Cubby's Visit

On Friday, William’s classroom bear, Cubby, came to our house to spend the weekend with us. The idea is that you take him along with you and then write a story about what you did to share with the class on Monday. Well, we had quite a busy time with Mr. Cubby. He went on our picnic at City Park with my parents and to the golf ball driving range. He also went on a long bike ride with us through City Park on Sunday and to the French Quarter for a picnic lunch down on the riverfront. I think we wore him out, because he spent Sunday afternoon sleeping in the bed that William made for him.

Grandma and Grandpa’s Visit

We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa here this past week. Since it was their first visit to NOLA we showed them around and did all sorts of wonderful things…went to the horse races, zoo, aquarium, the WWII Museum, Lake Ponchartrain, the French Quarter (to Margaritaville for dinner), Café du Monde, the Riverwalk, City Park for a picnic, and a golf ball driving range. My dad helped Andy remove the entire front and side lawn and plant grass seed. He also planted bushes and flowers out front. Mom read no less than 150 books to the kids, and put together numerous puzzles. It was great having them visit and we miss them already!

Top O' the Mornin' to Ya

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday, the kids and I made green cupcakes with green frosting. It was very fun to try to separate egg whites with Clark’s egg smashing style, but a couple of extra eggs later and we had it. We then had homemade green pepper pizza for dinner—I know we should have had corn beef and cabbage, but who wants to eat that!?! William had a leprechaun visit his school too. He didn’t see him, but apparently all sorts of mischief were caused by the little elf. The leprechaun also left candy, which made him alright by William.

After dinner we walked across the canal by our house to City Park and fed the birds and ducks. Then we walked over to the equine center and watched some horse jumping. It was a beautiful evening and it was so nice to be outside later with the time change.

Yesterday we reached the halfway point on swim lessons. I don’t have any photos from this week, but the one above is from last week. Both kids are making great progress. William is really strong in the water and is getting much more trusting of himself all the time. He is also getting braver about jumping in, though we still have some work to do there. Clark is such a water baby; he loves to play in it—kicking, splashing, jumping, you name it. They both work so hard at lessons that by the time we get home they are starving, and once they eat they sleep immediately.

My mom and dad are heading south for their first visit today. We are all very excited to see them! They are also bringing our kitty, so we are hopeful that the car ride goes well for all 3!

Mission Accomplished: Garage

With so much thanks to 5 men from our church in JC, we now have a garage!!!! It was amazing to watch that in 4 short days we went from just a slab to a finished project. They arrived Saturday evening and before they even came in the house they were outside measuring the slab and moving some dirt around. Bright and early Sunday morning the 5 guys plus Andy were hard at work and the walls went up that day. By Wednesday at 5:30 pm it was finished.

The men from our brotherhood group typically go on mission trips to help with construction or destruction projects and have actually been in the NO/gulf coast area before to help others after Katrina. They had talked to Andy shortly after we bought the house here to offer any help and they stuck with it and committed to helping us out. They are all very talented in construction and restore my faith that nice people do still exist in this world. Several of the men are retired, but two of the men even took time off work to come to our house to help us out. We are so grateful to have had their help and company.