Donuts for Dads

Today at Will's school they honored the dads with "Donuts for Dads" day.  Will was soooo excited that his daddy got to be with him at school.  The kids had made ties for the dads to wear and had prepared a few other special surprises for them

Here is George sporting his tie.

Will and daddy enjoying their donuts.

Daddy opening his gift.  The kids painted picture frames and then drew a picture of something they liked to do with their dad to go in the frame.  Will drew a picture of he and his dad at the beach.

Mommy crashing the party.

The kids had also learned 2 songs that they sang for the dads.  This is Will showing daddy how to do the hand motions to the song "My heart belongs to daddy."  I know that Will will remember this day for a long time.  He never stopped smiling.

Fun in the Snow!

On Sunday night, the snow stopped and we had a break in the clouds.  I was somewhat able to capture the beautiful sunset we saw from our front porch.

Monday morning we awoke to mostly clear roads and plenty of snow still on the grass.  George was home after his weekend on-call so we had some fun family time outside.  Will was feeling better and wanted to go out in the snow.  I let him play for a little while because it may be the only snow we see this year.  Here he is trying to make a snow angel.  Unfortunately, the snow was more more ice than powder so it didn't make a real good impression.  He had fun trying though.

Last time we got a little bit of snow we learned the hill on the side of the house made for a good place to sled.  We pulled out our favorite pool float and away we went!  

Will

Susan

Daddy and Will

Daddy and Susan

Will and Susan flying solo!

Susan going up the hill for another run.

Susan getting a ride up the hill from mommy.

Mommy and Susan

Even GiGi got in on the fun!  Here she is with Susan.

GiGi and Susan making the bottom to our snowman.

Susan singing "Frosty the Snowman" to the snowman.  

Susan giving Frosty some love.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

All week long people were saying that we were going to get snow on Sunday.  I was a bit skeptical though given the fact that we do live in the South and the forecast for Saturday was rain and a high of 60.  However, I couldn't help but think what fun it would be to get a little bit of the white stuff.  We went to bed Saturday night with the weatherman saying snow, but woke up to rain.  It didn't take long though before that rain turned to SNOW!

This is a picture of the poolhouse and the front of the house not long after the snow started falling.

Susan was so excited to see the snow!  She wanted to try and catch it and we had a hard time keeping her in the house (hence the reason she has no shoes on in this picture).

Here is a picture of the front of the house after about 3 hours of snow.

Fun at the Zoo

For the past week we have been fortunate to get a break from the cold.  The temperatures have been in the 60's with plenty of sun.  Valentine's Weekend saw a continuation of the beautiful weather so we decided to take the kids to one of their favorite places-the Atlanta Zoo.  

Susan and Will both love watching the Flamingos.  They are the first animals you see when you enter the zoo. 

This is a picture of Mei Lan, the panda born at the Atlanta Zoo a little over 2 years ago.  She is almost full grown now.

And this is the new baby panda born at the Atlanta Zoo a couple of months ago.  His name is Xi Lan.  This is a picture of him and his mom Lun Lun.  The 2 of them were playing and we really had fun watching them.   

Within the last year at the zoo there was quite the baby explosion.  These are the not so little lion cubs playing.

Here is the proud daddy and 2 of the lion cubs.  They have official names, but Will refers to the lions as Mufasa, Sirabe, Simba, Nala, and Scar.  If those names sound familiar, it's because they are the names of the lions in the movie "The Lion King".

Will doing his best lion roar.

One of Will's favorite animals at the zoo is the Komodo Dragon.  The is a bronze statue of the Komodo outside the reptile house that Will loves to play on.

Daddy and Susan on the Merry-go-round.

The have recently renovated a play area at the zoo and put in some great new playground equipment.  Of course they have a big, curvy slide that, up until today, Susan had been afraid to go down.  She decided that she was finished watching Will have all the fun and away she went.  After that, there was no stopping her.  She kept saying "1 more minute" so she could down the slide again.

Daddy, Susan, and Will on the train.

All 4 of us having fun on the see-saw.

Let's go swimming now, everybody's learning how...

Growing up, I had the opportunity to try out many different sports.  One of the things that I enjoyed most was swimming.  Fortunately, both Will and Susan have developed a love for the water as well.  Since both of them have no fear and don't hesitate to jump right in, I put them in swim lessons ASAP.  Will started lessons last June and Susan had her first lesson Jan. 7th.  They are both doing great and are having fun!

This is Will and his friend Ethan.  Will met Ethan during his first swim session and the 2 of them became good friends.  They now take private lessons together with Mr. Kyle.

This is Susan and Ethan's sister Emma.  The 2 girls got tired of watching their big brother's learn to swim so we arranged for them to start swim lessons also.

Susan on the kickboard with her swim teacher Ms. Michelle

Susan swimming with a little help from Ms. Michelle.

Susan loves to kick her feet and make big splashes while swimming.

Susan going under.  She does really well and comes up laughing.

Will has come along way since June of last year.  Here he is swimming back to the steps.  He swims independently and is working on learning to use his arms correctly and keeping his face in the water. 

Will working with the kickboard floating on his back.