The Fun Must End...Or Does It????

I have to admit that I was impressed by the performance. Richard really enjoyed every bit of it and was mesmerized. He was so sad and pouty when we were in the car ready to head home, but we encouraged him to think about the show and you can see that the "happy thoughts" improved his mood. He was so wound up from the show that he did not fall asleep till almost eleven o'clock. Thankfully he did not wake up through the rest of the trip, filling up with gasoline, picking up Ty's car, or transferring him from the car to his bed. When I went to check on him this morning, his new friends were tucked firmly in his grasp as he lay there sleeping. He carried them around until it was time to leave to go to Mrs. Kozy's house....you can see that they have been properly introduced to Big Bird and Barney! LOL

Okay - I am TRULY exhausted - I went to the school and unpacked a few boxes today - ran a couple of errands - picked Richard up from Kozy's house - took Richard to get his hair cut (ALWAYS exhausting) - came home and absolutely could not fall asleep with Richard no matter how badly I wanted to - met Kozy, Claire, Kate, Amy, and Wes for supper and playtime - came home finished cooking our supper - and then the usual night time routines...again I find myself keyed up and unable to sleep and I am supposed to be at the car dealership in less than six and a half hours - YIKES!!! I hope that "today" works out where I can get a nap before the school/faculty picnic at Becky's house!!!

Great Entertainment...

The show was GREAT!! A HUGE thank you to my brother in law, Shane....he called Ty the day before to tell him that The Wiggles would be in Shreveport on Wednesday - Ty got on line but couldn't find any good tickets - so after more searching he found that they would be in Mobile a day earlier and got us some pretty good seats for less than twenty four hours before the show - we were only a couple of rows off the floor. As you can see Richard acquired some new "friends" from the show.

The Wiggles...

If you are not familiar with the Wiggles, they are a group of four guys from Australia that children seem to LOVE and parents come to LOATHE (if their kiddos watch them obsessively - as was the case with Richard for a VERY long time - we don't loathe them, I just detest falling into bed exhausted and not being able to sleep because songs about fruit salad or hot potatoes are ringing in my head! LOL) Anyway, I digress... Each of the men wears a signature color: Murray: red, Anthony: blue, Jeff: purple, and Sam: yellow. I list Sam last because that character changed recently (the former "yellow" singer Greg retired due to health reasons) and for the longest time Richard would NOT name Sam because he was mad that Greg was no longer on the videos...he seemed to quickly get over his being miffed as they all appeared on stage and he got to see Sam up close and personal!!!

Yes,,,, you guessed it!!!!

Yesterday afternoon after lunch, Richard was getting REALLY sleepy but I wouldn't let him go lay down - we had to load the car - he was being such a grouch - so I asked him if he remembered going to meet Elmo (which he did) - so I asked him if he would like to go and see the Wiggles - he proceeded to get this HUGE grin and began naming each of the characters to ensure that indeed I was referring to THE Wiggles - too funny - he quickly helped me load the car and hopped right on into his car seat. We met Ty and began our journey to Mobile, AL. All went well till we hit H'Burg - there was a HUGE storm cell - nonetheless, Ty safely navigated us through the bad weather and to the Arena in perfect time. Richard patiently perused the program and before we knew - the lights dimmed and the show began...he didn't care too much for the "extra" dancers that opened the show, but was thrilled when the Big Red Car came chugga chugging on to the stage...of course Henry, Dorothy, and Wags were there and the Captain made a GRAND entrance repelling down out of the Wiggles castle.

HMMMM - Where Did We Go.....

Here are a few hints via some pics - BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER ---- couldn't share many of the in between or that would TOTALLY give it away. Let's just say we began pondering our "mini-trip" day before yesterday - made a decision about midnight Monday - went and had a FABULOUS time last night - and less than 24 hours after first hearing about the opportunity we were CRASHED in bed absolutely exhausted and worn out but ssssooooo worth it because of the sheer JOY Richard expressed!!!

More to come - gonna drop Richard at a friend's house and run up to the school to at least feel like I have accomplished something towards getting ready for the new school year (since we have NOT been allowed to work in the rooms yet - YIKES!!!)

P.S. YES, I know that Richard's arm is not in the carseat correctly - I had already begun to get him out and thought about taking a picture - he was in a safely parked car!! NO reporting me to the authorities!!! LOL

Game Two. . .

Baseball for a two year old can be a lot to ask - so there was a lot of "entertaining" going on under the trees in our cheering section. Richard had fun blowing bubbles with PatPat, coloring with his color wonder markers, and eating snow cones. If you look carefully at the picture of Joshua warming up, you will see Ty in the background in his "Joshua jersey" taking pictures as well. A really beautiful dragonfly with blue hues lit on PatPat's hand for the longest time and Richard had the chance to fully inspect it before telling to to go byebye! Joshua is always so sweet to take time for Richard regardless of the difference in their age. Afterwards we went to Middendorfs for supper and spent the rest of the weekend in Baton Rouge.

Cousin Joshua says "Play Ball"

Ty's brother Shane has a son named Joshua who is a FANTASTIC baseball player - he plays catcher, pitcher, and third baseman...his team of ten and eleven year olds made it to the play offs so we headed to Louisiana to watch him play. Ty took off of work early on Friday so that we could see the first game. Poppa and Pat Pat had us shirts printed with Joshua's number and name. Game one was a lot of fun, but really hot and unfortunately a loss. We headed to Baton Rouge and spent the night with Poppa and PatPat.

ANYTHING Art Related = Happiness for Richard!

Manze had given Richard some sidewalk chalk - I was really hesitant to get it out because I am allergic to most kinds of chalk and it tends to me so messy...Richard "discovered" it last week in our office and was determined that we were going to go outside and draw...so out we went! The only smooth surface we could draw on was the bit of cement between the driveway and the actual garage. Richard had such a great time, but my sweet neat freak kept holding his hands out and saying "fix the yucky!" Thank you for the chalk Manze, Richard had a great time.

Fun Times with Poppa and Pat Pat. . .

Ty's parents have been sssoooo helpful in keeping Richard while I had staff development meetings and meetings to help rewrite the Venture curriculum....they seem to not mind the two and a half hour drive one way and say that it doesn't seem so far. I really appreciate their willingness to help as mom still works. Recently on one of their visits, they invented a "new" game - rather than just playing toss and catch with the ball - they now play "sky ball" and toss the ball as high into the air as you can and then run to catch it! The last picture is dedicated to an important part of Ty's life that is soon to leave us - his beautiful blue Camaro has given and given and given (it has over 290,000miles on it) - I couldn't resist snapping this picture of Richard and Ty sitting on the hood...hopefully in the next few weeks a beautiful blue Nissan will be parked in her place...but as Ty would say NEVER "taking" her place.

Richard LOVES to feed the ducks at MeMe and DD's. . .

A couple of weeks ago, Richard and I headed over to Clinton for a visit with MeMe and DD. A visit to their house is NEVER complete unless they walk to the lakes and feed the ducks. If you look closely at the first picture the ducks from ACROSS the lake are coming to join in the afternoon snack, all swimming in a perfectly straight line headed to Richard! I was a bit nervous about the Canadian Geese, but Richard seemed to hold his own. He had such a great time even though it was scorching hot. . . as you can see from the last picture he was sooooo sad to leave....isn't it amazing how transparent little ones are and show ALL of their emotions...they have not yet been taught to hold things inside or wear masks...may I be more like him in his childlike ways of enjoying life with ALL of me one hundred percent even if that means their is momentary sadness that accompanies those times.

Stock in United Artists...

OK! OK! OK! For a family that doesn't go to the movies that often, I think we need to buy some stock in United Artist - we have been to THREE movies in less than TWENTY-FOUR hours!!

1) Ty and I went to see Wanted - absolutely would NOT recommend it to ANYONE - no matter how much you like Angelina Jolie - the profanity is awful and it is REALLY gruesome!!!

2) Richard and I went to see Kung Fu Panda with Cindy, Emma, Robin, and Manze yesterday morning.

3) Ty, Richard, and I went to see Wall.E last night.

While at the Kung Fu movie, Richard kept saying that he wanted to see Wall.E after seeing the previews...I told him that daddy would bring him to see it sometime...no more thought given to the idea....well, when daddy got home, Richard was "all about" the fish and showing them to daddy. Richard ate his supper and then went to watch some TV while we began to fix ours' - it was at that point that a preview for Wall.E came on and it triggered something inside of Richard's little head - he became obsessed with Wall.E and daddy taking him to see it. Ty looked up the times and it was beginning in thirty minutes - did we really want to go outside and put together the new swing set anyway?!?!? Off to the movies we headed - the ticket lady actually recognized me from that morning....Richard did MUCH better with the movie - I took him "walking for about ten minutes and then his daddy took him for about the same - after that he came back in and sat in my lap and watched the rest of the movie. He waved bye to Wall.E as he reluctantly left the theater - it was so sweet. KUDOS to Disney - Wall.E was a hit with my lil munchkin...he jabbered about Wall.E, Eve, the Captain, and the "bug" till he drifted off to sleep.

New Pets for the Sullivans....

We used to have our aquarium filled with beautiful cichlids, but then they went to fishy heaven. We then put our fish from the fair (from two years ago) in there....one of them died last week...he was huge (about 4 1/2 inches long). The one remaining "fair fish" has been hiding under the castle, which is not much fun for Richard (don't know if he is sick or just lonely). Well, before our company came in last weekend, Ty and I attacked the aquarium - new filter system, rocks, the whole shabang! When the Kung Fu movie didn't work out yesterday, Richard and I braved the rain and took a trip to PetSmart! Time for new "fishies" to come to our house to live. I asked for five but the salesman scooped six and I didn't have the heart to put him back so at a whopping 29cents a piece with a two week guarantee, the bag was filled and we were on our way to giving them a new home. After letting the water temp adjust we released them into the tank. Richard fed them their lunch and as you can tell from his face he adores them.

P.S. The "fair fish" (which Richard calls the "daddy" fish because he is so HUGE compared to the new babies) has become so perky and swims around with the babies now - maybe he was just lonely.