Here they come....

the terrible two's are among us...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!!! Chloe has been dabbling in them for a while (climbing into/onto things, throwing things when she doesn't get her way, destroying everything in her path, etc.). Well, it has gotten really bad over the past five days. The following is a series of pictures taken when I told her she couldn't watch Mickey Mouse on television:

And she can turn it off like a switch when I push play on the DVD player and Mickey Mouse comes on the screen...

Gatti Town

January 9, 2009---Anna Catherine received her report card on Thursday and had wonderful grades. She has mastered everything she needs to know in kindergarten thus far (except tying her shoes, which is our fault--slip on shoes are so much easier). She is also in the highest reading group for her class and is in the highest reading level for kindergarten. Anna Catherine also had excellent comments about her behavior at school. Jackson has received a stamp/sticker on his had every day of preschool since the end of November. We wanted to reward them for their achievements so we took them to Gatti Town.

This was our first visit to Gatti Town. It is a chain restaurant similar to Chuck E. Cheese because it has pizza, games, tickets, and prizes. (http://www.gattispizza.com/) Gatti Town's layout is different though. The buffet, three eating areas, and birthday room are completely separate from the play area. When you enter the building you are in line to pay for the buffet. Even if you don't want to eat, you have to pay to get in. The prices were very reasonable (ages 3 and under are free so we only had to pay for three people). There is a very large buffet with a salad bar, soup, baked potatoes, bread sticks, cheese sticks, spaghetti, alfredo, mac-n-cheese, at least ten different kinds of pizza, brownies, banana pudding, three types of dessert pizza, various fountain drinks, water, and tea. Quite a selection for $7 per adult and $4 for AC.

We also purchased Anna Catherine and Jackson a game card. I like keeping up with the card much better than the tokens and Chuck E. Cheese (C.E.C.). You select the amount of money you wish to put on the card. Game prices ranged from $0.25 to $2.00. You swipe your card at each game and the amount is deducted from your card. Most of the games gave out tickets based on your scores (same as C.E.C.). You did have to hold onto your winnings until you wanted to take them to the "ticket eater machine". You feed your tickets into the machine and it counts them. After you've fed in all of your tickets, you swipe your card and your number of tickets is saved onto the card. You card in multifunctional. It holds the monetary amount that you load onto the card and it keeps track of your total number of tickets. You can add more money to the cards anytime you wish. This system allows you to make several trips to Gatti Town, rack up a lot of points, and maybe, just maybe, you'll eventually have enough ticket points to get a decent prize. I now have two Gatti Town cards in my wallet to use whenever we get the urge.

Anna Catherine made a mask in art class and insisted on wearing it for dinner. You should have seen the stares, glares, ans gasped when people saw her. There were times that Rick and I were laughing so hard we were crying. It reminded me of the kid in line behind Ralphie to see Santa in "A Christmas Story"--the one with the aviator goggles on---and it reminded me of #4 on "Multiplicity". We convinced her to take the mask off when we got to the gameroom. (Notice AC's new short haircut. Isn't it CUTE!!!!)

The first thing Anna Catherine wanted to do was ride the Frog Hopper. Jackson wasn't brave enough. I think he was mainly overwhelmed by the whole game area.

The kids wanted to bowl next but all of the lanes were full so we moved on to air hockey. There were two tables and one happened to be open. Jackson absolutely loved it! He didn't understand the scoring though. Every time the puck was on his end he knocked it into his goal. He would get so excited and do a little dance. I tried to explain that he didn't want the puck to go into his goal but he didn't want to hear it. We played three or four games of air hockey.

We walked away, came back to the air hockey tables, and only one was available. I told Anna Catherine and Rick they could have a turn since we had already played. You can tell by the look on Jackson's face that he was NOT happy to be sharing the table!

There were many arcade type games throughout the midway: games where you drive cars or motorcycles (can you tell I'm not a gamer--I give terrible names/descriptions to games), skeeball, basketball toss, "the claw" where you try to win a stuffed animal, various video games, a mini carousel, and many games for little kids. There were several Deal or No Deal and Wheel of Fortune games too. There was a huge line of want-to-be players/gawkers surrounding the machines so I didn't get the chance that night. I want to try those out sometime.

Rick was able to snatch a lane for bowling. This game was a contender for favorite game of the night. It is a "bowling alley" for children consisting of four lanes with bumpers up (and Anna Catherine still managed to get three gutter balls). The lanes are narrow and short and the balls were light with no finger holes. We only allowed the kids to play two games because there were people waiting to play.

Jackson wanted to try the Frog Hopper and Anna Catherine had no problem riding again with him. I thought he might get scared because he's never been on any rides other than a carousel and bumper cars before. He thought it was fun.

There were still several things we wanted to do like ride the bumper cars and the roller coaster simulator. And I'm sure the kids would not have complained if we had offered to let them make another round through the game area. But we had used all of the money on our cards and Gatti Town would be closing in 35 minutes. Oddly enough, the kids understood and didn't complain or throw any fits. We cashed in our tickets, each child picked a prize, and he went back for a last chance trip over the buffet. Surprisingly, they were still putting out fresh food. I was afraid we would be left with cold, hard pizza rejects. Everyone had a delicious "bedtime snack" and then we went home. Our first Gatti Town trip was a complete success!! Our stomachs were full, the kids (and the adults) were worn out from all the fun, and everyone went to sleep without any fuss once we were home. I believe we will be making many more trips to Gatti Town!!

pine cone feeder update

Apparently the birds and squirrels LOVE the pine cone feeders. Anna Catherine has made three sets and needs to do a fourth. She makes about six at a time. I was able to catch a squirrel in action one day.

Christmas in Pontotoc

November 29, 2008---Your eyes are not deceiving you---the date is correct---we had Christmas in Pontotoc in November. It was the only time everyone's schedule allowed us to get together. We left North Carolina the Friday after Thanksgiving and drove to Pontotoc. Thanks to Rick's blackberry and updates from Brady, Kevin, and Ryan we were able to keep up with the Ole Miss vs. State football game. Obviously, by now everyone knows that the Rebs kicked some Bulldog booty!!! It rained the entire 10 hour drive to P-town. It was the first all of us had been back since we moved. We crashed at Grandmother and Granddaddy's house then woke up bright and early Saturday morning to start cooking.

My immediate family always comes to my parents' house for Christmas. By "immediate family" I mean my parents, my brother and his family, his two best friends, Jerry and Sam, and their families, my cousin Jessie and her family, and my cousins Emily, Nicole, Laken, Tyler, and Mackinsey. We have had a variety of Christmas meals over the years. We tried the traditional ham, dressing, and all the sides. We wanted to make it more simple so we tried cooking a huge breakfast with just about every breakfast food you can imagine. That was okay. For the past three or four years we've had a buffet of indoor "tailgating" type foods: soups, chili, appetizers, chips and dips, and at least five different desserts. This option has worked well for us. Everyone brings a dish or two or four, a drink, and a hearty appetite.

The 18 year olds and under exchanged gifts and then everyone just did whatever. It was a nice day so the kids were able to play outside. The adults just chatted and watched some football. It was good to see everyone. We drive back to Madison Saturday afternoon. We were exhausted after our six-days of travels and had to get home to ready ourselves for the upcoming week.

Christmas with Mimi

December 26, 2008-January 1, 2009---Mimi was able to come in from Denver for the holidays. We picked her up from the Jackson Metro Airport the day after Christmas. The kids were very excited on the ride over.

We were able to find one of the last three parking spots in the parking lot!! And it was on the back forty of the airport campus. Seriously!! We were on the last row facing the entrance to the airport. There were several vehicles that had nowhere to park. We got to the baggage claim area about five minutes before Mimi's plane landed. Jackson had fallen asleep in the van and stayed asleep in the stroller. Chloe was happy playing with her new Gabba Gabba figurines and Anna Catherine spent the time listening to Taylor Swift on her new mp3 player. You can see from our clothing, especially Anna Catherine's spaghetti strap dress that it was a warm day--try 78 degrees--in DECEMBER--CRAZY!! Jackson woke up as the baggage conveyor belt started up and I was able to catch the startled look on his face.

Later that evening we exchanged gifts from Mimi, Uncle Cliff, and Miss Amanda.

I'm sure you've noticed Chloe wearing these pajamas in many, many pictures. They are her favorite and she insists on wearing them all the time. She also insists on having a bow in her hair because she thinks they look pretty. I didn't want you to thing I make her wear bows to bed.

On Saturday we took the kids to the Mississippi Natural Science Museum. It was our first visit there and it is a very nice facility. We chose to go now because they had a dinosaur exhibit and you know we have to go to every dino event possible!! The museum had five animatronic dinos, fossils, skeletons, and a pretend fossil dig. This was a traveling exhibit. The museum is located in Jackson in LeFleur's Bluff State Park and has over two miles of outdoor trails through "wooded bluffs, river bottoms, lakes, ans scenic swamplands" allowing you to see Mississippi wildlife in their natural habitats. You are warned to stay on the path and even while on the path you must watch for snakes. The signs said to keep your children with you at all times and not to let them run ahead. I was freaking out every time Anna Catherine and Jackson got a few feet ahead of us. It was another 75 degree day so I knew the critters weren't hibernating. Luckily, we only saw birds while outdoors. Indoors they have permanent exhibits with all displays focused on animals from Mississippi: extinct species, endangered species, waterfowl, aquarium tanks of various live fish, snakes, alligators, and turtles found throughout the state. There were also several taxidermy animals (fox, cougar, bear, birds, etc.).

Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Ichiban. We took Anna Catherine to a Japanese steak house when she was around 18-24 months old and she loved it. We've not taken all three to one until this day. The kids were tired from playing at the museum but they were very well behaved. I was nervous about them sitting only a few feet from a hot flaming grill but there were no casualties--WHEW!! Everyone knows what a picky eater Jackson is. The only thing he would eat on the menu was salad and wanted to eat with chopsticks. Well, believe it or not, he was successful!! Then he insisted that I eat my food with chopsticks. It wasn't that hard...maybe I wasn't using them correctly. I am the most uncoordinated person in the world and I was able to get food into my mouth. Eating with chopsticks can't be that easy!

WOW!!!!

Anna Catherine was very tired but the flames also gave her quite a scare.

That night Rick, Mimi, and the kids got to work on a gingerbread house kit that Mimi had brought. Thanks to Carrie's warning I knew it would take two days to make it. They assembled it Saturday night and put it in the freezer to harden. On Sunday they decorated it and put it back in the freezer to set.

Chloe's contribution was eating the gumdrops.

On Monday Jackson and Anna Catherine took turns hitting it with a kitchen mallet until they broke it into pieces.

On Tuesday we went to the Davis Planetarium to see the "Dinosaurs Alive!" movie. It was odd watching a 50 minute documentary on the ceiling. I got quite dizzy because parts of it seemed 3D (similar to an IMAX). At one point Jackson was holding onto my arm asking me not to let the dinosaurs eat him. He like the dino action scenes but didn't care for the paleontology parts explaining how they discovered different artifacts. The kids liked the different astrological displays in the lobby of the planetarium. I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out. I do have two of the orbit demonstrator where you can put coins in and watch them circle the orbits. AC and Jackson were too impatient to watch the coins rotate and essentially threw their coins into the black hole.