we started the month celebrating our friend Henry's (far right in blue shirt) 7th birthday at Stars and Strikes with bowling, arcade fun, and wild kratts cake.
he was excited to grab this 100 ticket ring with THE CLAW
Dr. Seuss's birthday celebration at Target-reading a dr. seuss book that (surprise) we had actually never heard before and a little coloring
Carter's choir singing in church
Dawson's choir singing in the next service
Clayton cracks us up. He confuses the word ROBE with ROPE and so he calls his robe his JUMP ROBE
So funny, but oh so cute when he wears it. Little man.
The boys ready for class picture day.
Dr. Seuss silly sock day
I made these socks for Dawson when he was in preschool, and either he or Carter has had at least one reason to wear them every single year since! SO funny
Dawson's class did a crawfish activity for the month of March. Here he is with one of the class crawfish. His teacher sent this picture and it was also (obviously) hat day.
Both big boys sang in the Ash Wednesday service
We said goodbye to the trusty ol' Jeep this month. We had this Jeep since before Dawson was born...so just over ten years.
John's excited for his new ride...
And here it is
Now we have two vehicles that we can all six ride in! YAY!
With no help or input from me (or me even knowing about it until after he had done it)-Dawson fixed a toy that wasn't lighting up anymore. He came in the kitchen and showed this to me-he had taken the inside wiring out which is what he's holding here demonstrating how it lights up again now that he fixed it. Then he put it back together. I love this smart boy and his Mr. Fix It attitude..he reminded me of his Pop in this because Pop would always take things apart and could fix them too!
I ended up with a really nasty cold early in the month, so one weekend John took the kids out bowling while I rested...they took this sweet selfie at the bowling alley.
apparently Clayton was really interested in having the hand dryer dry his hair! HAH!
My two brown eyed C's matching before church one Sunday
Pretty excited to have me put her hair in French braids for the first time in a while, and she requested I take her picture. Look at that face!
Dawson's art got selected to be in the county's art show this month! We were all excited to attend the art show and see his work! Dawson's always loved art, and this was a big deal for him. The art show was all the way at Elkmont, so we took a little road trip for the show.
And we had to stop by the red caboose in Elkmont after the art show...and eat dinner there too.
Nora Kate had her friend Annie over to spend the day with us one Wednesday. We went on a walk and they held hands on their own-sweet friends!
the girls goofing off on our walk
lunch on the patio
Annie and Nora Kate expect to get to bake together every time they're at our house...this time we made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
The day before Clayton's birthday party, he helped bake his cake. Look at that sweet, excited face!
The first day of spring break 3/16, we had Clayton's birthday party, so it was a fun filled day! His party will be detailed in a separate posting.
Then the second day of spring break was St. Patrick's Day...
On St. Patricks day we started the day with lucky charms and green eggs!
we made lots of st. patricks day artwork
We wore our green!
Went fishing in the neighborhood
Gave ourselves green manicures
Went on a leprechaun scavenger hunt!
Then the third day of spring break-
We went to the library to check out books and movies.
Work puzzles...
play on the computers there...
Then we had a surprise daytime visit from Daddy in a slingshot! They were thrilled! Everyone took turns trying on the helment.
Nora Kate was beyond thrilled to have her brothers home for the week!!!
These two have such a special relationship-they were hilarious together all week.
Then that night we checked out a new fishing spot in Mooresville on the lake.
we stayed until after dark...that's the moon!
We left the inflatable up in our backyard for about half of spring break. It provided hours of entertainment for all 4 kids every day. On day 4 of spring break they spent a ton of time outside and Dawson and John built a rocket which we launched later in the week when it wasn't 20mph wind!
Day 5 of spring break we went to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens opening day of The Wild Chinese Lantern Festival. SO cool! It was slightly chilly that morning requiring hoodies, but by the time we left it was perfectly comfortable!
Clayton's one lucky kid-he has the best siblings! The boys got so much joy out of pushing him on the swings at the Gardens. So much giggling.
That night we put our two year old baby boy to bed for the last time because in the morning he would wake up THREE!
final pics as a two year old
Presents before breakfast!
His requested three pancake breakfast with a candle for his birthday breakfast
(this was also day 6 of spring break)
for the day we went to the Space and Rocket Center
Dawson rocked the rock wall! The higher one is him!
These three were all giggles on the kid rides.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch outside with the rockets
Then for dinner we went to BJ's Brewhouse.
Yummy food and they presented Clayton with this dessert! He was so excited!
Day 7 of Spring Break, John took the day off work. He took the big three to Top Golf which is always a huge hit while I spent a little special (rare) one on one time with Clayton.
Then the long awaited rocket launch! This was so cool! We have video which I need to upload from John's phone, but John and Dawson built this rocket on Tuesday and we launched it Friday night...so cool! Everyone loved it.
Then as the perfect last two day of Spring Break we took a little weekend trip-
We went to Chattanooga. The first stop-Waffle House, the kids think no vacation can be complete without a on the road stop at Waffle House.
Then on to Point Park on Lookout Mountain. The views were spectacular! Unbelievable! We even learned a little history there too.
Every picture I have of the big boys near the cannons they are on the ground or mid fall...it was apparently hilarious to look in the cannon and pretend it shot them down....over and over...meanwhile, if you can see Clayton, he's behind the cannon making firing noises "pew! pew!" Oh! boys!
The kids will probably remember this as the park where I constantly told them to be careful. Whew all the cliffs made me a little nervous with this rowdy bunch.
But it was worth the views!
Such a fun family weekend in Chattanooga!
Hiking around at Point Park
Leaving Point Park
Nora Kate liked how it looked like a castle!
learning a little history
Then we had a picnic lunch before heading to Ruby Falls!
John and I hadn't been to Ruby Falls since my parents took us when we were in high school, and we both agreed that the falls had way more water than we remembered. Rainfall does impact the falls so all the rain lately made the falls very impressive!
in the cave heading to the falls
One of the kids' biggest highlights from our Chattanooga trip was cardboard box sledding...seriously! At Ross Landing we stopped to cardboard sled TWICE during our weekend there. They would have done this for hours...so cool!
John found a great hotel for us where we were less than half a mile to the aquarium so we walked everywhere which the kids also liked. Each time we walked back to our hotel the kids requested to stop at the playground on the river and/or cardboard sled.
Sunday morning we headed to the Chattanooga Aquarium.
SO FUN!
The penguins were really rowdy! I've never seen penguins so lively!
Touching a sea urchin
In between the Ocean Aquarium building and the River Aquarium we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and caught part of the Tennessee Basketball Game. One thing I had really wanted to do while in Chattanooga was to walk over the Walnut Pedestrian Bridge to Coolidge Park. It's the longest pedestrian bridge in the US. The weather was perfect. I offered to John if he wanted to stay at the restaurant and finish watching the game while we went on this little excursion which he was pretty excited about. This was quiet the walk and Clayton was such a trooper. Actually I have to point out that he was amazing the entire trip. He loves to walk instead of ride the stroller lately, and we decided to not take the stroller to the aquarium. We knew it was a risk, but also knew between the two of us we could take turns carrying him. When he wants to be out exploring things like we knew he would at the aquarium, the stroller ends up being a hassle. He walked sooooo much this entire weekend, but especially this day we went to the aquarium and across the bridge and back. He did awesome. But back to my point-here we are about to walk across the bridge...
And on the other side. That's the bridge in the background. Coolidge Park was beautiful!
When NK realized we had to walk back across the bridge (which she realized right before we took this picture hah!) she was less than thrilled, but they really did have a fun time on this adventure!
Then we got John from the restaurant-and Tennessee had won the bball game!- and headed back to the aquarium. Clayton's very favorite thing from the second half of our day were the turtles! We got to feed them lettuce and he absolutely loved the turtles!
We had promised the kids a very special ice cream treat of Marble Slab before leaving Chattanooga, but Clayton insisted he wanted this giant sucker instead of ice cream, so we said yes. After a few mins in the car on the way back to Alabama, I looked back and saw he had fallen asleep with the sucker...I know, I know, not the best dental practice! I took the sucker and he woke up and was awake the rest of the ride home so that he could get his sucker back!
Clayton's a great traveler anymore. He's really flexible about skipping his nap and not being crabby. It's really great!
The Monday after Spring Break seemed kind of lacking. We had had such a fun weekend in Chattanooga and such a fun week with the boys home. We headed to the playground to find some fun!
One day this month, I told Clayton to lay in bed while I went to look for his blankie so I could tuck him in. When I came back in, he had on sunglasses. SO funny! Guess he's too cool for sleep!
We've had lots of lunches outside...
Caught a sweet hug between these two during one lunch.
Clayton's got it made!
Neighborhood playground fun!
Friday night fishing in our neighborhood
Here are a few more pictures from our Spring Break visit to the Botanical Gardens that got a little out of order-
Whew, what a great month!
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