Fall Festival

 This was our one outing this weekend... St. Rose of Lima Fall Festival in Milton.  We relaxed most of the weekend and then decided to get out and do something fun today.  Let me just say I am glad we didn't set our expectations high!  The whole time we where there all I could think about was coming home to take a bath and especially scrub my feet. There were a few booths there with nothing too interesting, several food booths, some carnival rides and a "petting zoo".  Of course Grady wanted to see the animals in the petting zoo which consisted of a pig, three goats, a cow (I think?), a couple of rabbits, and turtles.  THRILLING!  The pig (named Bacon, who could have become a member of our family for a mere $30) would NOT stop jumping on me and rubbing its snotty, dirty snout all over my legs.  Grady especially enjoyed this, however it only enhanced my desire to come home and take a shower.  Who knew a pig even jumps???  The man told me if I quit backing away Bacon would stop because he thought I was playing. I guess I was sending the wrong signal.   Once I lured Grady out of the stink pit, we wandered around for a  few more minutes and I continued to observe outrageous clothing choices and lovely hair styles (mullets).  I tried to snap a few pictures of these people on the sly, but when your camera requires its own special bag, has a giant neck strap, and a lens that is 6 inches long, it's a little hard to be quick and secretive.  But, man, I REALLYwanted to get a shot of the tie dye shirt under the daisy duke jean overalls.  To be honest, I really felt silly for even bringing a camera and using it!  I only took a couple of pics...

And this is just hilarious to me... Grady likes to wear Mikey's tube socks with NOTHING else... and he pulls the socks all the way up to his heiny. He walks around like this all day. He is pretty much over the diapers. He is doing really great with using the potty (or the grass!), so I am ok with letting him go diaperless! He's such a nut!

Mama/Grady Weekend!

Mikey had to work all weekend (which is rare), so it was just me and "Gray Gray" to spend some time together.  There is so much going on right now and the weather has finally cooled down enough for us to enjoy some outdoor activites.  So, Saturday we ventured up to Jay for the Jay Peanut Festival.  Mikey has been on a boiled peanut kick for a while now, so I was really bummed that he wouldn't be able to join us, but I didn't want to miss it.  It was a lawn mower lovers paradise and we all know that Grady was in heaven.  They had tons of John Deere mowers dating back to the stone age until now!  Grady sat on what seemed like each one of them and was in love!  We also went on a hay ride, train ride, and tried to go on a pony ride but he got scared.  He just wanted to touch it.  And of course we ate some peanuts.  I am so mad, BUT I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!!  I took lots on my cell phone, but I can't get them onto the computer.  Oh well....

When we got home, we took naps and then made pumpkin sugar cookies. Mostly I made them while Grady snagged cookie dough when he could.

This mixer is loud!! (It was my mom's and it's probably twenty-something years old! But it works perfectly and reminds me of her...)

I had a great weekend with my sweet boy... every time I look at him I realize how he's getting to be a big boy and not a baby anymore.  Although when you say "Grady, are you a big boy?", he replies (rather dramatically), "NO, I'm a BABY!"  I don't know why he says that!

Looking forward to the next few weekends when we'll visit the pumpkin patch and a few other places!

Crazy Grady!

Just a few pics of our mischievous Grady…. He gets into anything and everything he can get away with!


Standing on the “mow mow”

Climbing into the dresser to play his new favorite game, hide and seek….

Taking a shower with Daddy- Peek a Boo!

Collecting money for his piggy bank…

He most definitely keeps us on our toes, but we are having a blast at this age. He is very good at mimicking us and his vocabulary becomes more expansive by the day it seems. He asks for KK (Katie) and Anna Cross daily and many things remind him of them. His memory amazes us!

Elaine's Surprise 60th

This past Friday, we went to Jenine and Phil's house in Tampa to surprise Elaine with a party for her 60th birthday.  Her brother, Steve and his wife, Joy flew in from Texas.  Her sister, Janice, niece Christina, nephew TJ and Christina's boyfriend, Chris all flew in from New York.  On Friday night, we went to Carrabbas for dinner.  She thought it was just us (Jenine, Phil, Mikey, Grady, and me) and she was SO shocked to see her family.  This was her reaction:

Hugging her brother, Steve

Steve's wife, Joy

Chris, Chrissy, Janice, TJ

We enjoyed a nice dinner and then we all headed back to Jenine and Phil's to relax and spend time together.  We were pretty tired from the drive and Mikey was very exhausted because he had worked all night the night before. So we went to bed a little early.  The next morning, we got up to get ready for the party.  Jenine had prepared most of the food prior to the party... she made so much yummy food!  She spent the morning finishing up the cooking while I decorated. 

Joy, Elaine, Steve

Janice and Grady

The next day (Sunday), we went to Clearwater to have lunch at Bahama Breeze.  We sat outside, listened to the music, and enjoyed a great meal. 

Family picture

Elaine was so surprised and I think it meant a lot to her that her family traveled down to Tampa to celebrate her birthday with her. It shows how much she is loved by her family!

A post can't be complete without a couple pics of crazy Grady...

Listening to the IPOD...

Getting into the Hershey's Syrup...

First Day of School/Happy Birthday Elaine!

Monday was the first day of school with students… Grady was ready for “school” at Mrs. Kaye’s!!! He has been having a blast with his friends… he sure missed them over the summer!

I have a challenging class this year, but this week has been good so far and I am excited to work with my kids. We also have two new teachers on our grade level and they fit right in!

Yesterday was Elaine’s birthday. She picked up Grady from daycare early so they could spend the day together. Then, she came over for dinner and we had dessert at Dairy Queen. :) Since she likes to work in the yard, we made her a garden stepping stone that Grady put his handprints in. He was SO proud of the finished product and I think Elaine loved it.

Happy Birthday Elaine!

Summer's End...

Today, we took Grady to a place right outside of Mobile called Kangarooz.  My friend Miranda mentioned it the other day on Facebook, so we decided to give it a try.  It's an indoor inflatable playground with a great toddler area.  It's really clean and nice inside.  It has a cafe and even a stage and a dance floor complete with a disco ball (perhaps Grady's favorite part!).  My Gymboree membership is up since I am about to go back to work, so Grady hasn't had a place, other than the house, to run around and play since we returned from California.  It's still miserably hot and unless we are at the water, we have to stay inside.  So we went over there this morning and Grady loved it.  I have to say I did too!  And it's quite a workout to carry a toddler up the inflatable rock wall in order to slide down!   But he really enjoyed it and even liked the "big kid" inflatables.  We were told by one bratty informative little kid that the baby area was "over there".  Mikey let her know that Grady liked the big ones, too!  I had my eye on that girl, don't you worry.

Dancing on the stage....

Mikey fell coming out of the bounce house and I could not stop laughing!

Grady loved the Kangaroo and followed him into his "dressing room"... he cried when he realized he wasn't coming back out!

Kissing the Kangaroo

After that, we went to Bass Pro Shops next door just to walk around and grab lunch. I've only been to the one in Destin, but this one is much bigger and has lots of mounted animals, which Grady really liked. 

At Bass Pro Shops

I go back to work on Monday, which I am really looking forward to... but I will of course be sad to leave Grady again.  The transition is always hard at first.  It's been a great summer filled with many great memories.  Grady is at a wonderful age, learning so much and doing such funny things.  Last summer was VERY stressful with him because he wasn't sleeping well and he wanted to be held a lot.  Now that he's a little older, we were able to do so much more... Gymboree classes, the river, the pool, the beach, go to CALIFORNIA!!!!!, and just spend time together.  I know he won't remember these times, but the great part about my job is that I will have every summer to spend with him and make lasting memories.