HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIMI!!!!!!

It's okay, you can do a double-take. . .yes, that is indeed BRYCE, and not Tanner.  (Circa 2007)

Happy birthday to the best Mimi EVER!!!!!

We love you!!!!

xoxo

Conner's A-Maize-ing Acres

It's hard to get into the festive fall spirit when it's 85+ degrees outside. But we did our best today and trekked out to one of our favorite fall traditions, visiting Conner's Farm for the day. 

We skipped the corn maze again this year. Once was enough. Especially in this heat! But we went on a "hay ride" (ironically without the hay), and there was a fabulous new sunflower field this year. We visited with the new baby pigs that were born last month, and we had fabulous BBQ (not as good as Eric's though!) We left the farm a sweaty, dirty mess, but it was a lot of fun! 

 Playing in the corn tub! 

 Riding the cow train. . . .

Our new friends, the baby pigs. (I'm sort of obsessed with them! They are SO stinkin' cute!)

On the non-hay Hay Ride. . . .

Meeting a sheep. And a goose. And a bunch of chickens. . .

I never realized how much rabbits SHED until Bryce put this one down. . .oh MY. 

On one of the playgrounds. . . .

Last stop - the pumpkin patch! We added some baby pumpkins to add to our pumpkin collection!

 Final picture of the day. . . covered in dirt (see his neck!!???) 

hot, tired, and DONE having his picture taken! 

(But it was fun nonetheless!!!!)

Mr. T's 4-year-old checkup

Mr. Tanner had his four-year-old checkup with Dr. Hardman this week.

Dr. Hardman makes Tanner giggle by "seeing" surprising things when she's looking in his ears. Last year she found a garbage truck in his ear, and this year she saw a colony of Smurfs living in there! (I knew there was something strange going on in his head!)

Tanner is 40 inches tall now, and 35.8 pounds. That's the 25-50th percentile for both height and weight, so he's just perfect :) 

He had two shots which made him verrrry unhappy, but he was brave as can be, and recovered quickly. The superhero bandaids they gave him helped a lot!  

And then, yesterday THESE superheroes arrived in the mail, after a long journey here and there, from Steve and Kate.  They were supposed to be here at Tanner's birthday but they were unavoidably detained along the way. (Apparently, the plane that was carrying the toys, went down - holy cow!) 

They were a great surprise though, sitting on the doorstep last night, and Tanner is THRILLED! 

Bryce's Boosterthon Fun Run

Bryce ran in the Boosterthon Fun Run at school today! Thank you so much to everyone who pledged money for his run! He gets SO excited about this event every year! He won some pretty great prizes for collecting pledges, and he worked hard at today's event! (It was HOT!) And the bonus. .  .lots of new books and resources for his classroom library, thanks to the money collected! 

Cool and clean before the race. . .

 Woohoo!

 Fast as a flash!

 "Are you seriously still taking pictures of me running in circles?"

 Completed all his laps! The teachers keep count of the kids' laps, by marking off the numbers on their shirts as they come around each time.  I think the smiley faces mean that he finished all 35. (And then he kept on going after that!)

A rainy day class at the zoo!

Tanner had his second Zoo Tots class at the zoo on Wednesday.  It was downpouring when we left the house, so we got ready for a wet morning with raincoats and boots.  By the time we got to the zoo though, it looked like maybe we'd miss the rain. (We were both a tiny bit disappointed!) But our disappointment didn't last long, because after we got through the gate it started to POUR buckets of rain. 

This was outside the entrance - it was just sprinkling a tiny bit. 

And 5 minutes later. . . .

We found a sheltered place by the leopards, but we still had a 10 minute walk to get to the classroom where Zoo Tots meets!

We were so soaked even our raincoats weren't enough.  The water was ankle deep on me in some spots! Tanner thought it was HILARIOUS when we emptied out his boots, and water came pouring out!

 Only three of the twelve kids made it to class, but they still had a great time!

 Tanner got to touch an opossum  . . .

 and also a gopher tortoise!

 Then we got to stamp and put together a turtle hat!

It was TOTALLY worth the wet trip!

Zoo Tots!

Tanner and I have started a preschool age class at the Jacksonville Zoo, called Zoo Tots.  We're going about twice a month.  Each class has a theme, and we listen to stories, do a craft, play a game, and get to meet a few animals! 

The first week's theme was centered around the color red.  We learned about animals that have red on them, and Tanner got to touch a rat snake (aka "wat nake") ;)

Here he is playing a great game with the parachute.

 Meeting the wat nake. . . 

 Our ladybug craft!

After class, Tanner said, "I didn't know it was going to be THAT much fun!"  I think he likes it! 

"Take my picture!"

If he says, "Take my picture!" how can I refuse!!!???

Bryce's belt test {Yellow with white strip}

After being sick all week, Bryce managed to be well on Friday and was able to test for his next belt at karate! 

Here he is, getting ready to break a board. . .

Hi YAHHHH!

Receiving his new belt, from Master Johnson

Oh yeahhhh!

(new belt is on, old belt is in his hand)

Go Jaguars!

(sorry, i just realized all the horizontal pictures were sized incorrectly, when viewing this post on a computer screen versus a phone! i fixed them!) 

Tanner went to his first Jaguars game today! I think it had been about 10 years since I had been! I think Tanner's favorite part may have been his first bus ride ever, to get there. But the giant icee, plus watching Jaxson Deville zipline across the stadium were both a close second!!

(Officially exhausted on the way home!)