Quote of the Day (On Allergies)

Titus walked into my room this morning and proclaimed, "Mom, I'm having a heart attack of sneeezing!"

Interview With Titus and Audra

Several of my friends on Facebook did this interview with their kids and I was curious how Titus and Audra would respond. Their answers were pretty amusing:

1) What is something mom always says to you?
Audra: "I love you very much."
Titus: "Almost always you say, 'I love you.'"

2) What makes mom happy?
Audra: "Preferring other people, obeying Mommy, and obeying God."
Titus: "When we clean our room for you and when we surprise you."

3) What makes your mom sad?
Audra: "When we say bad things."
Titus: "When you slip and fall on the wet, soapy water that Audra spilled. Remember that?"
"When we don't be nice to each other."

4) How does your mom make you laugh?
Audra: "Tickle me."
Titus: "Tickle me. I'm very ticklish."

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Audra: "I don't know....Remember, you liked to play with your friend, Natalie. You guys liked to dance and play dress up."
Titus: "I don't know. You were very good as a child." (Apparently he didn't ask Richard or Rhea Lana their opinion on this one.)

6. How old is your mom?
Audra: "3 1/2 years old"
Titus: "21"

7.How tall is your mom?
Audra: "11 years old"
Titus: "Probably about to here!" (He said as he jumped and raised his hand as high as he could.)

8.What is your moms favorite thing to do?
Audra: "You like to...well, let's see here...go to the mall, and you like to love me and hug me."
Titus: "Be with me."

9. What does your mom do when you are not around?
Audra: "You like to stay where you are."
Titus: "Probably just go somewhere else."

10.If your mom becomes famous what will it be for?
Audra: "I don't know what famous means."
Titus: "Probably for taking care of your kids very well."

11. What is your mom really good at?
Audra: "You are good at getting exercise, and jumping on the trampoline, playing with me. You're good at fixing things."
Titus: "Cleaning the house." (Awesome. Just what I always wanted to be good at.)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Audra: "Well, you're not very good at riding my bicycle." (True.)
Titus: "Playing video games because you've never played them before." (Also true.)

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Audra: "I don't know."
Titus: "Umm...working? Sometimes you work at FAC." (FAC is Fayetteville Athletic Club. I think he means "working out.") :)

14. What is your moms favorite food?
Audra: "You like salad. When you were a little girl you liked pizza, just like me."
Titus: "I'm going to guess pizza or teriyaki chicken. It has a really good taste. I'm glad they made that in Japan. Maybe, we should move to Japan. It's very far away, but we could go in an airplane."

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Audra: "Well, you always serve me."
Titus: "When you do a really good job...like when you ride go-carts at Locomotion." (???)

16. If your mom was a cartoon character, who would she be?
Audra: "Mrs. Flintstone"
Titus: "Dora because she helps every animal in the forest."

17.What do you and your mom do together?
Audra: "Well, we always play with each other."
Titus: "Sometimes we ride go-carts together or read together." (I think he is talking about the go-cart I just bought for him at the sale. We've been taking walks around the neighborhood and they take turns riding the go-cart.)

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Audra: "We both have curly hair, Silly!" "We always love and kiss each other."
Titus: "We both like peperoni pizza." "Do you like to do crab races?" ("yes") "Then we both like to do crab races. We both like to go hiking."

19. How are you and your Mom different?
Audra: "Well, I don't spank you, but you spank me."
Titus: "You fall asleep quicker than I do."

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Audra: "You always tell me."
Titus: "Because you hug me and kiss and you say, "I love you" to me.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Audra: "Cause yesterday you kissed Daddy and I saw you. Remember?"
Titus: "That he likes to play with me."

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Audra: "Marketplace Grill and probably the park"
Titus: "The mall. In the summer you like to go to the pool."

Pinch Me, Please!

I just made reservation for Scott and I to go to the Turks and Caicos Islands to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary! Can someone, please, come pinch me?!?! We have never gone on a trip without our kids (and Titus is 6 years old) and we've definitely never traveled someplace like this! I am beyond excited!!! Here are some pictures of the Turks and Caicos Islands: http://www.turksandcaicostourism.com/

Spring Parade of Parks Tour

Spring is here! I am a sunshine and warm weather person, so I am so incredibly thankful for the weather today. It is amazing how quickly it changes my entire disposition and outlook on life in general! Scott is on a 7-day business trip to Indianapolis and Louisville, so I decided to fill our days with trips to the park!

MONDAY:

I fixed the kids hot cereal with bananas and blueberries for breakfast (a staple around here). Audra spontaneously went and got her doll's table for them to eat breakfast on and the kids all thought that was hilarious. I couldn't resist taking a picture of them cuddled around her little table enjoying breakfast together in a new way.

It's Monday, so we had homeschool to finish in the morning before we could go to the park. Here is a picture of Titus reading his guided reading book to Audra:
Justus didn't want to be left out, so he worked on his own project while Titus wrote his summary of "The Class Play With Mrs. Vanilla" and Audra drew her picture:

I laid these puzzles out along the kitchen floor to try to keep Justus occupied while Titus worked on his Math. He loves puzzles and I was surprised how quickly he was able to finish all four of them in a row. Hmmm. I need some new suggestions for things that will keep him entertained longer.

After school, lunch, and Justus' nap time we headed out to Johnson Park to enjoy the sunshine...

The kids all raced out of the car, into the park, and played for over 2 hours! Here are all three kids coming down the slide. Notice that Justus has no fear!

Who knew tether ball was so fun?!?! This kept Titus and Audra laughing for 20 minutes. I haven't seen tether ball (except at the end of Napoleon Dynamite) in 25 years...and I didn't think it was that interesting back then. Titus and Audra made me think I must have really missed out on something.
Woo hoo! Titus' favorite new swing trick!

Audra trying it out, too. Justus was content to sit in his swing and be pushed...for an hour! I honestly loved every minute of it, though. Being at a sunshiny park with laughing kids is one of the happiest places on Earth for me. Cheeseball, but true.
Okay, so Titus and Audra were climbing all over this playground equipment. My monkey...I mean baby...watched them climb this slide once and decided he would do it, too. Only he got stuck at this point. "Hep me, Momma! I tuck," he called. I ran to save him...but had to take a picture first! :)

TUESDAY:

After we picked Titus up from school at Providence, we headed to Rotary Park at Tyson Sports Complex. Another sunny day; another afternoon at the park!








Have I mentioned that this little boy has no fear? That he can climb anything? And that he just turned two in December?




WEDNESDAY:

My parents had planned to drive up for "Grandparents Are Grand Day" at Providence tomorrow. When they found out that Scott was out of town all week, they decided to come early and help me out. Hooray for awesome parents! I'm learning that parenting never ends.
Titus reading his guided reading book to Audra during homeschool. After homeschool was over, we went to Momma Z's for lunch (yummmmmy!) and then headed to the Tontitown Park to play. It is one of my favorite parks because it is large, it has sun & shade, and it has a large variety of old & new equipment to play on.
Gramps helping my determined little climber.

My other adventurous one going down the slide head first. She also loves to swing as high as she possibly can. She'll say over and over, "Higher Mommy, higher! Up to the clouds!"
Titus and me on the see-saw!
Gramps pushing all three on the swings! (There's Mimi at the table in the background enjoying a few minutes of rest.)

THURSDAY:

"Grandparents are Grand Day" at Providence. I heard someone was there taking pictures of the kids with their grandparents. I hope I'll get a copy. Titus was so proud to show Mimi and Gramps his school, his classroom, and introduce them to his friends!

FRIDAY:

Gramps spoiled us and made homemade biscuits, sausage, bacon, and eggs for breakfast every morning. All three kids loved helping him cut out the biscuits! Dad made breakfasts like this every morning when I was growing up...except when he made banana chocolate chip milkshakes for breakfast! (Doesn't that remind you of that Bill Cosby skit when he fed his kids chocolate cake for breakfast?) I guess he justified it because it had milk and bananas in it? :)

We took Titus to soccer practice, then headed out to the park one more time...

SATURDAY:

Mom and I spent the entire day doing cleaning projects around the house, so I don't have any pictures of that. My sweet Dad offered to take all three kids to Fun City and was gone for three hours. What a brave man! My sweet mother did laundry all four days to help me get caught up. I'm so thankful for their help this week and for the beautiful weather that allowed us to have so much fun! Thank you, Mimi and Gramps!

Scott gets home tomorrow. Yeah!