Max Cuteness

Yesterday evening, Max prayed that "he would be good when mom came to his school".  He told me at least 5 times how excited he was to have me come to school.  Today, I got to help in his reading class (which is a different teacher) and then in his class.  I did some projects for his teacher (cutting and copying) and then helped the kids with counting collections and grouping them so they could count by 5, 10, etc.  It was so fun.  It was also fun to see how excited the kids were to talk to "Max's mom" or "Mrs. Epperson".  The teacher had them all thank me at the end and then as I was leaving the school, they saw me from the lunch line and called out "Good-bye, Mrs. Epperson" over and over.  I seriously felt like a celebrity.  A total pick-me-up for someone with post-partum hormones. :)

Stay Calm and...

Yesterday morning I ran some errands and worked out.  I had 2.5 hours to myself and as I was stretching after my workout, I decided that I really some calm music to listen to while I stretched.  I just needed to quiet my mind and actually relax.  So I had a great post-workout stretch and decided to keep listening to my meditative music as I walked to the store to get a few things.  I browsed the Christmas decorations and just enjoyed the calm, the lack of noise and the time to myself.  When I was done browsing, I started to leave (still listening to my calm music).  All of a sudden it dawned on me that I had stuff in my hands and I quickly turned around and paid for it, joking with the store employee.  Sometimes you just need to get away and (almost) steal.  and bytheway, when I googled "Keep Calm and Steal" because that's what I thought of, why had someone really made a sign with that slogan?  Really people? haha.

Veteran's Day

For Veteran's Day, we decided last minute to visit the Museum of Flight.  We listened to the Boeing Employee's Band play songs as a tribute to veterans.

 

Looking around at everything but the camera.

Evelyn seeing mom's favorite plane, the Gee Bee.

 

They have a new exhibit on Amelia Earhart.  I didn't get pictures of it, but here is the engine that flew in her plane, the Lockheed Vega and it also was the engine of the Kingfisher, Grandpa Bob's plane. 

 Here is the plane Amelia flew, well, not the actual one of course.

The boys brought planes with them and were flying them around the whole time.

 Playing air traffic control.

 Jason staring at the airplanes.

 And of course we always have to take a picture in front of Ryan's favorite too, the Corsair or Skipper in "Planes". 

Planes!

Tony and I took the boys to see "Planes" two weekends ago.  The boys dressed as aviators.  Max doesn't have a bomber jacket anymore so he wore his Boeing hat.  They had so much fun. 

 

 

Ryan fell asleep.  Too cute!

 

Evelyn Again

 

Ryanisms

My sweet-but-I-want-to-sell-him-to-the-circus Ryan, says some fun things sometimes.  He has a little bit of a lisp and has a cute way of saying the letter "r".  The other day he said, "Mom, look at my little speedo." He was talking about the little LEGO speeder he had made.

Today we had some friends over and he said, "When Alanna's a mom, I'm going to marry her.  Then she can be my granddaughter because she's my friend."  I then asked, "if you marry her, won't she be your wife?"  He replied, "No, my granddaughter.  And we would live together so we would need a bunk bed." What a funny kid.

Also, tonight he and Max were taking a bath and Ryan came out and told me about how he and Max had cleaned up ALL BY THEMSELVES and they had cleaned (smeared) the mirror and picked up the tub toys without being asked.  And they had cleaned up water on the floor.  They were so excited to show me.  Hey, I'll take the smeared mirror and happy, helpful boys any day--I've been missing them ; ).

Good Books--The Wizard of Oz

This past weekend, our local church congregation put on the musical, The Wizard of Oz.  It's so fun knowing people in the production.  A friend even did the graphic design for the poster.

 

Only Max and I were able to go but he loved it.  The Tuesday before, I let the boys see the movie for the first time and they loved it so Max went to the production knowing the story and getting to learn a little bit about a stage production, orchestra pit, etc.  It amazes me the talent that is around.  Everyone did an amazing job. 

 

After we saw the play, I let Max know that I love the book, The Wizard of Oz and that I have all 14 books that are set in the land of Oz.  He was excited to learn that and he and Ryan have been looking at these books every day since.  We started reading it aloud each night and we just finished the chapter where Dorothy meets the Scarecrow.

 

There is another movie called, "Return to Oz" which is not so good and is based on another book in the series, it's just not done as well.  Some of the books in the series are better than others and some don't involve Dorothy at all.  I have to admit that I love Dorothy's storyline the best.  I am going to have fun rereading these as I read them to the boys.  Definitely a childhood favorite that has quickly become a favorite of the boys.