Lending a helping hand

Shhhh...

Don't tell Brian, but I took the boys to the horrible place called McDonald's tonight.  Oh the shame!   (The kids call it the French fry store).   So I do feel bad that I treated them to craptacular food because it was fast and we were on the way to the store.   

But....

Our town's Mickey D's is newly remodeled and has a play climbing kiddy thing.   The little ones were stocked....I mean it is a playground inside the French fry store which equates to sheer mind-blowing awesomeness in their world.

But...

Within moments of heading into the structure, Jude struggles to climb up onto the platforms.  "Momma! Momma up!   Momma up, please!  Momma help, up, please!"   Each phrase being utter with a more frantic voice than the last.   Being Super Mom, I help him up.

But he gets stuck again...just out of my reach.

So...

Tamlin to the rescue!

Who knew that greasy food meant a chance to have my older son do good deeds by helping he's little brother navigate the playset.   Tam was awesome.  He climb right over and gave Jude's little bottom a push up to the next landing.  He also held Jude's hand while attempting to cross the swaying bridge for the first time and Tam held Jude in his lap when going down the twisty slide for his first time.

It was pure goodness to see the brothers playing well with each other.

My heart swelled with pride.

To top it off, the boys shed no tears when I said it was time to go and everyone made it to the potty on time.  

MidNovember warm day

 We had a bit of fun in the warm November sun...I had forgotten how much fun we can have with a bunch of leaves and a few garden tools.
Tamlin scooped up leaves with his pint-size shovels to place in the piles...and then he jumped into the piles!

Jude had fun too...he used a little broom to sweep the leaves into the pile.

Then we used dump trucks to transport leaves between the piles...
Jude waved the flag to keep up morale. 

And then, in the evening, the wind picked up and destroyed all of our handi-work.

Tam's Birthday surprise.

Happy Birthday, Tamlin!

My first born son is now officially five years old! 

We celebrated the occasion last weekend...and our first stop was a fun fun place of Chucky Cheese Pizza Place.  The hoot was that we were on our way to Nana's and Papa's house, but I told Tamlin that I was lost and that we should stop for lunch.  Then, I pulled into the plaza with the fun mouse house.  Oh-Boy was he surprised and happy. (We only come here about once a year for special occasions because I think it is a crazy place, especially on the weekend).  Aunt Shelly, Uncle Rick, and Ciearra were able to come to lunch with us too.  The three kids had a blast playing together (even dancing with the giant mouse).

 

There were rides to ride.  Tamlin liked the jeep that really lifted up into the air and bounced around.

Jude was not too sure about the jeep, but he liked the merry-go-round.  He choose to ride the unicorn!

 There were lots and lots of games to play.  We bought a deal for lunch and a ton of tokens...this meant that the kids could play pretty much whatever they wanted as often as they wanted.  It was great fun to have the kiddos try the various games...some they could do pretty well, such as whacking sharks on a screen.  Tamlin and Ciearra liked the simulation game that let you "ride" a roller coaster, and feel all the shaking and turning.  Jude wasn't sure about that one either.

 Brian and I had fun too.  I hung out with Jude for awhile and we kept trying all the games of chance.  Jude did enjoy being able to spin wheels, pump levels, drop coins in slots, and other random games that he was surprising lucky at.  Tamlin likes to play skeeball (as does his mom and Aunt Shelly).  Tam also liked playing the bowling games and some of the younger video games.  We won about 250 tickets...just enough that both boys could get a foam dart gun.  Ciearra won enough for one too. 

 The pizza was okay, but the smiles and laughter was AWESOME.