Scotty turns 3!

We started celebrating Scotty's birthday on Saturday morning.  We gave him a set of 8 Curious George books that are actually based on episodes of the show, so he recognized the stories, which was kind of fun.  Then we gave him some wooden jigsaw puzzles that were the absolute perfect difficulty for him!  That's always my concern about buying presents for kids, is that they are usually too old or too young to enjoy the gift.  But the puzzles were perfect.  He needed very little help and felt a great sense of accomplishment when he finished.  We went out for frozen yogurt, but Scott just wanted Oreo topping.  Oh well, everyone else liked it.  For some reason I have no pictures of this so far, but Scott got color changing monster trucks from Matt's parents and has already spent hours (literally) dipping them in cold and hot water over and over.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard him say, "I yuv me colors!" and "Me change colors!"  He really likes those cars.  Then all days on Sunday we gave him cars, cars, and more cars.  He got Darrell Cartrip, Brent Mustangburger, another Lightning McQueen (with Rusteze on the hood this time), Grem, and Acer from us and my mom and dad gave him Chick Hicks and The King.  The funniest thing about Scott is that he wants to put his cars back in the packaging and re-open them so he can give us a toy review.  He has watched several toy reviews on YouTube and now he wants to do it.  So he starts with, "Hey, YouTubers..." and then says he's going to open it and tells us that it's a diecast and what movie it's from, etc.  It's pretty cute (the first few times).  I asked Scott if he wanted cupcakes or cookies and he, like his father, wanted cookies.  So, I stuck three cookies together and put candles in the stack.  But he didn't want to eat cookies, he just wanted to open more presents.  He did, however, ask for a cookie after we turned the lights off at bedtime.  And we gave in.  What can we say?  He was still asleep by 8.  The second to last picture is Scott's attempt at putting up 3 fingers.  I'm sure he'll get better--he has a year to master it.  And Bobby wishes you farewell at the end.

Jonesboro

My mom wanted to go to the Road to Tara Museum when she came to visit before Bobby was born, but I was only a few days away from delivery and I wasn't up for it.  So, we went while she and my dad were visiting this weekend.  We went to the museum, which is in an old train depot, and Scott got to see the tracks up close and watch a train go by from inside the museum.  He was very excited.  We also went on a bus tour of Jonesboro and saw a few houses and heard stories of people and events that inspired Margaret Mitchell to write Gone With the Wind. My boys were not very interested, but they were good sports, and I had some veggie straws to keep them quiet.  We were the only ones on the tour, so I wasn't worried about them ruining the experience for strangers, which was a great relief for me.  We also got out and walked around at a Confederate cemetery and at the Jonesboro History Center.  On our way out of the history center, they had some hats to try on, and I couldn't resist.  By the time the tour was over it was way past lunchtime, so we went to Chick-fil-A, whose owner lives in Jonesboro.  This particular restaurant is also called "The Dwarf House" with a section where you can sit down and have a waitress bring your food.  Isn't Scotty cute opening the little door?  We had a fun day and the kids did amazingly well!

Let's Play Ball!

Matt got a little tee-ball set the other day so now Scott and Bobby like to go outside and play baseball sometimes.  My mom and dad came to town, so my dad took some pictures.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Thanks to all of our family members who helped make Matt's birthday a success! He received all of the books he was lacking from The Wheel of Time series. He was not surprised because one day I failed to get the mail and he started thinking... But he was very grateful and he says something about it every time he passes the bookshelf.

We had a "cookie cake" frosted with Nutella and M&Ms. It was a big hit. We also went back to Cinebistro and saw The Bourne Legacy, which was very enjoyable.

I do feel like we have reached a time in our lives when it is hard to feel special for your birthday all day or all weekend. Yesterday we were doing most of the celebrating, but Matt still had to mow the lawn and clean the fish tank and take a friend to the train station. So basically responsibility is no fun, but especially on your birthday. But I did my best.

Happy Birthday Matt! I'm glad you were born and that none of your dangerous antics as a small and not-so-small child were lethal. Thanks for being a great guy. Love you!