Gpa and Gma

Continuing on with what we've been up to for the last two months...

Here are the kids and I taking a train ride around the mall during one of our frequent trips to see Gma and Gpa. Thanks to Gma we were able to take some video. The kids and I had a blast.

Here are some pictures from when Gma and Gpa came to visit us.

Gma doing Olivia's hair/hanging out with TJ

Gma with Olivia sporting freshly braided hair

Gpa, Gma with 'the grands'

Birthday Party!

Lastly, this past weekend we took the kids to a Thomas the Train themed birthday party for my coworker's son. We all had a blast. Here are a few pictures of the kids on the train and at the party.

School

What have the Parks twins been up to for the last 2 months you ask? Where shall we begin:

The kids had their last day at BCC Montessori. It was a difficult, but necessary, move. We'll just leave it at that.

TJ driving his taxi/tricycle

Olivia coloring one...last...picture...with Ms. Alicia. She is quite the art-eest!

TJ and Olivia with some of their BCC Montessori classmates.

The kids transferred to their new school and didn't skip a beat! Here they are having snack on their first day of school:

...and at PE doing some jumping jacks...TJ clearly was not into the jumping jack scene:

This was the their first field trip (and my first experience as a chaperone):

Circle time at their KinderMusik class...Olivia's sitting next to her teacher, Ms. Arnold

Olivia and TJ in their KinderMusik Class.

Drumming with their lollipop drums.

After their music class, they were able play. Olivia played in the bounce house and dressed up.

...and TJ spent most of his time patrolling the play area in his police car.

Ms. Louise

The kids' first toddler teacher, Ms. Louise retired this week. Ms. Louise was their first teacher and the first person, other than our family, that we trusted Olivia and TJ with. She and Ms. Kim made us feel so comfortable from day one. We will forever be grateful to them for being such wonderful passionate, caring teachers for the kids. One thing that I will always remember is that Ms. Louise would send the kids birthday cards in the mail addressed to them. This wouldn't be a big deal except their birthday is right after Christmas when everyone is on a 2 week vacation from school so it was extra special that she remembered their birthdays and went above and beyond to make sure that she celebrated with them even though they were not in school. Even though the kids are no longer in the toddler room, we will miss Ms. Louise dearly. As a token of our appreciation we decided to make Ms. Louise a little something so that she will always remember us. We are usually not the crafting sort of family but we did our best.

Here is Terry helping to iron on the decorations onto the reusable grocery bag.

The kids were super excited to do a craft. I guess this means I should do this sort of thing more often.

Here are the kids decorating the bag...

The finished product.

We love you, Ms. Louise (and Ms. Newton)!!!!

Art Show 2010

A few weeks ago Terry and I attended the BCC Montessori Art Show 2010! It was the culmination of all of the artwork that the kids did over the summer. The theme of this summer was traveling...each week they 'traveled' somewhere different...New York, Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa, etc. They created a piece of artwork for each place they "visited. The school did a wonderful job of putting the art show together and the kids enjoyed showing us their works of art.

For Europe, the teachers put paper underneath the tables and the kids painted on their backs. Here is Olivia showing me her painting.

The kids made the windows to go on the skyscrapers of New York.

I can't remember what these were...or what country they were for. Sorry.

Here are their paper mache maracas that they made when they traveled to Mexico. Of course Olivia's was purple and TJ's was orange and blue. War Eagle!

This is Olivia's fan from Asia.

And their masks from Africa.

The kids were even given little 'suitcases' to put all of their artwork in. Here is our beloved Ms. Newton helping Olivia put her artwork in her suitcase.

and Daddy helping TJ put his artwork in his suitcase!

The kids with Ms. Newton!
Thanks, BCC Montessori for a wonderful summer and a fantastic art show!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

We took the kids to their first baseball game. I believe Terry took TJ to a softball game when he was an infant...but Olivia has never been. Terry has been wanting to get back out to see the Brevard Manitees play for some time now. I am not much of a baseball fan/spectator, but I agreed with Terry that they would really enjoy getting to see a game. Not much to talk about...it wasnt a big crowd at all so we got our pick of seats

We sat right behind home plate...which I think was good for the kids in terms of keeping their attention (not to mention mine!). I must say that the weather was perfect for watching baseball...so glad Terry chose a 7pm game. I don't think I would have survived an afternoon game!

While I was canvassing the stadium (which is pretty much what I do during baseball games) I saw Will and Esther! It was great having them there - it definitely made the game more tolerable for me.

We made it to the 7th inning and then had to get home so the kids could get some rest. Overall, it was a wonderfully relaxing Saturday for the Parks family!

4th of July 2010 - Columbus

We traveled up to Columbus for the long 4th of July weekend. This was our first time up as a family since 4th of July last year. I must say this was the best Columbus trip to date. It was filled with lots of quality time with family and friends, and great food. We drove up Friday night and got into Columbus around 3am. Driving overnight made the trip much simpler as we didn't have to worry about snacking, stopping as much for restrooms, fighting over which dvd to watch, etc. For the most part it was just me and Terry talking and the kids sleeping. Perfection.

Each morning in Columbus we were treated to wonderful breakfasts thanks to Grandma and Granddaddy before we would head out to make our rounds around Columbus/surrounding areas. One of our firsts stops was to visit Terry's friends that he grew up with. We had an awesome time just relaxing with Mike, Mike's mom, Brian and Brett. It's always entertaining to sit to the side and listen to Terry interact with these guys. I was able to spend time with Mike's mom who is so very similar to my mother. She made the kids the best fruit plate to snack on complete with whipped cream! So good. The kids enjoyed themselves so much that they kept asking us if we could go back to see "Daddy's friends".

After the kids took a looong nap on Mike's couches, we wrapped up our visit and went to visit my old college suitemate, Monica, in Union Springs, Alabama. It had been about a year and half since I had seen her - I was in her wedding - and ohhhh how things have changed since then! She has a new baby, Marckella (I'm pretty sure I misspelled her name) and another one on the way! Marckella was absolutely adorable and Monica, as you can see, is a beautiful mother/mother-to-be.

Teague Hall 111 and Teague Hall 112 - 13 years later!
Here is our "twins" shot. I am not even going to try and spell Monica's twin niece's names...they were so good with TJ and Olivia. TJ and Olivia had so much fun playing with all of the kids and their toys. Great visit!
Monica's son, Kylan, challenged Terry to an NBA game (I'm not a video gamer so I don't know what it was called) on his Play Station 3.
Here is Olivia, who is absolutely enamored by other kids / babies. It came as no surprise that she wanted to be Monica's helper with baby Marckella.
Granddaddy had spent the entire day Saturday preparing all of the delicious food that we enjoyed for the 4th of July. I must say that I especially took a liking to the BBQ ribs and the caramel cake. I am definitely going to request that for the next time we visit! Here is TJ playing with one of his favorite toys of the weekend - a flashlight.
As you can see Olivia also found the flashlight entertaining. They were so disappointed when I told them that they couldn't use the flashlight outside in the daylight. At this point, however, she was more worried about drinking her juice box...
This is one of the few pictures that I got of them together in their somewhat coordinated outfits for the day...
After we ate, the kids and I headed to visit my Auburn family while Terry went with the guys to play golf. I don't get a chance to get to Auburn much so when I found out that one of my oldest friends/sister, Kamilah, would be in town I HAD to get over there to see her since we hadn't seen each other since the kids were 11 months old. What a wonderful time we had! We had an amazing visit with The Johnsons and the Tolberts while we were there. Here are the kids thanking Mrs. Tolbert for welcoming us into their home.

And here are Kamilah and Ms. Johnson entertaining the kids. It honestly was like visiting my own family. They treated TJ and Olivia as if they were their grandchildren/niece/nephew. I can't wait to see them again...

I can't believe it has been 22 years since we met on Shelton Lane!

Monday was another great day of family fun and visiting. We had a great time at Lake Bottom Park. What a beautiful area...nice playground, wonderful shade. The kids had a blast sliding and swinging...

Olivia even made some friends!
We tried to teach the kids how to play frisbee...
...but they didn't quite catch on!
And look who showed up! Mike and Brian! While the kids and I swung, the guys talked and played around with the frisbee...good times!
Our last stop was to visit The Williams family. They had a beautiful house and were so welcoming. Their daughter is preparing for her freshman year of college at Savannah State where she will be playing volleyball. Best of luck to her!
After we returned from visiting the Williams family, Granddaddy put on an encore fireworks presentation especially for the kids. I think he enjoyed doing it as much the kids enjoyed watching!

One last shot of The Parks family before we left for Florida!
Here are the kids getting a snack before we hit the road.

So that was our 4th of July weekend. It was so wonderful to see family and friends...we hope to get back up there very soon!