BCC Montessori Strikes Again...

TJ definitely just finished singing "God Bless America" at the dinner table.  I was a little shocked and confused, until I looked at the schedule on the refrigerator and realized that this week's theme in their toddler classroom was "America the Beautiful".  Good ol' BCC Montessori...

On a Roll

After not blogging for 3 weeks, two blogs in one night!  Sarah tagged me, hope you enjoy!

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. My off Friday at work aka "my personal holiday".  (I work every other Friday.)
2. Olivia sleeping through the night like her brother

3.  Finishing folding the pile of laundry that is on a chair in the living room

4.  Going to sleep

5.  Meeting up with Donna and Lindsay for a spa day next month

6.  My girls weekend in Charleston with Valencia at the end of the summer (haven't seen her in 4 years!)

7.  Fall semester when the increased employee discount takes effect on the kids' weekly school tuition

8.  Star's bridal shower and wedding!

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Drove with the kids up to my parents house

2. Saw my grandma :)

3.  Had a fun "Girls Night Out" dinner with some friends from high school

4.  Gave the kids their first showers.  (Olivia - thumbs down;  TJ- two thumbs up!)

5.  Went out and about to scope out some Father's Day gifts...ended up with NADA!

6.  Took a nap

7.  Had a wonderful conversation with my good friend Holly who is 21 weeks pregnant!  I haven't spoken to her in ages!!!!

8.  Saw an old high school classmate in Michael's.  Haven't seen him since high school.  

8 Things I wish I could do:
1. Go on a vacation with my husband

2. Find more time to work out

3. Work part time so I could spend more time with my kids

4.  Braid Olivia's hair so my mom wouldn't have to do it

5.  Hire Candice Olsen to decorate my entire house

6.  Tolerate flying so I could visit more friends 

7.  Learn how to swim

8.  Find a private swimming instructor for my kids or a 2-year old class that doesn't require a parent per child in the water. 

8 Shows I watch:
1. So You Think You Can Dance

2. Divine Design

3.  Real Housewives of Orange County/New Jersey/Atlanta

4.  Jon & Kate Plus 8

5.  Run's House

6.  Say Yes To the Dress

7.  House Hunters

8.  All Cartoons on Noggin (Yo Gabba Gabba, Backyardigans, Wonder Pets, Ni Hao Kailan, etc)

8 of my Favorite Foods:
1. Yoplait Yogurt Light

2.  Bear Naked Granola

3.  Kilwin's Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

4.  Ben & Jerry's Coconut 7-layer bar Ice Cream

5.  Mango Magic Smoothie from Tropical Smoothie (substitute the pineapple for peaches)

6.  Grands Homestyle Biscuits

7.  Turkey Burgers

8. Sweet Potatoes

8 Places I have traveled: 

1. Vienna, Austria (high school)

2. Salzburg, Austria (high school)

3.  Cancun, Mexico (high school)

4.  Bahamas (honeymoon cruise)

5.  Key West (honeymoon cruise)

6.  New York City (college)

7.  St. Louis, Missouri (Final Four)

8.  Indianapolis, Indiana (Final Four)

8 Places I would like to travel: (This is a problem since I have learned to hate flying...)
1. Hawaii
2. Baton Rouge to visit Kamilah

3. Chicago

4.  Maryland to visit Valencia, Lindsay and Tonya

5.  Las Vegas

6.  California

7.  New York City to see Broadway shows

8.  Indianapolis (to the next Final Four)

People I tag: 
Whoever is reading this blog and has not done this already!

Father's Day and more...

So apparently it's been awhile since I've posted a blog.  I must say that it's not because of a lack of material!  My kids have been extra cute these last few weeks, but everytime they did something blog-worthy  I was just not able to stop for long enough to get a blog in.   For those of you who are going through Parks twins withdrawal (I'm not naming any names...), here we go...

Since I last blogged I have turned the big 3-0!  Yay!  Unfortunately that week my kids also decided to catch the Round 1 of the "mysterious daycare virus".  I ended up leaving work early on my birthday to pick them up from daycare and they proceeded to spend three days at home (Terry and I each stayed home from work a 1/2 day each day) recovering from fever/diarrhea.  No fun, but they seemed to get better and were ready to get back to school on Thursday.  

That weekend some good friends of ours, Jen and Jason, came down to accompany us on our first beach trip of the summer.  We had a really good time although it was REALLY hot!  Here are some pics from our beach trip.   

That evening of the beach trip, however, we noticed that TJ was getting yet another fever...and thus began Round 2 of the "mysterious daycare virus".  Both TJ and Olivia ended up having pretty high fevers and stayed home all week from daycare.  We took them to the doctor just to verify that it was, in fact, viral and we were right.  Unfortunately you just have to be patient and let the virus run its course.  One good thing about that week was that we got to spend a lot of quality time together, which gave me time to sit back and observe just how much they've grown up.  By Friday everyone was fine and they were ready to return to school on Monday:)

Last week marked the kids' 1 year anniversary at the Montessori school.  It is just AMAZING how much they have developed into self sufficient little people.  We could not be happier with the staff, curriculum and location of the school.  It is absolutely perfect.  I was looking at the video that I posted after their first day of school last year and it just amazing how far they've come in a year.  It seems like overnight they have started "reading" books and speaking in complete sentences.  We can hold normal (simple) conversations with them and can see them processing what we're saying.  What a feeling!  Here is a video of them reading their favorite books...Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  and  The Monster at the End of This Book.  (Please excuse the random recliner in the background.  We had just gotten our carpets cleaned and it hadn't made its way back into the living room yet...)

 

Don't you love it!  I especially love that Olivia cannot say "looking at me" when she reads/sings her Brown Bear book.  She says "ah-oo-wa me".  So cute...

This past weekend we celebrated Father's Day.  The kids and I traveled to DeBary to spend the weekend with my family while Terry stayed behind to work.   An added bonus to this trip was that my grandmother traveled down from the panhandle so the kids and I were able to spend time with her.  I cherish every opportunity that I am able to spend time with 4 generations of my family under one roof.  Unfortunately my grandmother HATES taking pictures so I was unable to capture the moment, but hopefully we'll get to see her again before she heads back home and I can convince her to take one.  I didn't get any pictures of her, but I did capture some kodak moments before the we came back home.  

Happy Father's Day to my two favorite Dads!!!!!  

Good night!

On the Road Again

It was another wonderful Saturday for The Parks family.  We headed west to the University of South Florida to attend the high school graduation of my god brother.  Our families have known each other as long as I can remember, my dad was his dad's college basketball coach, and I can definitely remember when this child was born.  I'm still trying to figure out how someone born in the 90's can have a high school diploma...it blows my mind.  Anyway, here are some pictures from today. It was a beautiful day full of great company and delicious food!  Congratulations, Kevin!  

 

Five!

What a week for the Park's Family!  So much to talk about...where do I start?  (Warning...this is going to be a LONG one).

Let's start with last Sunday when Terry informed me that the week ahead of us would have a theme.  The theme for the week:  FIVE.   Clearly that's because last Friday, the 22nd, Terry and I would be celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary!  Yay!  Anyway, he decided instead of doing our run-of-the-mill dinner and movie anniversary celebration, he would make it a week o' fun for me.  I was very excited, needless to say.  Surprises came daily…Monday:  A $5 footlong from Subway and a relaxing lunch together.  Tuesday:  $5 bills and $5 worth of nickels.  Wednesday:  A 5" digital picture frame for my desk at work.  Thursday: A $55.55 gift card to Tropical Smoothie (I LOVE LOVE LOVE a good mango peach smoothie from Tropical Smoothie…I get the "Mango Magic" smoothie and substitute the pineapple for peaches).  Friday: I'll get to Friday in a second.  It was so exciting to get little surprises everyday and stretch out the celebration over the entire week.  Thanks, TParks! 

Getting back to Friday…it was also Teacher Appreciation Week at BCC Montessori School.  All week parents were asked to bring in in flowers/treats/etc, but their gift on Friday was a "kid-free" lunch. Parents were asked to volunteer to sit in the classrooms during lunch so this would be possible.  Terry talked me into doing this, and I'm so glad he did!  We had a great time!  Luckily we had 4 parents (including me and Terry) to volunteer in the toddler classroom with 8 toddlers.  It was a wonderful ratio!  We sat with the kids as they ate lunch and went down for a nap.  TJ and Olivia were SO happy to see us and interact with us at school!  They introduced us to all of their friends (as if we didn't know them already) and were so excited to have us there for lunch.  I thought TJ and Olivia were excited when I showed up…but it was NOTHING compared to when Daddy showed up.  

Olivia could hardly contain herself. Do you see this smile?! 

Here is their classmate, Jolie, offering Terry one of their miniature sized chairs.  I had to take a picture...

Here are some more pictures from our afternoon in the toddler classroom.  

We were there a little longer than we expected, which threw off our plans to go to Five Guys (sticking with the "Five" theme), but it was well worth it.  We were able to go home and get the truck packed up so we could head to DeBary for the long weekend.  Mom and Tara offered to keep the kids while Terry and I went out to celebrate our actual anniversary.  Although I do not have any pictures, after picking a mango-peach Tropical Smoothie we headed to Disney and enjoyed a nice stroll around The Boardwalk, Yacht Club and Beach Club Resorts before finally settling to eat at Outback (not our first, second, or fifth choice for that matter, but we enjoyed each other's company!).  We'll try and plan better next time.  So much for being spontaneous! 

Two days after our 5th anniversary, my parents celebrated their 35th anniversary.  How wonderful!  Mom had a suggestion to take an afternoon trip to St. Augustine as a family so Mom and Dad drove up in one car; and Terry, Tara, the kids and I packed up in another and headed up north.  It was an absolutely beautiful day!  After a weekend of scattered thunderstorms we didn't run into one drop of rain while there.  Good times...

It was also a special trip for Terry and I because downtown St. Augustine was the site of our wedding…how appropriate to go back and visit after 5 years (almost to the day).  We went back to Ancient City Baptist Church, the site of the wedding ceremony…

...and to Casa Monica Hotel, the site of our wedding reception.

We ran into one of Terry's old players that he coached while at UNF which was a pleasant surprise (he was even taller than I remembered!) and even saw a bride and her bridal party on their way to a wedding!   

The icing on the cake was visiting Kilwin's, my FAVORITE ice cream parlor.  I was first introduced to Kilwin's while living in St. Augustine and am SO lucky to have one here in Melbourne.  Their toasted coconut ice cream is to die for.  Tara decided on my first love, Georgia Peach.  It was deeee-wicious (as TJ and Olivia say).  We took a self portrait eating our ice cream, but didn't quite get the ice cream in the picture...oh well;)

The kids were so exhausted that they slept the entire way home.  

We stayed in DeBary until late Monday night enjoying my family's company. The kids enjoyed being "cowboys and cowgirls" with Gpa...

...and a little "Johnson Montessori" before bathtime was a perfect ending to a wonderful week!

I think it's time for bed now!  Good night!

Mother's Day Weekend

The Parks family enjoyed a nice weekend.  It began with my first hand-made Mother's Day gifts from my kids (compliments of good ol' BCC Montessori).  I got two ceramic hearts painted in a beautiful "I mixed every color available and it turned out deeeep purple/black-ish" color along with two potted plants.  Olivia's plant has purple flower petals and TJ's apparently has orange flowers, but I can't quite tell yet because he picked off all of the petals before the gift was complete.  I sure hope it's a resilient plant like the one that I had in college that had 9 lives. Maybe I'll even plant them outside so mother nature can nurture them…on second thought.  I don't do the 'outside'.  Too many creatures and animals are out there. 

Anyway, the weekend started out with just me and the kids on Friday night as Terry was recruiting in Miami.  The kids behaved very well for Mommy.  Olivia still has a rough time sleeping in her bed.  She always does her best to get us to come get her when we put them to bed, and through it all TJ falls right asleep.  Friday was no different, but this time she cried herself to sleep.  But before I went to bed, I decided to go make sure that their blankets were covering them and this is what I found.  (You can even see TJ's head in the background). 

Bless her heart!  Especially since the night before, she had cried herself to sleep on the floor.   She really doesn't like that bed...  

Saturday, when Terry returned home we packed up the truck and headed to DeBary.  I decided that even though we didn't have the results back from TJ's allergy testing that we would give ol' DeBary a try because I was going through withdrawal. The last two times we visited DeBary TJ broke out into hives and a rash so I was a little hesitant to return.  I am so glad we did because, as always, the kids enjoyed seeing everyone…but of course, everyone was equally as happy to see TJ and Olivia!   (So far so good with TJ...no signs of any hives this time.  Yay!)

Mother's Day was lovely:)  Probably because Terry remembered that I was actually a mother this year!  (Last year, not so much!).  After church we took the kids to the park to run around in the fountains. It was a beautiful 96 degree sunny day.  The kids absolutely loved it.  We enjoyed the fountains for quite some time by ourselves before the big kids started arriving and messing it up for us.  Here are some pics of TJ and Olivia having fun in the fountains:)

TJ playing with G-Ma's umbrella.  They LOVE umbrellas...

They were a little hesitant at first...

In fact, the first time that Olivia got soaked she ran to her Daddy!

But soon enough, they were off!

Even the ABCs provided entertainment!

Tara showed up a few hours before we headed back to Palm Bay:)  The kids were ecstatic to see their Ti-ti!

And after about 8 tries, we were finally able to get a Mother's Day 2009 picture with everyone looking at the camera!

Needless to say it was a wonderful weekend!

Don't Drink that Water!

Terry and I just got the kids out of their school clothes and sent them to their bathroom for a bath.  We were lagging a behind a little because we started talking about something and suddenly we heard the toilet seat SLAM down.  

Terry went in the bathroom and this is what I heard:  

TJ:  I drink da wata!

Terry:  Oh no, don't drink that water!  Oh, have mercy...  (I can imagine that Terry put his head down, closed his eyes and shook his head while he was saying this...)

Terry:  Olivia, did you drink this water, too?  (sigh)

I guess the one good thing about them not using the toilet yet, no matter how long they sit on it,  is that the water is fairly clean!  

...off to do some laundry!  Good night!