First Day of Pre-K!

This past Wednesday Grayson started Pre-K! He was so excited to be going back to school - the same one as last year.

Max and I walked him to his class the first day and he stopped along the way at his old classroom to give his teachers from last year a big hug.

Just like last year, he'll be there five days a week from 9 - 12 (and he'll stay until 1:00 two days per week for "lunch bunch").

He'll be home in time to take his afternoon nap. (Please do not tell him that most 4 1/2 year olds no longer take naps. He still naps for an hour in the afternoon and still sleeps from 8pm - 7:30am. In other words - he really still needs the nap. And his Mommy enjoys the break too. He is my play hard, sleep hard kid! So shhhhhh - don't tell!)

He was so excited to start school on Wednesday, that on Monday he began asking me when, Mommy, when do I get to go to school. I want to go to school nooooooow!

So that very day I took him up to the school to see his classroom for the first time.

It was all bright and shiny - thanks to all the teachers and parents (including me) who spent half the day on Saturday washing toys and touching up paint.

He checked out the numbers.

He checked out the microscope in the science center.

And he climbed to the top of the loft.

His first half-week went very well. He waved goodbye each morning and didn't look back. A lot of his friends from last year are in his class, and his teachers seem wonderful.

Post post edit. I just looked back at last year's post from his first day and nearly cried. He has grown up so much in just one year. Click here to see it.

Grayson's Hupa Loop

One final memory from our trip to Tennessee. On our first day Grayson discovered the Arcade. It was walking distance from our condo, and Grayson was positively entranced by the glitzy games and - oh my - the TICKETS you win when you play them. He would carry them around in his pockets and pull them out and show them to us and count them over, and over, and over.

He loved the Arcade so much that it was pretty much all he wanted to do. He called it "The Games," as in "When are we going to go play the games, Daddy, when? . . . right now?" We heard this all day long, and when we tucked him into bed, and first thing when he woke up. "The Games" were clearly the highlight of the trip for Grayson.

And to his delight, on the last day of our trip, after several trips to the Arcade, he was able to turn in the tickets and pick out . . . A PRIZE! This was even more exciting than the tickets themselves, if you can imagine.

So for his 300 or so tickets (thanks to Daddy helping out by playing ski-ball and video poker) he picked out a shiny green hula hoop. And for the rest of the day he went around playing with . . . his Hupa Loop. I could not correct him. It was just too sweet. He won't be 4 forever. Very soon he'll get the names of everything right. So for now, and hopefully for a little while longer, he will keep on playing with his hupa loop.

Got Milk?

One of the best parts of our trip to Tennessee was our stop at the Mayfield Dairy in Athens, TN on our drive home.

We donned very stylish hair nets for a tour of the milk botteling factory. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but we were able to see the yellow jugs being made out of plastic pellets, and then follow the jugs into the next room where they were filled with milk.

This is a milk filler machine, just like the ones we saw in action in the factory. It spins around as each jug is filled with milk from the spouts.

After our tour we ate Mayfield ice cream in their ice cream shop before heading back to Atlanta. And now we are converts and are buying Mayfield milk from our grocery store.

Incidentally, Mayfield milk is only sold at stores within a 100 mile radius of its milk plants so that it is very fresh. We are lucky that Atlanta is close enough and every time I pour Grayson a glass he calls it his "Mayfield Milk" (the company should really hire him to do a commercial).

Feelin' Blue!

Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a mecca for candy lovers, fried food lovers, and popcorn lovers. We were within walking distance of all the shops, and enjoyed our share of these treats. Tony's favorite was the cheddar popcorn. Mine was the caramel & chocolate covered apples. Grayson's favorite was . . .

The snowcones that turned everything BLUE!


There were other fun things to do, like hold these exotic birds.

And visit a dinosaur museum.

Oh - and I really have to mention this restaurant where we ate dinner one night - The Old Mill Restaurant in Pigeon Forge. I really didn't want to go there, but Tony insisted. I expected gluey potatoes, overcooked beans, and other unhealthy, mass-produced food. I was wrong, and I had to admit it to Tony the whole rest of the trip. The food was amazing. Southern, yes. Fattening, oh yes. Incredibly good and worth and guilt, absolutely. Their corn fritters are now up there with mint chocolate chip ice cream as perhaps my favorite food.

Water Mania!

We just returned home after a week in the Tennessee Smoky Mountains. Our first couple of days were spent at a water park, which was lots of fun and just right for Grayson.

There were several slides that Grayson could ride. He took them one at a time and slowly built up, until he was riding "even the fast purple one" (not this one) by himself.

Waiting for waves in the indoor wave pool.

Max loves the water and had a great time too.

Best buddies.

Tony and I had fun too. We took turns playing with Max and then riding the slides with Grayson (and ocassionally riding the slides that were too big for little kids).

Grayson goes to Gainesville

Last week Grayson went to Gainesville to visit Mima and Pop-pop for four days - all by himself!

They visited Florida Field!

And got a private tour from Coach Heater (Assistant Defense Coordinator) who also happens to be Mima and Pop-pop's friend and neighbor.

That's Tim Tebow's locker!

On the field he got to run where the Gators run before each home game! (that's Coach Heater on the right)

And surprise - he got to meet Tim Tebow!

He also went with Mima to the Butterfly Garden.

And fell asleep in the car on the way home to Atlanta (sorry, pictures are still out of order - Blogger is not fixed!).

Wrote a nice thank-you note to the Heaters for the visit to Florida Field.

And took a Bubble Bath!

Visited Grummie (his great grandmother Ruth Hazen)

And went to the Driving Range with Pop-pop.

We think he missed us, a little, and we missed him A WHOLE LOT!

Summer Days

They don't call it "Hotlanta" for nuthin'. It is hot, so what better way to spend an afternoon than jumping in a splash pool.

And by the way, I am so frustrated with Blogger. For some reason it will not let me re-arrange these photos. So they are all out of order, and I've been trying for over a week to fix them and Blogger just will not let me. Hopefully it will be working right again with the next post.

Grayson loves MUD