Chad Is My Friend

My imaginary friend is Chad. He is a mouse and is always doing something silly. Blossom is a cat that adds into the mix sometimes. If you are wondering who is up on the ceiling or throwing something or the reason why I get into trouble - the answer is Chad. Chad just cracks me up. He makes movies and is always getting into mischief.

Washington DC

Pappaw & Granna treated us to a wonderful trip to Washington DC. We did so many fun things like ride the Metro and go to many museums. I really liked the Natural History Museum. I wanted to see every single exhibit in this museum including dinosaur bones, bugs, and butterflies. We were able to go to a butterfly house too. I held a grasshopper, walking stick, caterpillar, and cockroach. We also visited the Air & Space Museum and saw lots of airplanes and space craft. I got to see money being printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. I walked the trail of the first postal service in our country at the Postal Museum. I saw lots of American Indian artifacts at the Native American Museum. We also saw a good bit of art at the National Art gallery including some modern art using keyboard keys, trophies, and $32,000 worth of used losing lottery tickets. We saw the Capitol, White House, War World II Memorial, Koren War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. We spent a day at the National Zoo and another day at Mount Vernon (George Washington's home). We also went up the tower at the Old Post Office to look over the city. Oh and we walked across the Key Bridge which was a lot of fun as well. We had dinner one night with one of mommy's college roommates. On the way home we stopped at our cousin's new house and I had lots of fun playing with Bethany and Jackson. Probably the best part of the whole part of the trip was spending time with my family.

I Can Read

Mommy knows that I can read lots of words but I just don't like to sit down and read. She tries every once in a while to get me to read some of the words in books, but I just don't like to. So she has learned not to push me much. But I gave in last week and read a 15 page book. I knew most of the words and she helped me on a few. I quickly remembered them when they were used again throughout the book. The book is called, Go, Go, Go. I picked it up the other day and read a few pages again and let mommy record a video. Check it out here - http://picasaweb.google.com/melee2416/June2009#5342814036208532530

Since I have over a year until kindergarten, I am going to take my time and not rush reading. I am enjoying being read to. Lately we've been reading a lot of chapter books. Going to those simple first readers will be torture when I'm used to intricate plots.

Papa and His Eye

My Papa (daddy's dad) has had a particularly rough year with his eye. Last March and again in December he had a detatched retina. He has trouble now seeing out of one of his eyes. I began to ask nearly every night with absolutely no prompting for healing for Papa when we pray as a family. My prayer requests for Papa I think were answered because I think Papa's eye situation could have been much worse if I hadn't been asking for healing for him. I also came up with the idea to send Papa one of my eye patches. I also wrote a letter to him and sent it in the mail. When we went to Disney World, I bought a pirates chest with all kinds of stuff that I was able to pick out. I picked out a few things for others like a ring for my bud Ethan and a coin for Pappaw. I got matching pirate eye patches for me and Papa. I think Papa knows how much I love and care for him.

Also, yesterday in Kingdom Safari at church I made a chain with things that I am thankful for and one of my chain links says "Nanny & Papa". The other links say "imaginary friends," "food," "God," and "my family".

Mother's Day, End of School & Baseball

For Mother's day, we went to Toxey again. We had a great time with mommy's side of the family. Daddy helped me locate a whole lot of bugs. I had all kinds of things in my bug house. One bug came out of its exoskeleton while in my bug container! Daddy almost stepped on a rattlesnake so he killed it with Pappaw's shepherd's hook and mommy said she was glad she wasn't with us then.

School is over and I'm looking forward to summer fun. Mommy and Ms Stephanie took Ethan, Erin, and me to Stevi B's for pizza (Daddy even came for that) and Monkey Joe's jumpy place after school on Thursday to celebrate the last day of school. I was super tired but had a great time.

Baseball season is over. I had a great season and really learned a lot, especially with such a great coach. I had a couple of hits on pitches and fielded great. My last game was on Friday and Papa and Nanny came up to watch it. They were also here for our team party where I got a trophy, t-shirt, and goody bag. Papa and Nanny watched Trinity and me last night so daddy and mommy could go to a Coldplay concert (that was my gift to mommy for Mother's day). I had a great time with them.

Spring Break 2009

Wow! What a fun time we've been having lately. Pappaw, Granna, and Aunt Jamie came a few weeks ago for their Spring Break, then we had our Pryor cousins come too. We had a great time together.

Trinity turned 1 on April 5th. We had a great time celebrating her birthday and even went to Kado for a hibachi lunch with the Lowes. The man sprayed silly string in Trinity's face and gave us ice cream. The next morning we headed to Gainesville to see Austen, Aunt Mimi, and Uncle Billy. We had a blast. Daddy and mommy surprised us with a pizza dinner and a trip to see Monsters versus Aliens. It was so good. The next morning we had lunch with some of mommy's friends Ralph and Joan. Mommy and daddy talked a long time but I had some good eats. We headed to Orlando and checked into a hotel to get ready for Walt Disney World.

So we went to Magic Kingdom first. I got a 1st visit pin that I put on my hat and we rode the Ferry boat across. Around lunch time I told mommy that I had 3 wishes: 1. to have lunch, 2. to get a lollipop, 3. to see some friends. All three of my wishes came true because we had lunch at a restaurant where mommy's friend Will waited on us, I bought a 6 pack of cool lollipops, and Austen surprised me by meeting us there in the afternoon with Aunt Mimi and Nanny.

Now for the list of rides we went on - Magic Carpet Ride, Haunted Mansion (I thought the ghosts were scary and I wouldn't go on this again), Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain, Stitch's Great Escape, Carousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear ride (Trinity's favorite), Jungle Cruise (we did it @ night which was cool), It's a Small World, Peter Pan, and Mickey's Philhar Magic. I loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride a whole lot. I was able to buy a treasure box with my souvenir money that I had saved from Christmas. I filled the treasure box up with all sorts of things and even got some things to share with others. I love it so much! The characters we saw were Stitch, Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Smead, and Donald Duck. I was asleep by the time we left and didn't realize that we rode the monorail.

The next day I decided to go to Hollywood Studios. We began the day with a character breakfast featuring Leo and June (Little Einsteins) and JoJo and Goliath (JoJo's Circus) from Playhouse Disney. We had super yummy food and filled our bellies up (they had Mickey Mouse shaped waffles!) until dinner time and I had a blast meeting the characters, getting them to sign my book, and dancing with them. We even got cupcakes to celebrate Trinity's birthday.

The rides/show we went on/saw were Star Tours (I got to ride twice because Trinity couldn't go), Muppets 3D, Sounds Dangerous, Toy Story 3D, Little Mermaid show, Stunt Cars show (my favorite), A Walk Through of Walt Disney's Life, Movie Ride, Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground, Prince Caspian show (terrible!!!), Playhouse Disney show featuring Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. I saw a lot of characters at Hollywood Studios: JoJo, Goliath, Leo, June, Annie, Goofy, Pluto, Mickey Mouse, Bolt, Frozone, Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater. We also went through an animation class and mommy and I drew Pluto. My drawing was selected to be shown on the screen for the whole class to see. I bought a drawing book and I also made my own Light Saber. That night daddy bought me a Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream sandwich and we watched the Fantasmic show where Mickey Mouse defeats the bad guys. I told daddy that the bad guys were no match for Mickey! Oh and we ate dinner at Pizza Planet from Toy Story. We watched birds eat our pizza crumbs there.

We had lunch the next day with Ms Katherine and headed to Papa and Nanny's. I played with Austen even more. We had Trinity's birthday party on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. I had a bunch of family from both sides there. 3 of 4 great grandmothers, 1 great grandfather, and both sets of grandparents were there. Trinity got a lot of cool toys that I'm enjoying as well. I had lots of cake and went swimming several times.

The next morning was Easter and the Easter Bunny treated me right with lots of stuff including a few Legos, Madagascar 2 DVD, Super Smash Brothers Melee, chocolate bunnies, Fun Dip, a catch game, and more. We headed home and had 2 surprises - lunch with Pappaw, Granna, and Grandma Speed and dinner with the Lowes.

I couldn't imagine a better Spring Break!

Good Behavior, Week Long Sleepover, Astronaut Costume, and Snow!

In a previous post, I described what it means to "pull a bug". I'm proud to say that for the whole month of February I only pulled one bug! My parents have been motivating me with great rewards. I had a camp out with Daddy, Mommy and I had a movie night with popcorn and Star Wars, and they bought me two packs of Pirates of the Frozen North.

We had our "Texas family" here for a week. I love those guys so much. I was able to sleep in the basement with Jacob and Megan nearly every night. Mommy made a bed for each of us. We played Legos, Wii, went to the zoo, and just had all kinds of fun.

We have been studying different career choices at preschool. On Thursday, we had dress up as what you want to be day. Mommy asked me earlier in the month what I wanted to be. Of course I want to be an astronaut, so mommy set out making me a costume. I was so excited to wear my costume to school. All the teachers smiled when they saw my fancy costume.

Yesterday we had a lot of snow! We were able to go out and play during some of the heavier snowfall. I threw lots of snowballs. Daddy helped Gavin and me slide down the hill on a cardboard box. I was freezing and my lips were purple by the time I came inside. Mommy had run a warm bath and I slipped into my cozy pjs. Today most of the snow has melted but Daddy took a few minutes after lunch to go out and play with what was left. It was much warmer as the sun is shining brightly. I accidentally hit Trinity in the face with a snowball but she didn't seem to notice.