy's turn!" I never, ever figured out how to get him to understand bowling rules. A few weeks later, they conned Joey into taking them bowling again. He had these coupons for like buy three games get three games free. I told him that he could put those away because we were good for one game max. I wasn't there as a witness, but I got a text message that just said, "You were right. One game is enough."
Spencer's contribution to the bucket list was train watching. We have spent quite a lot of time train watching this summer. We went to our usual spot at the cafe that is beside train tracks as the perfect spot for train watching. Spencer never eats a single bite of food here except for, wait for it, he loves the cookie pie! He is way too excited about the trains. However, every night he tells us that for dinner he wants to go to "the cafe" as he calls it and comes up with various vegetables he wants to eat that he only thinks they have there, i.e. mashed potatoes. He is super obsessed with Norfolk Southern. We all wander our days singing the Norfolk Southern commercials and watching them on You Tube over and over and over and over..... Joey has announced that he is purchasing Spencer stock in Norfolk Southern.
Spencer is just plain thrilled.
Alden occupies himself in various theatrical ways.
More bucket list: A scavenger hunt at the botanical gardens.
Each boy had their paper and pen.
It all went super well for a while. They found most of the things on their list.
We got to ring the gong.
But my children are big wimps. I know, I know it is hot. But I am seriously getting old and seriously out of shape and I was not even breathing heavy. It is not like we are talking Central Park here, and they were whining and complaining and wiping their brow and sitting down for rest stops. They were complaining of hunger but took one hundred and fifty years to get back to the car to get something to eat.
Spencer wanted me to carry him to the car after his second siesta. At that point, I just did.
But I had to enlist some help to get the other charge to the car.
Sweet Harrison enjoying his few moments free from the stroller in the grass. This little guy will be so happy when he figures out this walking thing.
One of the things the boys wanted to do this summer was go to Atlanta. Since my family lives there, we do get to go frequently but not frequently enough to run out of things to do. I was determined to not see the Aquarium or Children's Museum as I am Aquarium and Children's Museumed out. Our first stop was to see a dear old friend in Woodstock. My mother and I went a few hours early to do this alone. Anne, Tommy, and Nanny had been our neighbors growing up and were basically my grandparents. Anne is, of recent, the only one out of the three still living which made the trip really important for her to meet the boys. I had told my mother that I was afraid the boys might be really shy, especially Spencer, when we first arrived and I was also afraid that they would destroy her house. Not to worry! This photo was right when we walked into the door. Spencer grabbed Anne and started talking and talking as if he had known her all of his life just like me. They plum just made themselves right at home. Anne's husband had worked for years for Norfolk Southern Railroad. I think Spencer somehow felt the bond.
Getting to do the one thing that they are not allowed to own or do at my house. Play with toy cowboy guns. They spent a lot of the afternoon savoring this privilege because it ain't happenin' at their house.
Harrison playing with his Mommy's pick panther from when I was a baby.
They found an American flag and had a parade with flashlights for quite a while.
Harrison spent a great deal of time playing with potatoes and plastic lids from old food containers. The scary thing is that I remember playing with the same exact lids thirty years ago. Going to Anne's house was like going into a time warp. Every single thing was the exact same as it has always been. Kind of comforting.
I walked into the living room and Alden had stretched out on the recliner and turned on football. He said he was relaxing and watching the game. How is it ingrained in a boy that they are supposed to recline and watch football?! I have no idea where he would have seen this happen. We do not have a recliner and, honestly, his Daddy doesn't spend all that much time watching football. I swear men are just born with the idea!
Sine there were two paper shredders, a BB Gun, Golf Club, a pair of scissors, and some medication in reach for Harrison's consumption and demise, my mother and I decided that the pots and pans cabinet was a pretty good place to stick him. Harrison ate his weight in homemade macaroni and cheese and Spencer chose Anne's brownies as his favorite dish. Out of all the homemade yummies, Alden chose frozen pizza. There was an advertisement for Iron Man on the back and he made us take home the pizza box and drove it around the entire trip. I was so embarrassed when it fell out of the car in the Ritz Carlton valet. Trash falling out of the car is so classy. Spencer was able to go up to Tommy's old office and look at his trains. Everyone loved "Mrs. Anne's" and Spencer was especially excited to hear that she might be moving from Atlanta to Chattanooga. He told her he wanted to visit her again really soon.
On Saturday, we were joined with Daddy and Pops. Since most of our vacations and days center around trains, we decided it was Alden's turn. Fernbank Dinosaur Museum was our first stop.
Harrison found his very favorite thing: a new ball.
More dinosaurs than you could every imagine.
The boys loved hanging out in the children's play area. Everyone was running in a hundred directions. The little blurs of speed were outsmarting twice as many adults that were trying their very best to keep up with them.
Harrison had just plain had enough.
So had Spencer it seems.
Spencer perked back up when the "real" dinosaur showed up. He ran up to him and couldn't wait to have his picture taken. Look, he has his I am excited fists in front of him. I can't imagine the wonder that would be on his face at Disney World if this dinosaur was this exciting. It is always sweet when one of them sees something the other one likes and runs to get them or tell them about it. Spencer was running everywhere trying to get Aldy to come and see the dinosaur.
Everyone trying out a science experiment in the science area. I was surprised at how much there was to do at Fernbank. We spent hours there and only left because we were all getting hungry. Alden could have stayed there forever, but even Spencer got a little dino-fever for this visit.
A worn out Harry bear.
Kudos to Susan for reminding me about this gem. Of all the years I have been going to Atlanta to see my father, gulp 27 to be exact, I have never been to the Varsity. What kind of a father do I have?! Harrison got his first dose of grease and milkshake, Spencer literally ruined his shirt with chocolate and ketchup stains never to be removed, and Alden had his dream hot dog. All with matching hats. I would say that is meal time success!
No rest for the weary on vacation. In order to fit it all in, we headed to Legoland that very afternoon. I thought that we would just cause the Alden excitement bubble to simply burst. We had to wait for a really, really long time waiting on them to let us into the Lego lab.
Alden waited without blinking and wearing his concentration expression looking at the doors.
Spencer being a doll. Both boys were really patient. I am telling you, that guy that talked and talked about Legos and thought he was super funny with is jokes and little quizzes and trying to fill time with antidotes was boring me to death. I can't imagine those little kids who were like I don't care where they are made and how many are in that silly display tube just let me play with them!
When you are being a doll and waiting patiently and accompany your brother to dinosaurs and Legos, you get rewarded by being sent trains from the heavens. Who knew that there would be a train at the Legoland. I was a little fearful that we may be stuck at the entrance display for the rest of the trip.
Grumps came and met us at Legoland. He is the king of having to buy tickets to things in Atlanta to get to see us, but he is a trooper and always does. Apparently, all these people think it is creepy that he wants to buy tickets just for himself without kids. He has to go through the story each time. Grumps and Alden raced against Mom and Spencer on the Hogwarts Harry Potter ride. You had to petal the bicycle wheels. The faster you peddled the higher your car would go. Now, when you are the main peddler with a three year old and five year old it suddenly became a spin class with a literary theme. My step-mother and brother refused to believe that my Dad actually participated. He made me email him a photo to prove it.
There was a 3-D Lego movie, Lego building, and a climbing area. All the while, I got to sit around and talk to my Dad and catch up on my brother's college search and hold a sleeping baby. Not a bag gig. Some of our friends had been the weekend before and told us that you could totally do Legoland in under two hours. We were there four. Never underestimate my boys and playtime! Again, we only left because we had to eat. Now, I really wanted to go across the way to the movie theatre with a bar, oh yes, a bar, but instead we went back to the hotel for take-out and playing defense with keeping Spencer out of the mini bar Oreos (Those things that Graham had in his lunchbox. Thanks Graham.)
One. Happy. Boy.
Sunday morning brunch was followed by a trip to the Center for Puppetry Arts. Spencer met his alter ego.
I am not sure that the kids actually appreciated the puppets as much as Mom and Dad. It is sad to think that they don't really know Big Bird or Fraggle Rock in the age of Disney and Nick, Jr. I tried to get them to watch Sesame Street and old Fraggle Rocks from the library. They lasted about five minutes. Apparently puppetry does not live up to high-grade animation.
Harrison got a giraffe puppet for his new Puppetry Arts membership. Once Joey figured out the "deal" he got from joining vs. paying for seven people's tickets to the museum and show means that we are now members of the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts. The show was The Cat in the Hat and it was amazing! Absolutely, one of the best children's shows I have seen and they took a very appropriate brief amount of time afterwards to explain how the puppets were manipulated during the show. So glad that only ONE of my three kids didn't use this cultural experience as nap time.
So, little did we know that if you had a certain marking on your ticket, you got to go the the puppet making workshop after the show. We had to be home by 6:15 pm for Bible school. We had one more stop we had to do before leaving town. I looked down at that super member ticket and low and behold, yes, we will be putting together a puppet! Sleeping beauties in the car, Alden and Mommy go upstairs to make Cat in the Hat puppets. It was actually very fun for the two of us and worth the extra time. Alden got to put on a puppet show with the multiple other Cat in the Hats while in a rare moment of preparedness/intelligence I made an extra puppet to take to Spencer. When Alden proudly came bouncing out to the car manipulating his little puppet, the face in the other car seat starts to squeeze together and the giant whine got one good go before spare puppet was in hand and smiles once again reigned.
So, guess what I found on Google? The mecca of all things Spencer. The Civil War part of this is meaningless. We are only concentrating on the "L" word: The Southern Museum of Locomotive History. All aboard!
The fun starts in the parking lot.
Spencer wanted to take this home with him. He is really begging for a real collectors train set to display in his room. He is fixated on this BP Oil car at the "Teddy Bear Train Store" which is our local toy store (not its real name by the way) that cost $399. It is behind a glass case. We have to go and visit it frequently and he asks for the keys to the case every time. The problem is that this is the number one thing that he is going to ask Santa Claus for, according to his June wishes. Oy!
A conductor on the southern railroad. Spencer could not stop running through this museum. It was so exciting he couldn't stop moving.
We need this in sepia.
Playing dress up.
A real train engine!
Choo-choo tracks! If there is one thing that is just as good as the train itself it is the tracks! If you ever want Spencer to wear plaid or strips, you just tell him it is choo-choo tracks. I once told him that the sand castle shirt was a roundhouse on the beach. He wore it. I was surprised at how amazing this museum tucked away in Kennesaw, Georgia turned out to be. There is nothing like feeding your children with pure happiness and that is what our weekend was all about. Joey and I tend get almost as excited as the boys and all judgement goes out the window, especially in gift shops. We have a little problem with indulgence and our kids on vacation, but when you find a gift shop full of kids items of trains that "don't have mouths" in the anti-Thomas world in which Spencer lives, you have to just go with it. Spencer has invited everyone for the past three weeks to go with him to Kennesaw, Georgia. That is exactly what he says, "You can come to Kennesaw, Georgia with me to the train museum and my Mommy will drive us." It is only second to Chattanooga. On a walk with the babysitter, our neighbor, Mrs. Erin, drove by Spencer and Harrison and stopped to say hello. Spencer says, "I tried to call you. I want you to go to Chattanooga with me and eat in downtown Chattanooga where there are lots of trains and lots of toy trains." I mean, seriously, this one is a card!
We literally made it back for Bible school family night with zero seconds to spare (Joey drove). On this night, it is like sorority and fraternity rush. Our church divides the children into the twelve tribes of Israel for the week, each with a tribal mom as a leader. Spencer and Harrison sat in the sanctuary and just reeked havoc while Alden waited patiently for his assignment to Levi. Their friend, Sarah Margaret, got called and went with her tribal Mom. All of a sudden, Spencer is incensed : "No! That is not her Mommy. I want Sarah Margaret to come back. I am going to go and tell that lady (the head of our children's program) that is not her Mommy!" This was LOUD. This was told over and over by members of our church to Sarah Margaret's mommy by numerous people because the entire congregation heard it. On the upside, Spencer has been given permission to marry Sarah Margaret (who is a doll and looks just like Shirley Temple) by her parents who were very impressed with his chivalry and protective services. Mommy and Alden spent the week at Bible school where Mommy was put in Mary's sewing tent, of course, and Alden didn't wipe the smile off of his face. Spencer actually had a great time in the nursery and they only had to come and take me out of the marketplace once to console a screaming Harrison who ended up having to get dressed as the Baby Jesus and join us in character for the day. I am hooked on that volunteer job.
Alden became a library card holder this summer. He might not be the most responsible library card holder in the world, but excited. I was going to make him pay for his library fines, when he temporarily loses his books or DVD's, from his Piggy Bank, but I just can't make him do it for the DVD Community Helpers: Police. He told me that he put it in the DVD player and it wasn't working. It wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere. I can't find that blasted DVD to save my life, and I want to scream every time the library sends me an email saying that I have an overdue DVD. I know! It is a month overdue and we are going to have to buy it like that horrible Tatum O'Neal version live 1970's Goldilocks and the Three Bears we "lost" and had to purchase two years ago. Stop reminding me! The big question is: What did Alden think was a DVD player???
Date night for Alden and Mommy at the library Lego night.
Alden had twenty minutes to make a creation. It was a police headquarters and car as usual. He was devastated to lose the tallest Lego tower in 90 seconds race until three different librarians told him that his was the most creative and looked like and architectural masterpiece and then he was fine. Flattery, my friend.
Best part of the night was the mini figure contest. They poured hundreds of little heads and bodies and middles and hats in the middle of a circle and let the feeding frenzy begin. How many can you make in a minute? Every kid got to choose one mini figure to take home at the end and I am filing this one away for the Lego Birthday party Alden is already planning for year six. Great night and Mommy got all the credit for the "best day of his life." Score!
We could not let the summer go without a trip to Children's Theatre with our pals. A little Hansel and Gretel action.
A pose with the cast, and Woofie!
I took the boys to a lunch at a french cafe after the show since we were minus Baby Harry for the day. We had our first Orangina. Spencer said it was the best meal he had ever had and Alden complained the whole time. I call it a success if one child is happy. Spencer should probably move to France since most of the choices on the menu are bread and cheese related with a healthy dose of chocolate in the dessert portion. Alden did not think the choices were healthy enough. Puleeze.
Until I wrote this post, I was feeling a bit of Mommy guilt about not doing enough. No matter how much we do, we always feel like we could have done more to entertain, or educate, or appreciate these cherubs that have been put in our care. It doesn't help that the wee ones remind you everyday that you could entertain, or educate, or appreciate, or often, feed them more and in better ways. That is their job I suppose. If I am lucky, I get a reward of two pooped out kids crashing on the sofa with the snack bowl falling to the floor from a sleepy little hand and maybe a bathtub full of brown dirty water. And Mommy gets a glass of wine.
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