Silly pictures and Last T-Ball Games

Emma's hair is getting longer and thicker...which leads to some major bed-head sometimes!  Here she is at about 6:30am helping me make waffles.  She, unfortunately, is having some major sleeping issues, waking several times in the night and then getting up for the day around 5:30 or 6am when Chad is up getting ready for work.  It's been going on awhile, and we've tried everything.  I'm hoping we can help her through this REAL soon!! 

We got the pool out again - if we aren't heading out somewhere, the kids beg to get it out!  Emma's got her new bikini on!  =)   Not sure what kind of dance moves Drew's doing... haha

And popsicles MUST follow pool time!  lol

Close up cheese!

Emma absolutely loves getting clothes from her cousin Olivia.  She insists on going through the boxes with me...and wants to wear it all!  Here she is in her pool coverup (we'd just gotten home from swimming at a friend's house), and she went and got these dress shoes and Drew's old sunglasses.  She wore this for a couple hours!

Drew's t-ball team finished their season up today with a double header.  The high today is 104, and our car read 99 degrees at 11am when we were leaving the games.  At least we got to sit in the shade - but the kids playing were so hot!  Emma was so good sitting through 2 hours of t-ball.  She sat in her chair the entire time and was completely content talking with us, playing with a few toys and eating some snacks (and drank about 3 sippy cups full of water!).   

Drew did awesome - we were so proud of him!!  They got to bat two times for each game - and he hit off the coach's pitches EVERY time!! (didn't use the tee.)  And at his last at bat, the coach even turned to the team in the field and said, "Here's a big hitter. You all ready?"  =)   Actually, Drew's whole team did really well, so it was a lot of fun to watch.  I caught all of Drew's hits on video, so here they are!!

Here's Drew's whole team with Coach Ebony and Coach Chris after the games.

And Drew was so happy to get his TROPHY!!

My parents visit - Lazy 5 Ranch

My parents came to visit last weekend, and we had a great time!  They got to see Drew play t-ball and we went to Fuel Pizza again afterwards. This time Drew ate TWO slices of pizza!! Then later Saturday evening, we walked around Birkdale and saw some jugglers.  Then we went to Bruester's ice cream...the kids' new favorite place!

Yum yum!!  (the kids both picked out sunglasses when we went to Concord Mills - Drew got camo ones!) 

Here's my parents with the kids.

Then on Sunday we went to the Lazy 5 Ranch on a wagon ride to see all the animals.  When our wagon first took off, several ostriches reached right over people and started taking all the food - the lady started screaming and everybody jumped to the other side of the wagon...and Emma started crying!  It was all pretty funny and a little scary - I was worried that Emma was gonna hate the whole thing.  But once we got moving again, she grabbed some food and was ready to feed anything!

We were the first ones on the wagon, so we were right up front by the guide so he told us all kinds of stories.

These nasty animals roll around in manure to cool off.  They came right up to the wagon and luckily didn't start shaking or whipping their tails around! YUCK!

The giraffes are so cool!  Here's my mom feeding the giraffe.

And Emma fed them!

And right before the wagon took off again, Drew got to feed them!

We were told to just drop the food on their tongues...haha!

Uh oh, running out of food!

Emma really liked stuffing food into the goats' mouths!

Drew wasn't too sure about it!

But he eventually did it!

This guy was a little scary (long horn).  We were told not to feed him, but the people in the back of the wagon didn't hear that.  They started feeding him and petting him, and he started reaching his head into the back of the wagon to eat the food off the floor - glad he didn't jump up there with us!  And notice the llama getting ready to reach his head in the car behind us!  I definitely DO NOT recommend taking your own car through!

I'm so glad we got to do some fun stuff while my parents were here!  We'll get to see my whole family again in August when we meet up at the beach.  I can't wait!!!  =)

Olivia's party, Pizza, Father's Day

Sunday, June 10th we headed to Wake Forest to celebrate Olivia's 4th birthday.  They had a bouncy house and a brand new swingset, so Drew and Emma were in heaven!  And it was awesome to finally see their newly built home - and it was beautiful!

Here's Drew in the bouncy house - with his necklace that he made at the party. (at least he didn't make a crown - he must not have seen that station!)

Emma had fun and did NOT want to leave the bouncy house! 

After all the kids left (there were a TON!) Olivia, Drew and Emma played outside together for a long time, just the three of them!

Emma (all sweaty from the bouncy house) liked petting Owen.

Last week, I was sick (again!) with a fever, aches, headache, nausea - the whole deal for a couple days.  So, as soon as I was feeling somewhat better we needed OUT of the house!  We headed to the park to work on a Father's Day gift for Chad.  Here we are eating our picnic lunch.

This little sneaky squirrel took Drew's sandwich right off the table!!  It was actually pretty funny and he was a good sport about it! (hey, the rule was, when your food was eaten you got to play, so the squirrel helped him out!)

We filled a three section frame with the kids holding pictures of the letters "D-A-D" for Chad.  Emma was not in the mood for pictures at all, but we got some good ones!

My brother and sister and I actually did something similar for my dad.  We had Sarah's kids holding "happy," Ben's kids holding "Father's," and my kids holding "Day!"

The next day my friend Ayesha invited us to go swimming at her neighborhood pool.  Drew had a blast - he's completely independent in the pool with his swimmies.  Now, we just need to get some more swim lessons so he can lose the swimmies.  He's definitely ready to learn!

Here's Drew with Sofia and Meena.  Emma was eating a snack at the time...and she's a little more challenging at the pool.  She likes to run around and thinks she can just jump in, so I'm a nervous wreck chasing her.  You'd think I'd relax with the second, but water freaks me out!! 

Chad's parents came to visit and watch Drew's t-ball game this past weekend.  He had one amazing stop when a grounder came right to him, but a lot of the time he wasn't even paying attention! haha  Here he is stomping on home plate! 

After Drew's game we went to Fuel Pizza, b/c we'd recently found out they have a dairy free option!  It was so exciting for him to be able to enjoy pizza with us at a restaurant!!  I don't think he loved it, ut he ate a whole piece and seemed happy!

Then on Father's Day, we drove to south Charlotte and took the light rail into uptown Charlotte.  The kids thought it was so cool! 

We walked around for a bit.  Then we ate lunch at Firehouse Subs at the Epicenter.  The kids actually shared a turkey sandwich!  We are making huge progress with our eating issues!!

These fountains are so cool, right near the center of uptown!  Emma was scared of them at first and didn't want to get any closer, but Drew wanted to get in!

Drew jumped over the water and ran all over.  Here are the guys flexing their muscles!  =)

And the crazy kid that luckily made it home dry!

A lady walking by offered to take a family picture of us.

Then we walked to a park a few blocks away.  I think this is the park that the Bachelor recently filmed an episode at (yes, I make Chad watch that show every Monday, and the girl is from Charlotte).  The kids liked watching all the ducks and their babies.

And here comes the light rail to take us back to our car!  That's the Bobcats arena in the background (Time Warner Cable Arena).  They are hosting American Idol auditions there this week (we saw signs)! 

Hanging out and pool time!

Yay, summer!  We met up with some friends at the Birkdale Fountains, and just about had the whole place to ourselves.  Both kids love it - so I know we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer. Drew has been asking for popsicles ever since it started getting warm out.  And I love them because I can use the "eat all your dinner and we can have popsicles outside" line!  And it worked this time!

 The kids love painting and doing anything art-related.  I am loving pinterest.com for ideas and easy crafts.  I have a whole box of art supplies we've collected over the past couple years, and they get so excited when we pull that out of the garage!

After they painted their pictures and covered themselves in stickers, we decided to hike through the woods by our neighborhood and collect some rocks to paint.  My eyes were darting around looking out for snakes, but we didn't see any!  ...just lots of scary sticks and tree roots that LOOKED like snakes!

We'd had a lot of rain lately, so the creek was really full!  We almost had to pry Emma off the bridge - she loved watching the water!

Silly kids!

Crocs are perfect for jumping in puddles!  The kids were soaked and there was no longer a puddle when they were done!

Drew LOVES the pool from Grandmom and Granddad!

Action shot!

Emma wasn't too sure about actually getting in (she has a fear of baths right now too...).  So, she got wet with the sprinkler part where the water comes out of the trees...and ate snacks.  LOL

Here she is getting her face wet!

Drew loves the Ninja Warrior show (it's these guys that do a really hard obstacle course), so here he is training for the show! haha

Face first into the water!  He went down backwards, sideways, face first...over and over and over!  I can't wait to get him into swim lessons again, b/c he isn't scared at all.  The Y has a swim team that starts out pretty young - I think he would love it!

Saturday was picture day for t-ball.  Only 7 of the 12 players on Drew's team showed up for the 8am picture time (their game wasn't until 9am), so I took my own picture!  I didn't want to pay for a picture of half the team! haha

We got the pool back out after Drew's game.  Emma was still timid, but eventually got in...and loved it!

They kept climbing UP the slide and then standing up at the top and jumping down!

And Emma would go under with her face in the water, stand up, and go again!  I'm so glad they don't have the same fears of water as I did as a kid!

We took a popsicle break before Chad took off to go for a run around the neighborhood.

They laid down for popsicles on the towels with me.  haha!  I'm sure our family looks ridiculous all in our swim suits hanging out around our baby pool...but we don't care!!  =)  (at least I didn't go down the slide like Chad...)

Then the lightning bugs were out like crazy this evening!  Drew is really good at catching them!

I like how you can see the bug lit up just above his hands!

Emma would let Chad put the bugs on her for awhile, then she decided she didn't care for it much.