grandparents day....

Friday was Grandparent's Day at Luke's school and the whole school put on different performances for the parents and grandparents. As the Pilgrims and Indians, the Young 5's class sang this song:



Now I put two videos on here. One of him singing at home so you can understand the words and one is him singing at school, which is a little hard to understand. Now at school it looks like he is not singing at first: his explanation was "they told me to sing and smile because they were going to be taking my picture so I was singing and smiling without moving my mouth." Ha ha!

halloween!....

The pre-trick-or-treat dinner: mummy dogs with "blood" ketchup, eyeballs (made with apple rings and raisins) and goblins mouths (snow pea pods with carrots "tongues")

the impatient, dynamic duo..

watch out joker!

first day of 5 yr old class...

Luke is starting a new class, a new school, and a new schedule this year. This will be his first all-day class and he was a little nervous but he is very confident now. It is a little weird to just drop him off and watch him walk into this giant school that goes up to 8th grade, but he is a pro now!

First day in his official uniform

First official day but had to wear his PE uniform that day...

Baby Fitts #3...

Yes it is official--come December 21 or so, we will be a family of 5! Luke and Henry are thrilled to be big brothers--well, as thrilled as you can be at 5 and almost 3 about what is at this point for them is an abstract idea. And just to break our usual pattern, we decided to find out the gender this time around and it is a....GIRL! So Cousin Elizabeth will finally have a girl cousin. Anatomically she looks beautiful and healthy: now to the hard part of names...So far Henry has come up with the best name suggestions: Baby Jesus and Baby No-one. Somehow I think we will keep thinking.

blueberry picking...

This morning we headed to Berry Patch Farm for some blueberry picking...and blueberry eating. As the kind lady said, we don't weigh you before and after; tasting is allowed.

Running to find the best bushes..

Picking some berries...

You taste one. No, you taste one!

Luke loved tasting each bush to make
sure it was a "good" bush of berries to pick from.

Push me, little brother, push me.

A bowlful of blueberries and a morning of fun for $2....not too shabby.

my lastest creations...

The last month or so of school, Luke's class has been making "inventions" out of recycled items. Judging by the amount of inventions brought home each day, I privately think the teachers were trying to get rid of their recycling items, but nonetheless, Luke really enjoyed sharing his creations everyday.

a submarine--with a strawberry container swimming pool, egg carton driver's compartment and a shampoo bottle smokestack. oh, and the piece of clementine netting? to catch fish of course!

my umbrella--out of a pizza box and a paper towel tube

Spring Sing

Luke and his Pre-K4 class had there Spring Sing last weekend. I have posted some video clips below for your enjoyment. And yes, the girl next to Luke has Yale Drama in her future...




Make sure to check out Luke's Rock Star move at the end. "Goodnight Alpharetta!"

wildlife...

Last Saturday while on walkabout in the garage as Henry and Mommy slept, Luke and I discovered a baby bird, which promptly ran under one of the cars. While crawling around on the floor trying to find it, something suddenly caught my eye......



Channeling our inner Crocodile Hunter, Luke and I quickly found a wooden pole and a threaded hook, which we fashioned into our own homemade snake handling tool. While our first attempt was a miserable failure, we regrouped, moved bikes, moved the van out and were able to locate our quarry once again. By now Mommy and Henry had awoken to provide us with an audience. Take 2 was a success, and we had finally captured the biggest (well ok, maybe not biggest) snake.



A quick trip to google filled in the blank, and we identified this as a totally non venoumous baby black rat snake, obviously a baby since the adults get closer to 8 feet. Once we knew he (or she) wasn't poisonous and enjoyed feasting on rodents (take that chipmunks!), we took a short walk to some nearby woods and set him free. Luke was sad to see him go as he had his sights set on keeping him as a pet, but we decided that wild animals were happier in the wild (and not in our house.) Oh, and by the way, the Black Rat snake is a prolific climber, easily scaling trees up to 40 feet, so next time you visit you might want to keep an eye on the sky....Yikes!

Big Brother

Luke has been quite the big brother lately; everything from bringing cookies from his snack at school home to Henry, making sure Henry stayed in line at the Braves game(see below), and reading to Henry whenever he gets a chance. This is where we found Luke and Henry one afternoon reading books in their "bear cave".

Next stop the big leagues....

Well it has been a baseball week around here. First on Wednesday Luke went to his first session of tee ball camp. What he lacks in skill, he makes up for in bravado, as the night before he asked "Why do I have to go to tee ball camp, I already no everything about tee ball". Mind you, he had put a glove on for the first time that afternoon.

Then on Sunday, Daddy and the boys headed out for lunch at The Varsity followed by a trip to Turner Field to watch the Braves Play. It turns out that on Sunday the kids get to run the bases. Make sure to check out the video to see what a great big brother Luke was in keeping Henry in line, as parents were not allowed to stay in line with the kids. And then to top it all of, the kids were very excited that they got free shirts from "Mommy's Work" as CHOA was the shirt sponsor, and their logo was on the back.

growing up fast....

So today, the boys and I were in the Target and Luke looked at me and smiled. That's when I realized that something was missing--yes, a tooth. He has lost his first tooth (and the one next to it will be next soon.) He had no idea and the tooth is nowhere to be found so I suspected that it went down the hatch with this morning's oatmeal. We will have to leave the tooth fairy a note and hope she understands....

Snaggle tooth

More of the same, but I love Henry's face as he hangs onto the cart for dear life!

smarty pants....

At school, Luke's class has been tasked with memorizing, first their phone number, and now their address. I was astonished when Luke told me, "I already know my phone number" and proceeded to rattle it off, area code and all. My only guess as to how he learned it was to hear me give to other people over and over again. So with that, he was the first in his class to get a phone call at home from his teacher as a reward.

Well, smarty pants Luke strikes again and has become the first in his class to receive a postcard from his teacher as a reward for memorizing his address, including zip code! This is the picture on the front of the postcard of him holding a sentence strip with his address on it in front to the playhouse at school. Next? He has already got Mommy's and Daddy's cell phone numbers (he called daddy at work the other day to ask if we could get ice cream this weekend, then handed me the phone--surprise!) so I guess we'll move on to everyone's phone number--watch out for random calls from Luke!

snow days...

Really more sheet of ice..

Crunching our way through..

Henry's thoughts on snow:
"I go inside Mommy. Too cold and too messy!"

Quick snowman pictures with Henry, then ran back in...

the proud co-builder!

snow!!!!

The great storm of 2011, as it is overdramatically being called, brought 7 inches of snow and ice to our yard and Luke is in heaven. He loves snow and building snowmen and when the older kids down the street let Luke take a turn on their sled...well, see for yourself.

christmas #3....

The third Christmas this year was at Mimi and Big Pop's house. The boys were excited to see Aunt Bethie and Uncle Brad, whom we have not seen in a long time. Here are a few pictures:

Strong ankles...

You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain....

Static electricity is fun!

At Mimi's school playground...

Although why play on a playground when there is a perfectly good
blow-over trash barrel to play with? Ah boys...

Presents!!

Books with Mimi

Ok, this is one of the favorite games for some reason: They are
trapped in a cave and have to climb and dig their way out.

Here is Luke's version of trapping Uncle Brad in...