Daddy is HOME!!!!!!!!!!!

So wonderful news, David is HOME!!!!!!!  We are so excited.  I didn't tell the boys that he was coming home so it was a complete surprise!!   They thought it was still another two weeks.

His first look up and not knowing who is walking in the house.

Realizing it is Daddy!

And the leaping hug!!!  So heartwarming to see them reunited

Michael was still sleeping when David arrived, he woke up soon after, coming down the stairs and wondering why I have the camera.

Looking over and seeing Daddy and it was on, he ran to his dad!!

Running, jumping hug!!!  :-)

The boys didn't want to be separated from him, so they watched while he unpacked his stuff.

Then onto wrestling!!  They were so excited to be able to wrestle again!  Mommy said they are getting just too big to wrestle with her.

Daddy getting both of them - so many laughs and giggles going on!

Then came to jumping on Daddy.  I am so glad it is him and not me.  :-)

Michael in mid-air - I am not sure how much David could take, but he took a lot for his boys.

So I hadn't opened up my birthday presents since I knew David was coming home.  Well my parents found out how expensive ketchup is on the economy and how you don't get much when going to McDonald's etc.  They also know how I keep ketchup packets in my purse just for those times when I need ketchup.  So they were hilarious and sent me a large flat rate box full of ketchup packets!!!  We were all cracking up!!!  Then we headed to the BX for the boys to play, grab a few things and give David a little nap, only 40 minutes though.

Then on to roller skating, we were really trying hard to keep him awake so he could change time zones easier. 

My boys together again!!  That makes me so happy!!

 We are back together again too!!!  Loving it!!!  He made it for over an hour, then tapped out for another nap.  This one we gave him a little longer before I sent AJ out to wake him up.  The boys tried rollerblading this time and both of them were wonderful at it!!!  I was so impressed and it was their first time!

When we arrived home David helped AJ work on his space derby shuttle for cub scouts.  I can't tell you how glad I am about David being home to help out on this one, the pine wood derby car was hard enough.  ;-)

Then after dinner a rousing game of Tetris Jenga!  We had just bought it today and had to keep Daddy awake just a little bit longer.  It was fun and challenging and different.  We had a busy day and did really great keeping him up most of the day!  He was able to sleep all night!  We are all so happy that he is home, it was nice to see him before we left for school this morning!

Dr Seuss Week

The boys and I have been really busy these past couple of weeks.  This last week was Dr Seuss week at their school.  So of course there were lots of fun things going on!!

On Tuesday it was crazy hat day.  I was a little behind, but luckily his teacher had a few extra hats!  She is always so prepared!

Here they are walking around the court yard.  AJ's class wasn't able to make it because of a few different things that happen that day.

Then on Wednesday Michael became Thing 1 or is he Thing 2?

On Friday it was dress as your favorite character day.  So Michael wanted to be Cat in the Hat, with a little luck that I had a few things, I was able to make a bow tie and again Ms Mendoza came to the rescue with the hat!

This year Michael's teachers were dressing up as Truffala Trees from the Lorax.  They were nice enough to let me join!

Here we are with our Lorax!!!  Nobody knew who I was behind all that makeup, etc.  I only scared one kid that day.  I figured that was pretty good.  :-)  The fifth graders said they were scared of me, but I think that was more just messing around.

Michael's class did some fun centers that day, one was Bingo, another was creating their own Truffala tree, and of course there was one standing behind him - crazy teacher Ms Longo!

Friday night they had Dr Seuss Family Night.  We started out at the different centers while everybody else ate, it was really smart because there was lots of room there.  The kids were able to move around and do the different activities with ease.

Kind of like a cupcake walk, but they received Dr Seuss prizes!!

The boys loved this one!  It is called Ooblick!  Actually I thought it was really cool too!!!  It is a solid and liquid all at once.  It is only cornstarch and water.  Really cool experiment.

And of course the cupcake decorating station.  AJ was very sweet and at the end of the night he made me a cupcake also!

Then we headed back to the main cafeteria and were in for a show of....

Yertle the Turtle!  It was really cute.

The boys enjoying their green eggs and ham!  I think they are growing because they ate pizza before we got there and then they ate more there.  I am telling you, so much food for two boys.

After the show we had some rousing games of bingo!!  The boys were intently watching for their numbers.

AJ won the final game!!!  He was sooo excited!!!

Michael decorated his after bingo, right before everything was closing down.

I was able to get a picture of AJ with his hat at school.  We had such a great time and a fun week!!!  Also on a side note David is coming home tomorrow!!!  It is two weeks earlier than we thought and we haven't told the boys, he is surprising them tomorrow morning!!  I am so excited and can't even wait!!  That also means traveling will be back on!  ;-)

Weather Station

The scouts did a go see it on the 12th.  One of the dad's is a meteorologist and took us to where they do the weather for the military.

Of course before they go into the building and have to be quiet for awhile they played a rousing game of tag.  Make sure they get some energy out.  :-)

The boys getting their last talk before they head in.  They are working on a getting their weather belt loop. 

AJ was one of two that actually took notes and did what he was told to do.  I am so proud of him and how focused he was during the presentation.

The presentation and learning all about weather and terminology. 

After the slide show, he took us down to the floor where they do real time work.  What I didn't realize is that the people in the office pull 12 hour shifts and work around the clock, 365 days a year.  At this office they take care of the weather for all of Europe, Africa and Afghanistan.  They make sure pilots have up to date weather and keeps them and us updated with the weather.

They have about four or five different stations that all do different jobs. 

This was a big map showing weather, fronts, etc.  This is behind the commanders desk, the hub.

The boys and Sgt Koonz who took us through the whole tour.  It was a very interesting tour and AJ really enjoyed himself and said that maybe some day he might want to do some work with the weather.  That is another thing I love about the scouts, how it shows the boys so many different jobs and ideas.  We all had a great time and finished the night with a little Burger King and a rousing game of Kings in the Corner before heading to bed.

Sunny Days!!

We have been having such beautiful weather this past week!!  The sun has been shining and the temp getting up to 65 degrees or more.  On Sunday I decided there was no way we were staying in the house.  So after church and lunch we headed out to the park we like to call the "Duck Park," only because we can feed the ducks there.  There were a lot of people that had the same idea!

They have a few exercise stations there, here the boys are working on their abs.

This is one of my favorite toys at the park!!!  The boys really enjoy it too!!  They were on it for quite awhile.  There was another set of siblings on the other tire which is why they were sharing one.

Then the hamster wheel - one of my favorites because it gets a lot of energy out of them!!!

Though they found a new game to play, one of them gets the wheel going so fast that the other can grab on and go around on the outside.  There were lots of laughs and giggles on it!!  Boy do I love to hear those!

We headed off and found more fun things to play on and jump on!

We brought our baseball gloves and a ball and played a little bit of catch.  Unfortunately I had to let AJ use mine because his was too small for him from last year, so they had to go easy on me this time.  :-)

Their mode of transportation on this beautiful day!!!  And they were in a hurry to get to our next stop....

Yep ice cream!!!  It was way too nice of a day not to have ice cream!

We found a nice place to sit down and finish off their ice cream.

And yes back to the hamster wheel.  I just loved AJ's face!!  Pure joy!!

He had to get in on going around.  He was actually making it go fast enough, jumped off and made it around.  It was pretty impressive!  We had a wonderful day at the park and are enjoying the weather as much as we can everyday!