Popsicle Course

Grant came home from school talking all about Popsicle Courses.  After a brief discussion, I finally realized he was talking about doing an Obstacle Course.  I didn't have much in the way of obstacles available, so we improvised and made one out of chalk (which you might be able to see if you look closely in this picture).

 

National Zoo

Kyle's cousins from Texas were spending their spring break doing DC adventures, so we headed north for the weekend to join them at the National Zoo.

Nice ground hog photo op below.  All three of the 'big' cousins are in the shot.  Can you see their pupils?

Lion watching:
 

Tiger watching:

Same kids from the ground hog shot, but this time you can actually see them!
 

Who's watching who?
 

Our first panda bear sighting, but all Grant could think about was ditching his empty juice box and looking for more pandas:
 

This cheetah hunted down the dead rabbit like it was his job:
 

Grant does love hand holding at the zoo!
 

Sleeping on the drive home while waiting for a phone call:
 

Watch out for that dinosaur!

Grant and Charlie at the Museum of Life and Science
 

Look who's climbing

A whole new world opened up for Hayes at Chick Fil A today...he made his first climb up into the play structure.  I had to go in and help him down the slide, so I snagged this photo of him while I was there.
 

Big Boy Room, Part 2

After only a year, we realized Grant's Big Boy room was going to need some changes.  We plan to let the brothers share a room when Hayes is out of the crib, so we needed to switch out Grant's full size bed for two twins.  We weren't sure we could get him to agree to the trade until he out of the blue started asking for a Buzz Lightyear bed.  We knew we'd need new bedding anyway, so we decided to pounce on that request.  (For the record, I thought that with having two boys, I'd be off the hook when it comes to Disney.  No princesses for us, right?  But oh how wrong I was to think that Disney is just princesses!  We're becoming quite the Disney Store around here, but how can I resist with that little smile?!)  So as you can see, Grant was quite pleased about the changes...

Still have to figure out the bedskirts, but then we'll be all done (again)!

Baseball Bull

Fan Fest Day at the Durham Ball Park...Grant is still wary of the furry mascot, but he was ready to sit with the plastic one on the bench, so at least we're making progress
 

 

 

Headed Home

We wrapped up our Houston trip with breakfast at the hotel...

Yes, the waffles are shaped like TEXAS!!  All waffles should be shaped like Texas.

I thought I had taken more family pictures, but those most be on other people's cameras.  Oops!  I promise we did get to see lots of family!  Here's Hayes hanging out with Gavin, my cousin's son.

Both of the boys were a little sleepy on the way to the airport.  Here's Grant sucking his two fingers while holding Mr. T:

And here's Hayes sucking his thumb while holding Stripes:

Good thing our carry-ons still fit:

And we don't have any pictures from the flight, but Hayes did manage to scream himself to sleep once again.  Fortunately, by this point he was getting used to sleeping on us, so he didn't have to scream quite as long.  We're sure the people one row in front of us who were in first class were glad about that! :)

Houston Zoo

Saturday morning we headed into downtown Houston to meet up with my friend Jennifer, who I've known since kindergarten, and her daughter Sydney at the Houston Zoo.  One of the many cool things at this zoo was a tunnel that allowed the kids to crawl through an aquarium.  We could have happily spent all day in just this one building (which also had a room of teeny tiny monkeys....oh how I want a teeny tiny monkey of my very own now).

Unlike our North Carolina Zoo, no need for binoculars to see the elephants at this zoo!

Sydney and Grant weren't too sure about each other at first, but they started to warm up to each other over a shared love of goat brushing, which Sydney was happy to teach Grant how to do.

After a shared stroller ride which included Sydney rejecting Grant's attempt to hold her hand in favor of attempting to give him a kiss, the two were inseparable and spent the rest of the time running through the zoo holding hands:

Love this family shot!  Notice Hayes sleeping in Kyle's arms.  Kyle worked hard to accomplish that, and if you're keeping count, we're now at 2 out of 3 days on this trip where Hayes had to fall asleep on one of us in order to nap.

And here we are with our kids who are almost as old as Jennifer and I were when we first met!  Crazy!

We couldn't leave without a picture with the rhino:

(We bought Grant's hoodie at the zoo, because I forgot to pack a jacket for him, and it was a pretty chilly day.  He insisted on keeping the hood up the whole time, and continued to wear it up the rest of the day...including during his nap.)

Grant's Wedding Moves

My cousin Tammy's wedding started at 7pm Central, a time when Grant is almost always sound asleep, but we knew there would be lots of other kids at the wedding, so we decided to bring him and see how it went.  (Hayes was sound asleep a couple hours before the wedding started.)  Fortunately, there was a candy bar set up, so Grant candied his way through the ceremony.

And then afterwards he had a fantastic time dancing with the other kids...

Pretty sure he would have danced all night long if we'd let him!