Strawberry Strike

While Carter, Patrick and I love Strawberries, Cooper has been on strawberry strike since around the fall I think. He had said a few times "how about when we go to the Strawberry patch in the Spring I will like them." What a negotiator!

The boys and I spent a morning strolling through the patch, squishing and picking bright red sweet berries ...then home to wash them and get them ready for our picnic that afternoon. Carter and I dig in, Cooper takes one little bite and says "mmm no I don't like them" ai yai yai. So the strike is officially over, but Cooper will still only eat strawberries made in stuff. Whenever strawberries are presented in front of him plain, Cooper never forgets to remind me, "remember Mom I don't like strawberries". Oh well... we give some we get some, I shall not complain....he is not a picky eater so if there is one thing he says no to, I'll be o.k. I just don't see how to pass them up....especially these fresh-picked ones man are they so sweet and juicy, unlike the many have purchased the last few months that were dyed red and bitter. At least Cooper can be my official picker, if nothing else, when it comes to strawberries.

These pictures are from a fun afternoon in Forsyth Park. Most of the time was spent chasing squirrels around trees and finding sticks to be pretend swords......along with eating our fresh-picked berries from that morning during our picnic. Oh what fun it is being outdoors! We have enjoyed making many things out of the fresh-picked strawberries, which took me about 3 hours to clean and separate in to containers for the fridge and freezer. Fresh strawberry cake I made for Easter is one of the many things we have enjoyed.

Spiderman is 4- I mean Cooper

What a treasure of a son this little boy is!

Cooper has wanted a Spiderman Birthday since the Halloween party at school when there were 3 boys in his class dressed as Spiderman. I thought it might change, but he was set. So Spiderman planning began and he got to invite a few friends from school and from his other social networks (sports, neighborhood, and family friends). I found awesome Spiderman handkerchiefs at the craft store that I just knew I wanted to use for the party in some way, but was unsure how....every superhero needs a cape right. So Spiderman capes I sewed (and had a fight with my sewing machine, but finally completed the task late one night) and strung with yarn. We found an awesome spinning Spiderman cake topper on line and GG made a city tower cake with other villains. We had two appearances at this party: 1. Spiderman himself showed up outside of our fence ready to show Cooper and his friends some real Spidey moves. It was a blast. In the video you will see Cooper protect Spiderman from a friend that is trying to sword the hero. 2. Papa Kisgen arrived as Batman. It was a great surprise and treat and a funnier story....Cooper had told his Papa on the phone many weeks before this party that it would be cool if he came dressed as Batman, so Papa searches far and wide for his perfect costume and shortly after his arrival Cooper says "oh, I meant it would be cool if you came as Spiderman" poor Papa. Cooper was happy with his costume nonetheless and later said how cool it was Papa came to his party dressed like Batman. It was a fun birthday party just listening to lots of little 4 year old laughs running inside and outside and back upstairs and back outside. Cooper has some really fun friends!

Cooper is such an amazing big brother! Carter is one lucky little brother. Let me give you an example.

Cooper has been asking for a super spiderweb shooter glove for a few months now....so we had no problem thinking that was a cool fun gift to give him for his 4th birthday. He opened the gift with much excitement and Dad and Cooper quickly got it put together and began shooting webs (aka blue silly string) all through the downstairs....having a blast might I add. Amidst the commotion, before a single web shoots out, little tough Carter is hiding in a corner of the hallway whaling and balling his eyes out to stop the spraying of the webs. Cooper promises he will not shoot Carter, which I thought was so nice. Mom rescues Carter and calms down his short breaths and then accidentally runs through the line of fire and the whaling begins again. We finally get little C calmed down enough to eat some birthday cake...while he is still trying to catch his breath. A dialogue begins between the boys. Carter: "Cooper, you can not shoot people." Cooper: "Carter you should not come to my birthday party so I can shoot people and you won't get upset, ok." Carter: "ok!" They continue back and forth for a while, during which Carter calms down then cries and just tells Cooper he can not shoot us. Finally, I just remove Carter and take him to bed to calm down. Then I go lay down with Cooper and he says, "Mom, I think you need to take that web shooter back because it is not nice to scare my brother." Geez-Louise, he has wanted this thing for months and loves it and had a blast playing with it, but has such a sweet big heart and who would have thought tough guy Carter who does not get scared of much was insane about this thing. It was sooo hard to keep composure and soothe Carter when P and I were just laughing about the whole scene.

The next day when I picked Carter up from school his teacher says "Carter said the cutest thing today, he said his big brother has real super powers." How funny after his "super powers" put him in hysterics.
On the way to school on Monday morning, after his big 4 year old weekend and Mom and Dad feeling a little age stricken, out of the blue big Coop says, "Mom, I'm going to miss you so much when I go to college then Washington, D.C. after that". I shared this with a friend and she replied, "TOTAL COOPERISM!" There are plenty more Cooperism's to come...stay tuned.

D.C./ D.R.

Patrick and I went gallivanting alone together for 6 days! We started in Washington, D.C. which was in full bloom for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was beautiful. We couldn't help but visit our engagement spot (which was 10 years ago March) and get our photo in front of The White House, as we talk about it with Cooper and Carter all the time. I had not been to D.C. since I moved away from Maryland in 2004. The two of us then went to meet 4 other couples plus 1 in the Dominican Republic. This was a trip in celebration of Lacey's 30th Birthday (which was back in November when she was 9 months pregnant). We arrived to a beautiful airport made of tiki huts and rode a long un-scenic way to our all-inclusive resort to find good cheer! The sand was white, the ocean turquoise, bushes of bougainvillea, and palm trees to the sky. V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. Great times were had at the swim-up pool bar, lounging on the beach, dancing, Deep-Sea Fishing (more like no catching fish but whale watching), and spending time together as adults only. Between our group of 11, there were 7 children left at home with their grands. GOD BLESS Grandparents who want to be "active" in their grandchildren's lives and give us the freedom to get away every once in a while.

The Happy Parade

Before I begin...one other quick thing to provide a laugh: In this house, I feel like I buy red grapes at the grocery store every time I walk in. Carter James (who we many times refer to as a "fruitatarian" loves grapes). In his demanding but adorable two-year old ways can quite often be heard saying "I WANT GAPES AND I WANT A YOT" "SKANKS" "MOM, IS THAT A YOT?" again emphasis being on the pronunciation you can interpret from the spelling

Now to "The Happy Parade"

We had been talking about the St. Patrick's Day parade for a few weeks with the boys, as we know it is something they love and a fine tradition here in Savannah (one that I have participated in (most years) since I was 4 weeks old. The morning of Carter exclaims "Mom, we are going to the Happy Parade!" Since then that is how we talk about the St. Patrick's Day festivities. Any firetrucks, motorcycles, marching bands, etc. that we might have seen on the fine day of green in Savannah is "Mom, like we saw that in the Happy Parade". Savannah's skies were blue and friends and families gathered in the azalea blooming squares. From all over the East, bands, policeman, fireman, and soldiers came down to participate and March for us. Many members of the Wagoner-McBride Clan joines us, as well as a few thousand more.

Check out Carter below- this is how he stood for the entire 3 hour long parade.
It's really fun being IRISH for one day each year!

Super Cute things our boys have done or said over the past few months

Santa's Kisgen Elf preparing a level area for a super Santa delivery for the boys

All the boxes and bins of holiday decorations, wrapping paper, gift bags and other Christmas cheer was at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me to start unloading them. I had one role of paper from last year that I had saved because it was pretty and it had half a role of paper left on it. I started doing some laundry and heard the boys having fun. i come out in to the hallway to find my leftover paper in squares through the hall and in to the living room. Cooper saw my face but before I could say anything he said "Mom we are using it as our map" and they kept playing and looking at their map and following them.....how could I be upset at that? So much for a year of saving the paper, but a cute story at least.

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Not-so secret gift keepers: I let Cooper and Carter each pick out a gift for each other this year. Cooper was excited for what he picked out for his brother and I made sure that during the entire process I repeatedly stated that it was a secret and a surprise for Carter to find out what it is on Christmas. The second we walked in the door, Cooper blurted to Dad and Carter, "It's a surprise Dad I got Carter big boy sunglasses for Christmas" with Carter looking at Cooper puzzled. We shushed him and I guess theoretically Carter is too little to remember, but it was just another funny little thing haha moment of holiday life with two little boys. It helped me learn my lesson though, as packages were delivered I would say to them that it was so and so's present and they would ask what it was. Did not want to make that mistake again, so just left it generic.......sure enough when Patrick got home from work, Cooper said "Dad, a package came today it was your Christmas present, but it's a surprise." Patrick is such a sneaky gift surprise ruiner anyway and I knew the boys had no chance of surviving their Dad's tricks

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All during Christmas holiday season, Carter referred to our tree as "CHRISAM TREE". It was adorable.
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Around the middle of December Carter got an accidental big boy bed. We were not quite ready, but the boys decided it was time. We are used to Cooper coming down on his own, but one morning two little boys showed up downstairs together to tell us good morning and Carter kept saying he got a big boy bed over and over. Cooper had loosened Carter's crib rail and swung it open and showed Carter how to climb out. I went upstairs to determine what had become of the crib to find it was very cleverly put back in to place and I had to figure out how they did it. We took the rail off completely in hopes Carter would do alright since he was typically really good at going to bed. Wow, he was DEFINITELY not ready. There were many weeks of Patrick and I reading up on the best parenting techniques on getting your toddler to stay in bed. Each week seemed to be a different method for us. I have to tell this particular story........Dad went to lay on Carter's floor to "tame the beast" that would not stay in his bed (but if Dad was in the room he would not get out of the bed). It had been a while and I heard Patrick snoring in the baby monitor. I went upstairs to get him up and find Carter wide awake in his bed butt naked and Patrick asleep. Carter had taken off his jammies and diaper and tee teed in his bed all while his Dad had a nice cat-nap. My husbands face was pure shock, his words were "I am humiliated and feel completely defeated by a 2 year old".

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One morning, as we are getting ready to leave for work/school, Cooper looked and me and said "Mom you need to go finished getting dressed". I need to mention I was fully dressed and accessorised and loving my outfit that day haha. I responded "what do you mean, do you not like what I am wearing?". Cooper kindly responded with a yes nod.

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Bedtime stories: Cooper Kisgen has amazing creativity. It is not the first time I have mentioned it, but when he tells bedtime stories I am always wowed. The parents are the ones who are supposed to tell bedtime stories, right? Well it began as Dad's talent and I had to learn them so I did not miss details when I retold or I would be corrected.....then Cooper was constantly telling us to wait wait you forgot this or that. It grew in to Cooper taking parts of movies and stories and making up his own. His details are amazing and so fun and delightful to listen to. I always get a big grin when Cooper says "want me to tell you a story?" no matter where we are. Sometimes its dragons, sometimes is knights saving a princess, there are always friends and Cooper is always the main character. How does it start again, oh yeah ONCE UPON A TIME.

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Xmas movies Lost N Found Since December 25th I had been missing every single Christmas movie we owned. They were neatly in a basket by the tree Christmas Eve night I remembered when cleaning and get everything set up. I could not locate the movies anywhere when I went to put in Frosty or Rudolph for the boys. I grossly went through the holiday trash that had already made it outside looking for our classic Mickey Mouse holiday specials. I was sad I would have to start over buying their favorite holiday DVD's. Weeks went by and everything was packed up. Around February 5th in fact, a T.V. remote came up missing just a few hours after we had last used it. I finally looked at a subwoofer box that has a small opening in it that sits next to the television stand in the living room. I thought hmmm if I were two I might be curious what I could stick in there. The problem is you can not stick your hand in this "slot" or see because it goes straight down. Patrick and I saw no way in to this thing but I insisted he try and take this sound box apart. We found the remote plus ALL of our holiday movies plus a random assortment of things we thought might be missing. It was quite a laugh, I had lots of people looking for these movies.

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Our first meet of our newest family member, beautiful Michael Antley was New Year's Eve. Sweet baby girl!

Figerwork Since shooting fireworks on New Year's Eve with the Antley's, Carter has believed he is a "FIGERWORK". He says, "Look at this Figerwork pewh pewh". Please pay special attention to the spelling and you will see how cute it might sound to hear. He loves Katie Perry's song too "Baby You're a Firework".

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Cooper and Carter's GG & GG Steve thought the boys really needed to have Nerf dart guns for Christmas. Ok sure, so it was fine and they had fun watching the little darts soar and make whistling and pop noises. One Saturday morning, Patrick and I were enjoying our sleep. I heard the boys whispering in Carter's baby monitor so I knew it was about to be wake up time. I was quite surprised that within 2 mintues of their bedroom whispers, nerf darts were whistling over our heads and heard Cooper tell his little brother "Carter lets get them"....then Carter asking me to help him load more darts so he could attack us some more. Now that's a way to wake your parents!

This was at Colson's 1st Birthday Party- the family of friends!