Florida Trip, Part 1

We spent a good portion of Alex's Spring Break visiting Grandma and Grandpa D. in Florida. The weather was great, and we did lots of fun stuff. Of course, there was swimming and gecko hunting every day, but we also went to an amazing museum (the newly opened Children's Museum of Naples), to the beach, and to play mini-golf (twice!).

We'll have more pictures courtesy of Grandpa D. soon, but here are a few shots. Plus, one blast from the past.

Waving from the sculpture in the middle of the hedge maze

Catching a (cloth) fish

Ready to tee off

Gotta get the ball in just the right spot

Tapping it in

On the fish in 2012

On the fish in 2009

For Grandma C.

As most of you know, Alex's Grandma C. recently passed away. This was his first experience with a funeral, and, like most little boys, he wanted to do what his Daddy was doing. So, as the pallbearers and funeral directors (Larry and his son Geoffrey, our former next door neighbors) were moving the casket from the church, he wanted to help too. Larry said it would be fine, and it made for a sweet moment in a sad day to see him being such a big boy.

A Little Bit of Catch Up

For a variety of reasons I have not been as prolific with my blogging of late (at least I post semi-regularly on here, my other blog has been woefully neglected). So this will be a mish-mash of recent photos that I wanted to share. Enjoy!

The last few trips to the grocery store Alex has asked to ride in the special kids carts, and we finally were able to do that a few weeks ago. He loved it! (I was less enamored with having to navigate the store with such a large cart.) Plus, he found it quite funny that the steering wheel was removable.

Most of you are aware of Alex's obsession with puzzles. It extends to school as well, and they often work on puzzles in the after school program. The first picture is a puzzle he completed there, and the next one is of a puzzle we did at home. When we finished it he asked if I could take a picture of him with it for his teacher.

Dave was recently in New York for business and got this great NYC fire fighter t-shirt for Alex. I didn't get a great shot of it, but we had to be sure to take one to send my cousin Christine whose husband is a real NYC fire fighter.

Stuff Alex Has Said

I've been collecting things Alex has said or done over the past few months that have amused us. Some of them may be a you-had-to-be-there sort of thing, but I hope you enjoy.
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Alex made some comment (I don't remember what it was), and Dave asked "How do you know that?"

Alex's response? "I have a good, special brain."
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While putting a Tinkertoy stick in his shoe he said, "I'm being like Grandpa," because he's seen Grandpa put his shoes on with a shoehorn.
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Completely random comments one night: "I'm the police. Is there an emergency here?"
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Alex loves the snow and shoveling, and told us that "We need to go to the winter store and get me a shovel that's my size."
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On our way to Cecily's house one night: "I have a lot of questions for Cecily, so it's a good thing we are going over there." When I asked him what he wanted to ask her, he said, "I have too many questions to tell you."
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The other morning he started saying what I thought was "I'm sixty and I know it." Apparently it's from a song and the real line is "I'm sexy and I know it." However, I asked, "Why are you sixty?" and his response was "No, sexy. It means that I like girls." Oh, the things that get picked up at school!
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Out of nowhere the other day Alex says "I'm talented."

I couldn't resist and asked "Talented at what?"

The response. "Nothing." Then after a short pause, he asked "What does talented mean?"

Sleepover Dance Party Baking Fun

Alex's buddy Cecily was here for a sleepover this weekend. We crammed tons of fun into the visit. The kids decorated Valentine's cookies, had a dance party, made monkey bread for breakfast, made Valentines (no pics, unfortunately, but they were cute), and had a great time together.

Here are some pics and links to a couple of videos:

They love Adele!

Then we moved on to lots and lots of Justin Roberts. Here's Yellow Bus.

Very serious about sprinkles

Almost finished

Dance Party Superstars!

Back in the kitchen to make breakfast

Our Little Reader

We've tried very hard to pass our love of books and reading on to Alex, and it seems to be working. Lately, he's been very into the Magic Tree House book series. They have a few of these in his class at school, which is where he discovered them. The two main characters are Jack and Annie, and apparently he and several of his classmates will play "Jack and Annie" a lot. We now have five different books from the series checked out from the library. We got two more today, and he was so excited that he read one while we waited in line to check out our books, one in the car, and then hopped on the couch to read some more when we got home. I missed getting a picture of him lying on the couch and reading, but this was the next best thing.

Various School-Related Items

Yesterday and today was the first LabArts Expo. Students from the Nursery School classes through Seniors in high school had artwork displayed, and today there were several hours of performances as well. Alex's class had a display of their self-portraits where you could lift up a picture of the self-portrait to see the picture of the student that they worked from underneath. We had lots of fun looking at the artwork and enjoying the performances. Alex really seemed to like the dancing and the cellos.

We also had a parent let us know that Alex was in the video for this year's big fundraiser for the school. It can be viewed here (Connections 2012). Alex's class at their garden starts at 46 seconds in to the video.

Finally, Alex had a playground mishap and his first visit to the school nurse on Friday. He got his finger caught and the tip is pretty torn up. No stitches needed though, so that was good news. The nurse reported that he was very brave, and he's been doing pretty well with letting us take care of it.

In front of his class's display