3 Hairies?

Zachary spent an evening at Emma's house over the weekend. The next day, he kept asking me about "beauty & the 3 hairies." At first, I assumed he was talking about Beauty & the Beast, but we couldn't figure out the 3 hairies.
So, I kept asking about more characters in the movie. (Yes, it would have been much easier to call Emma's mom and just ask her...but where's the challenge in that?! This is a real-life opportunity to incorporate the game Cranium into my every day living!) After a few funny exchanges between a literal-thinking toddler and his determined-to-get-this mom, I finally figured it out - Sleeping Beauty!

I thought you might enjoy his descriptions of the characters:
Princess Aurora - "Beauty, Nice Young Lady, Nice Girl"
Prince Charming - "Man & a horse"
Malificient (the witch) - "Black lady with a pink face and turns into a purple dinosaur"
3 Fairies - "3 Hairies"

And you might enjoy the frustration Todd felt as he went get videos for our plane trip to Arizona. I know he was very disappointed that his son's first choice was Sleeping Beauty !

Baseball Game

Over the past year, we've been anxiously awaiting the completion of a brand new Triple-A baseball stadium 2 miles from our house! We had GREAT seats - we're sharing 4 season tickets with several other Edward Jones families. This weekend was our first game and we had the best time! It was 85 with a nice breeze.

PANDA had a good view too!:

Below is a picture of the mascot "Chopper" (the team is the Triple-A team for the Atlanta Braves...you know, the "Tomahawk Chop?"). And the kids LOVED LOVED Chopper. Allie would laugh and point and yell. In this picture, Chopper is standing on the home team dugout, and you can also see home plate behind him. Like I said, we had good seats.

See how Allie's pointing at Chopper? So fun!!:

Beautiful baby girl -

Brand New Park

There is a great new park near our house. We've gone many times over the past week and the kids LOVE it. I'm so grateful the weather is officially warm now.

The park is fairly modern - this is the merry-go-round. It moves because of gravity, instead of someone having to push around & around. Very different than the ones I rode as a kid!:

A drink with jam & bread...

We've been listening to the soundtrack to the movie, The Sound of Music. Zachary has learned a few of the songs and let me tape him singing last week. Super cute!!

Silly Baby Allie

Allie makes me laugh! It is just fun to watch her play, especially outside. She loves this little cart. She pushes the cart up & down, back & forth across the yard. Sometimes she climbs inside and waits for someone to come push her in the cart. SO cute!

Love, the specific kind

Zachary: "Mommy, I love you more than panda bear!"
Mommy: "Wow, thank you! That is very special!"
Daddy: "What about me?"
Zachary: "No, not more than panda bear. Just mommy."


****

Zachary: "Mommy, I love you somuch." (In Zacharese, "somuch" is 1 word.)
Mommy: "I love you too, buddy."
Zachary: "But sometimes you aren't nice."
Mommy: "That's true. Sometimes I have to be mean because you are not listening to mommy. I'm teaching you because I love you."
Zachary: "But I love you when you are nice. Not when you are mean."

Skatin' Rink

As part of my 30th birthday (later this month) celebration, I wanted to go roller skating. It was really fun!! I love roller skating!

Zachary met a new little friend on the indoor playground. She was so sweet. She'd hold his hand on the slides & he just followed her around. I love watching him interact with the other kids. He's still talking about "the friend at the skating place..."

Pictures

A, Z & the Zoo

For Zachary's 3rd birthday, we took him to the zoo. In order to celebrate with everyone in our families, we went on Saturday over Easter weekend. Mimi, Grandad, Grammy, Grandpa, Aunt Meredith, Aunt Shell, Aunt Jen, Unkie Dan & Unkie Ryan were ALL with us!
It was chilly outside, but Zachary had a great time.
As usual, he established a little routine. At each animal exhibit, he'd look for a few minutes and then turn around & say, "OK, let's go see some more cool stuff!" So funny!

And, he really got into the whole "map" thing. A zoo map is easy for a kid to figure out. They just have to find the shape of the animal and then look for the one next to it. This was super cute.

Allie has started the funniest little quirk. She will hold her arm up in the air and point her index finger. I can just imagine her saying, "I have a declaration..."

I got some good pictures of Zach's reactions...

Zachary was very hesitant about the Merry-go-round. After 1 anxiety-ridden trip around, he decided it was ok. So, he hopped onto Mr. Giraffe for trip #2. Much better!

rofl

Zachary is a great combination of both myself and Todd, especially in his facial features. There are some pictures of me at his age where he looks just like me, though. I showed him one of those pictures today and I said, "Who is this?"
He looked at the picture for a long time. With a puzzled look, his answer was, "That's Zachy when he was a little girl!"

Happy Easter!

We had a very busy Easter weekend!!
Here are our Easter Sunday family pictures -