Last week

Trying to catch up on some of our adventures from last week before I talk about this weekend. So here we go!

Last Sunday we met Ryan & Carol for a picnic at the Airport Observation Park. Eli & Ryan had a great time running around, playing in the sand and watching airplanes land / take off.

Digging for pirate treasure - Carol & I started a game where we hid items in the sand with an "X" marks the spot for our little pirates to find.

Fun picnic

Running on the "runway"

Also lots of playing on the climbing spider.

This is also a fun game we've started. In the mornings, we "make" Eli & Cole. Eli loves to lay the clothes out and pretend it's a Flat Eli and Flat Cole.

Thursday night was a big night after school. We went to Eli's friend Evan's 4th birthday party. All of Eli's buddies from school were there and it was total madness. Imagine a large room of wild and crazy boys running around like they've been inside all day bored (however we know they got to play outside, they just have so much energy!). They all had a great time playing and we also had pizza / cake.

Evan (red shirt, b-day boy), Colin (orange shirt) and Eli

Climbing up - these boys were rough, body checking each other on the way up

Cole was really happy swinging.

What a crew!

Pizza time! Cole was so happy to be partying it up with the big boys.

My little fire chiefs

The tire swing was a BIG attraction.

The boys loaded it with as many as they could fit and laughed so hard.

Eli & Ryan

I think this was that night. Eli decided to line up all the trucks and wheeled vehicles downstairs. And this isn't all! We have many more upstairs!

Monster Jam 2011

Yesterday, we took Eli to Monster Jam again. We had such a great time and it was more fun than last year! We missed having Cole with us but he will get to go next year (he had fun of his own while we were gone going to see a school buddy).

First, we went to the Pit Party to see the trucks up close and meet the drivers. Eli was harder to control this year than last. He was very interested in the dirt, digging up rocks, getting dirty, trying to tear down the caution style tape around the trucks, not wanting to hold our hands, just being 3-1/2! He did do well saying hi to each driver and loved the big tires. There were 6 trucks/drivers and we managed to see them all. Each was extremely nice - they are very sensitive to the fact that their fans ultimately pay their salary so they take time to talk, say hi, sign autographs and pose for photos.

Pit Party

Eli had to touch every single tire.

With War Wizard driver, Randy Moore

With High Maintenance driver, Jocelyn Perrin - she drove with her family down from Michigan!

Daddy and Eli in front of Advance Auto Parts Grinder

With Grinder's driver John Seasock. This guy was so funny. Eli was playing with the tape and he told Eli to pull it down so the guys with the earphones would go crazy. Eli was fidgety for the picture so he just picked him up and put him in a hold. Very nice guy.

With SpiderMan driver, Whit Tarlton - we saw him last year.

Eli wanted to look at his program while in line. Looks like such a big boy!

With Grave Digger driver, Gary Porter - we saw him last year too.

Our only family shot of the day - at least it's with Grave Digger!

Mommy & Eli in front of Monster Mutt Rottweiler

Big tires and my big but little boy. =)

Eli with one of the quad drivers. This was a group from Greensboro.

Monster Jam!!

With Monster Mutt Rottweiler driver Charles Benns. This guy used to be Grave Digger's crew chief and now he's driving.

The pit party was from 11a-1p. When it was over, we grabbed some lunch and found our seats. Eli was not interested in eating at all. He kept his eyes peeled for any action on the dirt. A special treat for the day was that Eli's buddy Noah came to Monster Jam with his Nana & Granddad and were just a few rows behind us. Before the show started, we let them hang out a bit together. So cute!

Eli & Noah - I think they both had fun

The first event of the afternoon was the Wheelie Competition. Each truck got a chance to do their best wheelie over a few cars. Oh, I forgot to mention that thanks to a generous subcontractor of mine, we were on the FRONT row! The trucks were doing wheelies right in front of us! It was the coolest. After the wheelies, they did the first quad race. The quads were guys versus gals in a best of 3 series - racing in between monster truck events.

Monster Mutt Rottweiler

SpiderMan's wheelie was pretty good

but Grinder's was AWESOME

He flipped it over. Last year we didn't see any trucks flip.

Not sure if you can tell in this but they had a piece of equipment, attached a chain and righted the truck. I think Eli liked watching the equipment work just as much as the trucks themselves.

Once Grinder was off the course, it was Grave Digger's turn. Grinder ended up winning the Wheelie Competition.

First quad race. This was a lot of fun to watch.

The second competition was a race. The trucks lined up, jumped over the cars and whichever truck was the fastest moved on to the next round.

SpiderMan versus Monster Mutt Rottweiler

Grinder versus Grave Digger

Final heat - Monster Mutt Rottweiler versus Grinder. Monster Mutt won!

Monster truck boy

Before intermission, they came out with this Megasaurus thing that literally chomped a car in half and breathed fire. It was interesting to see.

The third and final competition was freestyle - everyone's favorite! One of these days, we would love to go to a true stadium show where they have a lot of room and can really show off. Each truck was given 60 seconds to show their stuff.

War Wizard catching some big air

Monster Mutt Rottweiler catching air - the big center jump was used by all.

Spider-Man

Grinder

Grave Digger went the opposite way over the jump, stood the truck up and

then flipped it over. He had an awesome run and won Freestyle.

Hook it up, right it and get ready to do it all again for the night show.

I love my little Monster Truck fan

Eli took a 7 minute nap on the way home. He was so tired but wouldn't slow down to take a nap once we got home.

Photos this week

Big attitude in a Little Shirt - becoming more and more true every day.

Watching tv on the floor

Uh-oh, my shattered stove. All b/c of a 99 cent plastic Target spatula. I smacked the stove top with it to get Eli's attention and this is what happened. Guess I learned my lesson.

Up close. GE could replace the cooktop but it just wasn't worth the money they wanted for it considering our range is probably 10 years old. So a new one is on order and will be here on the 12th. Next time, I'll smack the counter top!

LOVE this picture. My sweet boys hamming it up. Eli was actually hugging Cole and of course I grabbed the camera.

My 3+ foot tall Gumby lost a battle with the boys tonight.

His poor arm was ripped clean off. It was only a matter of time. He has hung in there very well for all the abuse he takes.

Now I'm going to have to perform emergency (or not so emergency) surgery and reattach his arm. They he'll be as good as new and ready for the next battle!