Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Let's take a bath...


A lovely, bubbly bath...


All you Disney Junior fans can thank me later!  Ha

Monday, March 25, 2013

I Scream, You Scream

On Griffin's birthday, when my parents were in town, we all headed to Brenham to tour the Bluebell Ice Cream Factory.  As I mentioned before, Griff is pretty obsessed with factories, and he loved every minute or the tour.  You couldn't take pictures inside the actual factory but it was pretty neat.  They showed the whole process for making their most popular flavors, popsicles, and ice cream sandwiches.  Ella loved that the workers down below were waving to her and giving her attention :).  At the end you got to choose a flavor for a free scoop of ice cream (my favorite part).  Not sure why, but it seemed so much better than the Bluebell you get at the store.  After the tour we went to the tiny Brenham airport where I had heard they had a cute little 50's diner.  The food was delicious and they had a juke box and waitresses in poodle skirts.  I didn't get any pictures of it, but I highly recommend a stop there if you visit the factory.  I think it was the perfect way to spend a special little boy's fourth birthday!

 They loved wearing their hats!
Cranking the old ice cream machine


 Mimi and Pops teaching Griff all about the history of Bluebell




How cute are these two?  They were the only kids on the tour and did great!  Griffin listened so intently and the lady talked A LOT!


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Happy Birthday Griffin Bear!

Our sweet Griffin turned 4 on February 22nd (yes I'm a month behind and no I can't seem to stay caught up)!  My parents, Mimi and Pops, came to spend a week with us over his birthday and we had the BEST time.  We played, sang, took trips to the park, the ice cream factory, a 50's diner, read books, played baseball, had relay races, and had a super fun birthday party just to name a few!
This year we had a joint birthday party for Griffin and Ella since they both have birthday's in February. I'll do another post on that...but this one is all about Griffin!  It's pretty long so feel free to skip over this one, but I wanted to remember him at this precious age.
I can't believe my first born, baby boy is 4!  He has been such a joy from the beginning and we just cherish everyday we spend with him.  He's at such a great age and has become so "easy" and independent.  Griffin loves to "pretend" play and he has a wonderful imagination.  His favorite things in the world are machines, gears, motors, factories, engines...ect.  I know kids go through phases where they love dinosaurs, trains, princesses ect. but I had never really heard of kids loving gears.  I'm sure it has some deeper meaning about his personality/future, but for now we try our hardest to satisfy his craving for all things mechanic.  He loves to watch You Tube videos called "How It's Made...".  They are episodes from the Discovery Channel which show how all kinds of everyday products are made.  They show all kinds of factories, and Griffin thinks it's just the coolest thing ever!  Momma doesn't know much about pistons and gears, but Daddy is more help in that department.
Griffin's second love is swimming.  He has been back in swim lessons for a couple months now and can swim floatie free across the pool.  He has moved up to the stroke clinic and is working on side crawl and free style!  I love that he's a little fish!
Griff continues to love preschool at Grace.  His class has 9 boys and 3 girls, and they can be wild/silly at times but he is having a great year!  He is such a smart boy and as a former teacher, I love seeing him entering the emergent stages of reading.  He recognizes and can identify all the letters and most of their sounds.  He can count to 30 and Daddy has taught him many addition facts.  Griffin loves to learn new things and is very inquisitive.  He is very social and loves making new friends.  He is stubborn and craves routine and order.  The past couple of months we have seen more attitude and testing the waters with talking back and being "sassy".  He has spent some time in timeout and had a few spankings, but all in all he is such a sweet boy.  We started a sticker chart for good behavior and saw a huge improvement!  Griffin has a soft heart and cares a lot about people and their feelings.
We thank God everyday for giving us such a precious son and we just love him to pieces!  Happy 4th birthday Griffin James!

One Day
 One Year
 Two Years
 Three Years
 Big Four Year Old ready for his first Tball game
 Super Griffin at his birthday party with his best buddy RJ!