Concert in the Park

The first night my family was here {well...technically the second, since they showed up to surprise us like 24 hours early!} there was a free concert by Kenny Loggins in the park that we all decided to go to.  We had some yummy pizza at Damgoode Pies, then headed to the park.  Jarrod was blown away at how many people showed up for some Kenny Loggins! 

The weather was great...warm, but not too hot.  We got some free fans to cool ourselves, shared some snow cones, and danced around the music.  The kids lasted til about 8:30 before we were all ready to head home.  

Riley's hair doesn't do well in the humidity! :)  

 

 Our photographer for the evening was Riley.  She loves to take pictures, usually of nothing because she doesn't really look through the lens, but this one was fantastic!

The kids loved the built-in play structure that is Aunt Briana!

Gavin especially had a great time playing with her.

Silly boy!

It sounds silly, but we're rarely out and about on the roads around 8:30 since the kids are usually in bed by then, so on our drive home, I was thrilled to actually see lightning bugs!  I swear I didn't think they existed here; I guess the fact that we have next to no trees in our neighborhood doesn't help.  So, needless to say, I made it mission to catch lightning bugs with the kids this summer.  {More on that to come!}

Playground Fun

 When that little man up there graduated from preschool recently, we celebrated with a park picnic with his class.  Boy, was it an exhausting trip, thanks to the little girl right here...

Everything he did, she wanted to do....including climbing equipment that was so high I couldn't reach her.  She is fearless and makes the trips not very enjoyable for me, but I'm trying hard now to squash her explorations, because I don't want her to be overly cautious like Gavin.  I was really glad to see him doing so much at the playground, but even then, he wasn't doing everything that his peers were doing.  He's still so careful about everything!

And leaving this playground?  Forget it...total meltdowns by both kids, and I had to carry my kicking and screaming toddler while trying to also carry our bag and hold Gavin's hand, across the street to our van.  Nightmare.  I was sweating and worn out by the time we got home!  

But seeing this smile makes it all worth it! 

Let's go on a hike!

Ever since Gavin read Curious George Goes Hiking, he's been talking about going on a hike.  I'm not sure I'd make it for a "real" hike, but we got up this weekend and took him to a local park to walk on the trail.  It was gorgeous out and a perfect morning for a walk.  He immediately found a "hiking stick" and off we went!  

One of the things I love is when Gavin will say, "How about you take my picture over there?"  He picked the location for these shots.   

Just as we stopped for a water break, I spied a deer getting ready to cross the path.  I'm not sure who was more excited - Daddy or Gavin.  

And one quick shot of Baby Hamm on our hike! 

I think Gavin and I will start heading out for early walks on this trail more often.  It's so nice there!

Playground Prize

Thanks to a little regression, we've started using a reward chart for Gavin for pooping on the potty.  It was really good timing on Sunday when he filled up the chart and earned a trip to the playground!  It was almost 80 degrees and gorgeous so we had a great time on the playground.  I was really happy that it was on a Sunday so Daddy could join us.  

Gavin likes to pretend these days, so he was pretending to have an ice cream shop and Daddy was ordering some ice cream from him. 

Here they were playing Hide -n- Seek.  Can you see Gavin hiding in the bottom left hand side of the picture? 

 Another reason I was glad to have Daddy there with us...I got to be in some of the shots with my favorite little guy! 

 For someone that complains so much about taking pictures, I was pretty impressed with this shot he got.  I love that you can see me in Gavin's sunglasses.

My two handsome guys! 

And just for fun - I snapped another shadow pic of my belly. 

 On the way home, we stopped at the gas station and Daddy ran in for a newspaper.  Gavin asked me to take our picture, and this was the result.  :)

Our Spring Tease

Ok - time to backtrack a little.  So, before we got this snow storm, we were teased by Mother Nature with a 73 degree day on Saturday.  It was gorgeous!  I took Gavin for a walk, he played outside while I cleaned the car, and after nap, we took him to the park.  It was such a great day...but only made me more excited about spring!  Gavin loves the park, especially the swings.

 I snapped this photo of my shadow to see what my baby bump looked like.

  Then, Jarrod had a similar idea and snapped the photo below on the right of our shadows while I pushed Gavin on the swings.

 So, we went from 73 on Saturday to 16 yesterday.  This morning we woke up to -6 degree weather.  Fun stuff!  But, at least we know that spring is on its way!