A Day out with Daddy

Michael has been on vacation this week and today was the first day that he and Tucker actually did something fun--the other days have been errands, yard work, etc. Their first stop was Stepping Stones Children's Museum in Norwalk. We had gone there a couple of summers ago and Tucker loved this GREAT remote control train that they had but of course, they have since changed the exhibits! But there is still plenty to do---

Here Tucker races a Lego car against other kids, then creates a bubble around himself (he didn't get to do this last time because it was raining when we were there) and finally relaxes with some gorillas! My favorite part of this museum was all the stuff they had with ping pong balls-it really doesn't take much to amuse me, I guess.






They next headed to The Children's Garbage Museum in Stratford

We had tried to go here a couple of years ago but it was closed the day we tried to go. Ever since, Tucker has been talking about going back. (He has always loved garbage trucks and loves to watch the garbage and recycling trucks collect their stuff!) This museum was right up his alley---he was so excited to tell me all about how they separated the plastic and cardboard and how you could see the workers doing this! I love that he gets so excited about things are fun and educational at the same time! You apparently get to go into all the different areas to actually watch them separate the plastics, the cardboard, etc. Here's a bulldozer straightening out the plastics

After you go through the work area, there is a section designed to teach kids about the process through lots of displays. Tucker was really excited about this dinosaur (which I had read was made of 1 ton of garbage!)


I wasn't even there but just from looking at the pictures, it does give you a whole new perspective on how much garbage we, as humans, create. I try to be good about recycling but this has inspired me to want to do more!

Can You Double My Money?

I just had to share this one...First a little background-our house looks like 5 cyclones hit it (talk about "keeping it real"!) and I had told Tucker that if he helped us clean the house completely on Sunday, we would give him $5. So this morning I came upstairs and he was straightening out his trucks (we have enough to open a couple of trucking companies) and I complimented him for doing so. His response? "I thought if did it early you could maybe double my money"!!!!!! (I told him that's not how it works!)

A disclaimer

I just wanted to add that I don't want anyone to think I was making fun of the gentleman carrying the potted plant in the wedding post. It was simply one of those moments when you wished you had a camera and we actually did!

Congratulations, Mark and Kate!

Mark has been a good friend of ours for many years now. He played darts with Michael for a few years (back before Tucker)and they have stayed friends through the years. He's a really great guy but one of those people that you just never think will settle down! Well, that was until Kate came along! Two years later they bought a house and he proposed in December!

Yesterday was the wedding in Chicopee, MA. We dropped Tucker off at my mom's and picked up Jeff on our way! We arrived at the hotel around 3 (the wedding was at 4) so we changed and went to Denny's (figuring we wouldn't be eating until later.) While we were eating, a guy in a power wheelchair went by which was somewhat amusing considering we're talking a four-lane highway, with strip malls, hotels, etc on both sides. Well about 15 minutes later, one of us glanced out and saw him again with a plant this time! We could not stop laughing and had to take this picture when we drove by him (there wasn't any traffic so I could slow down for Michael to take the picture)


Once we calmed down enough to keep going, we did make it to the ceremony. However, Kate was about to go down the aisle as we pulled in. Needless to say, we didn't make it; she got to the altar just as we came in. It was a beautiful ceremony though. From there we headed over to the reception and actually stayed until 11:45 pm. We're usually in bed around 9:30, 10 at the latest! We had a great time dancing! I hope this doesn't make me sound like a bad mom but it was so much fun to just be the two of us and have fun and laugh! Maybe we need to get out more together! A picture of us and then a picture of Jeff, Mark, and Michael:

The New Truck and Art Projects

As I mentioned we did get Michael's new truck last week. What happened is that we had leased his other truck (definitely will not do again, I don't know know how any one out there feels; it just didn't work for us) and the lease was up this month. We were coming up to the 60,000 mile tune-up, it needed new tires and an alignment so Michael did some research and found out we could get something a little smaller, better on gas (did I mention it was costing $80/week for gas) and basically break even for what we owed, meaning our payments continue at about the same amount. So first, this is the "old" truck (a 2005 Frontier)



Now the new truck, it's a 2008 Frontier, king cab (instead of the Extended Cab of the "old" truck). Smaller engine so it doesn't cost as much in gas and probably more the size we should have gotten to begin with



If you look closely, you can see Tucker in the back of the truck and in the middle picture he shows off his favorite part: the sliding window in the back!

We also did some painting on Sunday. Tucker painted using a feather, making the flames for the torch in honor of the Olympics.



Also I put drops of paint on the paint and had him blow it around with a straw. Of course, being Tucker, he soon had TOO much paint (as you can see)! He loves all the colors and especially likes to mix them. It usually takes a while for his projects to dry because there is so much paint on them!



(I tried to experiment with putting the pictures somewhere other then "center" and can't figure out how to move them without re-doing it all! oh well!)

Baseball Reading All-Stars

Tonight we went to a CT Defenders game (Formally the Norwich Navigators), the minor league, I'm not really sure of the term, for the San Francisco Giants. They sponspored a special night for the reading programs at the libraries. If you read 8 books, you got 2 free tickets to the game and you got to participate in a parade around the edge of the field while the team warmed up! Tucker kept saying he didn't want to go in the parade but once we got there, he did! It was actually pretty cool and he said after that he was glad he went! Here are Tucker and I going down to the field (I'm trying to hold the certificate so you can see it but the wind was blowing!)

As we were leaving the field, all the kids got a high-5 from Cutter, the mascot!

We made it through about half the game which wasn't too bad! Here's Tucker showing off his certificate

We Survived!

We (Tucker and I, that is) are completely exhausted! But we can now say that we have again survived my mother's annual pool party for her co-workers. They are QUITE the bunch, I tell you what! There were about 10 ladies from her office with 9 grandchildren. They ate well and the kids were all water-logged by the end of the evening. Could there be any better party?! I don't think so! Tucker and I slept downstairs (my mother has an air mattress that she puts on the living room floor for Tucker; she usually sleeps on the couch). I ended up on the couch and she went up to her bed! I didn't sleep very well, Tucker took over the mattress (mind you, it's queen-size) and of course, one of her cats, Kristy, decided to take up the rest of the bed. She was more than a LITTLE annoying! This morning we went out to breakfast with my mom and her friends before we headed home.

I mentioned that Tucker finished summer school this week. He's glad to FINALLY be on vacation, for real this time! He did get a progress report and he is making some progress in reading and writing but still confuses some letter sounds. We're thinking of having him screened by the school speech therapist. He has trouble with the sounds of words and drops the first syllable of words, i.e, 'puter' instead of 'computer', 'cation' instead of 'vacation'. He also sometimes doesn't hear a word correctly so it comes out wrong when he repeats it.I have a friend, Monica, who is a speech therapist and she's given me the phone number of her friend who is a speech therapist who specializes in reading disorders. I want to hear whart she has to say. I'm not trying to make myself crazy but I do worry that Tucker isn't reading at the level he should be at this point. We read to him a lot, always have. I just want to try to find whatever help for him that he might need.