Peter's birthday swim party

When Corey first suggested going swimming for Peter's birthday, I thought he was nuts.  Swimming in December?  But then, I remembered the super cool indoor pool in Murfreesboro that my friend, Kym, took us to last summer.  There's a little structure for the kids to climb on that has a tiny tube slide, and then there's a big waterslide for the big kids and adults.  The best part is the zero depth entry, which is something Peter always loves whenever we swim at a pool that has one.  We were able to rent the whole thing out for an hour for a ridiculously low price, so NanaB, GrandDad, Granny Great, Grandpa Great, Grandma JoJo, and Grandpa Spike all flew in to help us celebrate.  I mean, how fun does this look?

There was a little tunnel in the structure that Peter spent the majority of his time in.

He loved charging around all over the place in the shallow water!

Charlotte conquered her initial fears of the little tube slide and then ended up going down it about 400 times in a row.

We invited the Chabots (Kym, Drew, Luke, Odessa, & Gabe) to swim with us.  Gabe liked it best when his daddy swung him up in the air.

Corey had a little trouble going down the big slide and got glares from the lifeguard on duty.

The little slide may have been more his speed.

GrandDad liked Corey's sliding technique so much, he tried it on the big slide.  Like father, like son.  I hope I'm not disowned for posting this photo.

Charlotte and Odie are great buddies.

Luke spent the entire swim party careening down the big white slide, so this is one of the few photos we got of his handsome smile.  He's getting to be such a big guy!

I must refrain from posting many more photos of the adults, because I'm pretty sure I won't get any Christmas presents if I do.  More photos to come of the rest of the weekend's festivities!

Premature start to Christmas break

Charlotte's last day of preschool before Christmas break was December 8th, and she doesn't return to school until January 5th.  Huh?  Does she really need a month-long break?  And a break from WHAT, exactly?  From having ridiculous amounts of fun with her dearly beloved Miss Sally?  Sheesh.  All the class parents were taken a little by surprise by the length of the break, but we had fun at the class Christmas party last Thursday anyway.  Here is my little elf, ready to head to school and party:

But first, she had to give Santa (made for us a few years ago by my Aunt Janet) a big smooch.

Guess who else insisted on having his photo taken?

Charlotte's class party started with pizza and grapes around the lunch table in the classroom.  That adults just stood around and watched the kids eat.

Petey (who had eaten at home) happily played with the classroom toys.

But then Petey decided he wanted to eat some popcorn with the big kids.  He pulled up his own chair to the table and made himself right at home.

Later, he was playing back at the "station" with the cars, and Chase (one of Charlie Jo's classmates) decided Peter needed to follow the rules and wear the color necklace that corresponds to the station (thus limiting the number of kids in each station because once the necklaces run out, no one else can play at that station).  Petey was a little confused, but wore the necklace like a good boy.  He does love a good accessory.

At one point, Petey had to be rescued from the boisterous and overenthusiastic big boys.  Here, Chase, Tyler, and Braden had put Petey "in jail" and Petey kept repeating "hep Mommy, hep!" ("help Mommy, help!") for goodness knows how long before I realized I should put the camera down and go help him.

Charlotte was beside herself with grief when she realized she didn't get to go back to school for four whole weeks, but I reassured her that we would have a lot of fun in the meantime (starting with Peter's birthday weekend extravaganza -- post coming soon!).

Time to catch up!

Crikey!  I have all sorts of great stuff to post about this past weekend, but I'm still behind on posting the last of the Thanksgiving photos.  I absolutely can not miss posting these photos, or else my sister may kill me.

Anyway, the day after Thanksgiving, we drove over to the playground at a nearby elementary school and had a BLAST!  Petey had tested out all the equipment when he and I flew up in October, so he showed everyone his favorite slide, shaky bridge, dinosaurs, etc.

Despite barfing all night, Sonia had a good time with her new friend that morning.

We put Sonia in Illinois and Charlotte in Tennessee.  Charlotte, of course, decided it was time to dance.

Air Malahowski!

Sonia must have gotten the modeling gene from the Malahowski side, because my kids are definitely lacking that talent.

The shaky bridge was a little slippery without some grandparent assistance.

Here come the monkeys down the slide!

Climb, Sonia, climb!

I'll meet you in the middle, okay?

Sonia was shockingly good at pull-ups.  It might have had something to do with her daddy, though.

Grandpa Spike needed rescuing after a particularly harrowing trip down the slide.

I'm pretty sure I have NEVER seen my mother on so many different pieces of playground equipment.  There's something about being a grandmother that makes you act like a kid again.

Shouting through the tubes is always a big hit.  Sonia, unfortunately, was legitimately scared of the monster that Grandpa Spike told her was in the tube.  I'm still not sure if we ever convinced her that there really wasn't a scary creature in there.

Here's Andrew, feeding his daughter to the monster.

I was trying to teach Peter how to be a Jurassic cowboy.  He took to it like a natural.

We had left Erin home to sleep while we were at the park (she had been up with Sonia much of the night during the barf-o-rama), but once she saw these pictures she was super jealous she hadn't gone as well.  I guess we will need to get back to the Dallas Palace again sometime soon!

Santa history and debut

It's time to debut the 2011 visit to Santa photo, but first we have a look back on our history with the Cool Springs Mall Santa:

2008 -- Charlotte was nine months old and very curious about this dude with the cool beard.

2009 -- Charlotte was 21 months old and eagerly awaiting (in my mind at least) the arrival of her baby brother.  She was NOT amused by this crazy old dude holding her.

2010 -- Peter had just turned one year old and Charlotte was two.  Santa was mad that he had to take one more photo before he could close down shop early because of the blizzard (which is what people in Tennessee call 1/2 inch of snow).  We swore we would never return to this mall again for Santa photos.

2011 -- Peter is a week shy of turning two and Charlotte is just a few months from turning four.  Despite our best intentions, we took the easy route and stopped by Cool Springs Mall before a quick dinner and the church youth Christmas program.  The results were less than magic.  Charlotte couldn't seem to do anything other than grimace and Peter wasn't sure what the heck was going on.

Corey swears we're going to do some sort of breakfast with Santa experience next year instead, but I'll believe it when I see it.  The nature of his career makes this time of year extremely hectic and there's hardly time to breathe let alone make time for something like that if we want Corey to be involved.  Okay, enough whining about our less-than-perfect photo.  We are grateful to have the means and time to make a photo with Santa part of our Christmas tradition.

Scenes from Thanksgiving

Erin already did a great job posting about our Thanksgiving together at our parents' house in Dallas (here and here).  Here are just a few photos of the shenanigans that she skipped over.

Scooby and Scrappy Doo, cruisin' the driveway.

Look!  A monkey escaped from the zoo!

Why are pool noodles so much fun outside the pool?

A local motorcycle gang invaded Monticello Estates and wreaked havoc.

We taught Peter how to levitate.

Whew.  Andrew corralled the escaped monkeys back in their cage.

Charlotte liked to use Uncle Andrew as a chair.

The kids bellied up to the bar for all their meals.  It was awfully nice to eat at a completely separate table and not have to see the carnage up close.

We got parboiled in the hot tub.

It makes me smile to see Sonia wearing Charlotte's old shoes and jacket.

Erin does a mean elephant impression.

Charlotte hasn't seen a landline telephone in years, and apparently she thought this was what I meant when I told her tales of such archaic tools.

The kids were enamored with the little lettered tiles from the Scrabble game.

Charlotte helped me cheat (if you consider giving me the tip to "make a word using this letter, Mommy!" as cheating).

I won that game by the skin of my teeth, thanks to the insightful assistance of my illiterate daughter.

Snow bunny or artist? You decide!

Charlie Jo was helping me excavate the bin we use to store our winter accessories (like mittens and hats) and she pulled out Corey's old (and I do mean OLD) ski goggles that he hadn't worn in a good decade.  In my quest to put my children in as many goofy situations as possible (AND take pictures of it so they can curse me later), I couldn't pass up a chance to document this discovery.  She thought it was hilarious and wore the goggles happily for a few minutes before abandoning them for some other more interesting item.

Second random shot -- a Charlie Jo original.  For some reason, she is usually not interested in drawing anything but scribbles.  She is always demanding that I draw something or other for her (perhaps indicating she has a future in arts patronage?) instead of attempting to draw it herself.  When I found her drawing this little dude the other day, I was both tickled and surprised.  She evaded answering any questions about the artistic process or end product, but she did seem pleased that I hung him on the fridge.