Leap Frogs

We recently took the boys to one of these converted warehouses that are wall-to-wall-to-ceiling inflatable giants. I don't remember the occasion, a weekend or rainy day, etc., but it was packed full of kids. For the first 15 minutes the boys stood around in awe at the vinyl monoliths and hoards of people. They first resigned themselves to playing it safe and confining themselves to the toy area with kitchens, workbenches, push toys, and the like. It was not until daddy got his shoes off and had to get into the inflatable with them that they perked up.

With their affinity for slides, we knew that they would like these if we could only get them to the top. These things were 20 feet in the air and we knew that they were not going to be able to climb the little inflatable rungs up by themselves. So, daddy had to carry one up at a time under his arm and navigate the slick stairs in only his socks. Good exercise carrying 30 pounds of furious thunder under one arm on unstable surfaces. Just as we thought, they took to it like fish to water after their first descent.

Wyatt, of course, wanted to go down on his belly. Parks wanted to go to higher and higher slides. Wyatt thought it would be fun to go down not on the slide area but on the ladder rungs, tumbling down like a tumble weed or coin being flipped. Parks would run at ramming speed into the corner pillars of the bounce house and then look like a blond projectile into the center of the ring. Here are some pictures we took of the day when we were not fearing for their lives or concussions.

Happy Mother's Day

To the mother of our two wonderful boys, I could not have asked for anything more.

Kentucky Derby Days

On Saturday afternoon, we took the boys to Storybook Farms where they provide a type of therapy to children with life-threatening illnesses, disabilities, and suffering from grief. They opened the farm up to the public during the Kentucky Derby to raise awareness to their cause and to have a little fun. They had train rides, music, a bounce house, games, and a demonstration by the Auburn Raptor Center. They brought out eagles, owls, hawks and buzzards for people to see and take pictures with these animals. We figured that we could get the boys out of the house again to round out a weekend of festivals.

Parks has found a new play place...the car. If we get him out of the car seat, we can't get him out of the car.

Mommy found out about the new alphabet Cheezits that have large letters on each cracker. Wyatt was in heaven!

The one problem with bounce houses.....

.....if you put them in, you had better be ready to go in and get them out.

They had fun with these plush "horseys."

As you can see, we stayed around this area for quite a while.

It took a little while for the boys to figure out how to ride their new toys.

Wyatt was mesmerized by the little details the candy-cane striping, the horse's mane, etc.

I think it is about time for someone's first haircut.

What finally ended the day for us at Storybook Farms was Round 10 of the ongoing saga over who can drive the wagon. They are not really getting the concept of "taking turns" yet.

Slides and Giggles

We made a trip to a spring festival at one of the local elementary schools this afternoon. At almost 2 years old, Parks & Wyatt are still a little too young for cake walks, pies in the face, and football tosses. So after pulling the boys around in the wagon for 15 minutes, we headed over to the school's playground. They had an interesting type of slide that we had never seen....and we are quickly becoming slide connoisseurs.

It was long and not at a very steep pitch, but that was not the most interesting part. The full length of the slide was comprised of rolling bars, much like a conveyor system. We are the worst about forgetting our new Canon XSi, so we had to rely, once more, on my cell phone. I snapped a couple photos of the boys the first few go rounds, but soon after, I switched it to the video camera and got some great moments of them going down.

Both of them just HAD to go down the slide backwards.

We could NOT get Wyatt off the slide. We had to pull him off kicking and screaming
to take them home for bedtime.