Look Who's Turning One!

We celebrated our sweet Aidan's first birthday today with family and friends.  Mommy created a really cute owl themed party.

 Aidan had her own personal owl cake to dive into head first!

 There were cupcakes for the rest of the guests.  Mommy really did a great job on the cake and cupcakes.  They were cute and absolutely scrumptious!

 We had a real feast for lunch!

 Mommy created this cute owl center piece for the table and Aidan had a much needed "Look whoo's turning 1" bib to use when she dived into her cake.

Aidan awoke from her morning nap to find her house full of folks who had come to celebrate her birthday.  She quickly got into the spirit of things and enjoyed her audience.

Daddy helped a little with blowing out the candle on her cake.

Aidan was so dainty when she started eating her cake but once she tasted it she really dug in (with that LEFT hand!)  I think she has a real love for sweets and chocolate!

She enjoyed her cake so much that she wasn't too happy when daddy took it away.  At least she still had some on her fingers and tray so she could console herself.

You can tell by this face that Aidan really enjoyed her cake!

Aidan got lots of nice gifts for her birthday including a bottle of bubbles.

  She loved trying to catch the bubbles as Aunt KK blew them for her.

When all her guest had left we had one tired little lady but I think we can safely say she thoroughly enjoyed her first birthday party!

Our Country Girl!

I think we are definitely going to have one country girl among our grandchildren.  Aidan just loves the outdoors, animals and getting dirty.

 She is perfectly happy snuggling on the patio with dirty, nasty smelling  Rowdy.  He likes it just as much as she does!  Maybe it's because after playing on the patio and falling in the puddles she is as dirty and smelly as he is!

 She can walk barefoot on anything...grass, dirt and even the gravel in front of Aunt KK and Uncle Ronnie's store!

 And I might have a helper in the garden before too long.  She likes to pull grass, weeds and, unfortunately, the blooms off my flowers!

Faces

We added a new face to our family on March 6, 2013.  Zoe Kathryn Wang finally arrived after teasing us for a little over a week.  She had a forced eviction. ( Mommy had to be induced.)  She was welcomed into the world by two loving parents and Mimi!  I actually got to be present for her birth.  She was a beautiful baby from the beginning but has gotten prettier each day.  Here is a picture of her lovely face at about 1 week.

We had a wonderful time in Michigan visiting with Zoe and her parents but were happy to be home where it was nice and warm.  We were also happy to see the smiling faces of our two hometown grandchildren.  Aidan learned to walk while I was gone and also learned to make a new face!  Here it is...food, runny nose and all!

Here are a couple more of Aidan's "nosey" faces.  I can't even go to the bathroom without her checking out what I am doing.  In these pictures, Granddaddy is holding her just outside the bathroom door.  She hears me brushing my teeth and has to look around the door to see what I am doing.  At first she just peeked around the door 

then she grabbed the door jam and just about pulled herself out of Billy's arms so she could check things out a little better.  We are thinking of changing her name to "Kat" because she reminds us of Granny "Kat"Johnston so much! She is such a nosey child!

Valentine's Day Balloons

Mimi had a weak moment and bought some Valentine's Day balloons for Aidan and Evan.  I was a little ashamed of myself for wasting money on balloons but when I gave them to Evan and Aidan I was glad I spent the money.  Just watch!

This was Aidan's first balloon.  I think she thoroughly enjoyed it!

Evan, of course, has always loved balloons.  He found a unique, very boy, way to play with his.  He used his new transformer from McDonald's to shoot his balloon.   Thankfully, the balloons are made of mylar and the toy projectile has very little force!

I actually got Evan to sit still for a quick Valentine's Day picture.  Mommy had them both dressed for the day.

Weather Day Feb 13, 2013

We have finally gotten some much needed rain!  In fact, we got 6.88 inches over the past two days and about 5 inches of that yesterday and last night.  That means we have water covering the bottom of the pond again and some lovely mud puddles in the yard.  School was cancelled due to the condition of the dirt roads in the county so we had double grand baby duty today...and boy was that fun!  We began the day with a wagon ride through the mud puddles in the yard.

 The water is midway up the wheels of the wagon and actually touching the bottom of the wagon.

 Aidan has never seen this much water in the yard!

 Mimi sort of didn't realize that the bottom of the wagon was pretty low and had a drainage hole in it.  The drainage hole became a water inlet so some little folks kind of got wet feet even though they were safely in the wagon.

Evan and I discovered a spot in one of the puddles where bubbles kept coming up.  We speculated on what was causing the bubbles.  Evan thought maybe some critter like the ones at the beach that make bubbles was down in the hole.  He decided to conduct an experiment to see if putting a leave over the bubbles would cause them to stop.  Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure.  The bubbles just kept bubbling!

After much fun in all the mud puddles we headed back into the house for a dragon hatching. At first Aidan was relegated to participating as part of the audience.  Granddaddy collected all the kids, Miss Sally, Mr. Pig, Mr. Sheep and Miss Rabbit to watch the hatching.

 Aidan and Miss Sally quickly became good friends.

Once the dragon hatched,  Aidan decided it was more fun playing in the dragon's lair!  The dragon wasn't too happy about her invasion of his home but he tolerated it all the same!  Notice the "Blue Dragon" in the background.

Aidan had so much fun this morning that she refused to take her morning nap.  So after lunch in an effort to get her to sleep Evan and I went for a walk with Aidan in the wagon.  She watched while Evan conducted tests of what objects would float in the mud puddles and ditches at the end of our lane.  She stayed awake the whole time.  Finally, the wind came up and Evan decided we needed to get back home.  When we got to the house she was still wide awake.  Granddaddy came out the back door headed to the mailbox and decided to pull her to the mailbox and back.  He didn't even make it to the mailbox before he heard her head hit the side of the wagon.  She was finally asleep. While she was asleep Evan and I played demolition derby with his hot wheels cars on my bed.  I never knew those cars would roll on a bed but they do, quite well!  Mama arrived a little after  4 to find Evan on the couch with me hiding under the cover, Aidan on top of the cover eating a banana and Mimi exhausted!  And, guess what, school is closed tomorrow so we get to have this fun all over again!  Yeah!  I think!

Rain, Beds and Awards

We have had a few rainy days in a row.  Since we can't get outside like we usually do Granddaddy and Aidan have discovered some new ways to entertain themselves.  One of their new activities is "helping" to put clean sheets on the bed.  Their way of helping is to play "Where's Aidan" as we put the sheets on the bed.  

When the Where's Aidan game got old,  Granddaddy invented another game. Just watch!

Aidan loves to go outside and is missing her daily rides in her little red wagon. She spent quite a bit of time up on the back of our couch gazing out at the rain and wishing she could go out.

When she noticed that I was trying to take a picture of her she gave up gazing out at the rain to come after the camera. This is the shot I got of her trying to get to me to get the camera.

Evan is the top reader of all the kindergarten students at Jeff Davis Primary.  As a result, he was invited to the Board of Education meeting on Monday to receive an award.  

Here he is waiting patiently for the meeting to begin.

And this is his baby sister waiting patiently for the meeting to begin!  She "talked" during the prayer, the pledge and part of the meeting.  We're going to have to work on her behavior in public!

 Dr. Brown, superintendent of Jeff Davis County Schools awarded Evan his certificate for earning 204 points in the Reading counts program.

 Evan with his certificate.

Of course the whole family had to attend the Board meeting to see him get his certificate.  Even Aunt KK made it.

Evan Goes to the Circus

Billy and I took Evan to the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus in Savannah for a special treat.  Evan was excited about his first circus.  The night before he told us we might should leave as soon as it got daylight. Granddaddy told him to just call us when he got up and got ready.  Thankfully, it was around 10 am when he called to say he was ready.   When we arrived to pick him up he was all ready to go and dressed in his monster jacket which he thought was great for the circus.  Evan sat in the back seat and read all the way to Pooler, GA where we stopped for lunch.

.
We ate at  Mellow Mushroom, one of Evan's favorite places to eat. The Mellow Mushroom in Pooler is brand new and was decorated perfectly for little boys.  When we walked in the front door there was a giant Transformer.

Spiderman was crouched on the ceiling right above our table.

And a giant Ironman outside the front door.  Evan had to pose just like Ironman for this picture.

Evan thought this was the coolest Mellow Mushroom restaurant EVER!

We arrived at the circus an hour early so that Evan could see the animals and performers backstage.  He got to see the camels, horses and ponies along with a mini show by some of the performers.  He perched atop granddaddy's shoulders for a better view.  Poor Granddaddy...that's 50 pounds sitting on his shoulders!

We registered Evan for a chance to win an elephant's footprint and got a free clown nose.  Then, of course, he spotted the cotton candy, which came with a clown hat, and had to have some.  He took one bite and hated it so Granddaddy enjoyed the cotton candy while Evan had fun with the hat and his clown nose.  He perfected a magic trick in which he put his clown nose on and then put the hat over his face and shook his head so that the nose fell off in the hat.  When we got home "Evan the Awesome" had to perform the trick for his parents.  He had granddaddy announce him and used the fireplace as the stage for his performance. His parent's were truly amazed by his performance!  

We asked Evan what his favorite act at the circus was and he said the motorcycle act. Granddaddy and Mimi totally agreed.  The act had 3 motorcycles going around in a steel ball all at the same time.  It was truly amazing.  His second favorite act was the trampoline act with the clown.

Before heading home, we stopped at Evan's second favorite (and Mimi's least favorite!) place to eat, Burger King, for some supper.  Evan got a crown there and on the way home he had the hood to his jacket, his clown hat and the crown on his head...all at one time!  We left one excited little boy with his parents around 8 o'clock that night.  I'm glad we weren't the ones who had to calm him down enough to go to bed!