100th Day!!!

Friday was Pierce's 100th day of school so his class participated in a BIG celebration.  Every time I look at these they completely crack me up!!!  His class, apparently, went all out to look like they were 100 years old! The day included lots of fun 100 things...he took 100 marshmellows to share, they did math activities to 100, and table activities to celebrate 100!

Here are Pierce and Carter...oops, I mean Mr. Grover and Uncle Hershel!  They said they were grumpy old men!!

I think that Pierce and Evangelina look like an old homeless couple!  At least they seem to be happy.  HA!!

First of Many (But I Hope Not!)

Pierce is definitely his father's child, in so many ways.  I was hoping that this was one thing he did not get from him, but I guess I was wrong.  One week ago today, this is what we were doing...

 As you can see, he was totally unphased by the fact that he broke his arm!  He fell at the playground the day before so we took a precautionary trip to the doctor which resulted in two doctors visits that day, x rays, a cast, and of course a trip to McDonald's for his favorite dinner!

(Mom, why are you taking my picture?  I'm trying to eat!)

Thankfully, the cast has barely slowed him down and he thinks it's super cool!  I'm sure we will many more of these in our future if he truly is anything like daddy!

Sunny Skies

After having days and days of gray, wet, and cold skies (along with snow two days ago), we were overly excited for a day filled with sunny and warm weather! Sunny weather makes me so much happier!  In celebration, the boys headed outside for an afternoon of fun!

They practiced almost every sport imaginable, this (of course), was daddy's favorite.  I'm afraid Pierce may have gotten his athletic skill from his momma though....uh, oh! 

Snow Day!!!

On Thursday, we had a fun snow day that afternoon! It started snowing late that morning while Pierce was at school, so his sweet teacher took them outside to play in it and catch snowflakes on their tounges.  He was overly excited when I was able to leave work early and pick him up in carpool.  It started coming down really hard on our way home and ended up snowing several inches.  Luckily daddy got to come home too, so we all headed outside to play!

 

 

Working on making his snowman... 

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Snowball fights with daddy are the best!!! 

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Molly's Big Day!

We got to help Pierce's classmate, Molly, celebrate her fifth birthday last weekend. This is the second year they have been in the same class at school. It was an afternoon filled with lots of jumping, running, cake, ice cream and pizza! Along with fun friends from school to play with!

Sadly, this is about the only picture I got at the party.  Happy Birthday, Molly!!

 

I was glad to meet a few moms at the party that live in our neighborhood and already have children at the elementary school we are zoned for.  Since Pierce starts Kindergarten in the fall, it was good to hear that they love his future school!

New Year Fun!

After we got back home from Christmas travels and recooperated from time away, we looked for fun entertainment for 2013. Since school had not started back, Pierce was missing his friends so we had some playdates!  One day we met friends for free play jumping at a local jumpy place and a few days later we hit McWane.  Pierce was overly excited about going to McWane since we had not been in quite a while.  Thanks to Grandmomma and Granddaddy we can now go much more often since they gave us a membership for Christmas!

None of these pictures are great since I took them with my phone...I do love Carter's expression here while they were looking at bug slides under the microscope! 

A special boatride at the Clifford exhibit with Evangelina! 

Dressed up as the characters on Clifford and putting on a "show"! 

Fun times with Julian...Pierce loves seeing him! 

It was a super crazy and packed day, but lots of fun.  Pierce is already talking about our next trip and about the new exhibit that will be coming at the end of the month.  He's just hoping that they keep the zipline!

Christmas at the Farm

After a few days in Luverne, we headed down to the farm to see Gigi and Poppa for a few days. Of course, Pierce had to make his visit to the lake to feed the ducks. No one must have been there lately because they quickly surrounded us for food!! We counted 29 big ducks, that wasn't even counting the babies!!

 

 

We also headed down near the beach one night for a yummy seafood dinner at Nick's. (That's the nice thing about being so close to the beach.) It was delicious!  On our way back, we stopped in Defuniak at their "Christmas Reflections" lights at the lake.  It was beautiful, Pierce loved it!  We definitely have to do this again!! 

 

Christmas in Luverne

Christmas morning we quickly packed up after playing for a little while and headed to Luverne to visit family.  First up was family Christmas at Grandmomma and Granddaddy's!

This was one of his favorite gifts, thanks Aunt Mallory and Uncle Foster!

We quickly learned that Granddaddy is super slow at opening gifts.  We could all take turns opening a gift in the time it took him to get one bow off!

That night we headed over to Aunt Martha's for more family fun, a yummy meal, and of course, more gifts!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!!!

My absolute favorite part of Christmas is witnessing it through the eyes of a child, this year was no exception! We didn't take a ton of pictures that morning, we were trying to enjoy our time together instead of watching it though the lens of the camera! It was still and fun and exciting morning for all of us.  Pierce didn't  wake us until close to 7 am!

 

Jesus is the true meaning of the season, so we celebrate each Christmas morning after breakfast by singing "Happy Birthday, Jesus!".  This has quickly become a favorite tradition for Pierce!

 

 

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

 

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

A picture in front of the tree before heading to church for another favorite, the candelight service. I was trying to remember, but I think this was the first time that Pierce has been to it. It made it a little different, but still special!

After the service, we headed over to the Coulson's for a Christmas meal with friends.  Since none of us, nor the Baker's, have family in town the Coulson's were kind enough to invite us over.  It was a yummy meal with friends before we all headed home to tuck into bed early (well, at least the kids!).

Somehow, Pierce talked us into one quick gift to open before bed... (and yes, we had LOTS of wrapped gifts under our tree, but those had already headed south!). 

And, of course, we had to put out renindeer food and lots of snacks for Santa! 

 

"The Children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads..."

More Elfie Adventures

Elfie had lots of fun at our house in the weeks leading up to Christmas. This was probably his most creative and fun adventure to find...

Since Spiderman tied Elfie up, the next night Elfie was chasing Spiderman while riding the Batmobile!  He also put clothes on the ceiling fan, cheered for Auburn after the game, wrapped gifts (which were pretty exciting to find!), hung from the second level light fixture in the foyer, and one morning we found him in the freezer!  He was missing the frigid North Pole!!

 

Christmas morning, Elfie had left Pierce a note to tell him about all the fun he had with him but to remember the real reason for the Christmas season!

A Date

Pierce has been telling us for quite a while that Evangelina is his girlfriend. Actually, he's been saying that he has two! On the last day of school before Christmas, I had to work late so he went home with his "girlfriend". He was way too excited and would dance around the house days before singing, "I get to go home with my girlfriend...."

How cute are they?! It cracks me up that he is holding a gun like he is protecting her!

 

The added bonus is that her big brother, Julian, made it home while he has still there.  They love playing together!  Here is a picture of them catching marshmallows in their mouths while their dad shot them in with a marshmallow shooter!

Needless to say, he was not ready for me to pick him up!

AU Basketball

A few days before Chrsitmas, we had to make a quick trip to Montgomery to meet Grandmomma and Granddaddy. We decided to drive a little further and go to the Plains for a basketball game!





We enjoyed the small crowd since the college kids were out of school. These phone pictures were the only ones we had.  Oops! 

 

Pierce loved cheering, dancing, and taking in the whole game.  He especially loved the kids area we spotted in the arena!  They had a coloring area and inflatables, he even held his own playing basketball with some bigger kids!

Bowling

 

Just before Christmas we attended the college group party with our church.  The kids went bowling which, of course, was a big hit with Pierce!  He was usually beating at least one person in our lane most of the time.  He thought he was something getting to hang with the big kids!

Annual Live Nativity

One of my favorite family activities during Christmas is attending the live nativity service at our church. Especially, now that Pierce is getting old enough to learn about and begin to understand the true meaning of Christmas. He loved getting to pet the animals and hugged this poor donkey when I told him I would take his picture!

Pierce was very excited to get to sit on the front row with the bigger kids.  He must have paid attention because when I quized him about what happened he got everything right and had lots of questions about what he saw!

Of course, we had to get our annual picture with "Mary"!

Pierce and his buddy, Jack, loved the refreshments afterwards.  He wasn't so sure about the hot chocolate so he was waiting for Jack to try it first!

A Crafty Christmas

Since Miss. Rebecca's gift involved paint, crayons, markers, etc...Pierce has a new found love for crafts!  One day he painted lots of ornaments, but we failed to get them ready with his gifts.  He also made cards for his teachers at school, along with a teaching book for Aunt Mallory while we were in Luverne!

Class Christmas Party

Pierce had his class Christmas party at school the week before Christmas. I was able to stop by for a little while between appointments at work.  It's always fun to see him with his classmates!

They made several crafts, had a pizza lunch, and decorated cookies...oh, and a special treat for Santa!

Pierce and Ella Claire

Pierce has great teachers and loves them...thank you, Mrs. Martha and Mrs. Carol!

He can't wait for school to start back to see all of his sweet friends.  I can't believe this was his last Christmas season at the Dayschool...sniff, sniff.