Catching Up

Ok, I will attempt to give a summary (lol - do I know how to write short things?) of our last week or so.

First though, Drew recovered much more quickly over the forgotten show-&-tell than I did. I have actually been MUCH harder on myself than he has been. In fact, while I was apologizing, he told me, "It's okay, Mommy. I wasn't the only one without a show-&-tell." The thing that made it a little tougher was that it was the first time for him to bring something of his own choice. I know it isn't the first time and won't be the last time I forget something, but I just feel guilty since he has been doing so well at school, I don't want anything to throw a wrench in the works. And it did make me SO proud of him how he handled the whole situation. He certainly wouldn't have reacted that well last year at this time in the school year! He has really come SO very far!!

So as a reward to he wonderful way of handling the day, and as part of releaving some of my quilt ;), we took the boys out to Incredible Pizza on Monday evening. Since John was home from work earlier than usually, it worked out pretty well. Incredible Pizza is a local themed restaurant in town. They have a salad bar and dessert bar as well as a pizza bar. But the part that made Drew really excited were the games. It is similar to Chuck E Cheese, but on a larger scale and more for adults to enjoy too. It has the usual games, but then it also has an indoor go-kart track, bumper cars, put-put golf & small bowling alley. It actually started here in Springfield and has since expanded into other states. So after the boys ate little pizza (the minimal that was required by mom & dad), we headed off to the "Fairgrounds" to play so games. Drew's first choice was the go-karts so off he and John went while Zach (not a happy boy since he couldn't go too) & I watched. I didn't take my DSLR with me, so please forgive the quality of the pictures from our night. I was sad to not have my good camera, but there is NO way I could have handled it along with wrangling Zach :)
and Zach's reaction to being told he couldn't go on the go-karts because he was too short






















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Last weekend my parents were able to come down for a visit...much to the boys' excitement. They arrived were at our house when I returned from dropping Drew off at school on Friday afternoon, so we were able to surprise him when we went to pick him up. When he saw my dad sitting in the front seat of the van he squealed with excitement (his poor teacher's ears). They tagged along with us to help try and get Zach to cooperate with our family pictures at the park on Saturday (I will share those another night...I just got them back from Karen tonight - she does such an AWESOME JOB!!!).
Then my boys kept them outside playing in the backyard most of the rest of the day.

And our Saturday wrapped up with Drew "helping" my mom make an apple pie.

Oh yeah, we have other news. You might remember that I mentioned John was delayed the night we had our bonfire/hayride. Well....he was busy purchasing this It's a 2006 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T...and Zach LOVES it! The child is obsessed with it is a better way of putting it. He has a big crying meltdown every morning when John goes to leave for work..."I ride in Daddy's car!" he keeps crying out. He loves to just go and sit in it...but he is in heaven when he gets to ride in it. It is TOO funny that a 2 year-old can care SO much about a vehicle!
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Oh, and when I was sharing my Mommy Failure on Monday, I should have shared how I almost let me youngest fall out of the kitchen window last week! UGH!! Last week or a/c wasn't working so we had to have the house open during the day (thank you BJ for coming to fix it on Friday!!). Zach loves to run his cars along with window sill in the dinning area of our kitchen....which overlooks the backyard. We have a walk-out basement, which means that this window is on the second story above the ground. Anyway, the windows were open and he was running his cars around as usual...Drew was doing something in the living room and I was working on putting laundry away and other things to straighten the house....when I noticed Zach was WAY to quiet. When I walked in the kitchen, there he is leaning OUT the window pointing down at the ground below gabbering away at me. I didn't want to yell and him and have him fall out the window....so I quickly got to him, pulled him in and shut/locked the window. Here was the scene below the window when my heart stopped pounding and I looked out.... He had knocked the screen out and threw all his cars out into the yard. THANKFULLY that was all that had fallen out into the yard!! I think he got the idea of knocking out the screen from the previous week. Drew came home talking about fires and what to do if the house caught on fire. I had taken him in his room and showed him how to unlock and open the windows and I was telling him if there was a fire, he could just hit the screen and it would pop out. So, of course Drew has to try it out *rolls eyes*...and Zach was standing right there taking it all in. UGH!! I think I lost a few years on my life with Zach's stunt!! The child has NO fear.

WOW, if you stuck with me through all this rambling, you deserve a medal! I need to head off to bed now though. Drew's field trip to the apple orchard is tomorrow afternoon and I have to spend the morning cleaning the house since I just found out that Bridget (the one holding Zach in the picture with the bonfire) will be coming to watch Zach while I go with Drew...since John informed me on Tuesday that he won't be able to watch him because he has a board meeting and too much work. :) Thank goodness Bridget was available since I had already committed to being a driver for the trip!