Aunt Heidi Visited

In the last few months, I have become completely lame with the camera.  I used to always have it close by and I would grab it at even the littlest moment in the kids' lives to catch on film what I knew, despite a multitude of promises to myself, I would never remember without pictorial proof.
But lately, I don't think to grab it.  Part of it is wanting to make sure I'm in the moment and not watching the moment as a spectator, and part of it is forgetfulness in the midst of busy lives.  I do wish I could re-capture my old habit though.
Exhibit A: Aunt Heidi came to visit and I have one - that's right, just one - picture of her.  Granted it's super cute.  We took the trolley from Ybor City (which, unbeknownst to us, was hosting a beer festival that weekend) into Tampa just for the experience.  And to get to the Cold Stone that was at the other end of the trolley line. :)
Liam hung with Aunt Heidi for the trip.

Micah sat with Daddy.  The boys were completely enthralled with this new (to them) form of transportation and spent the remainder of the day playing with toy trolley cars that Tim had bought them the last time he was in San Francisco.

Just a cute shot of my baby on the trolley.

Are there any cute pictures of me with the boys on the trolley at all?  Nope.  But there is a completely unattractive picture of me with the boys as they're giving me a congratulatory hug after I arrived home following my nine mile "run".  (Really a walk/run, but who cares?  I moved nine miles that day.)  They were kind enough to hug me despite my grossness, God bless them.

Catching Up

What have we been doing in the month since I blogged?  A few things.  We caught the kids in weird sleeping positions.

We had Valentine's Day parties at school, and since I helped to do Micah's party, I took pictures.  The room was all decked out.

They dined on strawberry Jello with pink whipped cream.  Mom of the year here forgot the actual strawberries, but at least the Jello was sugar free.  You know, before I added the whipped cream.

The highlight of the party for the kids was undoubtedly getting to play the musical instruments that were the consolation prize after they lost at musical hearts.  They loved it so much that none of them actually wanted to win at musical hearts.  Clearly Micah is not my child given his lack of competitive drive.

Micah had an "All About Me" derby.  Such a fantastic idea.  All the kids in VPK spent the month learning things about themselves - their phone number, address, birthday, how to spell their name, etc.  They made their own cars and "drove" around Mauldin Hall at the church, and giving their stats at each pit stop.

This is how it looked before the kids got there.

Here's an example of the pitstop asking the kids for their phone number.

Ms. Michelle and Ms. June were referees (probably not the right title) for drivers.

There was even a gas station that they could fill up at!

And they're off!

One happy driver!

No stopping him now...

There was even a car wash for them to run through!

Happy boy at the end of the derby.

He got a certificate congratulating him on a job well done...

...and a medal for being such a great sport!

He even got his driver's license.  I shudder to think that it will be only twelve short years before the real thing comes along. 

 That catches you up on February.  Now we're on to March...

We love trucks

Today's post is dedicated to three people:
1. Ms. Kathy, who is the preschool director at First Presbyterian and the one who sent me an email today to tell me about this fantastic event at which the pictures that follow were taken;
2. & 3. Uncle Matt and Katie, Tim's brother and his girlfriend, who were such great sports to traipse around the Safety Harbor City Park looking at all sorts of trucks.

As I mentioned, we got an email this morning at 9:40 from Ms. Kathy, telling us that she had just seen a news report that they had an event this morning in Safety Harbor from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. called, "Touch a Truck".  They bring in all sorts of city trucks, park them in the city park, and let kids climb all over them, honk all of their horns, push buttons, pull levers, and generally live out the dream that all little boys have - play on trucks.  Needless to say, we took off as soon as we could to spend a couple of hours in this dream world.  Tim was principle photographer for the day and he took 80 pictures.  That's how much love our boys have for trucks.
This first picture is in a sheriff's golf cart, one that they ended up on because I was holding their place in line for the fire truck nearby.

Liam, waiting in line to see the fire truck and getting a bird's eye view from Uncle Matt's shoulders.

Boarding the fire truck!

Micah was pretty excited.  Can you tell? :)

The paramedic talking to Liam about his truck shirt.

The garbage truck.  Heaven on earth for two little boys.

They weren't really a fan of all the horn honking - although they took every chance they could get to honk horns themselves!

Driving the garbage truck - a dream come true.

Liam spent a few minutes checking out all of the buttons inside the truck while driving it.

We didn't get a chance to ride in the rocket car.  Maybe next time though because it looked really cool.

Driving the recycling truck!

Who gets to sit in the bucket of a bulldozer? Our boys!

Running a fork lift.

We didn't get pictures of the boys actually using the fireman's hose, which they got to do, but we did get a picture of Micah approaching the stand-alone hose shooting water in the air.

Liam would only go if Katie took him.  Liam is a big Uncle Matt and Katie fan.  In fact, he woke up crying one morning during their visit and when I went in to soothe him, he asked for Uncle Matt.

Step aside, Sandra Bullock - there's a new city bus driver in town!

Up in the driver's seat of a monster truck!

Sitting on the tire of the monster truck.  It must be pretty big if they can sit on the tire and still not come to the bottom of the car in the tire's wheel well.

At the end of the day there was the icing on the truck-shaped cake: getting to stand on train tracks!

By the way, we followed the "Touch a Truck" event with lunch at McDonald's and a stop at the train store in St. Pete.  It's safe to say that the boys are having good dreams tonight.

Celebrating Love

The theme of the month?  The obvious - love.  I love little boys with wild hair, big grins, and chocolate pudding on their faces.

Flashback to the Christmas Concert

I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately, unless you count taking pictures of the kids' artwork so I can make it into a bound book and get rid of the really large piles of original artwork I have diligently kept since they each started school.  Consequently, unless you want to see the work of Picasso-prodigy children, there isn't much to tell.  So I thought I'd flashback tonight to their preschool Christmas concert because I promised I would do this at one point, they were really darn cute that night, and I have nothing else.
Here they are, Liam distinctly saying "cheese" while I take the picture, ready to go to the concert and sing their little hearts out.

Liam walked in with his buddy Tbit, whom he hangs out with at church and school.  They have the same sense of cool style.

It's a blurry picture, but it's the best one I have of Micah making his entrance, and naturally his hands are in his pockets.  That kid came out of the womb practicing that move, I think.

Liam's group was up first.  He stood between a nose-picker and his friend Nicolina.

How cute is he when the nose-picker stops digging and you can see our little guy?

Micah's group was last.  It's a little blurry again, but I love it because it shows that he was actually singing, something Micah isn't always quick to do in public although you should hear him belt it out at home.

Mr. Cool again.  Loving how the crown is making his ears jut out!

Liam got a little upset at the end because I changed positions in the crowd to get a different angle, and he couldn't find me.  Look at how the lips are crying and the eyes are filling with tears!  Thankfully, his friend Nicolina talked to him and made him feel better, and he finished the concert just fine.

The grand finale!

So proud of our performers.

Cookie time - their reward for singing loudly!

Ms. Kathy, the preschool director, had a little chat with Liam while he was waiting in line to see Santa.

Two (three?) excited guys, ready to see the guy in the red suit and give him their wish lists.

I can't believe how great this picture turned out!  This is the best Santa picture so far.

I fell in love with this picture.  Santa looks like he's really listening to Micah, who is actually telling him something he wants, and Liam is looking on in glee at the whole thing.  They must have been good because they got what they wanted on Christmas morning!