Knee Boards, Nose Dives and New Rides

Let's start by saying that as far as "lake weather" goes, it was a little chilly this past weekend. And this woman, Grams, did not want to actually get in the water, yet here she is. And here is the son that knocked her off the tube to get her there. Look at that smile. I could actually hear his laugh over the boat noise. TSK TSK uncle Paul.

The Moore family has a little game they introduced me to several years ago called "Kneeboard Wars" It is a mostly fun, spraying shaking the rope game, but somehow I always end up being the one to lose. I lost 3 times this past weekend-twice to Uncle Paul and once to my dear sweet loving husband. Watch out boys, I was just warming up:)

Linley LOVED the lake and here are her many faces:

In this next one, she is telling me how "cooooooooooollllllllllldddddddddddd" the water is. I agreed.

So Jackson was "practicing" on the knee board with me holding on behind the boat, until I let go of the kneeboard and he kept going. Of course he was too angry with me to figure out how good he did. Maybe next time.

And for some more firsts: Linley decided she wanted to ride too. She stayed just like this for the entire ride.

And last but not least, Jackson went on his first solo ride on the screamer.

Play dates

So there are a group of amazing parks here in Nashville, and we pass by one on the way to school everyday. It is in Belle Meade and has approximately 2, 337 stairs :) that lead to the top of the hill and some hiking trails.

Everyday Jackson asks to go to this park, just so we can climb to the top. After a few months of asking, I finally relented and packed our dinner to take to work (see it is close to work, but not to home) so we could go after school.

As we pulled the big diaper bag filled with cups and dinner out of the car and looked up that huge hill, I thought "I sure hope Linley walks." Don't worry, Jackson ran up the stairs and Linley and I trudged along behind him, courteously moving to the side as the exercisers breezed past us. It wasn't that the climb itself was so hard- it was more the fact that I was balancing a huge bag on one shoulder and a 35lb toddler on the other hip that made it a little more challenging.
As a matter of fact-I think it should be the next challenge on the Amazing Race. So we made it to the top, ate, saw a mule (I called it a horse and was quickly corrected by both my 5 year old son and the lady riding it), lots of dogs, and tons of exercisers.

But we couldn't stop at the top of the stairs, we had to keep going up the trail until I finally decided that it wasn't safe to carry Linley any farther. The climb down was much more fun, as Linley decided she could walk:)

On a totally different note-I love the sound of the ICE CREAM TRUCK, and I was thankful that for once I had cash to be able to run down the street and stop him:)

I think they were happy too!

Class of 2009

We went to Jackson's Preschool Graduation last night. It was very fun and a little sad. Not sad because Jackson is a graduate and going off to Kindergarten (I will save those tears for August), but sad because Linley will be leaving this sweet preschool.

Anyway Jackson was a super star and VERY SERIOUS about the whole process. He was so serious in fact that a few times I thought he might cry or puke or just run off the stage.

See-doesn't he look serious?

So we are off to the lake and I can't wait to see if Jacksie (Linley's nickname for Jackson) will try on those Mickey Mouse Skis this year!

Trading Eyes

*UPDATED*

This Sunday at church I had a terrible sinus headache. It was so bad my vision was blurred and I told Darrell, "I can't see." Nothing much more was said about it until our car ride home.

Jackson, from the backseat said, "Mommy, how 'bout if we just switch eyes."

Me: "What do you mean?"

Jackson: "If we switch eyes then you won't have to worry about not being able to see"

What a great picture of selflessness. I love that Darrell looked at me and said, "It's something when you learn lessons from your children." Amen to that.

Thank you to this great cousin (actually a cousin-in-law) for the perfect comment:

Meriwether said...
At that time the disciples came to Jesus,saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."~Matthew 18:1-4

Oh and I think I would look good with blue eyes and Jackson's strawberry blonde hair would be dynamite with green ones:)

The Wharf

First thing's first. Congrats to our superstar for making his first honest to goodness goal yesterday. Jackson actually took the ball away from the other team, turned it around, dribbled down the field and scored a goooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllll. Yeah! This is quite a huge accomplishment for our, I'd rather be drawing or swinging or picking daisies son. Good job buddy. This is right after his goal when I told him he could have Old McDonalds for dinner. And now our fantastically wonderful Orange Beach vacation-backwards!
Here we are loading up for the long air conditionerless car ride home. Jackson and Linley decided they wanted to leave in style so they rode to the car.

All of the kids loved the slushes and smoothies we got all weekend. Here Linley is offering some to Gee.

But keeping this all to herself:) Really I could just eat her up-she is sooooo stinking adorable. Darrell and I often marvel at the fact that we made such beautiful children.

Here are more slushies for the kids. We ended up buying another one, because one to share and red stuff running down both James and Linley's chests was clearly not enough.

So the condo was awesome and had great pools: kiddie pool, water slides, lazy river, wave pool and more-like this. I wish I had a video of Darrell doing this one.

I know you can't even see her eyes, but she just had to have a hat on her head.

Jackson spent most of every day in the wave pool squealing with delight.

This is where the younguns hung out. Don't they look like they own the place. I would hate to meet the two of them on a kiddie slide before naptime.

Yep, still adorable and yet another hat. I didn't mind her sporting the Tennessee hat that day since there were some LSU folks hanging around.

Oh, and the Wharf also had a 112 ft Ferris Wheel-the tallest in the Southeast. I rode this too many times.

My brother surprised all the moms with delivered flowers-they were beautiful and most of mine made it home. What a treat to look at these everyday.

And just b/c I LOVE him so very much and can't get enough of this video. This one is for you babe. Please keep watching to the end-that's the funny part. Sorry I don't know how to rotate it.

Before Vacation

Just a few things before we head to Orange Beach for the weekend.
With the curly hair, these two definitely look like they are from the same family. Linley is at the stage where she likes to do whatever Jacksie (her name for Jackson) is doing. Sweet and endearing to me-not so much to Jackson.

When we were getting our house ready to move, we boxed up tons of stuff (mostly toys) and shipped them off to Memphis. This past week mom and dad's house turned into a toy store as they found all of their fun old stuff!

This is Jackson's new friend at my work. My son is obsessed with people much older than he. This is Aunt Patty and he LOVES her. I am pretty sure the feeling is mutual.

And I realize that my husband works for the very best company around, but I have a pretty darn spiffy job myself. This past week seemed to be garden week as we toured Cheekwood and our resident gardens. These two flowers were ones that my residents planted.

And for those of you who are photographers please don't shake your head in disgust at these pictures-I definitely don't have ANY picture taking prowess.

Hopefully Tuesday I will put up our fun adventures from the weekend. Happy Mother's Day!