Purple Bear Picnic

Alden had her last week of school the week of May 17th. Their actual last day in the classroom was that Tuesday; they had a Luau-themed day and the kids made fruit kebabs and pictures of the beach. Unfortunately, Luau day was cool and rainy, and I don't think they were even able to go out on the playground.

Luckily, things cleared up for the end of the week for their End of Year Picnic. Everyone met at one of the local parks and the kids played, ate, and celebrated their graduation from the 3-year old class.

Hudson found this gigantic shovel and carried it around for about an hour. The highlight of his day was when the boys from Alden's class were chasing him around because they wanted it.
Ever the grouch, even at her picnic.
What a contrast to this smiley face!
Mrs. Rudd, Alden and Mrs. Johnson. The child will not look at the camera.

One of the mom's from Alden's class had made the kids capes at the beginning of the year to keep for dress-ups. Superwoman!
Hudson made friends with Liam's little brother.
Eating lunch with dad.
Playing on the tire swing with Josh F. and Annabel.

And here she is, the last day of being a Purple Bear.

She has grown up so much! Look at this little peanut that on her first day of school this fall.

Today was one of the first days in a week that neither Matt nor I had to work! Yay! Wednesday almost feels like a weekend!

We just did the usual...Y, lunch, naps, walk, dinner, but it was so much better to not have work hanging over our heads. Matt just started working at Harris Teeter 3 nights a week from 7-1. He still works at OTB at least once a week, and then I have been working 2 times a week...except last week I picked up 2 extra shifts, so we have not seen much of each other. I realized last Monday that I wouldn't see Matt awake from Monday at 7pm until Wednesday at 7:30 pm. Ugh.

Thank goodness we were both here today, though. Although both kids napped until almost 5, they were SO grouchy when they woke up. And whiny. Nothing puts me in a worse mood than crying and whining.

I did throw together a special dinner for us...stuffed salmon, asparagus and wilted spinach (the kids had chicken nuggets). And we even cleaned all of Alden's art stuff off the dining room table and ate there instead of the kitchen.

Hudson has been carrying around the Little People horses for the past week or so. The grey one is the dad, one white one is the mom, and the other white one is the baby. There is a little wagon that they attach to that we are having to reconnect to the horse about every 3 minutes. Fun. I think some of his whining today was due to the Daddy horse being lost under the train table until dinner time.

He keeps talking more and more...he says "Hi" and "bye" (ok, I know, 9 month old kids can say that...) and it is really cute to hear his little voice. The other morning Matt was changing his diaper and I walked by his room and he waved and said "hi!"

He has been very much in Mom-mode lately. For a while he would only say "Dad", but now, he only says "Mom" or "mommy" and will only sign "Dad".

Alden has her last day of school tomorrow. Picnic at the park with all the Purple Bears!

VIP Day!

Tuesday, the 4th, was Alden's VIP Day at school. Since she has a summer birthday, we got to come in and celebrate with her at snack time that day.

We brought in princess stuff, and had chocolate chips cookies, lemonade and cheez-its. Alden's favorites.We also brought in boxes of raisins...to at least look like we had something nutritious to offer.

Alden got to wear a crown.Alden's sweet friend Annabel read a book to Hudson. I think he is in love.

May Birthdays

I am really falling behind with blogging. I am going to try to catch up on May, at least, and then work backward...I do have the text written for most of April, just no pictures downloaded.

The first weekend of May was Peak Fest in downtown Apex. There are usually a lot of booths, games, food, etc and it is a lot of fun. It was HOT, though, so we only scoped out about half of it before the kids were a little low-blood-sugary (ok, me too) and we had to scoot to Chick-Fil-A. They did have a classic car show in one of the parking lots, so that made Matt happy, and there was a Grand Wagoneer, which made me happy.

Alden got this sweet calendar, which was fun for about 3 days. Now Matt or I have to stick the appropriate velcro pieces on, or we would be stuck on May 6th.That afternoon, I went to a bridal shower for my college friend, Lizzy. It was a fiesta-themed party, and it was really fun to visit with my friends and to celebrate Lizzy and Greg. She got some really fun things, and it made me wish that you could re-register every 5 years or so.

That night, we had a quick pizza dinner at Bebe's house with Amber and Bebe. Pop pop was still in Germany, and Matt had to work, so it was a pretty short and sweet birthday.

I worked the next night, and then, on Monday, we did a big celebration for Bebe's birthday (the 3rd), my birthday, and Pop pop's birthday (the 6th). Alden insisted that since it was a party, she must wear her Cinderella dress.

Amber and Reg came over, and Ashley and Andrew drove up from Charlotte. We had a great big dinner, with ribs and lard cake, and opened up presents. Andrew and Ashley brought dragon towels for the kids, which they really liked.

Here's Hudson being a dinosaur. Aghhhh!
Alden and Hudson were starting to really get used to the birthday cake routine. They both love to lick the icing off the ends of the candles.

Angels and Dr. Dre

Hudson has been saying more and more words lately. Last night at Bebe and Pop pop's he kept saying, "map" and cracking up. Obviously, we were watching Dora :) Today he said "car" while looking at Pop pop's pictures from the Porsche museum. By far, he says "mommy" or "ma" the most and "passy" second-most.

Alden's school has a little fundraiser thing at Chick-Fil-A tonight, and as we were leaving, I told Hudson to hold on tight to his balloon. Alden told him that if it flew up in the sky "the angels will get it" but, they "will give it back to you." I thought that was sweet.

We found a CD case that we hadn't really been using lately and it is full of children's CDs. There is one mix CD in there that I made a few years ago, and of course, that is the one Alden zeros in on. Her favorite track is the first one..."California Love" by Dr. Dre and Tupac. We have listened to it 15 times today. Matt got a great video of them dancing to it, and as soon as our S-L-O-W computer uploads it to youtube, I will post it. So much for "If You're Happy and You Know It."

View it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K0ZpdjyNB8