Charlestown Easter Egg Hunt

I took the boys to the park in Charlestown today for their annual Easter Egg hunt. I am thankful for two things; one that I grabbed their jackets because it was freezing and that I had my mom go with me. I'll explain why here in a bit. The egg hunt started at 12, we got there around 11:30 so we had time to make a lap around the park, go over the bridges, and let Cooper play for a while. It was much colder than I had anticipated. I was thinking sunny and 70 for some reason.

They had one playground roped off for the kids under 2 and a big field roped off for kids 3-10. One side was supposed to be for older kids and the other side for kids 3-7. Parents were only allowed to help out the kids under 2. I knew Cooper would be upset about this. He doesn't do well in larger crowds, especially if kids get aggressive. I tried to talk to him about and had he did seem okay with it at the time. The plans were for the younger kids to go first then all the older ones. The lady announcing all this said this several times. The plan was for all four of us to wait by Cameron's age group, I would help him grab a couple eggs, then walk over to Cooper's age group for it to start. All of this is roped off. They cut the rope for Cameron's age then she says "go". I am helping him when I hear the lady yell no, I turn around to see the older kids, ages 7 and up, run out into the field. I assume they just ran under the ropes. Of course my mom has to grab Cooper and run him over to the field to even start because if the 3-7 year olds didn't go the big kids would have taken their eggs too. Cooper was crying, he just doesn't handle crowds at all. He ends up with one egg and it doesn't even have anything in it. I think Cameron got 5 and most of those had Jolly Ranchers in it, you know cause 1 year olds can eat those. I can't say it was a total loss, we got out of the house for a while and Steve worked today so it wasn't like there was anything else going on.

My mom took Cooper "exploring", I think it may have been his favorite part of the day.

He gets an Easter Egg hunt at school this week. I'm hoping with only 25 kids that he knows it goes much better.

Imagination Station

Earlier this week Tracey mentioned that her and Natalie were going to take the kids to Imagination Station in Scottsburg. I hadn't heard of it so I looked it up, it looked fun so I thought we would join them. It was a nice place. At first I thought there may be some bounce houses or something, but it's really just a giant play area for kids. It says up to age 7, and I would have to agree, Levi is almost 6 and he seemed to like it, but I probably wouldn't take kids too much older than that. They did have a small indoor trampoline. Cooper loved it! Tracey suggested I get it for our basement. Our ball pit did bust so maybe that is a good idea. They had just about every riding toy you could think of. I made Levi get back in this to take his picture. Seriously, his head is hitting the top. He didn't care, it was all about the fun. Did I mention it was only $5 per kid for 2 hours of play.

They had a couple indoor/outdoor playhouses too. Everything was also super clean. I didn't leave feeling gross, like I do when leaving most child play rooms. You can kind of see in this picture below on the right side, there are small rooms along the wall. One has cars with various ramps, one is a dress up room, one has desks and school related things. I felt comfortable allowing Cameron to roam around and play and not worry about him getting hurt on anything.

This one is a little blurry but I wanted to document what Cameron was doing. The second picture you can see Cooper is pushing Cameron down the slide. If you look at he first you can see Cameron in the background crawling up the ladder. Well, Cameron was convinced that was also the slide. I couldn't get him to go down the real slide, he would climb up the ladder, turn around and try to slide down it.

Just another of my silly boy wanting to sit and ride on anything.After some play time we headed down the road to McDonald's. This place was chaos. The McDonald's in Scottsburg has a play area, my goodness it was wild. It probably didn't help that we had 7 kids with us. There was one little boy who kept chasing Cameron and scaring him. Cameron likes to put on Cooper's shoes. He found them in the cubby holes and brought them out, sat on the floor and tried to put them on. This little boy walked up and took them away and put them back in the cubby. Needless to say, Cameron did not like him. He climbed up on the table to get away, the boy tried to climb up too.

I noticed there was a Chiller's across the street, I told Cooper we could get a milkshake but I needed to run to Walmart first. Well guess what, Chillers wasn't even open yet. I knew I had to do something so I them a Frosty. It was the first time I let Cameron have something like this in the car by himself. You can imagine what happened. I had to pull off at a gas station in Henryville to clean him up, not before Cooper told me to take a picture. Then he told me I needed to take one with my phone to show daddy.

If you have kids under the age of 6 I would recommend this place. I know it's out of the way a bit but it's something different and there are things for just about every age up to 6 or 7. If you take the interstate to Scottsburg, make a left, it's on the left across from Walmart.

I'll leave you with one last photo of my little cutie. I was unloading the car and Cooper put these on Cameron. Love my little ones!

A little of this, a little of that

Even though for us Spring Break only amounts to two days, it has been so nice! We spent Monday and Tuesday just relaxing at home and running a few errands. It was so nice waking up Tuesday and not rushing around to get to school and speech. Monday morning I treated the boys to a picnic breakfast. Cooper and I used to do this all the time. I don't know what happened and why we don't anymore.

On Wednesday Tracey and Maggie came over along with a friend from church and her three boys, one of which fell out of Cooper's window. I had the window opened, we heard him cry and I walked in the room to find the screen knocked out and he was wandering around in the yard. Once we realized he was okay, it was a little funny.

Today was the day Cooper has been excited about for weeks. First up was a play date with Allie. We had one planned a few weeks ago but he got whooping cough. It's probably a good thing because it was the day of the tornadoes. We finally got one for today. Sharon lives about 50 minutes away so it can be tough to get together. This was a rare moment when they were both sitting, they wanted to watch Super Why together.

They played so hard. There was a time I was worried Cooper wouldn't play well with others, he seemed so shy. He proved me wrong today. I barely saw him. They were so cute. After I snapped this picture I said something about the future slide show, Allie walked off saying something about her husband. Oh my!

If playing with Allie wasn't enough, he got to spend the night with Mamaw and Papaw. They wanted him to spend the night one night for Spring Break and he picked tonight. He has been counting down the days for the past week. We also had dinner over there, I think Cameron liked the chocolate brownies.

It was so odd coming home with one kid. We took a walk around the neighborhood and actually had time to talk to one another. I do miss my big guy though. On the way home from Sharon's he told me he would miss tickling his back tonight.

We have a couple more fun things planned then it's back to our schedule and a very busy week at that, but it is all fun stuff.

The Princess Dress

The boys and I made a quick trip to Kohl's this morning. I remembered I had a coupon plus a store credit and Cooper needed some summer sandals and "play" shorts. Off we went. I was on my way to the register when I spotted an adorable summer dress. It's pink, and well I LOVE pink. I didn't feel like trying it on so I just grabbed what I thought would fit and bought it anyway. Kohl's is good at returns and I always need a reason to go back. I get home and try it on and I love it!!! It's been a while since I bought a dress but between Easter, a wedding, and my 15 year high school reunion, I needed one. Anyway, I had it on and I walked out in the living room and Cooper sees me. He looks up and says, "Mommy, you look like a princess". I thought I might cry.
My mom stops by later on her way to Clarksville and I tell her about it. Once again he says, "show her the princess dress, show her the princess dress". LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that kid!

In 10 years

In 10 years, when my floor is covered in scratches, I want to remember the laughter of my boys while playing cars.

Progress Report

Cooper got his first progress report from school today. I was a little nervous for this, I know what he can do at home but I'm always worried he won't show his full potential away from home. Overall he did fantastic. The codes were mastery of skill, some knowledge of skill, and needs improvement on skill.

He has mastered everything on his color and number test. He counted to 29, skipped to 50-59 then said he didn't know anymore. This cracks me up. He struggles with the "th" sound. Usually at home he will count to 29, try and do 30 but it sounds like 40, so by the time he gets to 39 it sounds like 49 so he skips to 50.

He mastered all his shapes but had some knowledge on oval.

He mastered almost everything on work and social skills, like; listens, follows directions, plays well with others. The two he got some knowledge of skill were adequate attention span and maintains self-control. I have no doubt he needs better self-control, the kid can get frustrated so easily. Although I'm sure they don't see half of it or he would never get his sticker. He also has a tendency to stare into space which is where I am sure the attention span comes into play.

He mastered everything on his phonics test for sounds and recognizing his letters. The note said, "At this age only the sound is required, Great Job". He was recognizing letters at 2 1/2 and honestly I don't know how he learned. It had to have been a toy or Super Why, I don't know. I don't remember working with him on them all that much.

The test he had the most trouble with was coordination. No surprise here! He mastered two feet hop and had some knowledge on one foot hop and needs improvement on skipping. He takes after his momma. He got some knowledge plus on pencil grip and scissoring. I have to give his teachers credit for scissoring. I don't work with him near enough and I can't begin to tell you how much he has improved since he started school.

We are so proud of you Cooper Andrew!

One more thing, every day that I pick him up he tells me who didn't get his sticker. There is this one boy that I will call "little boy" who almost never gets it. On Tuesday the whole class got their sticker so they got to crawl through the tunnel when leaving class. Of course when I say something to him about he it he says, "yup, little boy wasn't here today". Doesn't miss a thing!

Goofing Around

A good, good day!!!

I stole this title from Tracey, but I don't care :)

My peeps playgroup was scheduled at Bob Hedge Park this week. With this weather we have been having I have to remind myself it's still March. It was just a beautiful day, I think we all got a little sun.

Cameron loved the swing. I couldn't get out my camera, only my phone so they aren't the best.

When it was time to lave I wasn't against bribery with suckers. We spent almost two hours at the park. They plum wore themselves out.

If the park wasn't enough, we went over to Tracey's to hang out for a while after dinner. If you read her blog, you would know both my kids were injured. Cooper fell off the seesaw, he has a bruise on his cheek, I'm sure school called CPS and I will be receiving a call this week :)

Once again bribery was in full effect with a little ice cream.

Before we went inside Cameron fell on the patio. It seemed hard but he got right back up so I didn't think much of it. Once inside and in the high chair I noticed he had scrapped his knee. He didn't even notice it until we got home, then he wanted it off. He kept pointing to his knee and crying. Silly, silly boy!!!!

Snack Time

I put some muffins in the oven tonight while we were eating dinner. We went outside after dinner so it wasn't until after bath time did we get around to eating them. I probably should have given that another thought.

At one point Cameron had chocolate behind his ear lobe.

Of course Cooper needed his picture taken too. We had a really fun night tonight. I had forgotten how quickly nights go by when it's warm and we can play outside.

At least I tried

I had visions this morning of taking my boys outside to play with sidewalk chalk and maybe some fingerpainting. Yeah, we all know how our visions go, right?

So this really isn't part of the story, it's just cute. I told Cooper to go get his "play" shoes on. Cameron hears shoes and he starts running. He loves to wear shoes, especially if they aren't his. He comes back wearing one of Cooper's black dress shoes. They looked great with that outfit.

When we first went outside Cameron was all over the place. If this was our old yard it wouldn't have been so bad, it was flat and fenced in. Now we don't have a fence, it's hilly, and there is a drop off on one side of our patio. Plus there is construction going on behind us. I'm telling you, this kid doesn't stop. I thought maybe if I sat in him his booster and gave him some paint it would help. Well, the booster only did this. Check out that huge tear coming out his eye.

Cooper was oblivous to the meltdown, he just wanted to paint. He was asking me for different colors and I couldn't hear him over the crying. It was that loud.

He finally did get into it a bit, but he still would rather run around. I had a moment after this, I mean why can't I take two kids outside. What is wrong with me?

Later we came in and he gave me hugs and kisses about something and it was all better. I really can't turn my back on this child for a second. Wild Child!!!!

Day with Uncle Scott

Earlier this week Scott asked if he could take Cooper for lunch on Saturday. Cooper was pumped. This is really the first time anyone has ever taken him anywhere, besides us of course. The other night he went with Steve and Scott to Lowe's. He came home in a bad mood. When I was putting him to bed we were talking about it. He said that he sometimes just likes to be other people besides mommy. In one way it just broke my heart, but I can't blame him. With the exception of school, that is only 5 hours a week, he is with me all day, every day. Scott picked him up around 10 and they didn't get back until about 2:30. They hit up Old Navy, Target, Chick-fil-A, and Speed Park. Scott was texting me and putting some pictures on Facebook. I love looking at their day through pictures.