105 Degrees? BRING IT!

This has pretty much been the weather in VA this month:

And I love summer.  I really love summer a lot.  But this has been oppressive.  Yet we have not let this heat get us down.  What have we been up to? Lots of things with my little clown.  He modeled his new pjs with PaPa’s shoes:

He donned some perfect shirts:  the first from Aunt Tinka which sums Pres up completely, the second…well pretty much how Pres views the world:

Believe it or not the zinnias are still alive even though it seems only cacti would survive in this heat:

It was too hot for the kids to go outside so they had face painting in school:

Yesterday Pres helped food shop.  He loves these little carts, but once again the store managers were super smart and ordered two, so I usually hold my breath and wait for the melt down if someone has taken his cart:

Then we went to the outdoor mall in the afternoon to look for something in Restoration.  There are sprinklers and thankfully Children’s Place still was selling swim suits---as opposed to Gymboree that is selling wool sweaters.  I actually told the salesgirl the store was making me nauseous.

Pres spent the night last night with Grandma and PaPa.  Of course he slept 12 hours uninterrupted.  Naturally.  Today he and I hit the pool!  As you can see there is a lot of excitement over the water. 

And here is the little man after a long weekend of fun and sun!

Month Long Heat wave!

Wow! It’s been so hot!  So hot that Pres has even traded Crocs for flip flops!

It’s funny though, the heat doesn’t seem to have any effect on him at all.  Remember being a kid and playing outside all day long?  You didn’t care how much you sweat and no one worried about dehydration (Gatorade had not even been invented) and somehow we all survived?  You’ll be lucky to find a tumbleweed outside.  Kids today!  Not my son.  Pres went on a walk with us this morning-even walking about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile all by himself.  He then had some fun riding his bike!

And seriously there is nothing cuter than Preston in muscle shirts.  I then decided I was going to get Preston a pool.  I went to Target and there was the coolest pool ever-a big slide a tunnel a water fall.  I figured this is awesome.  It was $549.  OK for $549 an entire family can buy passes to Water Country USA for the entire season.  Now I know why there were ten of them on the shelves not touched.  And what happens when you get that slow leak?  For $549 you’re better off with a pair of Jimmy Choos.  At least they last.  I did buy a super cool medieval dragon pool though that Preston had a BALL in! The dragon even spurts water. Here are some cute pictures.

And here is the future Olympic diver.  Notice how he runs but then stops before hopping into the pool!  Hope everyone is keeping cool!

YEE HAW! Nashville 2010!

I am so glad I decided in a moment of weakness a few weeks back to book this trip! What a great time with such wonderful friends. I was weepy yesterday morning before I left. I must say, to my blogging family especially, you guys mean so much to me. You have been my life line for the past four and half years. It is so amazing to watch our children grow up and then to meet in person and have the kids so happy to be together. I wish us all a lifetime of memories together. I am already so excited about Anaheim next year and hoping the North East/Mid Atlantic group can do a few more get-togethers.

We did not stay in the main hotel. I figured with my son’s obsession for all-things trains, I would win the coolest mom of the century award for staying at the Union Station Hotel. This was a converted train station and freight trains rolled on by all day long. I mean this to Preston is the equivalent of myself in a shoe store. I called with a question a week prior and a very smarmy employee of said hotel who did not realize I don’t like to be spoken down to, tried to be “cute” and instead of me hanging up, I asked for her supervisor. I was upgraded to a suite by her supervisor. This suite would be every Manhattanite’s dream apartment! Including two bathrooms. I pulled the curtains back and there was a full view of the tracks right from the bedroom!

The hotel is a historic hotel of America-look how gorgeous the lobby is!

I have a ton of pictures, but most I will upload to Facebook. Saturday we spent the afternoon at the main hotel and met a lot of people. Here is Preston and Nate, Pres and Tonya and Pres and Nikki!

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Pres was obsessed with Baby Avery. He told me, “She’s the cutest little thing ever mommy!” He just talked about her incessantly!

Sunday more of our friends arrived and we we all met again at the hotel. Preston loved the stepstools everywhere! Courtesy of Jaime and Melissa, we had a huge get together for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Pres was a little less than savory at times. I think the combination of being overwhelmed at the convention and then people coming up to him to say “hi” was a bit much at times. I think I said his name 487 times a day. Sunday night was fireworks! The kids were so well behaved for waiting around almost two hours for the show to begin. Thankfully a wonderful fireman from the Nashville FD had a John Deere fire truck pull up and allowed all the kids a chance to don the fire helmet and “drive” the truck. We enjoyed the night with Jaime and Caty, the Camengas, the Weissers and Trish and Caden! I now totally understand Trish’s blog posts about Caden and his car, or vacuums or all things with wheels. He loved his stroller. He is the cutest. Caty-bug is a doll face and was one of the only girls. She got a LOT of attention. She finally stole Preston’s heart when she presented him with a train picture she colored herself!

Pres and Nikki being goofsters. Melissa is definitely one of Pres’ favorite moms. She would be an awesome mother to boys that is for sure!

Here are the three amigos. I just can have lunch with these three. I love how they talk to me too-if Seamus has a question it’s “Um Preston’s mom?” And Ethan it’s “So hey Kim.” Adorable. Love them both so much.

Monday we took a trolley ride around Nashville with Emily and Seamus and Trish and Caden. Nashville is not very kid-friendly at all and most of the tours were expensive and would never hold Preston’s interest. I’d love to go back with friends to enjoy the music and bars, sans kids.

How cool is this? The Parthenon is a replica of the original in Greece to 1/16th of an inch. If you look closely there are Pres and Seamus on the top of the hill!

The above is for Mel who really wanted to see Pres in a cowboy hat. Monday afternoon was the POLP meet and greet which Pres conked out for.

 

Then it was dinner and ice cream to celebrate Seamus’ birthday and a fun walk to the riverfront.

Tuesday was a bit of a bummer because we signed up to go on the Duck Tour (half land/half water) with Jaime and Caty and the Yiannakis family and the boat broke. But we had fun hanging out in downtown Nashville together. Sadly it was our last day and we got home late last night. It was so much fun. Check out my album on FB. Love you guys again. Thank you for the memories!