Daddy's on vacation!!!

This week, Daddy has been home on vacation so Jack has been having a blast doing things with him!  The weather hasn't been the greatest, the week started out with rainy, cold days.....and today is the first sunny day, but there are 45 m.p.h. winds blowing outside.

I snapped a few shots with my phone camera during the week, so they aren't the best quality!

We tried to go out fishing, something that Jack and Daddy do often during the evenings while I'm working.  I ususally don't get to be there, so I was excited to get some pictures of Jack reeling in a BIG one!  But, I only managed to snap this one before a huge storm cloud rolled in and it started raining!  So much for fishing!

Jack had some fun playing with Daddy before he headed out to go turkey hunting...

We ended up going to Cabella's to look around later that day and Jack enjoyed checking out the huge fish in the underwater caves.  He also loved riding up and down the escalator and elevator over and over again!!  :)

Jack and Daddy had some fun playing some new Wii games too....I think they were wrestling each other in this game...

Jack and I did some letterboxing while Daddy went to his Ju jitsu practice....We found two in a very old cemetery in Norwichtown.  The dates on most of the stones were from the 1700's.  There were some very interesting graves in this cemetery....Samuel Huntington, who was elected President of the Continental Congress as well as being the 18th Governor of the State of Connecticut is buried here.  He also signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  The first letterbox we found was placed near his tomb.  Another person that is buried here is Hannah Arnold...the mother of Benedict Arnold.  In this picture, Jack had just spotted one of the letterboxes in the stone wall. 

One of the letterboxes was placed in this cemetery to show the different headstone carvings, known as lunettes, which are the carvings in the moon shape at the top of the stone.  This is a picture of one that I took as we were leaving the cemetery.

Jack was stamping my book for me at the letterbox near the Huntington Tomb...

This afternoon, because it was so windy outside, Jack and Daddy decided to take on an inside project.  We had french doors put in last July, but never ended up putting up the finishing trim on the inside.  Jack always loves helping Daddy do projects.  He quickly grabbed his tools and got down on the floor to help!

The weekend is supposed to be much better weather, so hopefully we'll get to have a few more outdoor adventures before Daddy goes back to work!

Aquarium fun and geocaching!

Yesterday we headed down to Mystic to go to the aquarium for the day!  It was a beautiful day, and I think just about every single other family decided that this was the thing to do today because  IT WAS PACKED!!! 

Jack picked up a crab all by himself!  He liked it until the crab pinched him, then he threw it back into the water and said "I don't like crabs!"  LOL!

Those are some BIG shark teeth!! 

Jack got a chance to touch a sting ray!!  They were hard to touch, they swam really fast and didn't always come up to the surface!

Jack liked the penguins the most!  He couldn't wait to go see them!  (They're my favorites too!)

This is a picture of Jack and his cousin Luke watching the penguins swim!  They kept coming right up to the glass where the boys were!!

Checking out the Beluga whales!!

Jack liked watching this turtle...he had some LONG nails!!  I wouldn't want to come across one of those in the water!

After lunch, we all went to the duck pond!  This is a picture of Jack and his cousins Hannah and Luke!

Checking out the ducks and the water wheel!

The kids posing with the Sea Lion!

Jack and his cousin Riley!! 

My little guy checking out a pair of ducks that were hiding behind a bush in this store-front garden!

After all of our fun at the Aquarium, Jack and I headed down the street to a beautiful cemetery where we ended up finding 3 geocaches!!  Jack picked up some cool toys in the caches, and I got to add to my total of caches found, making it 126!!  Woo hoo!!

Jack at one of the cache sites!!

Earth Day!

Yesterday was Earth Day!!  Jack got a little bumble bee magnifying glass at the store the day before and he couldn't wait to go exploring!  He loves everything about nature....planting flowers and trees, animals, insects, you name it! 

The second he got out of the bathtub, he grabbed his magnifying glass and was ready to go outside and explore everything up-close and personal.

He wanted to see all of the plants, flowers, and bugs in the yard, and these are the pictures from his exploration!

Jack really liked this bumble bee...we watched it go from flower to flower!  I got a chance to explain how the bee takes the nectar from the flowers and returns to the nest to store it.

Jack found this turkey feather in the yard...he was pretty excited about that!  He carried it around for the rest of the day! 

We have turkeys that walk through our yard all of the time!

He liked the pink flowers on the dogwood tree!

I love this picture of him....it shows his inquisitive side.  He really enjoys taking the time to examine things and learn about them.  (Plus I love how it shows off his long eyelashes!)

We really enjoyed exploring today.  We learned about how the trees help clean the air for us to breathe, how the flowers help the insects, and got to enjoy the flowers that we planted last week.  I hope Jack continues to appreciate nature and 'Mother Earth'.  It's a pretty good quality in my eyes!

Playdate with friends!

Yesterday, my friend Terri and my friend Sue and her kids, Jack and Brooke, came by for a much needed visit!  I don't get together with the girls anywhere near often enough due to our busy work schedules, but it was nice finally getting to see everyone today!

Jack was still asleep when Terri got to the house, but luckily, woke up pretty happy and very talkative!  He couldn't wait to show Terri his playroom and train table!  When Sue and the kids got here, all the kids played in the playroom for a while then we decided it was too nice outside to be in the house!

We set up the bouncer & ball pit, pulled out the t-ball set and tricycles and watched the kids have a blast!  Here are some of the pictures from our playdate!!

This handsome guys name is Jack too!  My Jack likes to call him "the other Jack".  They are only 6 weeks apart in age!  Jack had so much fun in the ball pit!!

This is Brooke, and she had a great time too with the ball pit and bouncer!  Isn't she the cutest thing with her little curls??

The kids seemed like they had so much fun playing together!!

My Jack and Brooke were tossing the balls back and forth through the ball pit doors!

Jack and Brooke really liked petting Sasha, and Sasha was LOVING all of the attention!  She's really good with kids!!

Jack was showing Brooke the bluebird decoration he put in our bird garden and also showed her the rose bushes he planted all by himself!

Jack loved doing some 'slam dunks' in the basketball hoop!!  He's quite a basketball player!

All three of the kids were looking to see if there were any bees on the dandelions in the yard!

Saying goodbye is never fun!!  But we'll see the kids again soon hopefully!!

After everyone left, Jack and I went out and played a little more outside and snapped a few more pictures.  I loved how the grass was so green, and how the balls from the ball pit and Jacks red shirt really looked bright and cheery in the pictures!!

It's a cold, dreary Sunday...but the yardwork is calling!

Jack started his morning off by grabbing his Diego garden gloves that Grandma got for him....still in his jammies, he was ready to go work outside!  Today is very cold, I don't know if it even hit 50 degrees.  The wind is blowing and it's been cloudy for the majority of the day...

Our grass is so long because of all the rain we've had lately, so it's a boring day of doing some yardwork.

After Jack ate breakfast and got dressed, we had some play-doh time...Jack made all sorts of fun things!!  He loves using the 'spaghetti' maker and scissors!

Jack and Daddy mowed the lawn and I did some picking up around the house!  I also managed to snap some pictures of the birds in our bird garden...I think they've been telling their friends about it because it seems every day we have more and more birds coming to check out the feeders!

Here are the guys mowing out by the back garage...Sasha looks HUGE in this picture! LOL! 

Bird Paradise!

Today, Jack and I worked more on our little bird garden.  We had already added mulch to an area up against our stone wall and planted roses & perennials the other day, and today we wanted to put up all of our bird houses and bird feeders.  We have a huge tree with big hydrangeas surrounding it up against the wall and used this area as the focal point.  The hydrangeas bloom all summer and they are HUGE!  I also have a little wooden bench right next to it because it's a perfect shady spot on hot summer days.

Jack and I love to watch the birds eating, building nests and just hanging out in the tree singing!  He's getting pretty good about identifying them too!

Jack helped me fill all of our feeders with sunflower seeds and thistle, and then we added our suet blocks to the suet feeders.  The woodpeckers really like those!!  We get a lot of cardinals, goldfinches, chicadees, nuthatches, robins, finches, catbirds, titmouses, bluejays, and an occasional blue bird.  Those are my favorites!

Jack really likes the cardinals, especially the males with their bright red color!






The pollen got the best of me today, my allergies were in full force, so I snapped a couple more pictures before heading inside to take some medicine!

This is our dog Sasha, she came out to 'help' us.  She loves watching the birds too!

The hydrangeas have leaves starting to come out, so it won't be too long before they have big, beautiful flowers!

The daffodils are starting to bloom, and the butterfly bush is just starting to look alive again!

Jack and Sasha taking a break from filling all of the bird feeders. 

I hope the birds love our new little bird sanctuary we set up for them!  I can't wait to grab a few pictures of our fine feathered friends soon!