Best Beach Trip, Ever!!

Last week we went to Virginia to visit Erin's parents so, of course, we took the kids to the beach a couple of times.  They loved it! 

Grant loved boogy boarding.  Very adventurous!  

Tate loved driving tent pegs into the sand.  Very industrious!

Tate also loved eating goldfish and laughing.  Very cute!

And they both loved being buried in the sand together.  Very classic!
Everyone agreed that it was one of our best beach trips, ever!!

Hooray for Birthdays!!

 For Grant's 4th birthday this year, he requested a Super Hero party.  This was nice for me because I saved all of the Batman party decorations from last year when I was feeling much more ambitious about putting together a cool party.  Again, I didn't get any pictures of our decorated house (but it wasn't as all out as last year anyway).

  

The Superhero's underwent many tests to discover their true superhero powers:

We tested their super-speed with a few round of red light, green light.

We tested their X-ray vision with pin the Batman symbol in the circle, (one of the left over decorations :) 

We also tested their ability to withstand destruction with a few games of "Pass the Kryptonite", (basically hot potato with a glow stick).  I'm sad we didn't get any pictures of that because it seemed to be the kids favorite game.

And the cake...  As I was trying to finish this up at 11:30pm the night before the party I came up with two new rules for myself in regards to birthday party cakes:

1. Never try to do a fancy two-tiered cake without the proper two-tiered cake making equipment. (i.e. you need a cake leveler and and smaller pan--never try to cut your own 6 inch cake circle out of a 9 inch pan, it's a crumbly mess).

2.  It's probably better to just stick with a good ol' 9x13 pan for little kids birthday's.

 Of course, 4 year-olds don't notice if the cake is falling apart, they're just ready to eat it.  The 2 minutes of silence while they ate the cake was quite enjoyable for me.

 Tate lasted the longest and I believe was the most helpful in making sure every plate of cake had been cleaned.

 I was in charge of preschool the next day so we had a Superhero Preschool day and basically repeated the birthday party, with a few book readings and a craft thrown in.

 Grant had a great time with his two birthday parties and I'm glad the party part is done.  I think we will be switching to an every-other year party policy.

Grant is a fun, energetic, yet sensitive little guy and we are so grateful to have him in our family.  The other day Tate was extra grumpy after his nap, and when that is the case, he likes to be held in the rocking chair for a bit.  I had to get dinner started so Grant filled in for me and let Tate lie on him for awhile until he got over being grumpy.  It was so sweet!

And just in case you were wondering what it would be like to go for a joy ride in a cereal box:

No lack of self-confidence.

Grant after coming home from a Superhero Birthday Party.  He has on a floaty swimsuit, Batman symbols painted on his cheeks, and the new-found conviction to defend truth and justice at all costs.  Evil-doers beware!!

Fact 1:  Grant is very social and makes friends easily.

Fact 2:  Grant is surprisingly intelligent for his age.

Fact 3:  Grant has become aware of Fact 1 and Fact 2.

Two stories to illustrate:

• A few days ago, Grant spent an afternoon playing outside with friends.  After coming in he said, "I have a lot of friends because I'm such a fun guy to be with."  I agreed with him.
• Today we were listening to a CD of Primary songs after church.  I went upstairs to check my email and when Grant came up I told him he could watch one of his church movies (the Living Scripture videos on VHS) and that I would be down in a minute to put it on for him.  He trotted downstairs and I followed about two minutes later to put on his video.  When I got downstairs I saw him sitting on the couch with a blanket over him, watching one of the church videos.  This was surprising because we had never shown him how to use the DVD/VHS player and it is high on the entertainment center, out of his reach.  When I asked him how he put the movie on by himself, his reply was "Because I'm so smart!"  I could only agree with him again.   

I should note here that Grant doesn't say these things with an air of cockiness, but as a simple matter of fact, much like one would say, "It certainly is sunny today," or, "Dairy Queen Blizzards are the most delicious ice cream treat of them all!"  I also can't help but think that Ryan has played some role in Grant's gaining this undeniable self confidence, in order to continue the long line of self-assured Wood men. What's a girl to do with such boys?  ;)

Numero Tres

That's right, baby #3 will be arriving at the end of September.  We find out the gender in May, so we'll see if Ryan's made another male heir or if it's time for a girl to join the family.  Either way, we are excited!

Indoor waterpark, anyone?

 

On Sunday night we decided to take a very last minute trip up to Kalahari, supposedly the largest indoor water park in the US.  Ryan had Monday and Tuesday off of school because we were originally going to go visit a practice for sale, but that had to be rescheduled.  So on Sunday, when I found a great deal online (1/2 price!) we decided we were ready for a fun getaway.

We arrived Mon. afternoon, played in the park all day, finally convinced the boys to fall asleep around 8:30 (which is late for them), played all Tues and finally headed home around 5pm.  Tate was so exhausted, he literally fell asleep in less than a minute after we strapped him into the car!  We had a blast though and would definitely go back.

 

 Grant said his favorite part was the wave pool.  Tate also really loved it.  We would take them out on inner tubes to float over the waves and then Grant would ride the waves in, spinning, almost crashing several times, and laughing like a crazy person.  The kids also loved to float around and play in the shallow end and I enjoyed just being able to sit and relax in the warm water.

On Tues morning we were some of the first people at the park so Ryan and I took turns riding all the big slides, without having to wait in any lines.  Unfortunately, their famous "roller coaster" waterslide wasn't working, so we never got to try it out.

We even let the kiddies try out some slides that seemed a little too big for them.  Grant did fine and loved it, but here is the picture Ryan got of Tate after he finished.  He ended up head first on his back and couldn't get up.  He was screaming by the time I picked him up and stayed close to me for a while after that.

I felt like we were always eating on this trip, but I guess what are vacations for?

Besides the wave pool we spent the most time at the kiddie play area which had tons of slides and places for the kids to climb on.  They were in heaven!

Another one of the play areas.

 

 After we got all dried up and ready to head home, we stopped by the indoor dry play area and ended up staying there for another couple of hours.  Ryan and I both agreed it was the coolest play/gym area we had ever seen (and they have a really great one at the zoo here, but this beat that).  It was so fun, Ryan and I took turns "helping" Tate get around so we could have an excuse to get up there and play.  I'm pretty sure the attendant figured out what we were doing, but he was cool and didn't make us leave :)

 

Traveling with kids can be exhausting but overall this was a lot of fun and it was so nice to feel like we got away from the blah Ohio weather for a couple days!

Choo Choo, Tate is 2!

 

 That's right!  Our sweet, little, chocolatey-faced boy turned 2 last week!  It's hard to believe since he is still our "baby".  Tate is such a joy to have in our family!  He literally is the sweetest boy ever.  He's a fun, energetic boy who likes to run, laugh and play, but he still will let me cuddle him and nuzzle his cheeks from time to time.  

Some little known facts about Tate:

He has been since birth, and still is, extremely ticklish.  Today I could barely get his shirt buttoned on the top of his neck because he was laughing so hard!

  He loves, loves, loves lotion.  Every day when I'm getting ready, he stands on the toilet next to the bathroom sink and asks for some of my lotion so he can rub it on his cheeks.

He loves all things that have to do with cleaning.  He has a toy vacuum that he uses several times a day.  For Christmas he got a toy cleaning set (broom, mop, bucket, etc).  The way to keep him busy the longest is to give him a spray bottle with water, a washcloth and send him to clean to sliding glass door.  I'm hoping this lasts into his teenage years :)

He has an interesting way of getting down the stairs that is dangerous to anyone else on the staircase at the same time.  He lies on his stomach, straightens his arms and legs, and shoots down the stairs, feet first, like a little rocket.  He's almost knocked us over a few times!

He is very considerate of his older brother.  If I ever give Tate something (a snack, drink, or toy) he immediately lifts his other hand and says "Granty?", and then brings it to Grant. So sweet!

 I made him a Thomas cake for his birthday.  I know there is no pink related to Thomas the Train, but I didn't have any red.  Tate didn't seem to mind.

 Grant was a very helpful big brother and assisted Tate with the candles.

 Thank you to my Mom and Dad for Tate's favorite gift.  Hopefully he'll figure out how to ride this soon and be able to keep up with Grant on our walks.

Oh, and I did have another birthday in January.  Not quite the big 3-0, but pretty dang close.  Ryan usually makes me the Big Fat Chocolate Cake but I wasn't feeling all that chocolate this year.  This was a Toffee Caramel cake and it was really yummy.  I'll post the recipe on the food blog for anyone interested.

I felt somewhat spoiled this year because Ryan and I went out twice during the week of my birthday (thanks to restaurant week and birthday freebies).  And then on my actual birthday, friends watched my kids in the morning while I headed out to MJR (a totally awesome warehouse outlet that has tons of cute clothes for way cheap!) and got some great stuff.  Then, when I came back to pick up the kids, my friends had put together a surprise birthday lunch for me!  It was so nice and a lot of fun!  And I was actually surprised!

Christmas in Virginia

We had  a fun couple of weeks with my family in VA this Christmas.  All my siblings made it out this year so it was a fun, full house.  Here is a sampling of some of the fun things we did:

We ate and we ate and we ate.  And yes, it was all delicious!

We took a big family picture, outside in the freshly fallen snow.  Here's Tate in his picture get-up.

Did I say "freshly fallen snow"?  Ya, there was a huge, freak snowstorm.  Here is a sampling of  what my parent's backyard looks like with 13 inches of snow in it.  Chesapeake does not get snow, at least not much more than a dusting.  Supposedly it was the most snow Chesapeake has gotten since the 1800s.  We even experienced a power outage for a couple of hours and got to light every candle in the house. 

Before the snow storm, the kids enjoyed digging old toys out of the shed and playing outside.

The cousins had a great time playing together.  Grant and Mason were pretty much inseperable and Tate followed Maddy around like she was his long lost older sister.  Here they are in their cute Christmas pjs.

I tried to keep all the extra cake and cookies in check with a little exercise.  The boys were nice enough to keep me company.

Grant especially enjoyed our Christmas Eve tradition of reading the Christmas story, going for a "star walk" (we go for a quick walk at night to "look" for the new star), and come home for hot chocolate and donuts.

And of course, there was present opening.  This particular present caused Grant to yell, "OH MY GOSH!!!  IT'S A BATMAN HOUSE!!  LOOK!!!  BATMAN'S HOUSE!!"  That's the kind of reaction we were looking for.  Very gratifying!