Headed to Wisconsin!

The boys and I are flying to Wisconsin on Wednesday morning to see my family.  I planned the trip a few months ago because my grandma(my mom's mom) wasn't doing very well.  She has had complications with her heart for the past twenty years.  Just recently they replaced her pace maker.  She started doing worse.  They put stents in one of her arteries that was 90% blocked.  They've had to adjust some of her medications, but other than that she's been doing well the last couple weeks.  I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with her while I'm there. I feel very blessed to have both my grandmas and my grandpa there with whom to visit.  That's my only scheduled time for the whole trip.  Spending time with each of them.

I talked to my dad yesterday and he told me to tell the boys to be ready for a good old snowball fight!  When I told them, they jumped for joy!  Yes, there is snow on the ground and it's snowing right now(6" so far today)! Here's the forecast.  At least it's going to warm up a little for me!

Although both Brian and I are bummed he won't be making the trip with us, we know he will be enjoying his time golfing in the Greater Guavaberry Open!  Good luck and have fun, Babe!

I'm looking forward to sharing my trip with everyone when I get back.  Have a great week!

Christopher's flower project

Christopher's teacher, Mrs Mullinax, sent a note home stating that her class was going to be featured on the hallway outside of the office for the month of April.  She asked that we make a flower and put the students picture in the middle.  She left the creativity totally up to us.  Christopher and I went into Michael's craft store and came out with some tissue paper, blue glitter and some sturdy green paper.  Glitter is always a given when Christopher gets to choose materials for a project!!  He wanted a blue and yellow flower, so I cut a bunch of blue and yellow tissue paper into little squares.  I then cut a flower pattern out of the green paper.  We wrapped the squares of tissue on pencils then stuck them to the paper with glue.  We put the blue glitter in the center around his face.  Here's our finished project!!  He was very proud carrying it into school this morning.  I'm hoping to get a picture of the class wall.

Here is a drawing that Christopher did yesterday.  It is himself and his dog Jack(stuffed animal) in the back yard.  Jack is smelling a tree!  He put it up on the refrigerator telling me, "I'm putting it on the fridge with a J for Jack and a C for me."  I love his drawings!   

Here are some pictures he colored at school over the past couple weeks.  I always hang a lot of his pictures up because they brighten my day!

Happy Birthday Zachary!

My nephew, Zachary, turned 11 on Thursday!!!  His birthday party is this afternoon(in Wisconsin).  

Zachary, since we can't be there to sing happy birthday with everyone, here's our birthday wish to you:

(pause my music at the bottom before you play the video...and don't laugh too hard!)

Fun in the park

Andrew's play group met at the park today.  Christopher doesn't have school this week so he came too.  It has been nice having him home all week.  

Andrew and Roman coming down the slide!

Andrew looking for a bird.

It's ladders like these that give me gray hair!

Andrew and Tyler playing with the mulch.

Christopher on the monkey bars.

Some of us were able to stay longer, so we went on a small hike.  Andrew and Brady looking at ????

Trying to get them all to look at the same time...impossible!

Christopher and Liam found a fun hill to roll down.  Danelle and Carrain decided to join them.  Moms can have fun too, right?!! 

The firestation!

The MOMS Club arranged a tour of our local fire station.  This is the station that responded to our 911 call last October when Andrew fell.  The fireman that explained everything about the truck was wonderful with the kids.  Thank you Carrain for taking the pictures.  

Here's Christopher sitting in the truck.  After we got home he played fireman.  He told me, "I'm the captain because the captain is in charge."

Andrew was awestruck!

Learning about the equipment.

Learning about the hoses.  Andrew was amazed.  Here he is asking a question!

More equipment.  With no warning, he started the fan up and they all went running.  Some even cried.  It was loud!

He's explaining the pick ax.

In full gear.  I couldn't believe how Andrew stayed focused throughout the tour.  The fireman let the kids test out his steel-toed boots.  They all thought it was fun stepping on his feet!

Happy Easter!!

We spent the weekend in Sumter.  The weather was beautiful and the boys were able to burn some energy outside.

The Easter bunny came!!!

I think he's cute even when he's upset about not being able to eat more candy!

We took our time in the morning and then went to mass at 11:30.

We waited until it warmed up in the afternoon to have an egg hunt.  The boys had fun running around trying to find all the eggs.

Thank you Mom and Dad Ellis.  We had a wonderful time!

Happy Easter everyone!!

St Patrick's Day Parade

The O'Reilly's invited us to go to the St Patrick's Day parade with them.  We took the light rail uptown and had a lot of fun.  We were home by about 1:30 and both boys took a loooong nap.

Me, Carrain and Danelle

The O'Reillys

Waking Andrew up after a 3 hr nap!!
 

Waking Christopher up after a 3 hr nap!!