First Zoo Trip

In my last post I mentioned the "LUCK" of having had such gorgeous weather for the St. Patrick's Day Parade...well, the luck continued into this week and so we took full advantage of it.  It is time to introduce Jackson to our long standing tradition of the monthly zoo trip!!!  After the first months of his life, carefully tucking ourselves inside our home to help prevent serious illnesses that can be associated with "winter babies" (and thank goodness all was well!), it was time to air ourselves out!  What better place than the zoo?

It was a fun day, slow and easy, we didn't over do it.  Jackson slept through a lot of the jaunt, but it was wonderful having him with us.  The last visit we made to the zoo, for the Christmas celebration, he was nearly here but the trip was hard on me.  Now, I've got all my boys. 

What a fun first trip!

Lynn

Overnight adventure

I fondly remember fort-building...I had a canopy bed that begged for a blanket to be draped from the four posters. Often I threw them up and over, linking to any piece of furniture or tall item that might add some height and off I went into another world. So, when McKinley began expressing an interest in forts I was all about it.

Today I promised McKinley a little surprise after he picked up his toys and went forward constructing two forts in his room. He loved it. Played inside for quite a while. When bedtime came he asked if he could sleep in the fort. Cary and I both agreed but didn't think it would fly.

We were wrong!

Cary put him to bed while I fed Jackson, when I peeked around the corner I was so surprised to find McKinley sound asleep inside his little fort...toys and books all around him. The picture of childhood.

I love it.
Lynn

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

The Luck of the Irish was on our side on this gorgeous day, it topped in the mid 70's today...in March!  It was sunny, gorgeous, perfect day for a parade!

This year I was lucky (ha!) enough to be co-room mom with a friend, she and I put together a really fun parade with the help of Cary and Miss Kymberli & Miss Lori.  The kids had a blast at their St. Patrick's Day Party in school and were such good sports donning their Leprechan beards made by Alice and me.  Cary had the day of the party off from work so the whole family was able to attend this very fun day.  Cary and I helped the kids with the party craft and enjoyed taking lots of pictures.

After the party, we were hard at work crafting a rainbow made from pool noodles.  Yes, you read that right.  A pool noodle rainbow.  We had Jackson in the stroller, napping peacefully and McKinley bouncing back and forth between helper and the backyard playtime of a 4 year old.  I'm quite certain our neighbors spent some time at their windows wondering what on Earth we were up to now...those crazy Vernon's are always up to something!

Anyway, we finished it and it is pretty fabulous!  We got a good night's sleep and then were up and at 'em bright and early for the Irish Dash.  Mom, McKinley and I participated.  I say participated because we didn't run.  Ha!  McKinley and I had recently recovered from a respiratory infection, I'm still recovering from the C-section and Mom was trying to keep us going.  Clearly, Cary should have been doing this too, but he was home taking good care of Jackson and that is great! 

After McKinley received his medal, we rushed back home to prep for the parade.  We had to be there early, deliver the rainbow to the owners of the truck we were using, get lined up, painted, dressed in all our green and open those crazy candy bags!  Like clockwork everything came together.  The truck looked great and was made even better by our precious preschoolers.  Cary, Mom, Jackson and I walked while McKinley rode in the back part of the way, walked and threw candy some as well (especially when he saw Savannah...he had to get out!).  Many of our friends came to watch again and McKinley was so excited!  I think I say it every time but what an awesome opportunity to be a part of a parade!

That evening we were supposed to go to the annual party, then to our friends' home.  However, we got home from the parade, the four of us cuddled up in our bed and fell asleep for four hours!  I woke up at 7pm, called our friends and apologized all over myself for sleeping so late.  We were done.  Awesome weekend but we. were. done.

Below are some of my favorite photos from the two day celebration. 

 

We love wearin' our green!

Lynn