Mardi Gras Parade

Nick in the Aqua Bubble.
Aidan, Keegan, and Price on the train.

Best Buds waiting for the parade to start.

My good friend Tanya and her sweet baby Emilee.

Aidan in the bouncy Gator.

On Saturday we went to the Millbrook Mardi Gras parade and the kids had a blast doing all kinds of activities at the carnival like aqua bubbles, bouncy gator, and the train of course. They also loved yelling for beads during the parade. We came home with hundreds of beads, lots of moon pies, toys, candy, and stuffed animals. It was way better then our hometown's Mardi Gras parade which was the weekend before. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Alabama and of course I forgot the sunscreen so we are paying for our enjoyment a little this week with some red skin. It is hard for this Northern girl to remember sunscreen in February but I need to start or we are all going to have skin cancer. It is starting to get hot and humid here and I am sure it won't be long until we have to turn the a/c on. So we are trying to savor all the wonderful weather and play outside a lot, hit the parks, and ride our bikes as much as possible before the only thing you can do outside is swim.

My Sweet Boys

I decided I needed to write down more of the times when the boys are being sweet because it is easy to get caught up in the moments when they are driving me crazy. They are becoming much better friends these days then they ever have been in the past. They often share things out of the blue when the other really wants it and they often really look out for each other which just warms my heart. The picture is of Nick reading bedtime stories to his brother. One evening I was busy doing things and Nick said he would read Aidan a story which is usually my job and now Aidan only wants his brother to read to him. So I tried to capture it the other night because it is so sweet and they laugh a lot especially when they read books like Wenchel cuts the cheese. Who bought us a book about farts anyways? But I love these moments and try to savor them all because I know the time is going to go way too fast.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today was a busy but fun Valentine's Day. I got the boys off to school and spent a few hours at the gym and ran some errands and that was the calm part of the day. Then I went to help out with Aidan's class party. They had pizza and all kinds of treats and they made this cute bear craft. Then we went right from there to gymnastics where it was Cowboy day and they had a Valentine's party too. Then I sent Aidan home with a friend and grabbed lunch on the go while I raced to Nick's school to help with his Valentine's party. I brought our chocolate fountain which turned out to be a huge hit. I have never received so many hugs and thank yous in my life. It was kind of messy with second graders but they really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. They had all kinds of treats too. Those kids were really hopped up on sugar. After that we raced back to pick up Aidan from his friends house then we went to the grocery store which you really shouldn't do on Valentine's day because there were hundreds of men doing last minute flowers and candy shopping and looking very lost and clogging up the store. So after an hour and a half with two crabby kids I decided I was way too exhausted to make dinner and met some friends at Bass Pro for dinner. Jeremy is working all night on a paper that is due tomorrow. So Happy Valentine's Day to me! So needless to say I am ready for bed. Hope everyone enjoyed some time with their loved ones today.

Polar Bear Run

The whole family with the Polar Bear!
Aidan trying to eat his post race pizza without coming out from under his blanket.

Nick right before his race.

Today the boys and I ran in the Polar Bear Run here in Prattville. I ran the 5K with Aidan in the jogging stroller and Nick and I ran the 1 mile kids race. I just about died pushing Aidan up a monster hill in the jogging stroller. He kept saying Mom go faster! I was trying I swear. It was a little cold this morning as it was 30 degrees at the start of the race but it warmed up nicely. Aidan was going to try to run a little of the kids race but he wouldn't get out from under his blanket because he said he was too cold. Nick ran a 9 minute mile which is 3 minutes better then he did in the tech trot in the Fall. He was so proud of himself because not only did he beat his time, he ran the whole way without walking. He is already talking about doing another race. I tried to run with him but he started out at the head of the pack and we were at the back because of the stroller and I seriously couldn't catch him. It is a sad day when your 7 year old is beating you at races. All in all, it was a fun morning and we supported youth missions at our Church.