The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Last day of school and a little news

Maxwell on his first day of school on September 8, 2011…

and on his last day of school May 10, 2012…

What a difference a few months makes! And I promise those overalls didn’t look so big in person.

Although Robert did tell me that morning that he thought he looked like a circus clown because they were so wide.  Oh well, I thought he looked cute.

Also, we got a little news yesterday.  Maxwell’s going to have a BROTHER!  Yep, looks like we’re going to have a house full of boys!  I’m still wrapping my head around it honestly but know these two little guys will be the best of buds and that will be awesome.  🙂 Have a great weekend!

School Days

Today is Maxwell’s last day of school…well, until summer school starts next week!  🙂  But, this is his last day with his first ever school class and beloved teachers.  It’s been a fantastic year full of new friends, lots of pat-pat (crafts) and lessons learned.  I’m so glad I sent Maxwell this year and I know he loved it!  Besides, sending him to school let me do my very favorite thing in the world each Tuesday and Thursday – pick him up from school!  There’s nothing better than walking into that room, spotting him first and then watching him see me and run over to me with is arms stretched out for a big hug.  Nothing better in the world.

Here’s his class picture from this year…

This thing cracks me up.  The kids all look like deers in headlights and Maxwell, poor sweet Maxwell, was having a really rough morning if you can’t tell from his red, crying eyes.  The picture was just 2 days after he broke his leg so I had taken him up to school just for the picture but wasn’t going to leave him obviously (he couldn’t even crawl at this point).  When I handed him over to his teacher for the picture he flipped out and started hysterically crying.  I don’t know if he was afraid I was going to leave him?  or if he was just having a rough day because of his leg?  Regardless, it took a good 10 minutes to get him to calm down enough to snap this lovely picture.

ps – see the little girl standing up to his right?  that’s his much loved Caitlyn that I’ve told you about!  I love that they’re next to each other in the picture.  🙂

I’m so thankful to Maxwell’s teachers, Alice, Faye and Fran for making it a great first year at school!  I sent them each a little gift card with this picture on the front of a card that I made…

Inside the card read, “Thank you for making my first year of school so fantastic.  I really appreciate your hard work, love and patience.  Love, Maxwell”

I hope they like it!  🙂

haircut…yes, again

Ok, so I know I promised I wasn’t going to post pictures of every single haircut Maxwell got but…I guess I lied.  But, this haircut was kind of special because 1. he sat on my lap, not Robert’s and 2. he got his first Dum-Dum sucker afterward.  Big stuff!

We had to go to a different girl this time because Nicole was on vacation and the new girl wasn’t quite as conservative as Nicole!  Those curls got snipped snipped snipped!  He needed it but I sure do miss those curly q’s sticking out around his neck.  My baby is a big boy and now has the haircut to prove it!

Thoroughly enjoying his first sucker…

Sticky sucker drool and all.

And one more because it makes me laugh…

He was really excited about that hair product!

Aaaaand one more because it’s me and my buddy…

Even though I kind of have scary eyes in that picture.  I never know – do you look at the camera?  into the mirror?  I need mirror self-portrait practice I guess.

Have a great day!

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

On Saturday we took Maxwell out to Calera, AL to visit the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum.  The (very small) museum is kind of neat but the main reason for going is to ride a train!  Choo Choo!  We took an hour long train ride in an open air car and I think Maxwell enjoyed it.  The trip was about 20 minutes out with a ten minute engine switch from the front to the caboose so we could travel the 20 minutes back.  It did get hot so I’m glad we went now and not later in the summer.  They do really neat things all throughout the year including a Polar Express excursion during the holidays – I think we might go back for that one!

Checking out the trains before the ride…

All Aboooooard!

It was a fun way to spend the morning!

Weekend roundup

 

The top 12 observations from our beautiful and hot weekend.

1. Maxwell looks very pretty when all dolled up in LuLu’s jewelry!

We had a lunch visit from LuLu and Granddaddy on Friday and Maxwell had the best time playing “dress up!”  🙂

2. Maxwell learned it’s not easy to eat chips with a fork.

Good lesson learned.

3. We ventured out to another new playground on Friday afternoon and had a great time. Well, it was at his school so new to me but old to him.  Maybe that’s why he’s giving me the stare down here?

4. I learned that I really have to stop letting Maxwell play with my car keys.  He’s managed to start the car remotely a few times at home and, while we were at the playground, he not only pushed the panic button (which sets off the car alarm) 4 times but he managed to unlock the car and open the tailgate without my knowledge.  I couldn’t see the car from the playground so only noticed 20 minutes later our car had been sitting completely unlocked with the tailgate wide open!  Goodness gracious, he’s a mess!

But he’s a cute mess!  🙂

5.  On Saturday Maxwell took his first train ride.  I snapped a few pics with my phone before we got on the train, including one of him in this awesome engineer hat (don’t worry, it didn’t come home with us)…

and one of him playing with this train table (that might have to come home with us at some point!).

Lots more pictures of the actual train ride to come tomorrow.

6. Happy Cinco de Mayo!  We celebrated with an early feast of beans and rice.  Cheap Mexican restaurants are definitely the best places to go out to eat with a toddler.  And my toddler ate this whole plate by himself!  big boy!

7. This made me laugh…hard.

8. Maxwell got to wear his new Crocs all weekend.  Since he broke his leg, I’ve been trying to keep him in tennis shoes for the support until he stops limping.  He’s getting better and it’s getting hotter so I thought we’d try out the Crocs.  While he still prefers his tennis shoes (his red Elmo tennis shoes to be specific), I do think he liked his new summer shoes.  and hopefully this will help even out his pretty mean sock tan!

9. On Sunday, Maxwell “helped” Robert trim shrubs in the front yard.  Gotta teach ’em early!

10. Robert works so hard in the yard and it shows.  I think we’ve got the prettiest yard on the block!  A pat on the back for you, Robert!

11. It was really hot this weekend.  and it’s only May.  This pregnant lady is DREADING July.

12. Maxwell has been saying a new word for a while – “Nano” – and we couldn’t figure out what it meant.  The mystery has been solved.  As I’ve mentioned, Nanner the monkey has been dubbed “NeNe” and, apparently, Mr. Moo the cow has been dubbed “NaNo”.  Sounds like a good cow name to me!

That’s it for today!  See you tomorrow!