Good Times at the Grizzlies Game

Last Friday night, our whole family (sans Bryan, Allie and Alyssa!) went to the Gateway Grizzlies game! It did rain just a bit, but that was before the game even got started so it really worked out great! The weather was nice and cool too...if only the Grizzlies could have won!!!

Here is our family before the game! There were lots of cameras taking our pic so we all seem to be looking in different directions!!!
Jack was the only Morra boy who would pose with Izzy the Grizzly Bear!
Nick preferred to pose with his hotdog!
Jackie, Steve and Henry took a quick picture of their family's first trip to the ball game!
The boys kept me hopping during this game! Honestly, they sat better at the Yankee game! We did have lots of fun spinning the wheel. It was really a great deal. Pay $1, spin the wheel and win a prize. Thanks to Nana and Papa, the boys - even Henry, got to spin the wheel quite a few times!
Thankfully we had lots of helpers with the boys! Luke LOVED Aunt Joy and her delicious popcorn!
So there was a "special" guest there named "Dave the Horn Guy!" Supposedly he has been on America's Got Talent and even Jay Leno! Basically, he wears an orange jumpsuit with tons of horns on it and plays different tunes. I made the boys (Jackie too!) take a picture with him!
At the end of one of his performances he tossed out a brown little beanie and who should catch it??? None other than Papa Jack! Once he caught it, he was on a mad hunt to get his picture taken with him! Take a peek at this!!!
We ended up heading out of there around 9:30, so it wasn't a very late night, but it sure was fun!!! Thanks to Papa Jack for the tickets!!!

Kindergarten, here we come!!!

Nick had his kindergarten "meet and greet" on Thursday of last week! Basically, that means that Dan and I got to spend about 45 minutes or so with Nicholas in his classroom before we took him back to daycare and we tootled off to work. It was also Jack's first day of 2nd grade (can you believe it???), so Dan and I both brought the boys to school!

I was able to snap this quick picture of Dan and Nick walking up to school! Nick was SO nervous, but did great!!!
Here are both of my school boys in front of their elementary school! Thankfully they didn't complain about this one too much! :)
We dropped Jack off in Mrs. Bean's room and that was it! He did flash us a quick "I love you" in sign language though!

Then it was off to Nick's class. He has a newly hired teacher, Miss Edwards! She was just hired the Friday before school started and her room and the "meet and greet" were great! Both boys are going to have an awesome year!!!

Nick had to go to different centers during his morning. Dan and I each took turns completing activities with Nick. Here I am reading a book to Nick!
And here is Dan helping Nick paint his hand red and then stamp it on the paper! I gave him the messy one! :)
And here is our big kindergartner, posed under the word "kindergarten!"
All in all a great day!!! Now, hopefully his first full day will go as well!!!

A Meeting with Sue

Last Wednesday Dan and I took the boys to the Science Center!

Our first stop was the Discovery Room!

During our visit, Jack decided that he wants to be a doctor like Daddy...here he is posing with a skeleton!!!
I guess Luke decided on the same career path, as here he in his MD getup!
Nick decided he wanted to build! Here he is working on building an arch!
Some help was needed so Jack jumped right in there. They pose under their masterpiece!
Once our time in the Discovery Room was over, we headed downstairs to meet Sue, the T-Rex!
Notice the boys are all dressed in their Yankee garb? I figured we would be the only ones cheering on the NY team there, so the boys would stand out! It worked out great! I was able to find all three little Yankee fans in seconds!!!

The boys were shocked by how BIG Sue was...
After we saw Sue, we looked around the entire exhibit! There were just enough things for us to do...not too overwhelming, but not just a minimal amount either!

Nick and Luke wanted to dig for dinosaur bones!
We then headed over to Jack at the craft tables! Here are Luke and Jack making dinosaur hats!
Luke LOVED wearing his hat and roaring at Dan!
My boys, me and Sue!
Of course we couldn't make it out of the Science Center without a visit to Build-A-Bear...who would have thought three boys would be so into making stuffed dinosaurs! Here is the only pic I was able to take - Luke was bathing his dino, named ROAR!!! :)
Jack left with his Woolly Mammoth named Mickey and Nick with his triceratops named Tex! Mommy and Daddy left with three happy little boys and some great memories!!!

Homecoming Take Two...

Okay, so now it has been like 3 weeks ago, BUT, here are just a few more homecoming pictures!

The Walters were able to join us for the parade on Sunday night! Here is Syd (I think!) waiting patiently with her makeshift hat!!!
Nana got to watch Henry while his mom and dad (Jackie and Steve) walked in the parade with Papa!
Here are the parade walkers now...unfortunately, Steve was too fast of a walker for me and I wasn't able to get his pic!
After the parade, we had just a few more ride tickets to use so we met up with Maddie and Kristin and went on the ferris wheel!
Here is Jack and Maddie!
And here is Luke and his first ferris wheel ride, thanks to Ms. Kristin for sharing that experience with him!!!
After our fast ferris wheel ride, we headed to Cutter's for a laid back dinner with the Walter's and the rest of our fam (who were already there!!!).

Here is our huge table...
A cute close up of Dan, Henry and Nick!
And finally one of Steve...with Jackie and Baby Henry!
All in all another fun and enjoyable evening with family and friends!!!

Happy Times at the Homecoming!

Our town's homecoming was two weekends ago (man, I'm STILL behind!!!) and we took advantage of the fun all three nights! Friday night we met up with our good friends, Bob and Angie and their twin girls, Cami and Syd for some rides, fish sandwiches (all 'true' townies LOVE them...we are just starting our relationship with the fish!) and buckets of beer...what's not to love!

Luke LOVED finishing off Cami's corn dog! Check out those eyes!!!
Jack and Luke on the flying saucers!!!
Nick wasn't a huge fan of the rides last year, but this year...he was like a new little man...check out that SMILE!
Cami and Syd on the flying saucer ride! Look at those gorgeous girls!
Not that great of a picture, darn sun, but we were talking that one day, likely 10 years from now, Jack will LOVE being "girl trapped" by the Walter twins! :)
While Jack and the twins were on the ferris wheel, Dan took Nick and Luke to play a few games! Check out Nick's form, trying to pop a balloon!!!
Too many dollars later, Nick and Luke show off their prizes!!!
Sad story...a little boy, likely younger than Buka, got lost from his parents. Three teenage girls found him and handed him over to Dan! After about 30 or so minutes, lost boy's dad finally came to claim him, right before the police were about to take him into protective custody! During this whole ordeal, we made our kids all sit down and enjoy their funnel cakes, onion rings and pretzel!!! Scary stuff!!!
Saturday and Sunday nights we watched the parade in town! Papa walked on Saturday night as the "loan arranger" again...
...while I got to hang out with Henry!!!
Well, I got him for at least a good couple of minutes!! Henry hung out with his daddy for the majority of the parade!
Aunt Jackie and Uncle Steve walked in the parade on Sunday night and I do have those pics...on my camera, but I lost, well, 'misplaced' my cord to dump them on the computer! I'll post more pics of the great weekend later!!!

Happy 30th Birthday, Bryan!

After we relaxed just a bit poolside and in our rooms, we headed downstairs for our little celebration! I had picked up a cake from none other than Peggy Brown (it traveled well, thank goodness!) and Uncle Steve had Uncle Bryan's gift all ready.

Here is Bryan's cake!
Aunt Allie and Alyssa sing Happy Birthday to Bryan!
The birthday boy and his beautiful wife and daughter!
Even though Henry didn't get any cake, he did get to enjoy some rice cereal!!!
After we enjoyed our cake, it was present time!

Nana and Papa came through with their always appreciated card and cash!
Jackie, Steve, Dan and I got Bryan this "thing" that has 123,000 songs on it, all from Steve's computer! This was a great gift as Steve had his laptap there so we had rocking cool music when we moved the party back upstairs to our rooms!
Papa provided a "bonus" gift as it turns out that Papa and Bryan were on a winning team for a two day golf tournament they had played in! A $200 check...is it too late for me to pick up the game??? I have to have SOME genetic golfplaying ability, eh??? Anyhow, here was the check presentation!!!
Here was our party...
The hotel we stayed at had just opened in April and it was beautiful! Each adult guest all received 3 free drinks from the bar and somehow, Uncle Steve got a few more cards in order to get even more drinks! When it was said and done, Uncle Bryan and Nana each brought upstairs a tray full of 6 or 7 drinks!

How much have you been drinking already, Bryan???
Nana's happy, she has her margaritas!!!
I'm not going to make too much fun though as I thoroughly enjoyed those margaritas, as you can see in this self portrait! (Notice, I have on one of my 5K shirts??? Even after our fun night of drinkin and game playing, Jackie and I were up before 6 a.m. to run a 5K in the hotels fitness center!)
The kids all FINALLY went to sleep! So we all played Taboo...love, love, love that game!!! Too many stories to tell about that game, but a shout out to Bryan for "parsley!" and to Uncle Steve, dang it, I just fell down and guess what I lost??? Yep, you are right, my "contact lenses!"
Before we knew it, it was morning!
We had a great breakfast and then took a family shot! My camera was the last one we used, so Luke was DONE with his photo shoot! I'm hoping Nana or Steve got a better shot!!!
It was then back home to reality! This was such a fun trip! I can't wait to go back again next year!!! And, a very Happy 30th Birthday to the best brother a girl could ask for!!! We love ya, Bry!!!