The flood, the pet store and my little cowboy!

Because of the terrible rain we've had the last few days, many of the local rivers have flooded and caused some major flooding of homes and businesses.  The rain finally stopped today, so Jack and I took a drive around Jewett City to see how high the rivers there were.  These couple of pictures are from the waterfall at Ashland pond...Jack, Daddy and I go fishing here often, and it's normally just a quiet waterfall and small river that runs under a foot bridge.  Today, it was the roaring rapids...the water across the street flooded many homes and they were just about ready to close the road when we left.  I feel so sorry for all of the people who suffered damage to their homes due to this flood.  Thankfully, we managed to make out okay.

We couldn't do any playing outside today, so we decided to take a quick trip to the pet store so that Jack can see his animal friends....

This rat was cleaning it's belly...Jack thought that was pretty cool, because he said "I can't lick my tummy like that!"

Another animal that Jack really liked there today was a pair of ferrets...they were playing together in their cage, rolling around and chasing each other!!  This little guy was being chased out of it's toy ball by the other one when I took this one!  Jack thought they were pretty funny!  :)    

One quick stop to Walmart to check out the summer toys led us to this reallly cute cowboy hat! Jack loved wearing it....I think he looked so cool in it....he was singing "'cause I'm a cowboy, baby!" throughout the store!

The worst rain I've seen!

Today was another day of heavy, flooding rain.  Parts of the state were declared a 'state of emergency' because of all of the flooding and roads shut down.  We had a scheduled playdate about 15 miles from our house at a school, but they hadn't cancelled it, so Jack and I headed down there!  The roads were terrible, especially the one near the school.  At one point, I didn't think we'd make it, there was so much water over the road and police were starting to put up blockades.  When we got there, we could see all of the other moms cars, so we went in to play.  It was a 'color Easter eggs' playdate and Jack was very excited to do that! 
After about 15 minutes, one of the other moms was getting messages on her phone saying that the kids at the local schools were being sent home and more and more roads were closing.  We decided at that point, we should probably head home...but Sarah was nice enough to send Jack home with hard boiled eggs and a coloring kit so that he could do it at home!!  Thanks Sarah!!  :)  
It was a crazy ride home...more flooding than before!  I had to get off the highway for gas, and when I went to leave the gas station, the police were there putting up more signs closing that direction of the road!!!  I had to go back down the opposite way on the highway, then turn around to come back up again!  Thankfully, we made it home safe and sound.

Jack couldn't wait to make his Easter eggs, so we did those as soon as we got home!

They came out really great!  Jack even got fancy with some of them, making them multicolored and decorated them with stickers!

Nice job little buddy!!  :)

Bunnies and more bunnies!

Jack and I decided to have a special Easter-week breakfast today!!  Check out this Easter Bunny toast with an egg in the middle!  It may be hard to see, but it came out pretty good!  Mmmmm!!  

Today was yet another rainy cold day....so we just hung out around the house.  We watched some cartoons, then did another Easter craft before Jack headed upstairs for his nap!  (By the way...today is the first time Jack isn't wearing Pull-ups to bed!  He said "I'm a big boy now, so I should wear underwear!"

Let's see how he does!  Keep your fingers crossed....not having to buy Pull-ups would be a nice little chunk of money saved every month!  :)

Anyway, back to our craft....I figured we'd do a fairly easy paper plate craft today....I think it came out pretty cute!  We borrowed some plastic Easter eggs from the ones he found at the egg hunt on Saturday!  Looks like the Easter Bunny is hiding in the grass with all of the eggs!

Easter egg hunt, Easter Bunny and a baby hawk!

This morning was Jacks Easter egg hunt at Lisbon Meadows Park!  It was only 25 degrees out, so we had to bundle up!!   Jack was pretty excited, especially when they had all the kids walk over to the field where all the eggs were....there were thousands!!!  Ready.......set.......go!!!!!!

Jack got lots of eggs and the big chocolate bunny!  His cousins Luke and Hannah made out pretty good too!

Next stop....the Easter Bunny!!!

Jack jumped right up on his lap for a quick picture, then the Easter bunny gave him a lollipop!! 

Jack and I spotted something very cool outside of the hotel....on the street sign, just outside of the window was a baby hawk!  It was just sitting there and didn't even mind that I went out to take a couple of pictures of it!  Of course, the mommy hawk was probably  sitting in a nearby tree waiting to attack me, but thankfully she didn't!  I just wish I had the good camera with the big zoom lens!!

He was so cute and Jack loved him!!

Bunny time!

With Easter next weekend, Jack and I wanted to do another Easter craft!  We got this great idea from http://funnydayswithmommyandmaddie.blogspot.com/ ! 

I just happened to have a toilet paper roll in Jacks craft bins, figuring I would need it someday for a craft!  I'm glad I did!!   We painted it white and put it aside to dry. 

While we were waiting, we cut bunny ears out of white craft foam, then Jack added purple glitter to it's ears!!  After everything was dry, we stuck the ears on the top, added pipe cleaner whiskers, a button nose, and used a marker for the mouth and teeth!  What a cute idea!!  Thanks Amanda and Maddie for sharing it with us!

And speaking of cute little bunnies.....

Check out Jack in his Easter bunny ears he got at the mall today...they were kind of like the consolation prize for the kids whose parents refused to pay $22.00 for a picture with the Easter Bunny.  Sorry Jack, I just couldn't see spending that much money on a picture...but at least he waved 'hello' to you!!  Besides, maybe  we'll get to see him at the Easter egg hunt tomorrow.....

My little sick guy....

For the last few days, Jack has been pretty sick.  He seems to have his moments during the day where he acts fine and is happy, then others when he's sick and miserable. 

I needed to watch my nephew this morning for an hour, and thankfully, Jack seemed very happy to play with Luke for a while....the boys played with the train set that Jack got for Christmas and had a blast!

After a little while, I could tell Jack was losing his steam...Luke was too for that matter, he's sick too!  The boys climbed up on the couch and watched Diego for a while until Luke went home.

Jack also went to the doctor today, his cough was pretty bad, and he had a bit of a fever.  I figured I would nip it in the bud...get Jack on medicine and he'd be fine for Easter!  No such luck...apparently, it's just a virus and it has to run it's course.  How long?  Well, the doctor said it could be weeks.....LOVELY!

The one plus-side to today was that Jack fell asleep on me for the first time in well over a year!  It reminded me of the days when I would just rock him in my arms until he fell asleep when he was little.  He crawled up to my lap while I was on the couch and within minutes, I could tell he was asleep.  My camera was right there on the table next to me, so I took a few shots....I miss those days!!!!  Look at his sweet little face....

By the way, that is a chicken nugget in his hand....I snagged it before it fell!  :)

My sweet baby...hope you get better soon....I love you!

More sick days.....

Jack has been sick the last couple of days, but we still tried to do some fun things to keep a smile on his face!

Yesterday, we made a GIANT cupcake!!  It was chocolate, with chocolate pudding in the middle and whipped cream frosting!!   YUMMMMMMMMY!!  (of course, Jack only eats the frosting & pudding!)

Jack made me a nice picture too....he's getting so good with his drawing and with writing his name!!  It's a picture of a flower with the sun shining above!  He wrote his name all by himself too!  I'm so proud of him!

We had some fun last night with Daddy too....we played with puzzles, and Daddy was intentionally putting the pieces in the wrong place to see what Jack would do!!  Jack was laughing so hard, it was funny!  Then our BIG dog Sasha decided she needed to be part of the family fun time too, and plopped herself down right next to her best buddy Jack!!

The big bag behind Jack??  Those were all of the clothes that Jack outgrew since last summer...my little guy is getting big!!  We're going to share them with a friend who has triplets!!

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Today, Jack missed out on going to the library toddler program.   He was too sick to go, but Miss Anne and Miss Kathy were nice enough to send home the craft for Jack to do!!  He was pretty excited...especially when he saw the plastic Easter Egg in it!  He loves those!

After having a pretty relaxing day today on the couch, we decided we better start making some Easter decorations for the house...Easter is in a week and a half!!!!

We did a nice simple one, seeing as Jack wasn't feeling the greatest.  I think it came out pretty good!  I cut  Easter eggs out of construction paper, and Jack colored them!!  We then got out the gluestick and stuck them on a paper plate with the center cut out....voila!!  An Easter wreath!!

We put it up on the french doors in the dining room so everyone can enjoy a little touch of spring!!

I think Jack did a great job!!

Lastly, Jack got a whole bunch of postcards this week from Postcrossing.com!!  He even got a mini calendar from a woman in Wales, showing all sorts of scenes from Wales.  Jack was so excited!!  Here are a couple of his favorite postcards from this week....

Fun weekend!

We had another beautiful couple of days this weekend! 

Saturday, Daddy and I decided to make an attempt at building the turbo twist slide for the playscape we built in the fall!  It wasn't meant for our particular set, so we knew it was going to be a challenge...and it was!

Jack was very patient though, playing outside in the sand box with his trucks and pails...for 5 hours!  He did get a little antsy at the end, and he hadn't had a nap, so he was a bit tired too... 
He pretty much started to take a nap on the tree house stairs...at this point, I don't think he could wait much more.

Thankfully, we were just about done at this point and then Jack got to take his first ride on the new slide!

I think it was definitely worth the wait for Jack....he LOVED it!!

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Today we took Jack and the girls to Jacks first hockey game!  We saw The Hartford Wolfpack play agains the Providence Bruins!  Daddy and I used to go to the Bruins games in Providence a lot before Jack was born, but this was the first time seeing a game since!

I think that Jack was more interested in the Wolf mascot, which only showed up between periods.  He did like the nachos and ice cream though.  He did watch part of the game, but I think that at 3 years old, it just didn't make any sense to him.

Here's a couple of shots we took at the game!

Spring has sprung!

This week has been beautiful!!  The weather has been in the 60's and it's been sunny for days!!

On Wednesday, which was also St. Patricks day, we had our library program in the morning where the kids got to make a pot of gold with gold coins in it!!  Jack loved making that!!

Afterwards, we headed down to Fort Shantok to meet up with Auntie Scoot and Riley!!  We played on the playground, had a picnic lunch and walked the trail around the pond! 

Here are a few pictures from our park visit!

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Yesterday, Jack and I headed out to find a new geocache that was hidden only 4 miles from our house!!  The best part?  The park where is was located had a playscape!!

When we got there, I was eager to be the 'first to find', since no one had yet discovered it, so I convinced Jack that we would play on the playscape 'soon'!!  We headed into the woods, but my iPhone's GPS isn't as accurate as our Garmin GPS and we ended up walking in circles...until I tried to carry Jack over a little muddy area and ended up about a foot deep in MUD!

Well, that sounded like a good time to go play on the playscape and have the picnic lunch I brought. 

Jack really liked this 'cave', which was really the back side of the rock wall...it had a really cool dinosaur fossil!  We decided to give the geocache another shot, and headed towards the woods again...then another geocacher pulled up, hopped out of his car and walked directly to it!  We ended up talking for a few minutes, and walked away as the 'second to find'. 

On the way back to the car, Jack spotted a snake!  I'm not really a big fan of snakes, but Jack didn't seem to be bothered by him.  I always try to look 'cool' and say things like "Wow, isn't that an awesome snake, he's really cute" and "we should really have a closer look!"  Thankfully, he was a little one!  I had to convince Jack that we shouldn't touch snakes unless Daddy helps...so Jack studied him for a few minutes and we headed out on our next adventure.

We headed to another geocache that was at a monument in Norwich for Miantonomo.  He was was a chief of the Narragansett tribe of New England Indians.  Jack made the find on this one!  He found it quickly, we signed the log and headed out to our last treat of the day......

Our last stop was Hanks Dairy Bar in Plainfield!  It was opening day and we could really go for some ice cream!!  Mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!  This is someplace where I have a feeling we will end up often!