Seeing Granddaddy

My children are blessed to have many, many people who love them.  One of those special people is my Dad, their Granddaddy. He lives in Falls Church, VA (for at least the next few months until he moves to his dream retirement property in Rockbridge County, VA).  My kids only see him once or twice a year, and they LOVE him.  I absolutely love how much they love him. It warms my heart to no end to see the love expressed between my kids and my dad.  

I just happened to have my camera with me on Saturday morning when Garrett saw his Granddaddy for the first time since...well, I can't remember.  Dad flew in to Houston for my little sis Katie's big Homecoming weekend, and he woke up very early Saturday morning to drive up for some soccer games.  He met us at the field, but had parked across the lot from us. 

Garrett saw him walking towards us, and asked if he could run to Granddaddy. As quick as I could, I pulled out the camera:

LOVE IT!!!!

Garrett's last day of daycare--from May

My sweet Garrett starts kindergarten in less than 48 hours.  He's spent the summer home with me, but in May we took some pictures at his final his final day of daycare. He's had several childcare places in his life, but Southwood Learning Center is probably the most significant.  From months 4 to 13, he stayed with a wonderful lady just down the road from the high school where I taught in Oklahoma.  Actually, now that I think about it, she was pretty significant, too. From months 16 to 18, he alternated between my friend Amie Corley, who was staying home at the time, and Robbie Rutherford, Tiffany's retired mom.  The day he turned 18 months, he started at Southwood Learning Center, where big brother Braden was already going.  He was such a little guy! He could hardly walk, and I thought he was going to get stomped over and eaten up by the big kids on the playground. Last May, he WAS a big kid.

Check out how proud he looks here: 

Almost every day of the last two years, he measured his growth by trying to reach over the little half door on the way out.  In the last month there, he finally made it.

I'm incredibly thankful to the staff at SWLC for taking such good care of my little boys.  Both have such a desire for learning. They seek out patterns and problem solve, and, most impressive to me, they read! I think the Montessori curriculum and the loving guidance of their teachers is totally responsible--it certainly isn't anything we've done with them at home.

Here's Garrett acting, well, like Garrett!

I've recommended this place to pretty much everyone I know.  I always say that it isn't the newest, fanciest daycare out there, but the staff is amazing.  As a Montessori school, the kids aren't provided with plastic playthings. They use their creativity and invent games. They dress up (Garrett like to pretend he was a ghost while wearing the princess costume!).  Nazneen, the owner, and both Lindas who served as directors during the 4 years the kids were there, became good friends of mine.  I've recommended some of the boys teachers for elementary teaching positions, and if I were a principal, I'd hire them in a heartbeat.

Here's Garrett showing off his classroom. The Montessori lessons are on the shelves around the room. Garrett even came to child development class last year to demonstrate them. He could solve puzzles that stumped my high schoolers! Garrett spent two years in this room, and Braden was in there the year before that.  It will be strange not taking a kid there this year!

Here's Garrett's class.

And here's my little guy.  I'm so proud of him that my heart could burst, and I wish him lots of luck on Monday in kindergarten!!

Tyler, Garrett, and Wild Imaginations

Garrett and his buddy Tyler have been spending lots of time together lately. They've known each other their whole lives (their moms are best of friends, so they are kinda stuck together). In the last month, however, their friendship has fully blossomed. 

Perhaps it is because they are big kids now, about to go to kindergarten. 

Perhaps it is because they have finally realized they both have wild crazy imaginations. 

Whatever it is, it sure is cute. 

I took these pictures the other day when they were making kung fu faces. And noises. And all kinds of awesomeness.

The conversation I overheard yesterday went like this:

Tyler: "Do you know what teleporting is?"
Garrett: "Yeah. Everyone knows what teleporting is."
Tyler: "You go from one place. (jumps) to another."
Garrett: "Yeah, in a teleporting machine."
Tyler: "No, you don't need a teleporting machine."
Garrett: "You don't?"
Tyler: "No. You just. Teleport."

And then they ran around the house for probably 20 minutes, teleporting.

They are awesome.  And fierce.

If you need someone to help you with your teleporting or kung fu needs, I know just the team! 

Artists

The boys had friends over today, and they all sprawled out on the entry way floor to paint with Braden's acryllic artist set. 

Parker and his train

Braden and his train.

Tyler and his monster truck. 

Garrett and his....his...blobs?  Will he learn to make recognizable figures in kindergarten? Is he supposed to know that now? I'm having a parental anxiety attack because my kid just painted blobs!

The 5 year olds

The hot shot 7 year olds

Family Fun Day: Huntsville

Today our family had a "family fun day." We don't do this nearly enough, and this time it was actually Kyle's idea. He had to go sign some paperwork at his office, and he suggested the whole family go and we make a day out of doing fun things in Huntsville (you can laugh now).

It turns out that there are quite a few fun things to fill an afternoon there. We even thought of a few things that we didn't get to do (like the Texas Prison Museum!).

Stop number one was at the Gibbs Ranch where Kyle wanted to check the show team cattle.

FYI: It's awfully hard to take pictures of black cattle in a dark barn that are totally backlit.

Hello, sweet bull!

Then, we went to Daddy's office.

Isn't this an interesting contraption? I figure my English-teacher friends would get a kick out of it! You'll have to ask Kyle about it.

Kyle's office wasn't very exciting, so the boys and I went out to roam around campus, partly so I could play with my camera. Thankfully, I have one boy who LOVES my little photo shoots. He loves the camera. Always has! He chose this location and this pose.

So, so handsome! I worry about the hearts that are going to break some day. I really worry that the heart is going to be his because he is so intense and emotional.

I begged and pleaded with Garrett to try to get him to cooperate with my little photo shoot. This is a little cheese-tastic, don't ya think?

Most of the time he whined about being sweaty and made faces like this:

Here's a cute one of the two of them:

Ah! Here's a decent one of just Garrett!

After we managed to get Kyle out of his office, we ate lunch at the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbecue restaurant. This place has been featured in Texas Monthly and other BBQ lists and was recently on the KBTX Brazos Valley "Bucket List." Kyle has worked in Huntsville for four years and never eaten there.

It looks exactly like a pictured it would! I think Kyle was expecting magical bbq because he was a little disappointed. It was good, but not just totally mindblowing. We split the 3 meat plate (sausage, ribs, brisket) with potato salad and beans, and ordered a piece of buttermilk pie, which we ate first. The brisket was my favorite, followed by the pie.

After lunch, we made our way to Huntsville State Park. I'd been twice for trail runs, but this was the rest of the family's first trip. Braden declared this playground to be a "zero." In his best 13-year-old sarcastic voice he said, "seriously? Swings and a slide? That's it?" I left the boys in their dad's care and I went for a beautiful 3 mile run (remember that lunch I had just eaten? I didn't puke!).

This is why I really wanted to go to HSP: the swimming hole on Lake Raven.

Kyle swam a little, but mostly he sat in his chair.

This is such a typical Garrett face!!

Loving life!! Actually, Braden didn't love the swimming hole as much as I hoped he would. Not long after we got there, Kyle and Braden swam out to the diving platform where Braden spent a good 20 minutes crying before I rescued him on my little float. I really regretted that I didn't take the boys' life jackets. They would have really had fun with them on.

They did make some mud holes or sand piles or whatever this is:

When I saw this picture on the camera, I commented, "huh. My butt doesn't look as bad as I thought it did." Kyle said, "no, it doesn't look bad. It looks like your dad's."

Um, I don't know what that means.

I had fun jumping off the swim platform. I totally hold my nose, just like a make fun of Braden for doing when he goes off the diving board.

This picture cracks me up in a horrifying way, partly because I look like a total moron, but also because I have freaky man muscles. I work out hard, and I know I have muscles (and I'm proud of how strong I am), but seriously? Do I look like this? Kyle says it is just because my muscles were all engaged here. Ugh.

One thing that I didn't get pictures of was our adventure on the canoe. Braden begged and pleaded to rent a paddleboat, but Kyle and I think those suck, so we got a canoe instead. Once we had lifejackets on and were at the edge of the dock, I literally had to chase down a screaming Garrett, pick him up, carry him to the canoe, and put him in it. I could totally hear my mom's voice in my head because I'm certain I threw a fit about being in a canoe one summer of my youth while we were camping at Double Lakes.

We only had 30 minutes to canoe before it was due back (the store closes at 5:30), so we paddled around looking for alligators. We didn't find any, but we did find some way-cool lily pads and enjoyed watching the water bead up on them. Also, Kyle griped at me a bunch for not paddling correctly. Good times. I told him that he doesn't know how lucky he has it---I could be a waaaaay suckier paddler. (yes, that is a word).

We noticed Garrett was quiet during the last 10 minutes, and once we arrived back at the dock we figured out why: the little dude was asleep! He had his head resting forward on the canoe crossbar. I wish I had a picture of it because it was c.u.t.e.

After we reluctantly left HSP (we need a travel trailer!!! We coulda spent the night!! Heck, we could have stayed in a tent because it was a pleasant enough evening!), we went to check out the giant Sam Houston statue. From the visitor's center on the road behind the statue, there is a little gravel path to the statue itself. Along the way, there is a giant Sam Houston head.

And what, do you think, a little boy would do with a giant Sam Houston head?

Yep, check for boogers.

Braden wanted me to take this picture of him posing like he was leaning against the giant head. I don't think he realized he could take a picture of him ACTUALLY leaning against the head. Hahaha!

When we emerged from the path, the sun was just starting to go down. It was pretty! Also, I need to learn to take pics of sunsets because in real life it was WAAAAY prettier than this.

My boys pretending to look through binoculars to see me because I had to back so far up to get in the entire statue:

Daddy gets in the picture action:

Garrett wanted a picture with this fancy G. When I showed him the picture on the camera he was irritated because "you can see the scratches Braden gave me for no reason." While Braden shouldn't have scratched Garrett, I'm certain there was reason.

Back at the Visitor's Center (which was closed, but had a handy dandy open restroom!), we took a few more pictures. I kept making Braden take his hat off, and he wondered why.

Here's why:

This is the hat he made during VBS. When the brim is flipped up, like in this picture, you can see what he wrote underneath: "ROKCS aTm ROKCS"

Kinda like our family fun day: It rokced, man. For real.