True Southerners!

Last week was a very fun and busy week!

Bubba and I were excited to help chaperone Johnny's class trip to the pumpkin patch. They loved the hayride.

Feeding Animals...

Picking Pumpkins...

and much more! It was a fun day for both boys!

Bubba blended right in with the class!

I hate to admit this....but it's official....we are TRUE SOUTHERNERS!

Last week the boys had a half day of school and we ventured up to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to take a tour. This is where the Nascar races take place...most recently the Bank of America 500. I'm not so much a "Car" lover...but my lil' Hubba Bubba is obsessed! So, I took one for the team and sat through the tour.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed it, and so did ALL the boys! We got in a 15 passenger van, with their car seats, and went on a 45 minute tour. We got to visit the winners circle, and actually race around the track at 80MPH. We also got to drag race against another van, and learn all the inside facts, such as there are condos in the stadium and eight families live there year round!

The boys had such a fun time watching cars practice on the track. Notice how it looks like there are people sitting in the stands. They paint the seats all different colors so that when they film movies or commercials, they use this stadium and they don't have to pay any extras to come 'sit' in. The paint makes it look like the stadium is crowded! Interesting fact I learned!
Some more facts...They call it "Red Neck Ally" where everyone camps at the track, and 19,0o0 port-a-john's are brought in for the races! That got a "Ohhhhh!!!!" from my boys in the back seat!

It was a great day, and I'd do it again for sure. So, if that makes me a true southerner, then y'all go ahead and call me one! (;

The Latest Scoop...

As you can tell, we've had a busy couple of weeks here at our house!

The kids had spirit week for Homecoming.

Here are the boys for "Wacky Wednesday!"

Curtis is SO his father!

No, he isn't going to school with the boys. It's just Bubba waiting to go out to the bus stop. He usually gets up just about the time we are going, and I have to quickly throw some slippers on him. Problem is his feet are SO much fatter than my other boys were at that age. (I didn't think that was possible!) We went to three different stores looking for slippers that fit, and finally had to settle on a girls pair. I told him he looked like the snow monster in "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer," and he went with that! He's quite the site out on our boulevard.

Bubba started preschool once a week. I had a babysitter that came once a week for 4 hours and instead of having her come, he's going to preschool now so he can play with kids his own age. So far, he's loving it! Here he is on the first day!

Lefty still LOVES to catch tree frogs!

Whenever the arms go behind the head, you know it's only a matter of time until the head starts bobbing! Didn't even finish the HEALTHY lunch his mother gave him! Shame!
Erik went to Vegas on his "Guys Weekend" a week ago. After baseball I took the boys to Carowinds Amusement Park with some family friends. We had a GREAT time and the weather was perfect! I'm thinking it may have been our last visit for the year!
That same day, the boys had their team pics for bball. Curtis is in the back row, second from the right.

Johnny is back row, the first on the right.

Erik got back from Vegas with presents for everyone. I was certain that they were going to be the 50 cent decks of playing cards each casino uses. Erik surprised us all and really pulled through with some good gifts this year. To give you an idea of how thoughtful the gifts were, this is the gift that he gave my 7 year old....SERIOUSLY! It came along with the "Laugh" that Erik is famous for. He thought he was SO funny! Needless to say, I didn't think it was as funny as he did.

On Columbus Day, when Erik returned from Vegas, one of my favorite people/cousins flew in for a visit- BIG JOHNNY! I didn't take a ton of pictures...but I did get this one. Johnny and I dropped off Andy at school and went to get a coffee. It was my Birthday, and we we were sitting outside trying to decide what to do with our few hours of free time. All of a sudden I heard a loud crash, and Johnny said, "OMG" at the same time. A car went too fast in a slippery intersection, and went up on the curb, and hit and ran over a tree. Good thing Fire Fighter John was in town! He went right over to help the girl, while I sat and sipped on my coffee calling 911. After about an hour, everything was sorted out, and we headed over to school so Big Johnny could be the mystery reader in Lil' Johnny's class, and teach fire safety! The class, teachers, and us had so much fun! Lil' Johnny was REALLY surprised!

Like I mentioned, last week was my Birthday and I have to give a shout out! My sister Megan made this banner for my fire place and sent it in the mail. I am in LOVE with it! If you are interested in her products or ordering one of these, check out her website at www.meganzellner.blogspot.com or on Facebook like the group "Mimi and Chip!"
A new TCBY with a drive thru opened up near our house. I introduced Big Johnny to it, and he fell in LOVE. We went WAY too many times, but since it's fat free yogurt, it's healthy....right? (I won't mention the MOUNDS of Reese's/Oreo's/Cookie Dough we loaded on top!) On Tuesday night we were headed there and Erik asked me to pick up a cake for myself, with a coupon he had. Johnny and I picked one out and asked the guy to write on it. This kid was in high school and CRACKED me up! He tried to get one of the girls to write on it, and they wouldn't. He was nervous and went to the back and began working. I told the girl working the register to tell him I wanted a unicorn on the cake as well...just to make him a little more nervous! Anyways, after a while, the cake was delivered by the girl with this post it note on it. We were laughing SO hard!

There's the finished product.

The unicorn is on the very top of the cake in pink! LOL!

We gave that kid such a hard time~! He loves us!

Finally, just because I love my lil' hubba Bubba....here's a pic of him watching TV the other night once his brothers were in bed! Gotta love him! Going to miss Big Johnny's company...and look forward to the next time he can visit!

A Picture is Worth...

A thousand words!

Bubba's first time on a real roller coaster yesterday!

Apple Farm

Last Friday a person in our neighborhood put together a little Apple Farm Tour for all the little ones of the neighborhood that could go. Bubba was SO excited to go and hang with his "Best Friend!"
Johnny Appleseed himself led us through a maze while singing, clapping, and marching. Then he showed the kids how to make apple cider and red the book "Johnny Appleseed" to the kids!
Next we were off on a hayride around the orchard. I'm SHOCKED at how small orchards here are compared to orchards in MN/WI. Bubba didn't know any different and LOVED it!
During the hayride, Johnny stopped at the pigs and brought them the left over apples from the cider making. They had a hay day! Bubba was OBSESSED with the pigs from there on out. He didn't want anything to do with picking apples, making scarecrows, or even food. All he wanted to do was get back t the piggies!
He quickly drank his apple cider and ate his apple donut, so he could get back to the piggies as fast as possible!

Here he is at last, feeding the "baby piggies" a bottle!

We had tears and fits even an hour after we got home because he wanted to see the "baby piggies" again! It was a fun day for him, and he didn't want to leave! Now a pet "piggie" is tops on his birthday list! (:

Tow-Mater Look-a-Likes!

For BIG Mistakes Only!

Last Friday, Johnny came home with a prize from the prize box at school. A HUGE pink eraser. On the package it said, "Only for BIG Mistakes." He was showing Curtis it, and Curtis casually picked up the eraser and started trying to erase Johnny! Made me laugh out loud and I had to share the story! My kids are growing up fast!

Chicago

Two weeks ago, I met my friend Lynne in Chicago for our annual girls weekend. (She has a list of cities she wants to see while she lives in the US and Chicago was in the top three). If you remember correctly, two years ago on our girls weekend my wallet was stolen. Last year her one year old son broke his leg. I was praying that this weekend would go off without a hitch and it did! FINALLY we had a nice relaxing time together!

We flew in on Thursday night, and after a good nights sleep, we had a little coffee and did some shopping. For lunch we met my cousin Kelle who I haven't seen in 6+ years for lunch! Was SO nice to catch up with her and meet her new little baby girl, Emma!

Emma whispered in my ear that I was her FAVORITE second cousin!

Seriously, isn't she ADORABLE?

Lynne and I can shop all day and NEVER get sick of it! We shopped a total of 6 blocks in two full days. ( 12 hours Friday and 9.5 hours in Saturday). It was SO nice to try on shoes/clothes without little boys rolling their eyes, breathing hard like they are dying, or acting like idiots in a changing room! (BTW- here we are on another vacation, and we are caught in the same outfits. NOT planned or bought together! That's how you know that you were meant to be BFF''s).
After all that shopping, we decided it was time to get "Wild and Crazy!" So, I went and got my ears pierced. (First hole). I know, I know....this is just too much excitement for y'all to handle in one blog post!
We shopped more and walked around Michigan Ave. all day. Once I got back to the hotel I was taking everything out of my bags, and never realized what the bag I carried around all day said. We were dying of laughter!

Finally, it was one last Starbucks before getting on the "L" and heading back to the airport!

Great vacation and as always it went WAY too fast!