Strategic Air & Space Museum Armed Forces Day

Well what a fun time we had today. Every year for Armed Forces Day the Strategic Air & Space Museum opens it's doors and puts on a great day of fun for all. This year was by far my favorite. We were greeted by a Black Hawk Helicopter parked on the front lawn. Upon entering the building Tatum was amazed by the SR 71 Black Bird staring her right down her face. We made our way into the hanger where the 2nd Infantry Division had their display set up. Boy that little girl ran right into her Daddy's arms.





Tatum thoroughly enjoyed herself. She ran around the hanger kissing and hugging the airplanes. She even got to sit up on an airplane wing. Boy did she think she was special. We watched the 2nd ID guys finish up a demonstration before heading over to the main bay area. It is in the main bay area that Tatum formed a strong bond to this little craft (pictured above). She just could have sat in it all day long. When I thought it was time to move on and plucked her out...boy she quickly climbed right back in. That little girl had found her spot!






We listened to a brass band play some great music. Tatum even sat down to listen. I think it was fun for her to see the instruments up close and all. When we were almost ready to leave we heard an announcement over the loud speaker letting us know that in 10 minutes the Black Hawk would be making it's departure. Boy what a treat. We went outside where the crowd was beginning to gather, picked out our spot and waited.




The engines started up with a rumble, and the propellers began to whirl around. The noise was not as loud as I thought it would be, but it still vibrated in your chest a bit. Tatum looked up with such excitement. When making it's ascent into the sky we could see one of the crew waving down at us as it flew right over our heads. And off into the sky it went. We watched it start to disappear and much to our delight is came back for a second fly over!

Zoo Day

The weather was beautiful here on Sunday. After church we headed to the Zoo. Tatum has a really great time there. Water seems to be a big draw for her as you can see here in some of the pictures. She learned how to smell flowers today. It was so cute watching her. She liked petting the goats in the petting zoo area, and walking around on her own.



Much to my dismay Tatum did not want to have anything to do with the Merry-Go-Round...what am I going to do if she doesn't like rides??? I was going to take her on despite the crying and fuss, but I thought that in the long run it might make things worse. I guess I will just have to be patient with it and see what the coming years brings for her and rides. I personally love roller coasters and thrill rides, but I know they aren't for everybody.




Tatum picked a Dandy Lion and was bringing it to me in this picture. To most people a Dandy Lion is nothing more than a weed, But when it is your daughter walking toward you with it, it is the most beautiful flower in the whole world!





Here are my two Loves! Waving bye-bye to the zoo :)

Randomness

O man where do I start? So much to say always so little time. I will start with..."Let it rain", because we have a new roof. Just before we got into winter our roof got a leak in it. A very small slow leak, that stayed small and slow and really was a non issue in the winter. This spring has brought on the rain, and we were ready to go ahead with putting on a new roof. The next time any of you come to our house please compliment us on the new roof. You see if we had put that money into our kitchen for example you would all come in and say "wow the kitchen looks great!"...it just isn't the same with a roof :) God was so faithful to us and really provided the funds for us to be able to do the roof down the the penny almost.

Let me share a bit about Tatum. She is just getting so close to being a two year old. Some of her new funnies, accomplishments and so on are:

-She loves to tell Normandy "no" or to go to her kennel

-When she doesn't want her glasses on I tell her it's time to go into the corner and when she is ready to put her glasses on she can come out. She then goes to the corner and then comes right over to put them on. If only it could stay that easy forever. Because of this Tatum enjoys pointing out and saying "there's a corner, and there's a corner too!" when she sees corners.

-She knows a little over half of the alphabet by sight. We play with foam letters a lot. She now has started to point out letters randomly in books when we read.

-she has a set of WWII airplanes thanks to Daddy. We can ask her to bring them to us by name and knows the difference between the War Hawk, Mustang, Liberator, Lightning and the Fortress.

-She enjoys "swimming" in the bathtub.

-I often say "honey" after things like "here you go honey" and now Tatum will call me honey some times.

-Tatum is trying to teach her baby Stella to use the potty chair.

-There are some days that Tatum will ask for pony tails in her hair, or to wear certain clothes or pick out her own shoes and hair bows.

-Every so often Tatum will say "Mommy's pretty ring, earrings or necklace". She has good taste I must say :)

-The other day Eric was changing shirts and she pointed to his chest and said "button". Eric then corrected her and told her it was a nipple. She then proudly stated "That's Daddy's nipple!"

-When we pray before eating Tatum likes to sing the prayer that we sing at church for snack time.

-Tatum knows what her name looks like written out, but if we use a lower case t she calls it a cross.

And last but not least...

-The Dancing With the Stars dancers have nothing up on Tatum...she knows how to
boogie!

Rockin-An-Rollin, Boppin-An-Bowling

We went out with the OTC crew for a night of Bowling Fun! We had a great time and met new people. We played one normal game and then we shook things up a bit with some "Funky" bowling thanks to Anne who coordinated the evening.



This is a picture of the Crews family...Bowling between the legs of your entire team"








Bruce and Anne..."Bowling sitting on the floor"



Amy Bruce being cute and cheesin it up

Eric bowling between his legs!



Bruce actually got a strike on this one!!!

100 Artists Project

As told by Eric:

This past Sunday, I spent a couple of hours doing a sketchbook page for the 100 Artists Project. I decided to use the August 14, 1944 LIFE magazine cover as my subject for this one page sketch. I had always wanted to do an illustration of this "now famous" photo. The paratrooper is Lt. Kelso C. Horne on the road to St. Sauveur, Normandy in late June 1944. I thought I did a pretty good job rendering Lt. Horne, his uniform, his equipment and the M-1. I should probably spend more time doing drawings like these because I really did enjoy working on this project although I found the helmet to be particularly challenging!

You can check out what the project is all about by visiting their site at www.100artistsproject.com.

Spit Shine

This morning while getting our day started Tatum was drinking water. After awhile I noticed that she was slurping the water out of the cup and then letting it dribble onto her tray on her highchair. I asked her "Tatum what are you doing?" she proudly looked up at me and replied "it's clean" while rubbing her hand through the water. Nice eh?

Some other random funnies that Tatum is saying these days are "try it, I like it", as in "Tatum try it you'll like it honey" when I am trying to get her to eat. When she falls down she says "oh man" or "oppss" and she enjoys telling Normandy "no" or if she goes and gets a book off of Eric's book shelve she tell us "it's Daddy's book" and when she stands up on a chair she tells herself "sit down".

My Heart Melts

This past weekend marks the height, no pun intended, of Tatum's obsession with airplanes. For quite awhile now when an airplane can be heard overhead Tatum stops what she is doing and says "airplane"! It is really cute. Well Eric took this phase to the next level this past weekend and thought that Tatum should see some airplanes. As in he got out the movie Pearl Harbor and would forward to parts with airplanes for Tatum to see. This would then prompt Tatum to say "wow" and "ohhh".

After getting her fill of airplanes she asked Eric for his finger and walked him into the Army Room exclaiming "song, song", while pointing to the CD player. He then obliged her with some good old 1940's era jazz. She then asked for "hat, hat" to which he placed a hat upon her head. After that she asked for....what else could she want...well a baseball of course.

The two of them truly have this great bond. I melt when I see the two of them together like this.