The Game

No need to talk about who won or lost - just the fun we had being together tonight while Grandma watched the kids.

I was pretty mesmerized watching the majorette twirl three fiery batons. Don't think I've ever seen that before at a football game.

Preschool Fun!

Archie loves preschool and who wouldn't with all the fun things they do. His school is called BUMP (Blacksburg United Methodist Preschool). He goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. He is really sad on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings when he finds out it's not a preschool day. His teacher's name is Miss Leslie and she's an 18 year veteran. She actually babysat some of my best friends from college when they were little.

Getting ready to leave home on the first day...He told me he would be needing the car, but I opted to drive him :)

Archie got to bring in donuts, tomatoes and bananas for his birthday. Our whole family came for snack.
They have all kinds of interesting work.

Archie loved show and tell. He, of course, brought in his guitar.

They have several class pets and are always hatching monarch butterflies.

Happy FOURTH Birthday, Archie!

After two years of relatively quiet birthday celebrations, Archie got to have a big party this year and he LOVED every minute of it. We were so thankful our park party went perfectly and the weather was splendid! Every guest Archie invited came! He had a blast. I think all the kids did.

Before the cake, we let Archie open his stomp rocket. After busting open the pinata, all the kids shot it off. We found it much less stressful and just as much fun as traditional party games.

This pinata was meant to withstand serious blows from school-agers. The preschool crowd had quite a time getting it busted open (and that WITHOUT blindfolds). Archie had been talking about a pinata for months. He fell in love immediately with the firetruck we selected together. (Grace has already decided she wants a fish one for her birthday NEXT year.)

I made his cake. (Hunt helped spread the icing around the sides.) My mom bought the cool ARCHIE candles. Because of the breeze, it was a bit tricky to keep them lighted.

Grace was so glad Memaw and Papa were there. It helped make the all-about-brother day a little more palatable for her :)

Archie loves being four already. So far, the highlight is 4-year-old preschool. He goes three days a week and would definitely go more if we would let him.

Best Friends

Beautiful Beach Girl

Life in Las Vegas

Hunt had a business trip to Las Vegas last week. We were separated for a whole week (which is the longest I can recall in 7.5 years of marriage). I sent the camera with Hunt to make pictures, but he said there wasn't really anything photo worthy in Vegas. Hmmm? I guess it's good he's not captivated by the sins of Sin City. Seriously, he says he got bored because there was nothing to do. Because he had a conference, he wasn't able to make any side trips to the Grand Canyon or scenic spots. When he called me from the airport, I reminded him to snap at least one quick pic.

The really precious thing was seeing Archie run down the stairs after bedtime and jump into his arms when he heard Hunt's voice. Grace squealed the next morning when she woke up to find Daddy at breakfast. I think Daddy also got big brownie points for the model airplane he brought Archie and the Vegas Princess bag he got Grace.

A bit demanding? Funny vocab stories

Grace is getting a little demanding at Mamoo and Papa's house. Tonight, she told Mamoo (Grandma DeJ) "More juice...QUICK."

I do appreciate her concern for authority. While visiting overnight at a friend's recently, we told Archie he was only allowed to come downstairs if he became very afraid. Grace must have taken the message to heart. We overheard her tell Archie that she had an accident and ask him if she could go downstairs. He granted her permission :)

Grace is progressing in the use of more complex sentence structures. When Archie told us he didn't want to do something a few days ago, she called out from the other room, "I don't want to EITHER."

Archie's use of the words "excuse me" is also amusing me these days. The other day, he ran up to me in McDonald's Playland and told me, "Excuse me, I can't find my friend." Guess that's the right way to get my attention. It just sounds so funny with that sentence. Happy to report we located "friend in the orange shirt" a few minutes later in another slide and they went back to playing.